And by BBA I am of course referring to: Book Buyers Anonymous. Hello, my name is Nikki and I have a serious book buying problem. Are there 12 easy steps I can follow? No? Crap. Let me tell you my problem.
About 2 years ago I started reading in massive quantities. Back then my taste was limited to basically Nora Roberts books. Your standard contemporary romance…only her. I’ve always been a reader but for my teens and early twenties I basically stopped. School, life, boys…whatever, I just stopped. Then I had my son and a screaming baby shortened my days. Ok, fast forward another child and several years, so 2 years ago I picked up a Nora Roberts book…I was entranced. I then borrowed or bought anything by her I could get my hands on. I read damn near her entire backlist over a summer…that is something crazy like 200 books. I eat and breathed them.
Before long I was bored and branched out to other authors in the contemporary romance world. Then I took a leap of faith and started reading paranormal. Then I stumbled on erotica (who would have thought my library had that HA). The list grew and grew.
I started blogging as a way to talk about what I was reading. Work and life have gotten in the way of me reading like the summer I did when found Nora…but that hasn’t stopped me from buying…oh no. I got curious the other day about my TBR pile (to be read) when I saw a blog post somewhere that was talking about how big theirs was. I meandered into my bedroom slightly scared. I knew I had a lot. I haven’t had a ton of time to read them because I also had a massive library list that I was working through. I generally would get one or two off that list at a time as other people brought them back. About a month ago something happened though and my library books all started to come in at once, LOL. I’m now down to one left on my list and it is in my possession as of yesterday..
I started counting the physical books I have (paperbacks and hardbacks) sitting on my shelves waiting to be read. I’m slightly embarrassed to say 140…WHAT??! OMG! I also have 2 physical books for review that are on my priority pile. I also have a Kindle…no I didn’t turn it on because I already know that I downloaded a bunch onto it awhile back…I also grab any free ones I see that I might enjoy and when books go on sale super cheap I buy a few of those. There are probably roughly 80 on there I haven’t read. No joke. On the Kindle I have 2 books for review as well.
Soooo 4 books for review and roughly 200 that I am hoarding. Awesome. Hi, My name is Nikki and I’m a book hoarder. I was too scared to count my entire library..but hey, I’ve read those already so they aren’t the problem. Now, you might say ok, time for a book buying ban. I might even wholeheartedly agree with you. In fact, I’ve only bought 1 book in the past couple of weeks. There is 1 book coming out this month I must buy and 1 next month. Other that that…YIKES. No more. Nikki’s wallet needs a time out. If my husband ever actually went in there and started counting..I’d be done for.
Books sent to me for review are always my priority. The only time they get put off is when I get a library book in. At that point I read the library one first since I only have it for a set amount of time. I have no idea why the library started throwing my whole list at me at once. It was very odd. That hasn’t ever happened before.
So…while I may not be going on a full out book buying ban….I am NOT buying anything unless it’s a absolute must have to complete a series or something of that nature. Flimsy? Yes…ha, gotta give myself an out right?
On top of this I also have 3 full drawers in my china cabinet full. Those are mainly my Nora books and a ton of Harlequin Intrigue and some Hardbacks that don’t fit on the shelves.
This post has been sitting in my folder ready to go for at least two weeks. I kept putting off letting everyone see my craziness but due to work and my inability to finish writing a review last night because my daughter wanted to “snuggle” so short of putting a picture of a cute puppy and saying “sorry, I got nothing” I decided to let the crazy flag fly. So….what do your TBR piles look like?? Can you beat my number? Please, someone please say you can. 
Ha! Let me know if you find one. I’ll go with you
Take a book one at a time. It works for me. Note: I’m a super fast reader though. I don’t really buy books so much because I’m not fussed about waiting to borrow them. The time I choose to read it in is unlikely to affect my enjoyment of the content in it.
Reviewing books sounds like a fun job though. I write manuals…
I just counted – 1 have 51 physical books TBR, 426 books on my Kindle and 28 on my Nook. There are 14 on my Nook for reviewing and of the ones on my Kindle, there are about 8.
There are also about twenty books floating around out there that I’m dying to buy right this second. One I will be buying tomorrow (Larissa Ione’s new one).
I have to take a trip tomorrow that’s taking me right by the Borders that’s closing near me – and I’m actually thinking about going in to see what’s left to buy. I’m seriously ready to take someone with me to stop me, lol.
THAT is an impressive book collection… I’m jealous.
Try donating books to charity shops, or trading them into 2nd hand bookshops for a rebate… then you have money or credit to buy more books!
Only a couple hundred, well let me see my physical books to be read are well over 350 and a mix of MMPB, Trade PB and HB books that I own… My three week old KINDLE DX already has over 400 books on it and so far have read 5 freebies from Amazon, only one of which was already in my archives!
I have 3 ebooks for review waiting on the ereader, have read 3 review ebooks on it so far and have 1 Trade PB review book sitting by my recliner so no Nikki you are not the only one…
Also just like you have limited my buying of books this year, but still have purchased in the series I follow and a few new ones you and a couple of other bloggers turned me on to almost 70 books since January! Granted those are mostly pre-orders but still as have only read a little over 50 so far this year am slightly needing to do some major book buying ban enforcing before too long!
However the other day I shuddered as I read that another blogger, I cannot remember which one now, has over 1000 physical books and a couple hundred ebooks to read and most of the ebooks are review books! (That is what I call a problem!)
Recently, I had to rearrange my room after painting it. I also bought another bookcase. I already had 3 stuffed to the top with books I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of. Except that 4th bookshelf meant I had to break my heart and dispose of books I wasn’t terribly attached to. It was nearly impossible, but I whittled my collection down to about 600 books. *sniff* I hated it! My Kindle though? Um, I got it back in June and have about 250 books on it. *cough* It’s an addiction and I can’t help myself even though my wallet cringes every time I hit the Kindle Store. LOL
Last night I discovered that I have 106 books on my kindle! I couldn’t believe it-most of them unread. I haven’t been brave enough to count my tbr pile! I think that Sherrilyn Kenyon made me start reading again. I devoured her Dark Hunter series faster then you can say Acheron!
I think I have well over 200 books(not counting ebooks) in my TBR pile and that was with me cutting back! I too have a serious problem with buying books. It’s actually a good thing that I just got a kindle because I am seriously running out of room for all of my books. What’s funny is that I’m under the illusion that I’m somehow going to be able to put them all on one bookcase.
Fellow BH here. I loved this post. I’m not alone!