I love buying books. As a community filled with book lovers
and book bloggers, this is a surprise to no one. Going to a bookstore is
dangerous for my wallet because I will walk out with at least one book. But
today’s topic is about what happens when you already own a book in, let’s say,
ebook version. If I loved and enjoyed the book to pieces, I’m going to want to
own it as a physical book, ok? So I buy the book in hardcover and add it
bookshelves. That’s typically the end of my collecting unless I’ve been given a
paperback version of it and if I want to reread it, I now tend to look for it
in audiobook from the library. For Nahomi, it vice versa. She starts off with
buying the ebook version and if she loves it she buys it hardcover and wants to
start collecting them as audiobooks too.
Compared to what we see in the book blogging community, we
do pretty tame book collecting. I know some people who collect the same book
but in different languages and covers. The only real collection I own is the
Sarah J. Maas’ books. I own her U.S hardcovers of the Throne of Glass series, even the novella and ARCs, and I own two
U.K. cover paperback. I want to own the rest of books with the U.K. cover but
because of budget, living situation, and space issues, I haven’t been able to.
Nahomi is on the same boat but her bookshelves is a linen closet so her space
is even more limited.
My problem with collecting book lies here, as much as I want
to support an author and add to other pretty versions of their books to my
shelf, I can’t justify spending the money on a book I already own and taking up
space for a book I’ll, inevitably, buy later on. I mean, that is money I could
be using to buy another book and space I’ll need for another said book.
My other problem is how when I read an ebook or an ARC and
end up wanting a finished version or physical copy, why should I buy a book
that I already read? At that point, I’ll either tell myself that since it was
an ARC, the final version is the best version so I should check it out and
buying a finished version is supporting the author as well. But other times, I bargain
with myself to buy the book next time or if it on special or I have a coupon
because, well, I’ve read the book already.
So let’s chat! What kind of book buying habit do you have?
Do you like collecting book? Do you just buy whatever version and pay no mind
to which version or do only read from one specific medium? Let’s chat down
below!
