Fact: I don't like coffee. I just like saying Coffee Clutch in my best and deepest New York accent. Considering I'm a New Yorker, I'm pretty freaking good at it. So I've got my tea and I hope you have your heated beverage of choice, because it's time to gab the day away.
**This discussion post is brought to you by a discussion I had over dinner with Alexa from Alexa Loves Books, Rachel from Rachel Reads and Rachel from HelloChelly**
Are you guys ready for the QUESTION OF THE DAY?
ARE YOU?
GOOD.
So here it is:
Do you find that you own a lot of hardcopies of books or do you take most of your books out of the library?
Since some of my readers are bloggers, I'm sure you're asking yourself: What about ARCs? Well, do you own hardcopies? If yes, please refer to the "owning a lot of hardcopies of books" category.
And then I'm sure all of you guys are wondering how eBooks fit into the question above - well, they don't. So ignore them.
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| YES I CAN EBOOKS. YES I CAN. |
Why am I asking you this question? Because I want to know if you're a BOOK HOARDER or a LIBRARY BORROWER.
A BOOK HOARDER is someone who owns lots and lots of books and stacks them to look like hipster furniture for lack of anywhere else to put them. People go book shopping with you and ask the question: WHERE ARE YOU PUTTING ALL OF THESE? You'll always take a free book from a friend and are the first to run to the bargain book table at any bookstore you come across in hopes of finding a good deal. Oh, and your paycheck? What paycheck?
A LIBRARY BORROWER is someone who either doesn't have the space (and doesn't like to pretend they DO have the space), isn't interested in owning books they're pretty sure they're not going to read again or would rather spend the cash on other life essentials - like food. Yeah, they own books, but only the ones they LOVELOVELOVE. Everything else they get from the library.
Of course, with all questions like this one, there's a spectrum. Personally? I'm a HUGE book hoarder, but I'll only buy a book if everyone is praising the pants (er, book jacket?) off it, it's part of a series and Book 1 is a favorite OR if I took it out from the library in the first place and decided after reading that I HAZ TO HAZ IT.
Where do you fall on the spectrum? Do you HAZ TO HAZ lots and lots of books? Or can you just borrow most of them and buy what you truly need? Let me know in the comments below!
Book hoarder!! Every time, I hate borrowing books, what if I want to reread it! I also hate lending, my babies get lost and I end up rebuying them. So I'm sticking with the 'neither a borrower nor a lender be' school of thought :-)
ReplyDeleteBookishTrish @ Between the Lines
I am a book hoarder all. The. Way. It's a problem. It's a sickness. There is no cure.
ReplyDeleteNO CURE. NOT ONE. It's terrible and glorious and I can't. I just can't.
DeleteThankfully, I'm more of a Library Borrower. But, if I had the money to buy ALL my books, my room would probably look more like an extremely messy library. Awesome post, by the way :D
ReplyDeleteI'm a library borrower all the way! I don't have the room and well, I only buy fantastic books that I want to pass on from generation to generation - mostly non-fiction.
ReplyDeleteTanya Patrice
Girlxoxo.com
I am a BOOK HOARDER FOR SURE. There's a reason I named my blog The Book Addict's Guide... *ahem* I cannot stop buying books!!! I keep hard copies of my favorites, then all the ones I've been able to get signed, and ones I find at used bookstores that I need to read, and some just for the heck of it... And all the ones I still haven't read yet. The library was GREAT. Until I started building my own! :) Some people buy clothes or shoes. I buy books.
ReplyDeleteOh my..I am the book hoarder for sure! They are in bags, boxes, crates, laundry bins..etc. lolz. I am planning on taking over EVERY SINGLE bookshelf in my house during our makeover ;)
ReplyDeleteI am actually going through them now and will donate to a few places around my city. One is a shelter for homeless teenagers. I know as a kid books and reading SAVED my sanity. I hope they love to read as much as I do :)
Is it possible to be both? Because my room is covered in books, but I also have 8 books checked out from the library right now. I think I go back and forth. If I have money I tend towards Book Hoarder, and if I am low on that I make myself stick to the library and add books I love to my need-to-buy list on Goodreads.
ReplyDeleteI guess I would say I'm more a library borrower than a book hoarder, but I'm more in the middle of the spectrum. I borrow tons of books from the library. I'm a librarian, so I'm in the library five days a week, 8 hours a day. And of course, I want to support the library, because I think it is an amazing institution.
ReplyDeleteBut I like to own some books, too, and since I started blogging back in 2012, I've rediscovered my love of actually owning my own copies of books, too. And if I go to author events, I always buy books to get signed, so my book collection has definitely grown, and it a pretty decent size. :)
I used to be a major library borrower - I think I had around 50 things checked out at one time. Now, I mostly buy everything I want to read. I just recently got a new bookshelf, because I think my old one was about to collapse. :/
ReplyDeleteI WANT to be a book hoarder. I want to have bookcases and bookcases of all the books I love (like the library in Beauty and the Beast! My life dream library right there..) but I can't. I live in a small apt so there's not much room, and I don't have enough money for that, so I'm mostly a library person. I do buy the books I really love and will read again and again though!
ReplyDeleteThere is no question what I am. BOOK HOARDER. Oh yes I am. I own lots and lots of books. I stack them everywhere and yeah, I get the question: "but where are you going to put them?" a lot. I'm slowly starting to build a tower of books around myself and I don't care :D As long as I can buy them! Haha.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit of both. I'm always in the bookstores or at the library.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part I'm a library borrower. Not because I don't like to buy books or anything like that. It's more because I don't have the money to buy books. I love having tons of books in and around my room. And when I come across some money I am ALL OVER the book stores. Not that I don't have any books already. I totally do. Just not as many as I would like. So I guess, really, I'm a Library Borrower with the heart of a Book Hoarder.
ReplyDeleteBOOK HOARDER represent!! hahaha
ReplyDeleteI'm in between, haha. I own a lot of books and want to own MOREMOREMORE. But I'm also ridiculously stingy in general, and that carries over to books, LOL. I will not pay full price for a book unless I've already read and loved the book, author, or series. I've made exceptions in the past and wound up getting burned by the Attack of the Pretty Cover. I buy as many as I can justify, though, because even as little as it is, I love collecting them, and I love supporting authors.
ReplyDeleteAlso, my birthday and Christmas wishlists are about 80% books. :D
I'm totally a book hoarder BUT I'm also a library borrower in mass amounts. ALL THE BOOKS ALL THE TIME.
ReplyDeleteIt's such a problem.
I'm a book hoarder, I store all my books in my closet though, so no one can see them. My daughter would destroy them if they were where she could get them :P
ReplyDeleteI am definitely a Library Borrower! I just cant afford to go around buying every book I want to read, and you're right, what if I don't like it? What do I do with it then? I'm also not much a re-reader so I wouldn't re-read any of them. I do own books. But you're right again, they're books I love!
ReplyDeleteMiss J @ Miss Book Reviews
I'm a book hoarder at heart, but I really don't have the money to buy books very much, and the BF is always complaining that I need to read the books I own and stop bringing more into the apartment. We definitely don't have the space. I think I'm a fusion of both. I check a lot of books out from the library, but I also buy books that I love love love or know I will want to reread at some point. Maybe one day I'll be wealthy and have a big house with a library and I'll buy all the books I want to fill it up.
ReplyDeleteI am totally a book hoarder!!!! I just buy books all the time. I'm almost certain that I haven't even read more than half of the books I own! I'm making my way through them. And every week I tell myself that I'm not going to buy any more books until I get through the large amount I have at home, but no. I have no willpower. I just HAZ TO HAZ ALL OF THE BOOKS! <3
ReplyDeleteI'd like to say that I fall somewhere in the happy medium between the two... but who am I kidding? I'm a hoarder. However, it's only on rare occasions that I buy books and then it's because I get them cheap (used bookstores, library bookstore). And I totally have plans to read them.... you know, someday! Luckily books haven't started taking over my house and, with the exception of a few random piles, they all fit nicely onto my bookshelves!
ReplyDeleteI will say that I'm a book hoarder, but with restraint nowadays. I used to be the type of girl who would visit a book store 2-3 times a week, and buy at least 3 books (whether or not I'd heard anything about them). I still enjoy visiting bookstores and having massive hauls of books, and normally cannot say no to a free book - but these days I'm more picky about what I buy and what I acquire. I do like to use the library too!
ReplyDeleteI try not to buy all the books, but it's hard. I'm like Alexa -- I do show lots of restraint these days, but I do love going to bookstores once in a while and checking out the sales tables. I think when I started blogging seriously in 2011, it was a lot worse -- I'd make the stops at all the places selling books and buy 1-5 books from each. And this would happen weekly. I think it was because I'd show what books I received in my weekly recap and I felt like it had to be bulky.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, I'm checking out a used bookstore today, so we'll see how that goes!