I grew up around books. Some of my fondest childhood memories are leafing through art encyclopedias in my grandfather’s study, or poking through the illustrations in the volumes of Russian classics, or sitting in my ‘under-the-table’ fort, reading for hours.
A book purchase has never really been frowned upon in this house. I remember a spell of being quite poor when I was a kid, and I really wanted the entire series of The Wizard of Emerald City. I saw it in the shop, but knew I couldn’t get it, and it was never available in the library. Even in the book shops back then it was a rarity. Somehow, I don’t know how, my parents conspired and got the entire series for me. I still have it.
I know that I will never fully stop getting more books. But for now I am content with significantly slowing down and enjoying what I have.
My instagram bio says I have 150 shelves of books, and it’s not a lie, nor even an exaggeration. I have a full room lined with shelves, aptly called “library”, and I have more in my bedroom, and yet more in the hall, the entrance area, the living room. Some shelves have double rows. Some deeper and wider cupboards have towers of vertically stacked books in them, because that way we could fit more. The entire house is a library. Some of these books I’ll likely never read, or at least not in full, but in my book (forgive the pun) that’s not an incentive to part with them. Books are memories, good and bad, and I haven’t got any inclination to erase memories.
I never wanted to put a significant limit to my book purchases, because I am a mood reader, and trying to follow a pre-existing TBR usually puts me in a reading slump. But I do have enough books in my library, both physical and electronical, to suit any fancy I might fall into. So one lovely winter morning I decided to stop using this excuse and put a limit to my book purchases for now. There are releases that I know I will want to get, and they’re on a special list, but apart from that, my shelves are full, and my wallet is guarded.
I know I would not be able to adhere to a complete book no-buy, so I’m on a low-buy, and the rule is: 3 out, 1 in. Meaning, when I finish 3 books, I can buy one new. I’m not the fastest of readers, so this has slowed down my purchases significantly. So far I’ve only got 1 ebook, 2 physical, 1 audio with an Audible credit, and one other ebook that’s been free on kindle (yet undecided if I’m going to count it against my book low-buy bank; likely I won’t). It’s not a perfect system, but if I didn’t have it in place, I would’ve got much more, so it will stay unchanged for now.
If you’d like to take a look at my book tracker, you can easily do it here. I usually update it once a month, or whenever I buy something new.