Book spending
Nov. 15th, 2006 08:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmc_bksI have a Borders Rewards membership. Eh, why not, it's free, and I get coupons and discounts. This morning in my inbox, I had a message about my holiday savings reward -- $29.88. That's a hardback, or a couple of trade paperbacks, or three/four massmarket paperbacks. Yay me! Except the email also broke down what my other savings were during the year. Working from the discount (usually 10% but occasionally as much as 20%), I can tell about how much I spent on books/magazines at Borders this past year -- more than $700. And I probably spent equal that at B&N and Amazon, although I haven't run a report in Quicken to know for sure. Which is more than I estimated. I thought I spent about $800 annually on books from all sources. Granted, this year I went a little overboard and the TBR pile grew into a mountain, but, but... Ouch.
But then I stop and think about it. And I feel like a feckless spendthrift, because even if it is only $1,200, that's $100 per month, which is 3 or 4 hardbacks per month, or 12-14 paperbacks, or 6-7 trades per month. Am I reading that much? Well, yeah. And that doesn't even take into account library books, PBS, or library sale books.
I justify my book buying by saying that there are worse addictions. That I don't smoke or scrapbook or do drugs. [Scrapbooking ranks as an insidious, addictive activity, I think, based on my observation of my obsessive scrapbooking friends.] I don't drink to excess. I don't collect expensive tchotchkes. I just read books. But seeing in black and white what I've spent on them (the bulk of my entertainment budget) is making me cringe.
But then I stop and think about it. And I feel like a feckless spendthrift, because even if it is only $1,200, that's $100 per month, which is 3 or 4 hardbacks per month, or 12-14 paperbacks, or 6-7 trades per month. Am I reading that much? Well, yeah. And that doesn't even take into account library books, PBS, or library sale books.
I justify my book buying by saying that there are worse addictions. That I don't smoke or scrapbook or do drugs. [Scrapbooking ranks as an insidious, addictive activity, I think, based on my observation of my obsessive scrapbooking friends.] I don't drink to excess. I don't collect expensive tchotchkes. I just read books. But seeing in black and white what I've spent on them (the bulk of my entertainment budget) is making me cringe.
