Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Buy Buy 2010


After a year of tracking my book purchases, this is what my lunacy looks like:

93.


During 11 of the 12 months, I ranged between 3-8 books a month. In July, though, I went a little mad: 33 books. The good news is that I'm reading faster than I'm acquiring. Also, the majority of the books were used.

Looking back, I was surprised about how many books were bought for work or for other people. For example, I bought 7 in December, and three of those were gifts:

A Fable - William Faulkner. For the Pulitzer pile.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth - Jeff Kinney. I bought it for myself, but also with an eye towards the children's literature class next semester.

The Lost City of Z - David Grann. Christmas gift.

Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women - Harriet Reisen. I'm always up for anything Alcott: Stories? Sure. Bio? You bet! Trip to Concord? Let me pack a few things.

The Best of Everything - Rona Jaffe. I bought it to fill that Mad Men-shaped hole in my heart.

Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl - Donald Sturrock. Christmas gift.

Leonard Maltin's 2011 Movie Guide - Leonard Maltin. Christmas gift.
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Although I've exposed myself as the bookmadwoman that I am, I still find that this was a useful exercise and I'll continue monitoring my book purchases in 2011.

3 comments:

Lesley said...

I celebrated the end of my (successful) 2010 book buying ban by going out New Year's Day and buying five books, ha! But they were all either discounted or used so I didn't spend that much, and I don't plan on making that many purchases going forward. Used bookstores will continue to be my downfall, I think - it's so hard to resist the treasures one finds there.

Bybee said...

Lesley,
Congratulations on a successful book buying ban! I need to do that, too. Will I? Probably not.

beth said...

I'm thinking of limiting myself to a 10 page a day buying cap. Which sounds good in theory, since I've avoided book stores for the past 8 days, but my kid's first scholastic catalog came home and I seem to have circled a years worth of books. Hmm, I need to come up with some hand-waving where books bought through schools don't count.