Book spending

[jmc_bks]

I 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.

Comments

[eackerman.livejournal.com]

I'm also a member of the Borders club and now it's the only book card I use. I didn't renew my BAM membership 'cause they charge, and they've got the same books as Borders/Waldenbooks. I've got over $80 of holiday credit I can use up between now and January 31.

The only other bookstore I frequent on a regular basis is my local independent, Goerings Books, one of the last of a dying breed. They carry my Darlene Marshall books, handsell them and have set up signings for me too. While I'm glad Amazon offers books for sale at a good price, I want to keep as much money as possible in my local economy.

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

There is one independent in my neighborhood, but it is a little, well, pretentious, now that it has changed hands. The old owner had a variety of popular fiction, but the new owner tends more toward literary fiction and classics. There are a couple near the office -- Politics & Prose and Olsson's, which I also patronize, but they are less convenient for me and are not any good for romance reading.

[eackerman.livejournal.com]

Pretty much the only thing I buy at Borders/Waldenbooks is romance, and the rest I buy at Goerings. I asked the staff at Goerings why they didn't carry romances and the answer was a logical one--the books are already being discounted and sold at the big box bookstores, so the independents have to establish themselves in a different niche--small presses, literary fiction, foreign language work. It wasn't about being snobbish as much as it was economies of scale and floorspace.

Also, independents usually get books after the big box/chain stores get their shipments, so if it's something with a high turnover and short lifespan it's not economical to try and compete.

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

That does make sense from a business stand point.

My NF and "literary" fiction purchases tend to be unplanned. I find something interesting while wandering around the store after browsing the romance section. So P&P and Olsson's, which I go to when I have a planned non-romance purchase or when I want to hear a speaker or get an autograph, miss out on the impulse buying that makes up the vast majority of my non-romance reading.