As you may know, I do most of my “reading” via audiobooks. A monthly audiobook subscription is my main source for books. But a monthly subscription equals 12 books per year and I read 56 books in 2022. So where did the rest come from? And is my assumption, that I don’t spend much money on books, pure self-deception? Let’s have a look:
Books read in 2022 split on source
Using the Library
In August 2021, I wrote about giving my library a second chance. It isn’t the best library in the world, but I wanted to support it and, you know, free books… So how did it go, did I start to use it more?
Out of the 56 books I read in 2022, 12 came from the library. Using the library has allowed me to be more experimental, which is a plus. Whereas I rarely DNF books I’ve paid for, I have less qualms DNF’ing library books. With its limited selection, the library will never become my main source for books. But it’s a nice supplement.
Total costs
In 2022, nine of my reads came from the *free* audiobook library included in my subscription, meaning that 37% of the books read in 2022 didn’t cost me anything extra.
The rest are split between ebooks, audiobooks on sale and a few physical copies. What does it all add up to? Approximately £195, split on £96 for my subscription and £99 for the rest. In other words, £3.5 per book. In the big scheme of things, that isn’t bad at all. Or what do you think?
Book hoarding – me?
You may wonder, if I buy more books than the ones I read and therefore in reality spend more money than the £195. The unbelievably smug answer is: Not really. 😉
I’ve never been a book hoarder and introducing a TBR in 2021 with all the unread books I own, prevents me from forgetting about electronic books on my eReader. Since I created it, my TBR has been relatively constant between 5-10 books. So the numbers above should still hold.
That was a bit about, where I get my books from, which seems to have changed a lot over the years. Most noticeable is my audiobook reading going from 0% to >90% and my library use increasing from 0% to 21%. Where do you get your books from? And have your sources for books changed a lot over time as well? Feel free to let me know in the comments.
Hi. There are two nearby libraries that I get nearly all of my books from. I take out more books than I end up reading. Right now I’m reading The Maytrees, a novel by Annie Dillard. It’s good.
It is great to have access to a good library. In the area I grew up, we had some amazing libraries, but here in the heart of London, the offering is rather limited.
I don’t spend as much as you. I read mainly ebooks rather than use audio books. I have library access to Borrowbox and Libby (2 separate libraries). They both have a good selection of ebooks and audio books and I also have access to newspapers and 1000s magazines. I just happen to prefer the ebooks.
I buy some kindle books from Amazon (I use the Kindle app on my tablet and phone) but I usually pay no more than 99p, occasionally up to £1.99, or nothing at all. There are also the monthly First Reads on Amazon and you can also borrow books on Prime Reading.. you get access to these at no extra cost if you have Prime membership. Some of the free titles have been surprisingly enjoyable.
I’m also a member of NetGalley. I haven’t requested as many in the past 2 or 3 years but the number has been increasing this year. It’s hard to resist a book I think I might like if I get an email offering it!
So as you can probably guess, I never really run out of reading material.
Amazing that you have two different libraries with different selections. In theory I have access to a couple of libraries, but the e-book/audiobook selection is the same for all the libraries in the borough.
Ah yes, Netgalley! That is of course a great source of books. However, I don’t really want to commit myself to read certain books (I guess you theoretically have to read them when you require via net-galley?). Also, I prefer to read books after they have come out and have a decent number of reviews.
When it comes to costs, I realise audiobooks is probably one of the more expensive ways of reading unless your library has a good selection. However, I’ve become addicted to audiobooks and doubt I’ll ever go back to normal reading except for very complex nonfiction.
I’ve just done a quick calculation. I’ve read 31 books (at least) since the start of this year with another two started but not finished. Of these books 6 were via Borrowbox; 14 via Libby and 8 from NetGalley.
Ok, I can’t compete with that! Very cost efficient! 😉
£3.50 on average is a really good deal. I’m impressed you have your TBR under such control. In the years before blogging mine would have been around a dozen but now it’s crept up to 280 roughly.
Yes, I thought £3.5 was quite good, although if I signed up to Netgalley (or had a better library) I could get it further down. I guess TBR it is all about personality. A TBR of 100+ books would probably stress me out. I prefer a minimalistic approach. With the exception of audiobook sales or presents, I pretty much have a one in / one out approach, i.e. can add more books to the TBR with the same speed as I am reading them. 😊
Book hoarding – yes ( you know me!), but not as much as earlier! I still buy paperbooks about crafts, archicture, travelling and books that I would preferencer to read bit by bit, but after COVID-19 ebooks came into my life and has tanken over from the libary (I have only borrowed tree books this year), so I think around 90% is now ebboks from Saxo – and there is no restrictions so in average I read 3 books a week for a fee of around 11 £ a month.
Haha, I didn’t even know you started reading ebooks – it does make life a lot easier, especially when you travel and don’t have to carry books around with you. That is a very good deal you got from Saxo, I don’t think many ebook providers offer unlimited reading. I can understand why your library usage has gone down.😊
It’s always good to find free audiobooks and it sounds like you are finding a good portion of those. When I lived in the city — I thought my library had a great stock of available audios so I never needed to pay for an audio subscription service. But now that I’m in the countryside the library isn’t as good and so I ended up getting Audible. I’m trying to keep my costs of book buying & audios down but it’s a constant balance, which perhaps you are finding a bit too. Which e-reader do you have? I might get a new one soon. Cheers.
It is definitely a balance. But you’ll be able to take advantage of Audible’s sales and daily deals, which bring costs down a lot. Currently, I have a Kindle Fire e-reader, which I am quite happy with. It does from time to time become slow and needs to be restarted like a computer. The first Kindle Fire I had was amazing and lasted forever. Too bad that your current library isn’t as good as the old one, but I am sure you’ll find a way to balance everything.
A lot of classics are free, either from Audible or from public sources such as Project Gutenberg.
This is really interesting. I also do a large chunk of my reading on audio now. I am a total book hoarder too though so I still buy loads, especially secondhand. I’ve been very disciplined this year though and have only bought a few – almost all of them at the Hay Festival the other week….!
Ah you went to the Hay Festival – that must have been fun! Was it your first time there? There is nothing wrong with book hoarding, acquiring books is a fun activity in its own right! 😊 I just get stressed out by owning too many unread books, which is why I don’t hoard.
I am fortunate to have an amazing library and library system – meaning access to other libraries if needed.
I used to have an audio subscription to listen to French books, but I decided it was not a reasonable expense for our small budget to live on (even though it was cheaper than Audible). And actually today, I found a French classic I wanted to read as an audiobook, in French, through my library streaming service (they actually have 3: Hoopla, Libby, and CloudLibrary).
Most of my books come from my library, and a few from publishers
It is enviable to have an amazing library system, especially if it means you rarely have to buy any books yourself. I’ve even heard about bloggers in the US with access to amazing audiobook libraries as well, but normally it is more tricky to rely on the library if you are a big audiobook reader. Finding a French classic in French on audio sounds pretty impressive. Maybe there are many French speaking readers in the area where you live?
I’m glad the library thing did work out in the end! 😀
Yup, thanks to you!! 😀👍
This is so interesting. Our reading habits are very different, though I can’t quantify mine – I don’t do statistics. Easily 80% of my reading matter is from the library. I can’t fault ours. It continues to buy – heaven knows how – including from indie publishers, so I get to read plenty of new releases. The rest I buy from my local independent book shop, or borrow from friends, to whom I lend as well. I don’t do audio books or e-books at all, so I’m much more traditional than you.
It is amazing how different libraries are across the country. Indie publishers! I was about to say, my library doesn’t even have Demon Copperhead, but actually it looks like they acquired it, since I last checked. Anyway, it took me ages to get my first e-reader. Back then I was a firm believer in books being read on paper! After I got an e-reader, the migration from paper books to e-books and then on to audiobooks happened quite quickly.
It’s awesome that you make good use of your library! I mostly use my subscription for digital reads. Being a book hoarder is rough but soooo rewarding though hahaha
Haha, book hoarding is a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it! 😁