Buy vs. Borrow

I've been reading the comments lately on line about whether or not to buy books vs. borrowing from the library or used books. I love books, and if I had my way I would have a whole room full of books. Wait a minute I do, but seriously I would have a room that was just my library. As it is, I now have books on the floor, books piled on the tables and in bookshelves. I have no place to put any more books.

Every year for Christmas, I would ask my parents for books. Even now I have a huge Amazon wish list of books. But unfortunately I can't afford to buy all the books that I want. Not if I want to pay my rent, eat, and occasionally travel or go to the movies. I just can't. Three years ago, I was unemployed for most of the year, so I had to make some changes in the way I spent money. Which meant taking more books out of the library and not buying as many books.

I still buy new books from authors that I know, and authors that I love that I want to support. However with new authors, I usually will buy them either from the Strand or take them out of the library. If I like them, then they go automatically into the to buy column. I donate my books to the library to either be sold or to be part of the collection, given that the public libraries in New York are suffering under a budget crunch.

Libraries were very important to me growing up. I read my way through both the junior library and the senior libraries at school, discovering many authors. Of course, there were no romances in my school library so I had to get my fix at the public library. I read my way through Jean Plaidy that way since most of her historical novels weren't published yet in paperback.

Even though I now have a permanent job, I still have to be careful with money in order to afford to attend conferences, and to send out my manuscripts, so I have to budget carefully when I buy books.

Right now, I've just bought Julie Leto's new book, and Susan Elizabeth Philip's latest paperback, even though I still have a huge pile of books that I bought at the literacy signing in Atlanta.

I totally understand authors worrying that if consumers buy used books from Amazon, and from used bookstores, that it might be fewer print runs, and the possibility of series being cut. And I know that I will probably feel the same way when I'm published but authors should know that we don't do it to be malicious, we worry about feeding our reading habit without breaking the bank.

Thanks for reading!

EKM