Let’s talk bookish is a weekly meme, created and hosted by J.R. @Eternity Books, here different topics will be discussed.
This weeks topic is ‘Owning books and bookish items’!
I have no idea how many books I own, if I have to guess I would say around 200?! Since all my books are at my parents place I can not count them. Tbh I don’t think owning lots of books is important?! I love owning books, but since I have been living abroad for two years I changed my mind about owning books haha.
I always read, but I started ‘taking part’ in the book community in 2016 I think?! By starting watching BookTube and starting my own Bookstagram account. Before this I read most of my books on my ereader, but then I started buying my books physical, and my collection started to grow quickly! This continued until I moved abroad September 2018, when I couldn’t really buy all the books I read since it would be too heavy to move back home. So I started reading ebooks again and reading a lot from the library!
Now I changed my mind set from wanting to own all the books I read, to only wanting to own the books that I absolutely loved! I keep a list with books that I listened to or got from the library that I loved and someday want to own!
Currently the books that I do buy, I buy from local bookstores, which honestly is the best! I love walking through bookstores and look at their selections! But when I finally am going to buy all these books that I want to own, since I loved them, I will probably buy them all online. Let’s be honest, they are just cheaper! I try buying most of my books from Bookdepository, since for me it is the cheapest option! I love that their shipping is free, and the only ‘downside’ is that shipping takes around a week, but most of the times I don’t mind that. If I want my books the next day I order them on bol.com, which is basically the Dutch version of Amazon! I would love to buy books from Bookoutlet, but unfortunately their shipping to Europe is ridiculous, and higher then the price of the actual books haha.
As I discussed in last weeks discussion, I do not own many bookish items. All the ones that I have mainly come from Fairloot boxes! Which is very nice since I can use them for Bookstagram photos! When I started my Bookstagram account I really wanted to own bookish items for my photos, but my main reason for not having them is that many companies are located in the US and shipping to the Netherlands was just ridiculous! I understand why it is expensive, but I just did not want to spend my money on that haha (so maybe I’m just cheap ahha)!
I do own a lot of the books I read (and a whole lot that I haven’t read yet). But I’m older now and have more disposable income, so I guess I can afford to buy more books too.
Maybe once I have a ‘grown-up’ job I will feel different again haha! Right now for me it is better to use the library!
I went through the same process you did haha. At first I wanted to own ALL the books and I found myself collecting things I never had any desire to read. Then I ran out of room and decided to clean out my collection and keep only the books I liked or might actually read! And I am so much happier for doing that!!
Yeah I think that will be so satisfying! Just having the books you loved or really want to read!
I own way too many books, and a lot of them I haven’t even read yet! I just like being surrounded by them. But I don’t think owning books or not owning books makes anyone more or less bookish. I admire people who frequent their libraries!
Oh my one wish for when I have my own place is a room just for books! I think I will just sit there all the time, just to be surrounded by books haha!
And hopefully those shelves will be filled with all my faves 🙂
same here! When I want to read a book, I used to want to own it first. But around last summer, when I did an unhaul, I realized that what makes me happier is seeing books that I love on my shelves. So I started borrowing books from the library again and only bought books that I really loved and know I’ll reread again. Of course, there are exceptions like if it’s the next book in a series that I really like or an author that I’m a fan of, I’ll just immediately buy those books.
Only having my favuorites on my shelves will make me so happy lookin gat them!
Yes for sequels I would also make exceptions!