Wednesday 17 February 2010

Lent

A spectacular FAIL has occurred with the Frugal February and book-buying ban that I announced over a fortnight ago. I'll bore you with my excuses - the dismalness of the February weather, the continuation of my exclusion diet, and some ill health creating a general need for cheering up which was most easily assuaged by ebay, and the excitement of the Cornish cornucopia and discovering the general unavailability of Cornish books in Oxfordshire made it impossible to resist Amazon's market place. On the plus side, I have managed to avoid bookshops, and where I haven't, I've at least managed to avoid buying anything.

However, as you can see from this picture the TBR shelves are threatening to become a whole bookcase of shame again, so I'm hoping that I can actually try to resist purchasing books to cheer myself up, and at the same time make inroads into these piles.

Lent starts today, so it's time to make a new start and see if I can keep going until Easter Saturday, which also happens to be the lesser known feast day of April 3rd this year (aka my birthday).

7 comments:

  1. I too have been tempted by Amazon Marketplace this week and purchased two Wodehouse books (at a very reasonable price; new) that I felt I really wanted to have on my shelves and that, somehow, reading a library copy would not be as fulfilling. Sigh! Don't feel bad about your purchases - it's a lovely way to cheer yourself up and besides, there are far worse addictions than book buying :-)

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  2. I love your phrase "... bookshelf of shame". I am definitely going to recall that everytime I look at my groaning tbr bookpiles/shelves in the future :-)

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  3. Samantha - the phrase I think originates from Booksnob Rachel - she has a bookcase of shame! Luckily mine isn't a whole bookcase *phew*

    Rochester Reader - I know what you mean. Sometimes it's not worth borrowing a copy if you're going to need to own it anyway!

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  4. Some of those books look familier:)

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  5. I can but apologise for my role in encouraging you to buy Cornish books. You have some wonderful books there, so please pat yourself on the pack for doing your bit to support the publishing and bookselling industries!

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  6. Hehe! Hayley - I've read one of yours.

    Jane - :)

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  7. I always think of giving up book-buying for Lent, and then I always remember the massive book sale that takes place in early March at the local university. My year isn't complete without it!

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