I own 863 books. Well I might own a few more here and there (books that I have worked on  but not necessarily “read” etc.) but my main library — of mostly SF/Fantasy — consists of 863 titles. It took me almost 40 years to accumulate those.

Yes, I have a spreadsheet. I also haven’t bought a new book in 10 years…for certain definitions of “book.”

Ebooks

On the other hand, today I bought my 900th ebook.

For Xmas in December 2009, L bought me my first ereader—a Sony Reader PRS-600 (read about it here). I was suspicious but willing to give it a chance. On January 1, 2010 I bought my first ebook: March to the Stars by David Weber and John Ringo from Baen for $5 usd (the same book is now $6.99). I chose a Baen book (and generally still do) because of their non-drm policy.

So, since 2010, I have accumulated more ebooks in ~10 years than I did in the preceding 45. That says something about me, but I am not sure exactly what 🙂

Number 900?

I decided on Steven Brust’s The Baron of Magister Valley —a very under-marketed book published last year that I didn’t realize even existed until very recently. I have been trying very, very hard not to acquire any new books in order to get my To-Read pile down. I can happily announce that, other than a pile of “backup book” (classics and freebies that I have in case of emergency but don’t really intend to read unless I have to), I was down to 3. Woohoo!

So I went on a buying spree: A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine, Martha Wells’ Fugitive Telemetry —number 6 of awesome The Murderbot Diaries and The Assassins of Thasalon (Penric & Desdemona) from Lois McMaster Bujold. Which brought my  ebook count to 899.

 

Well, what’s a fella to do? Buy another book of course. Despite it costing $14.99. Seriously? Fifteen bucks?

Whatever.

But it’s done. And now happy reading!