I have an aunt who made a personal rule of not buying any books. This has been in effect now for about 3 years. She was on a buying rampage but wasn’t reading them as fast as she was buying. She has them in boxes in one of her guests rooms. The only time she will buy a book is if someone gives her a gift card to a book store. She says it’s not her buying the book it’s the other person buying it for her.
I never really understood why my aunt would have this rule, until now. I had a lot of books in my stack on my own but then Lisa went to the RT Convention and BEA and my stack has now doubled in size.
I’m at the point that I will have to be like my aunt and not buy anymore books until my stack gets way down. It’s where I’m so overwhelmed by what to read next since I have so many books. I think next time I’m going to have one of my kids pick a book for me to read. No joke!
I’m not saying I’m ungrateful for Lisa going to these events and thinking of me at so please don’t get the impression at all. In a way I’m scared of when we go to Comic Con with what books I’m coming back with to add to my pile. **Insert nervous face here.**
Do I try to hide my stacks? No. I don’t have anywhere to hide that many books. So, I leave them out in the open in my front room for all to see. At least they aren’t in the middle of the floor.
Do I think I’ll be able to keep out of a book store or a book area at the store? No.
Do I think I’ll buy another book soon? Yes. I mean I need to keep up with my series books so those can’t count in this at all. Right?
So, I guess with that I really have ask myself, “Do you really need that book?” The answer is going to be, “No.” Then I’ll ask myself, “Do you want that book?” The answer is going to be, “Yes.” And I’ll end up with another book in my stack and the whole no buying new books rule just went out the window.
Has anyone else stopped buying books until they got their own personal stack under control?
I realize my stack isn’t as bad as it could be but this is out of control for me. And it’s not even organized! Which drives me nuts!
LOL I have the same problem! I didn't think that it'll get this crazy for my stacks of to TBR pile, but gosh! Since the start of this year I've been receiving books and buying books just to stack up on my drawer. But like you said I have to keep up with my series. But I haven't bought a paperback book as of yet for a time now and trying not to buy them for ebooks too, unless I have to have it like what I did last Thursday night for Robyn DeHart's latest release: The Secrets of Mia Danvers. But now I'm trying to slow down and really get into the books I've left dusting. But good luck to us both! 🙂
I try to make myself a rule…read so many books from the TBR pile before I can buy new books. It works…sometimes 🙂
I tried that rule for a month and succeeded but the next month I went total book crazy and ended up buying 25 books. Right now my family has kept me on tight rope. Since they see my book stack keeps on increasing and half of them are still in their packaging. Right now I am following 'One book a month' buy rule which is still in place with two books a month in my stack!
I hardly ever buy books! I check them out from the library, and only buy a book if I've read it and I feel like I can't go through the rest of my life and NEVER read the book again. Most books I only read once, so that does cut down on things lying about the house!