Tuesday Book Chat | Do you have a book budget? Do you stick to it?

Posted byNarelle Atkins 10 Comments on Tuesday Book Chat | Do you have a book budget? Do you stick to it?

Welcome to the Australasian Christian Writers Tuesday Book Chat, where we encourage book lovers to answer our bookish question of the week.

Today’s question is:

Do you have a book budget? Do you stick to it?

We look forward to hearing your thoughts. Please join in the conversation in a comment on this post or in a comment on the blog post shared in our Australasian Christian Writers Facebook Group.

Let’s chat!

When I first read this question, I thought hmm… maybe I should pass on answering. I confess to being tempted to buy more books than I’d ever have time to read… even if I lived to be 110.

Self control is required. Self control is difficult. Self control and book buying are two words that may not belong in the same sentence? I read Amazon samples before hitting ‘buy now’ – that’s self control, right?

What do you think?

And don’t forget: if you’d like to participate in our weekly Book Chat by posting the question and your answer on your blog, drop us an email via our Contact page and we’ll send you the list of questions for 2019.

Published by Narelle Atkins

A fun loving Aussie girl at heart, Narelle Atkins was born and raised on the beautiful northern beaches in Sydney, Australia. She has settled in Canberra with her husband and children. A lifelong romance reader, she found the perfect genre to write when she discovered inspirational romance. Narelle’s contemporary stories of faith and romance are set in Australia and international locations.

10 replies on “Tuesday Book Chat | Do you have a book budget? Do you stick to it?”

  1. I would say yes as I have a gift voucher balance at Amazon and I use that to buy ebooks. with physical books if I go to the city I try to be very careful as I very cash strapped.

  2. I enter a lot of contests and manage to win lots of books. Besides I’m on quite a few influencer and review teams. Usually only BUY free books on Amazon. I do have a gift certificate for a local bookstore from Christmas that I am trying to decide which books to get. I am retired and have no budget for books. That said I have over 600 on kindle and probably 200 physical books. I do buy books at the library or maybe a garage sale for a dollar each.

    1. Hi Paula, Contests and street teams and influencer copies are a good option when your book buying budget is limited. I was on a no-book-buying budget in late 2015 and early 2016 (before I changed day jobs) and the backlog of books in my Kindle account kept me busy. 😉

  3. One click buying has been a temptation! I only buy paperback or hardback if I think I’ll keep the book and read it again. (Or if it’s by a friend and I want to support them) eBooks are more like consumables.

    I don’t have a budget as such, but I do carefully consider the purchase of hard copies.

    Meanwhile, Book Depository is doing well!

    1. Hi Elaine, I’ve been watching Marie Kondo’s series on Netflix. I love her minimalism ideas, but the thought of only keeping 30 print books… no deal on that idea! I do carefully consider my print book purchases (the difference between print & ebook prices is a factor) and then I think about whether or not I can keep the print book (storage space). Whereas ebooks are forever and they sink into that black hole in the cloud/reading app. 🙂

  4. I go through phases of self-control … then a book I simply HAVE to buy comes along. Reading book review blogs doesn’t help (although at least I’m able to get some books from NetGalley – that helps my budget, if not my to-read pile).

    1. Hi Iola, Yes, NetGalley is a great option if you regularly write reviews and can keep up with reviewing new releases. Book review blogs can test our book buying self control, lol. 🙂

  5. I don’t have a book budget and I am not good at controlling a book buying urge. Today I visited our local honey shop and couldn’t resist buying The Bees by Laline Paull. A story told from the perspective of a bee is intriguing! I am trying to be more restrained in 2019 but really do prefer print to ebooks so I’ll see how I go 😊.

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