Hey nerdlings. How are you doing today? I thought I’d discuss book buying bans today. A Book Buying Ban is when a book lover has recently obtained too many unread new books and in order to spare their wallet decide they will no purchase books for a length of time. I know people who aren’t buying books for a year and people who only do it for a month. Does it work? Should you try one?
The most common type of book buying ban is just cutting yourself off and saying “No more Books.” I feel like this type of ban is the hardest to keep and thus is rarely followed. Just stopping cold turkey isn’t going to help the situation. You’re going to keep wanting books. And the longer your ban lasts the more awesome new books will come out. Buying books is a drug. And I’ve never done well with just suddenly stopping the buying of books.
Another common type of ban is “I can buy a book when I’ve read __ books.” I feel like these types of book buying bans are a little more productive because they give you a reward system. You want a new book? GREAT. Read this certain amount of from the ones you already own. You’re more likely to read your own books and not accidentally splurge your money.
I’m currently on a ban where I have to read mostly my own books each month. And I am only allowed one or two books per month in edition to the ones I’ve preordered. This way I have a small splurge to get the shopping high but it’s just one or two and I don’t end up emptying my bank account.
Have you ever done a book buying ban? Are you you on one right now? What do you think about stopping buying cold turkey? Does it work? Let me know in the comments below. I hope you’re having a Wonderful Wednesday! TTFN.
Sydney's Shelves 
So, I was on a book buying ban for August. I failed in…5 days. Yep, I have no self-control. Cold turkey is HARD. Right now I’m managing as long as I stay away from my favourite bookstore, haha.
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The cold turkey method just rarely works in my humble opinion. You gotta give yourself a little room.
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I think I have impulse control issues where books are concerned because I don’t think I’ve ever been successful at a book buying ban unless it was a situation where we literally didn’t have the money to buy any. ^^; A bad habit, I know, but there you have it. I try to ration, though, if that makes sense and not gorge on books as much as I’d like to. Do book buying restrictions count as a type of ban?
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I don’t usually do book buying bans, but before I buy a book I always make sure it is a book I really want, usually meaning it is a continuation of a series I love or by an author I love or is a book I have already read and really need to own. This keeps my collection pretty low. The exception is when I use book vouchers that I usually get for christmas and my birthday that I use on books I have heard a lot of good things about, for example I bought Six of Crows and The Crown’s Game due to this reasoning.
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Your reasoning seems really wise. If only all bookish people could abide by these rules. lol.
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I love the idea of a buying ban. Most of the times I`m successful, and my trick is to set them when there aren`t any new releases you`re interested in. So many times I used to fail because I wasn`t interested in one or two books that were coming out.
Carmen / Carmen`s Reading Corner
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I’ve never officially gone on a book buying ban. I’m sort of on an unofficial one? But its not that hard to stick to. Basically, I’m only buying the books I REALLY WANT. For me, that’s easy, I know exactly which books those are. If theres a book where I’m like “I do want to read it but it’s not a must have”…I just don’t buy it yet. It’s more because I’m completely out of shelf space, though >.< hahah I can't give valuable real estate to "maybe" books lol
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Isn’t it hilarious how we do this to ourselves? But seriously, I need to lay down the law with myself, because I can’t just keep buying books without reading them. So, my rules right now are: I may buy a book from a series I have already started IF it is on sale.
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I don’t do well AT ALL with full-on book buy bans, because I just end up making a list of all the books that I want so badly, and then when the buy ban ends, I go nuts and order them all at once and BAM, now I’ve got this huge box of books in the mail and half of them won’t even get read this year. I decided to try something new this summer, and I basically only allow myself pre-orders of books I feel like I absolutely cannot live without, $2 or less kindle ebooks, and books that I KNOW I will read within 2 weeks, maximum. If I won’t read it during the next 2 weeks, I don’t need it yet (that’s what I try telling myself, anyways). I really didn’t think I had the willpower for it, but shockingly, it’s worked really well for me for a couple of months now! The only books I’ve purchased over the last 3 months have been the $2 ebooks, or books I was purchasing for group reads (like Gentleman’s Guide, The Bone Season, The Raven Boys, etc). I’ve also pre-ordered a couple of books on amazon, but those haven’t come out of my bank account yet, so I’m not counting them. ;P
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See you are rocking the modified book ban. And I just think that those work so much better than going cold turkey. Its too hard to just cut yourself off.
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