How many books do you buy in a year?

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The other day I was in Waterstone's - yes, amazing, isn't it? Me, in a bookshop. So I applied for a loyalty card...you only get about 3p in the pound back but hey, with the amount of books I buy, may as well, huh?

One of the questions on the brief form you had to fill out was "How many books do you buy in a year? 0-5, 6-10, 11-20, more than 20?"

Well, I didn't even have to think about that one. I buy roughly a book a week, so that's 50+ a year.

What about you? How many books do you buy in a year, and what genre(s) do you lean towards?

With me, it's about 75% fiction, the rest being science or biographies. Within fiction there's YA, chicklit, literary, you name it. But is more than 50 books a year abnormal? Surely there are other bookworms out there who can't kick the habit even though they're members of lending libraries too! :D

ETA: Mods, I probably should have put this in the book club forum, so feel free to move it.
 

KTC

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do I have to tell you the number I really do...or the number I tell my wife?


"Oh...I've had that old thing for YEARS. What do you mean it was published this year? You must be mistaken."



ETA: About 40 or 50. Almost exclusively fiction the last few years. For about 5 or 6 years there I went wild on Bios and religion and non-fiction galore...but lately the only thing that pumps my brainvein is fiction.
 

joyce

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I probably only buy about ten. My friends and I are always trading books so I won't count them cause they are free. I have a shelf full that I still need to read so I'm trying to calm down the book buying until I finish what I already have.
 

Siddow

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I've bought about 30 books this year. Mostly fiction, but I did buy a book on mythology and the Nag Hammadi Scriptures, and a new dictionary to replace the one my kids destroyed.
 
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My dad just doesn't get why I buy books when I can join a library. He doesn't understand that they might not have the book you want, you might want to keep the book, read it again, sit it on your shelf...
 

benbradley

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I buy a LOT of books, perhaps several hundred a year, but I buy rather few books new, only recent releases, at the big-box new bookstores. The rest are acquired as described in my most recent blog entry.
 
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I buy as I said, around fifty, and read twice that. So accounting for the library books I read, I probably decrease my TBR pile every year by about...none.
 

wordmonkey

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My dad just doesn't get why I buy books when I can join a library. He doesn't understand that they might not have the book you want, you might want to keep the book, read it again, sit it on your shelf...

Libraries are sad depressing places. They're like pigeon-lofts. The books escape for a short while, but eventually they are drawn back in.

There's usually a lot of poop and newspaper on the floors as well, chicken-wire on the windows and the residents of each always look all squished together and unhappy.

I feel it's my duty to free as many books as I can and give them a loving home.
 

kristie911

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50+. Unfortunately, most of those are bought as paperbacks or if I really want the hardcover, I buy it on ebay. Since my divorce, I just can't by the hardcovers new like I used to.
 
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I've only ever bought one or two hardbacks full price in my entire life. The others have all been picked up half price in supermarkets, in sales, or at second hand shops.
 

JoNightshade

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It's hard to tell for me. We tend to make the rounds: Borders, Barnes, Amazon, Library, and used book stores. We trade in older books we don't LOVE. Also, I think the thing I buy most from bookstores is graphic novels. Aaaand, I have a lot of those. Also, do I consider both my husband and I together? We usually end up having a lot of crossover-- I read his, he reads mine...

Together, I'd say we buy upwards of fifty per year. By myself? Um, perhaps also upwards of fifty. :) We've been married for about a year and a half and right now both of our bookshelves are overflowing. We're gonna have to move soon. :)
 

Jamesaritchie

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Books

I really do not count them. Maybe forty to fifty new hardcover, and a couple of hundred new paperbacks. Something like that. No, probably not that many hardcover because I usually receive from ten to fifteen as gifts each year.

But sometimes I'll buy a couple of hundred used books, mostly hardcover, at a time, when I come across a sale. My TBR pile/stacks/shelves has about 4,000 books in it now.
 

Kryianna

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My husband and I don't have a budget for books. If we need/want a book, we buy it. He's a history grad student, and he probably buys 30+ history books a year. Together, we probably buy over 50 novels a year.
 

Sassee

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My dad just doesn't get why I buy books when I can join a library. He doesn't understand that they might not have the book you want, you might want to keep the book, read it again, sit it on your shelf...

That's my husband.

Now, there's a big difference on how many books I WANT to buy and how many books I ACTUALLY buy. The real number is depressingly low. It's high according to my husband, but meh, I'm a bookworm.
 

Sunkissed27f

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I bought 30 on Friday!

I buy about 50-100 per year.
I read a book at the rate of one every 2-3 days. I read fast. :)

Why?

My library sells them at $.50-$2, so I will get about 5 or so a week.

Then I go yard selling.....thats about 10 maybe every other weekend.

I am in a book club thats 1 a month.

I frequent a used book store....thats about 10 a month give or take.

I own around ....umm give or take a 100 books, maybe 500 or more books.
 

Shara

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My husband is just as addicted to buying books as me. We just buy in different genres. He likes historical non-fiction and what I can only term as 'boys' adventure' (ie Hornblower, Sharpe, etc) and I buy exclusively crime and horror. Though of late there have been a fair few reference books for crime writers-type books too.

We visit bookshops maybe once every 6 weeks or so. But then, we will each find one book each in the '3 for the price of 2' offer, go off and find one more apiece, and end up buying 6. So as a couple we are buying about one book a week. Me personally, half that, so maybe 25 or so books a year.

The two of us llive in a three bedroom house and there are books in every room, pretty much. So I think it's fair to say we've got a bit of a habit.

Shara
 

J. Weiland

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Probably any number between 15 and 30, depending on the year, mostly fiction, but also a small amount of non-fiction, and lately also comic books, most of it, perhaps 95 percent, from amazon.co.uk.

I have a tendency not to read brand new novels; instead I buy books from the author's backlist, which means I'm never up-to-date reading-wise on what a author has done lately.

As an example, I'm now reading Eon by Greg Bear and The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham, respectively from 1985 and 1953. The only exception, of course, was the latest Harry Potter which I pre-ordered. :D

At any rate, I buy more books each year than I actually read. I probably have 25 novels waiting in the bookshelf to be read. I never buy a book just to buy it, always tell myself that I'll get around to each and every one eventually.
 

aadams73

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About a hundred brand new per year. I also swap a lot with my crit partner, and I'll buy second hand as well.
 

Sunkissed27f

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The two of us live in a three bedroom house and there are books in every room, pretty much. So I think it's fair to say we've got a bit of a habit.

Shara

Same here, we have a 4 bedroom house, one room is a library slash office, and my hubby had to add shelves on the walls in one of the guest bedrooms for more books, and one of the walk in closets has wall to wall shelving with books for the kiddies. I wonder if I have a problem?
 

Pamster

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I hate to say it but I buy under 5 a year, I just don't have time to read like I used to. I have three books from the library here I have to read but I am thinking I am going to have renew them a couple times before I get the chance to finish them. And one is large print! :roll:
 
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