Today it’s time for a tag post! I saw Olive from abookolive do a video about this tag (check out her video here) and decided it’d be fun to answer it for myself, so here we are! This tag was created by Megan Olivier BookTube (check out the original video here).

1. Where do you buy your books?

Honestly, I buy a fair amount from Amazon. You just can’t beat their prices and the two-day shipping. I also discovered Book Outlet not that long ago and have since bought a ton of books from there. I like to support independent bookstores, too, so I try to pick something up every time I go past one. It’s a good thing there aren’t any in my neighborhood, or I’d be in real trouble!

2. Do you ever pre-order books and, if so, do you do this in-store or online?

I do pre-order books! Pretty much all of the books by authors on my auto read author list are pre-orders, though living in New York City, I sometimes hold off until I know for sure if they’re doing a book signing that would require a book purchase before I go ahead and pre-order. But pre-orders are always online. Typically from Amazon, but I just pre-ordered the Barnes and Noble special edition of Tower of Dawn and I pre-ordered The Language of Thorns from Good Choice Reading so I could get a personalized copy. I don’t normally pre-order signed books, but this one looks too pretty not to have signed, and The Language of Thorns won’t be out yet when Bardugo stops in New York on her Wonder Woman:Warbringer tour.

3. On average, how many books do you buy per month?

Ugh, I don’t want to face this reality. Until the last six months or so, I really didn’t buy many books, and when I did it was usually with my Amazon credit card points. But then I discovered BookTube and Bookstagram and book blogging, and it’s been downhill ever since.

I’d say my average lately has been 15 books, though I don’t think that’s reflective of how many books I’m buying to read. A lot of the books I’ve been buying lately have been buying an author’s backlist, like Tamora Pierce. I read her books a ton growing up, but I mostly rented them from the library, so I bought them all when I found them on Book Outlet. I’ve also been slowly adding to my Jane Austen and Harry Potter collections. So if we take factors like that out of consideration, I’d say I buy about 10 books a month. Which is still a ton, but it’s starting to slow down a lot.

4. Do you use your local library?

Absolutely! I rent a lot of books from the library via OverDrive. I currently have five or six books checked out, plus about 10 or so on hold for when I’m ready to read them.

5. If so, how many books can you/do you borrow at a time?

I can borrow 15 at a time, but I never have that many out at once. I actually suspend my holds to try and space them out so I don’t wind up with more than three or so books out at once. That way I can switch between library books and books that I own.

6. What is your opinion on library books?

Is there any opinion to have other than that they’re awesome?

7. How do you feel about charity shop/second hand books?

One of the things I miss the most about North Dakota after moving to New York is all of the places there were to get used books at really good prices. Library sales are my favorite, and there were a few thrift stores that had pretty good book selections. I still try to stop by them when I’m home, especially since used book stores in New York (at least the ones I’ve visited) tend to be pretty expensive compared to what I’m used to. The pricing is usually high enough here that I’d rather just buy new, unfortunately. If anyone has any recommendations on how to get good deals on books in New York, let me know!

8. Do you keep your read and TBR pile together/on the same bookshelf or not?

I keep mine separate so I can keep track of exactly how many books I own that I haven’t read yet. It just makes me feel more organized.

9. Do you plan to read all of the books that you own?

Absolutely! Eventually…

10. What do you do with books that you own that you feel you will never read/ felt you did not enjoy?

I put them in a pile and get rid of them when the pile threatens to fall over. I typically let my sister and friends pull what they want before I donate them, though Olive’s video made me realize I should really check out if there are any used book stores near me that I can sell them to. But as I said in my recent discussion post about owning books, I really want to be more conscious of what books I keep, so I won’t hang on to something without a good reason.

11. Have you ever donated books?

Definitely! Growing up, whenever I decided to part with a stack of books, we always donated them to our local Boys Ranch or library. I’ve gotten so many books from library sales and thrift stores over the years that I like giving back when I no longer want to hang on to certain books.

12. Have you ever been on a book buying ban?

No, though I’m kind of considering going on one…like I said, I didn’t used to buy a lot of books. It’s only been in recent months that I’ve really started to accumulate physical copies of books. But 60 unread books on my shelves just seems like too many, so I want to get that number down significantly before I buy anything other than highly anticipated new releases.

13. Do you feel that you buy too many books?

I kind of feel like it right now! I do want to cut back and get my tbr to a more reasonable number (I’m thinking 30, but that might not be realistic), but at the end of the day, I love books and they make me happy, so I’m trying not to beat myself up about it too much. But like, I need to stop neglecting the books that have been sitting on my shelves for ages just waiting to be read! But there are just so many books to buy…

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And there you have it! Let me know in the comments what some of your book buying habits are! Do you think you buy too many books?