Where do my books come from?
A rare new book haul, brought to you by birthday gift cards
This post is inspired by Kerry at Pickle Me This, and by my own nosiness, because I want to know where your books come from too.
Join in! You can either list the last 30 books you read, as Kerry did, or calculate your stats for the whole year. I’ve done both.
The last thirty books:
- What Is Going to Happen Next by Karen Hofmann: Received from publisher
- The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy: Bought secondhand at Wee Book Inn
- We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson: Library
- I Am A Truck by Michelle Winter: Bought directly from the publisher
- 4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster: Library
- Annie Muktuk and Other Stories by Norma Dunnning: Bought from Kobo, full price
- A Horse Walks Into a Bar by David Grossman: Bought from Chapters
- My Name is Leon by Kit De Waal: Bought from Kobo, on sale
- Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor: Library
- Brother by David Chariandy: Bought from Chapters
- The Dark and Other Love Stories by Deborah Willis: Library
- Indigenous Writes by Chelsea Vowel: Library
- Solar Bones by Mike McCormack: Bought from Book Depository
- Serving Pleasure by Alisha Rai: Bought from Kobo, full price
- Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson: Bought from Kobo, on sale
- History of Wolves by Emil Fridlund: Library
- Flawless Consulting by Peter Block: Free from work
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: Received as a gift
- Days Without End by Sebastian Barry: Library
- Shadow of Doubt by Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon: Received as a gift
- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead: Library
- Desperate Characters by Paula Fox: Bought from Amazon
- Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen: Won in a giveaway
- China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan: Bought from Kobo, full price
- I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid: Bought from Kobo, full price
- House of Lords and Commons by Ishion Hutchinson: Library
- Dawn by Octavia E. Butler: Bought on Kobo, on sale
- Son of France by Todd Babiak: Bought from Chapters
- Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid: Library
- Tampa by Alissa Nutting: Bought on Kobo, on sale
And, of my 75 books read to date in 2017:
- 28 bought at full price
- 26 borrowed from the library
- 11 bought at significant discount (e.g. $1.99 ebooks, secondhand, or library sale)
- 3 received as gifts
- 3 part of training at work
- 3 from publishers
- 1 won in a giveaway
Or, put another way, I paid nothing for nearly half the books I’ve read this year. I paid full price for just over a third of them.
I thought I might be even heavier on library books, because I always have SO many checked out and on hold at any given time. Participating in After Canada Reads tipped me over the edge of half paid-for books (had to buy 5 full price books to mark up.)
So, I’m nosy: where do your books come from?
Reading in Bed 
Well this is a GREAT idea for a post. I’m totally going to look this up and do it too. Paying nothing for half the books you read is an ACHIEVEMENT!
This is an awesome post idea, totally going to do this at some point.
I love this… I’m nosy, too! And now I’m curious to know how it all adds up for me. And then I’ll probably have to do it again next year… 🙂
This year I’ve bought SO MANY books … next year I have to really keep on using the library and reading what I own and looking for sales. I don’t mind paying full price sometimes but I’d really like to get through most of what I own and use the library. Goals, man.
I think that’s a great balance of paid to library to other! As someone who works in publishing, thank you for still buying books 🙂
I did my own stats for the year so far and came up with something like:
20/41 bought
8/41 library
6/41 from work
4/41 gifts
3/41 borrowed
Very nice post! Yowza! Talk about making myself accountable. 😅 I might try to do this for a post in the new year.
This is so fun! I’m totally going to jump on the bandwagon and post my results tomorrow.
What a great idea! I was thinking of doing this post but mine would be boring bc I only take out kids books from the library, and I only buy a couple books a year. The rest come from publishers-cringe! Which is why I have so much guilt about not getting to them faster.
14 total I read last month. 2 I buy myself, the rest were review requests
Yay! I did mine: http://www.reluctantm.com/?p=6339
Oh I’m so behind on my blog reading. But this is utterly brilliant, I will absolutely try to play along. And I love that I’m not the only one that’s mad about library books (haven’t forgotten about the tale of Genji/Kevin Kwan thing but right now my emotions have been in a turmoil because Murasaki almost died. All of a sudden it wasn’t funned games anymore. I’m too invested emotionally).