Top Ten Most Expensive Books I Bought This Year
...not officially a Top Ten Tuesday post but by complete coincidence it appears to have gone up on Tuesday (and in lieu of an actual one, at that).
I have tracked my book acquisitions very closely this year -- unfortunately not in a way that curtailed how much I spent overall, though perhaps this post is secretly as much about self-shaming as it is sharing interesting data -- and while I'm considering what sort of charts and graphs and interesting anecdotes I want to do with all of that info at the end of the year, I thought this would be an interesting exercise. I'm unlikely to buy anything else that qualifies for this list before next year at this point -- i HOPE?? -- so this part at least can be released early.
A few starting points:
(I'll see about adding photos later, maybe)
1. Camper Girl - Glenn Erick Miller (2020)
Cost: $8.18
A fair-enough splurge to fill out a ThriftBooks order because I was always going to have to buy this indie-press-published novel to read it -- and it ended up a top-ten-of-the-year kind of book, so now if anything I wish I'd spent more for one in better condition.
2. Maisie Lockwood #2: The Yosemite Six - Tess Sharp (2022)
Cost: $9.50
I am slightly embarrassed about this one because it is on BookOutlet right now for $7.49 ($8.11 to me) assuming I did a full $35 order -- which I did -- but everywhere else on the internet it's still higher. And I couldn't even get it on Libby, let alone physically at my library, and I really was dying to read it, which I actually did immediately upon receipt.
3. Meet Me At the Summit - Mandi Lynn Bell (2021, new '23 cover)
4. Let the Rubble Fall - Mandi Lynn Bell (2022, new '23 cover)
5. The Trail To You & Me - Mandi Lynn Bell (2023)
Cost: $10 each
Embarrassed I haven't read these yet, but still thrilled that I'll be able to do so! Still heavily anticipating them, and was able to snag signed copies on sale. Worth it, even though it took a lot of nerve to spend all that in one go.
6. Postcards From Summer - Cynthia Platt (2022)
Cost: $10.88
What can I say: I couldn't get it physically from the library, I really wanted to read it in the spring, and I just couldn't focus on a 20-hour audiobook during the intense work times. And I wanted the nicest possible copy because it's so beautiful and I needed the jacket to be as close to its original pristine white as possible, so I thought this was actually a decent compromise against buying it full price @ Barnes & Noble, which I almost did. (and then I...didn't actually get back to reading it. next year it is!)
7. This Bird Has Flown - Susanna Hoffs (2023)
Cost: $13.03
I regret nothing. The library request list died down quickly, but I started anticipating this 2 weeks prior to its release, so any period of time I didn't have instant access to the romance in this was too long. I have revisited it regularly.
8. Famous For A Living - Melissa Ferguson (2023)
Cost: $18.33
This was from my Once Upon a Book Club box splurge, which was around $45 total even w/ a discount code, but some of that cost was for the gifts. I decided to account for that by assigning it the cover price + tax.
9. Decisions - Lynn Hall (early 90s)
Cost: $20.04
One of her rare self-published novels, exact publishing/copyright date honestly unknown. There's only been one seller on the internet for at least the past year, who must have a small pile of overstock in the back room because they're in new condition and he still has it listed for sale, but because the internet doesn't even have a cover image for this one, I got spooked and paranoid I would never be able to find it once these sell out. FOMO in the truest sense of the word.
10. Loki: Season 1 novel(ization) - Hayley Chewins (2023)
Cost: $22.05
I made myself wait an entire month and I'll probably still regret if it ever DOES get published in the U.S., but the fact remains that it currently isn't and has no scheduled plans to be. And after swooning about these quotes (translated from the Portugese version), I simply had to get my hands on it asap and see if they were really that beautifully OTT in English. And now I have my beloved series fully distilled in book form to carry around with me. *beams*
SUPER BONUS:
I didn't count this as "money spent" because I got it with a gift card, so technically it was a present and cost me $0. But in terms of how much the seller was actually charging for the book, the absolute purple-rosette grand champion winner is...
11. Snowman - Rutherford Montgomery (1961)
Bookseller cost: $50 -- that I got during a Labor Day sale for $40 plus tax, so ultimately it ate around $43 of my $50 gift card.
ONE OF MY BOOKISH HOLY GRAILS!
It is pretty scarce, but I guess now that The Eighty Dollar Champion, an adult nonfiction account of the same horse, is over 10 years old, people are finally letting go of the copies they must have all snatched up after reading it in the same way *I* wanted to snatch one up back then. $50 is generally the lowest price I've seen in 10 years of looking, but while there are some $30-35 copies for sale now, they all lack photos and their condition sounds potentially worse.
More importantly, I got it from Half Price Books -- a local branch, even! -- so I not only had gift card money and could inspect the page and binding quality, I didn't get hit with a shipping surcharge. That felt like a tiny lil' miracle made just for me, not least because I didn't even see it at the store originally. I was just idly browsing the website, keying in some random perennial favorite titles from my wishlist, and nearly had a heart attack when I got a local result.
I have tracked my book acquisitions very closely this year -- unfortunately not in a way that curtailed how much I spent overall, though perhaps this post is secretly as much about self-shaming as it is sharing interesting data -- and while I'm considering what sort of charts and graphs and interesting anecdotes I want to do with all of that info at the end of the year, I thought this would be an interesting exercise. I'm unlikely to buy anything else that qualifies for this list before next year at this point -- i HOPE?? -- so this part at least can be released early.
A few starting points:
- At this moment, 89% of the books I bought this year were under $5
- (a certain little voice in my head: "more than ten percent of the books you bought were over five dollars??" Last year it was only six percent. and you bought fewer books overall)
- The average price point even with all of these factored in was about $2
- Prices given include sales tax and any applicable shipping fees, because I am a stickler for being precise re: how much comes out of my actual pocket, to remind myself how important it is to always assess how much I truly need to buy that book online
- Listed in ascending order by price
(I'll see about adding photos later, maybe)
1. Camper Girl - Glenn Erick Miller (2020)
Cost: $8.18
A fair-enough splurge to fill out a ThriftBooks order because I was always going to have to buy this indie-press-published novel to read it -- and it ended up a top-ten-of-the-year kind of book, so now if anything I wish I'd spent more for one in better condition.
2. Maisie Lockwood #2: The Yosemite Six - Tess Sharp (2022)
Cost: $9.50
I am slightly embarrassed about this one because it is on BookOutlet right now for $7.49 ($8.11 to me) assuming I did a full $35 order -- which I did -- but everywhere else on the internet it's still higher. And I couldn't even get it on Libby, let alone physically at my library, and I really was dying to read it, which I actually did immediately upon receipt.
3. Meet Me At the Summit - Mandi Lynn Bell (2021, new '23 cover)
4. Let the Rubble Fall - Mandi Lynn Bell (2022, new '23 cover)
5. The Trail To You & Me - Mandi Lynn Bell (2023)
Cost: $10 each
Embarrassed I haven't read these yet, but still thrilled that I'll be able to do so! Still heavily anticipating them, and was able to snag signed copies on sale. Worth it, even though it took a lot of nerve to spend all that in one go.
6. Postcards From Summer - Cynthia Platt (2022)
Cost: $10.88
What can I say: I couldn't get it physically from the library, I really wanted to read it in the spring, and I just couldn't focus on a 20-hour audiobook during the intense work times. And I wanted the nicest possible copy because it's so beautiful and I needed the jacket to be as close to its original pristine white as possible, so I thought this was actually a decent compromise against buying it full price @ Barnes & Noble, which I almost did. (and then I...didn't actually get back to reading it. next year it is!)
7. This Bird Has Flown - Susanna Hoffs (2023)
Cost: $13.03
I regret nothing. The library request list died down quickly, but I started anticipating this 2 weeks prior to its release, so any period of time I didn't have instant access to the romance in this was too long. I have revisited it regularly.
8. Famous For A Living - Melissa Ferguson (2023)
Cost: $18.33
This was from my Once Upon a Book Club box splurge, which was around $45 total even w/ a discount code, but some of that cost was for the gifts. I decided to account for that by assigning it the cover price + tax.
9. Decisions - Lynn Hall (early 90s)
Cost: $20.04
One of her rare self-published novels, exact publishing/copyright date honestly unknown. There's only been one seller on the internet for at least the past year, who must have a small pile of overstock in the back room because they're in new condition and he still has it listed for sale, but because the internet doesn't even have a cover image for this one, I got spooked and paranoid I would never be able to find it once these sell out. FOMO in the truest sense of the word.
10. Loki: Season 1 novel(ization) - Hayley Chewins (2023)
Cost: $22.05
I made myself wait an entire month and I'll probably still regret if it ever DOES get published in the U.S., but the fact remains that it currently isn't and has no scheduled plans to be. And after swooning about these quotes (translated from the Portugese version), I simply had to get my hands on it asap and see if they were really that beautifully OTT in English. And now I have my beloved series fully distilled in book form to carry around with me. *beams*
SUPER BONUS:
I didn't count this as "money spent" because I got it with a gift card, so technically it was a present and cost me $0. But in terms of how much the seller was actually charging for the book, the absolute purple-rosette grand champion winner is...
11. Snowman - Rutherford Montgomery (1961)
Bookseller cost: $50 -- that I got during a Labor Day sale for $40 plus tax, so ultimately it ate around $43 of my $50 gift card.
ONE OF MY BOOKISH HOLY GRAILS!
It is pretty scarce, but I guess now that The Eighty Dollar Champion, an adult nonfiction account of the same horse, is over 10 years old, people are finally letting go of the copies they must have all snatched up after reading it in the same way *I* wanted to snatch one up back then. $50 is generally the lowest price I've seen in 10 years of looking, but while there are some $30-35 copies for sale now, they all lack photos and their condition sounds potentially worse.
More importantly, I got it from Half Price Books -- a local branch, even! -- so I not only had gift card money and could inspect the page and binding quality, I didn't get hit with a shipping surcharge. That felt like a tiny lil' miracle made just for me, not least because I didn't even see it at the store originally. I was just idly browsing the website, keying in some random perennial favorite titles from my wishlist, and nearly had a heart attack when I got a local result.