Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Tuesday Talks | Book Buying Bans

Another Tuesday has rolled around and you know what that means! Time for another Tuesday Talks. You can find out more about the group that was created by Janie and Janelle by visiting the goodreads group here. Join us in our bookish discussions, they're always a lot of fun.

Book Buying Bans
There are many different ways to interpret this discussion topic, for my purposes I'm looking at this from a personal standpoint. So here are some of my thoughts on setting yourself a book buying ban. 

I've never actually set a book buying ban for myself, so I don't have a lot of experience with this personally. I can't stand spending money, so I don't tend to make a ton of purchases in general. I definitely buy more books than anything else though. 

I can understand why people might set themselves a book buying ban, particularly if they have loads of books they own and haven't read, but at the same time it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Self control is definitely something that should be practiced, and maybe bans are the only way some people can control themselves, but  I think this places too many restrictions on things you can and cannot read. 

Banning myself from buying books (whether physical or electronic) would drastically cut down on the number of books that are available to me. I use the libraries near me a lot, but there are some authors that I love to read that they don't have. Particularly when it's a newer or lesser known author. So banning myself from buying books would prevent me from reading books that I'm really interested in. 

Do I think book buying bans are wrong? Of course not. It works for some people. For me personally I think it's more about teaching myself not to just buy a book because it's cheap, but to buy books that I'm actually interested in reading. 

So what do you think of book buying bans? Do you set bans for yourself?

6 comments:

  1. I don't set bans for myself either. I've written about it in my blog over here: https://creativeharmony.wordpress.com/2015/06/16/tuesday-talks-book-buying-bans/
    I agree with what you've written and I also use the library a lot.

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    1. Thanks for the comment! I just can't see banning myself from buying books. If I want it and have the money, then I'll buy it. :)

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  2. Great discussion. I think it depends on each person. For me it's more about reading what's on my shelf than about spending/ saving money :)

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    1. Reading what you already own is a really good reason to stop yourself from buying new books. I completely get that. Just adding to a collection that you're never going to read makes no sense.

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  3. I totally agree! If I don't want/need any more books I just don't buy them, I never really go on an official ban. I usually just wait for a Barnes and Noble coupon before making purchase :) Great post!

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    1. Coupons are the best. There's a Books-a-Million down the road from where I work and I used to go there on my lunch break and browse the sale section. I've gotten some excellent deals there. :D

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