I may have hoarding issues with ebooks

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

It is perhaps also unwise to simply delete the least-desirable books from your collection without sufficient self reflection, first. After all, if you bought so many books that you know you'll never read all of them, and if you can easily select the books you're least likely to read in your library, then you may wish to look for commonalities among those books, so you can avoid purchasing such books again in the future, which would necessitate a repeat of the purging process, and waste more money.

If you're locked in a cycle of impulse buying books and then deleting them, it suggests you need to do more than a little spring cleaning: you need to refine your purchasing habits.

Many of us acquired a lot of Kindle/Kobo freebies 10+ years ago when there were a lot of those and the whole "free book" (and self-publishing) thing was still relatively new. I'll probably never read most of those, but I'm still not going to outright delete them.

As to the rest, I know I'll never read all of them simply because I'm not likely to live 500 or 1000 years; if I did, I would probably read most of them.

[DNSB]

Are you an ebook hoarder?
Are you looking to break the vicious cycle of obtaining ebooks faster than you can read them?
We have the thread for you!
Join your fellow ebook addicts in the Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Are you an ebook hoarder?
Are you looking to break the vicious cycle of obtaining ebooks faster than you can read them?

Yes to first; no to second. I'm an addict and perfectly content with my addiction. I have no desire to get rid of it.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Many of us acquired a lot of Kindle/Kobo freebies 10+ years ago when there were a lot of those and the whole "free book" (and self-publishing) thing was still relatively new. I'll probably never read most of those, but I'm still not going to outright delete them.

Guilty, but then I’m a completist. If the author is any good and later makes the reading cut, then I have the early works to hand without having to find them in the less savory corners of the internet if not republished. Otherwise, they sit in Calibre unless I’m feeling masochistic. This is why I have 2 tags in Calibre: @SEND and @DO NOT SEND. I mostly use them for duplicate copies or massive PDFs.

The other issue I have are RPG PDFs. 99% of those are sitting in the cloud unread and only catalogued in LibraryThing and RPGGeek. I still have a bunch of folders to clean up. I often buy because I like the premise and want to mine the background, or because the physical copies I own are seriously rare and live in archive bags or because I was never aware of their existence when they were available physically.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yes to first; no to second. I'm an addict and perfectly content with my addiction. I have no desire to get rid of it.

/me cheers

[Tarana]

Storage: I highly recommend having your ebooks stored at home, in the cloud and offsite. You never know when you will become the victim of a flood, fire, burglar, ended relationship or inquisitive toddler. Don't rely on clouds as they can disappear over night just like those fluffy things in the sky. I have mine on my computer, on Google Drive, backup hard drive, on a hard drive stored elsewhere and on a couple of flash drives. Those drives can then go to your interested family should you expire.

I don't actually feel bad about my hoarding although I'm trying to limit it so that I can actually finish what I've bought. While some books randomly come down in price on discount, the cost of books have gone up a lot. Most of my huge library still unread individually cost $2.99 or less. Still, searching for books and buying them has almost become a separate hobby that I need to tame.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Those drives can then go to your interested family should you expire.

I doubt any of us here have (m)any family members interested in inheriting our ebook libraries.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I doubt any of us here have (m)any family members interested in inheriting our ebook libraries.

Certainly none in my case.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Frankly, I fail to see the point in getting rid of ebooks. Paper books, obviously; they take up real, physical space you could use for other purposes. But the amount of space ebooks occupy is negligible; why bother?

I've accepted the fact that I never, ever read all or even most of my ebooks. So what? I still like to pick and choose among them for my next read. As all my books are meticulously tagged, categorized and organized in Calibre, it's not hard to find what I want, no matter the overall amount. Now if I had to rely on Amazon or Kobo for library management, perhaps I'd want to have as few books as possible, too. Fortunately I don't have to.

What I would do is create another calibre library and move books I think I might not read over to this new library.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I doubt any of us here have (m)any family members interested in inheriting our ebook libraries.

I could not even get my sister to try my Kindle4. (and she was the one in the family with a Phd ) She did

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What I would do is create another calibre library and move books I think I might not read over to this new library.

I want to be able to search across my whole library, so I won't do that. Besides, most of my library consists of books I'd actually like to read, but probably won't unless someone invents rejuvenation in my lifetime. The books I'm fairly sure I don't want to read are a minority.

I do have a separate, much smaller library, where I copy the books I absolutely want to read in my remaining lifetime; there are about 3,000 books in that. I populate my ereaders from this smaller library. My main library still has master copies of those books.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I do have a separate, much smaller library, where I copy the books I absolutely want to read in my remaining lifetime; there are about 3,000 books in that. I populate my ereaders from this smaller library. My main library still has master copies of those books.

Hah! Much less separates us than it would seem. We may have different methods for handling (and naming) dross, but dross it be.

[Sydney's Mom]

I have almost 12000 ebooks, all in Calibre. When we moved, I got rid of at least 50 boxes of books, that I used to buy on Fridays to read when I was retired and living on dog food. But I love to read in bed, and a kindle makes that so much easier.

My real hording is yarn. I bought that mostly while I was working so I would have something to do when I was retired and eating dog food. I have SABLE, which is stash beyond life expectancy. In other word, unless I live to 200, I won't knit it all up. I haven't seen this yarn for 3 years, as it is in storage while we build our new house, not out of dog food. Unfortunately, out of sight out of mind, I keep buying yarn.

Yarn has led to another problem. Audible. I have never listened to books on tape except while driving, but I have a bunch of really hard knitting to do, that will not work with TV.

And I drink, but don't smoke.

I don't consider my Calibre or Audible to be a problem. I rarely buy ebooks, so it is just computer space. I joined Audible, and I need to buy 1 book a month, which isn't hard.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

My real hording is yarn. I bought that mostly while I was working so I would have something to do when I was retired and eating dog food. I have SABLE, which is stash beyond life expectancy. In other word, unless I live to 200, I won't knit it all up. I haven't seen this yarn for 3 years, as it is in storage while we build our new house, not out of dog food. Unfortunately, out of sight out of mind, I keep buying yarn.

Ravelry
https://www.ravelry.com

Likely some there have yarn hoarders that make you look like a beginner. Maybe hordes of hoarders.

Or maybe you only come here when not on Ravelry.

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yes to first; no to second. I'm an addict and perfectly content with my addiction. I have no desire to get rid of it.

Yup, that would be me, they aren't hurting anyone, and I might get around to reading all of them. At least they will be there for me to do so!

I subscribe to the I'd rather have them/it and not need/want them/it rather than not have them at all!