Borrowed vs Bought -- A Literary Quandry
I spent more time in libraries in 2008 than I have in years. Heck, I spent more time *reading* in 2008 than I have in years. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it and how worthwhile it is to make time for it, which I really hadn't been. I also did some writing in 2008, and though I am trying not to put the cart before the horse while I'm doing revisions on ye ole manuscript sometimes my mind wanders to the subject of publication. Thinking about maybe getting published some day is both exciting and terrifying a the same time. People might actually spend money to read my book one day. Maybe. If I ever finish revisions and decide it's worth taking the next step.
But that got me thinking about something else... for all the reading I've done this year, I'd say about 90% of the books were from the library. It makes me feel kind of guilty, especially about the books I really truly enjoyed. Authors get royalties when I buy books, not when I check books out from the library. On the other hand, I have a budget of my own. I can't afford to dump a lot of money into books, and I really don't want to buy new books by authors I'm unfamiliar with because my favorite genre (Urban Fantasy) is so full of crap that for every five books I pick up I really like (maybe) two of them.
So I figure that in the coming year I'm going to make more of an effort to support the authors that I really like when they publish new books, or when I am catching up on a newly discovered enjoyable series. I'll look for the first book at the library, but if I read it and like it and decide to keep reading the series... I'll make an effort to buy the next book. If that gets to be too expensive, I'll just give myself a monthly book budget. I don't usually read fast enough for my spending to get out of hand, as long as I'm not buying books well in advance of when I will be reading them.
But that got me thinking about something else... for all the reading I've done this year, I'd say about 90% of the books were from the library. It makes me feel kind of guilty, especially about the books I really truly enjoyed. Authors get royalties when I buy books, not when I check books out from the library. On the other hand, I have a budget of my own. I can't afford to dump a lot of money into books, and I really don't want to buy new books by authors I'm unfamiliar with because my favorite genre (Urban Fantasy) is so full of crap that for every five books I pick up I really like (maybe) two of them.
So I figure that in the coming year I'm going to make more of an effort to support the authors that I really like when they publish new books, or when I am catching up on a newly discovered enjoyable series. I'll look for the first book at the library, but if I read it and like it and decide to keep reading the series... I'll make an effort to buy the next book. If that gets to be too expensive, I'll just give myself a monthly book budget. I don't usually read fast enough for my spending to get out of hand, as long as I'm not buying books well in advance of when I will be reading them.