Book Buying Bans: My Experience // Let’s Talk Bookish

Book Buying Bans: My Experience // Let’s Talk Bookish
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Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books and Dani @ Literary Lion where we discuss certain topics based on prompts allocated for each Friday of the week. You basically share your opinions and get into the conversation by visiting each other’s posts. You can find the January schedule here and here.

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Today’s Let’s Talk Bookish topic is Do Book Buying Bans Work For You?, which was suggested by Jillian @ Jillian the Bookish Butterfly.

Impulse buying books is almost a personality trait of readers, as far as I have experienced. Literally, every friend I have on Instagram and the blogosphere buy an exorbitant amount of books each month, whether that’s physical or digital copies. Most of my allowance used to go into buying books for as long as I can remember, and it wasn’t until the pandemic hit that I actually did something about it.

The book community is full of consumerism. People want to not just read their favourite books, but own them as well. Sometimes this can get…a little out of hand. How do you control your spending/buying books you don’t have time to read?

I have a physical TBR of a hundred plus books and a digital TBR of thousand-something books, so I’m not sure I can give the greatest advice in this department. I did not try to control my book-buying till maybe 2020, so if I look back at my TBR from the past two years it is strangely manageable.

I started out with a simple rule: I can only buy a new physical book once I have finished five of the physical books in my TBR. And that worked wonders! I realised that I read a lot more ebooks than my physical TBR, so I bought maybe two books based on this rule in 2020. But then, of course, there were some book fairs that I couldn’t stop myself from splurging on, so oops!

Then last year I updated my book-buying ban to buy only physical copies of ebooks that are my favourites. This worked out a lot better because I finally understood that I hardly end up reading physical copies when I have eARCs and new releases in digital format that I am more drawn to or likely to read. Even my book fair buying trends changed with this rule because I just knew I wouldn’t read the new books unless I had a good incentive. So since then, I have mostly bought books that I already love.

Does setting a book buying ban work for you? How long do you usually ban yourself for?

I think it’s fair to say that book buying bans work great for me! It also helps that I am more conscious about my spend and I also get many free books because of my blog. Rather than making it a phase of my life, I tried and made it a lifestyle choice. So I am not sure if I can even call it a book buying ban anymore since I pretty much buy books based on this technique now.

But like always, there are always moments when I break my own rules and throw money at some books, so I take it as it comes.

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Do you find book buying bans useful? Tell me about your experiences in the comments below!

My previous Let’s Talk Bookish posts:

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4 thoughts on “Book Buying Bans: My Experience // Let’s Talk Bookish”

  1. I like your rule of only buying a new book once you’re read five! I’m super thrifty so I mostly only buy used books, except of course those books by my favorite authors. 😉 I’ve never “officially” set a book buying ban, but 2020 did also help me to be more aware of what I purchase and add to my shelves. I feel like I did a better job of reading off my existing shelves in 2021—with the exception of the many ARCs I read. But at least those are free. Ha! Great post!

    1. I totally agree, Dedra! The last two years taught me a lot about my personal book buying habits too! I became a huge fan of buying secondhand too and now I just can’t resist visiting secondhand bookstores! Thanks, Dedra!

  2. Pingback: Rereading Books // Let's Talk Bookish - Bibliosini

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