Compulsive (e)Book Collectors Support Group

Me me me!

I counted yesterday, and I actually have 41 books in my collection that I haven't read yet... I thought it was 42, but it turns out 1 I wasn't sure about had been read already.

I'm a terrible collector of books. I'll see something I want, and just buy it if I have the cash on me... Never mind that I rarely get enough time to get through a single book in less than a week, and I often buy 2 or more books per week...

Hi, my name is Cliff, and I'm a shopaholic.

Oh, actually it's higher than 41!

I forgot about my little medicine cabinet turned bookcase thing. This is full of about 20 books relating to Paganism/Wicca and all sundries therein. Granted, I inherited about a dozen of them from a friend who fell out of love with Wicca, and I've received 2 as presents from a cousin (the only time he ever met me as an adult was during my Wiccan phase - now I'm an atheist and he still sent me a magic book last year...) - but a few are ones I've bought for myself.

I seem completely incapable of finishing a spiritual book. Of all those 20 or so, I haven't finished completely a single one.

But I'm keeping them, because down here Pagan/Wiccan books are ludicrously expensive, and I figure one day my love affair with spirituality might be rekindled. Maybe. I'm not holding my breath...

Oh, and I have a couple of e-books, but only from AWers, and they're on my computer. I don't have a Kindle or any other ereader (yet). Of course, if I buy one, I can guarantee that I'll get about 200 free novels included on the device... Which is not going to help my case at all.

That's partly why I haven't bought an ereader yet - if I had that many books in my collection that hadn't yet been read, I'd never get all of them finished...

Yeah.

Maybe one day, if I can retire from the day job and just become a writer full time, maybe then I'll cave in and buy an ereader and just READ READ READ all week long.

What? I can write a novel pretty quickly anyway. I could afford to goof off for days on end, and then just have a massive writing day. At least, that's the plan!

And how's this for a sickness?

I have 41 books on my TBR pile. I then figured out what books I want but don't have yet. So now I'm daydreaming about the OTHER 40 books I want to buy, just to complete my collection. *headdesk*

I'm actually trying to plan the right day to go into the huge bookstore in the city (with the best selection in my home state) and buy, like, 10 books all at once.

Unfortunately, 10 books in Australia would cost me about $250-350 easily.

Not that I have any room in my bookcases for another 10 books... So I'd also have to buy a new bookcase. I can get one for about $20 (small, not the strongest thing, have to put it together myself, but it beats paying $300 for a big strong one!!).

So in all likelihood, this shopping trip I'm planning will cost me about $300 minimum.

Which is money I don't have spare right now...

...

But... books!!

*tries to calm self down*

Repeat after me... "I will not buy any more books until my TBR pile is down to 12 books."

...

"I will not buy any more books until I have enough money."

*headdesk*

I'd kill for an $8 paperback as the standard price!

I can somtimes get books at that price... Like, in the cheapo department stores (BigW and KMart) you can sometimes find them that cheap. And my local shopping centre occasionally has this one company come in and set up near the food court. They're a wholesaler, so they sell books pretty awesomely cheap. And the people who run it know I'll buy at least 3 books every time they come into that mall, so they've been giving me further discounts.

But as a general rule, the cheapest price for even a paperback is about $18, and even then it has to be one that's been around for YEARS. A new release will usually be $25-35 in paperback.

I've actually paid $100+ for a single book before... Hardcover, but it wasn't even, like, a "first edition of a really old book that is now famous", nor was it signed or anything. And I've also paid $80 for a similar book...

Seriously, Australia's a great country most of the time, but the price we pay for entertainment is astronomical.

This is probably why I only have 150 books, instead of 250...

Cliff
You might want to check the current price of the Kindle in Australia. Here you can now get one for $80. I'd also check the price of the e books before I bought. Also, there are such things as free Kindle apps. I don't know if they have those in Australia but I think it would be worth asking. I've got over 1,800 books on my free Kindle app and most of them were free.