It was a combination of stuff– I lived on the other side of town from the “good” library, and that was an hour away (via bus. Should have mentioned that beforehand, lol). There was one closer to my house, but it didn’t have any buses running by it.

The one an hour away had AWESOME sales! When I first moved to ABQ they had $2-a-bag specials where you stuffed a brown bag full of books and it was ONLY $2 IT WAS AMAZING OMFG

Apparently there’s a library somewhere in Newport (I think) that has $1-a-bag sales! I’m totally going to stock up on books there once I, y’know, get my own room again and stuff.

I do sometimes buy things after I’ve read them from the library, but only if I know I’ll read them at least twice more. If I suspect I’ll only want to reread them one more time, I just pray the library doesn’t purge them from the collection before I get around to doing so.

Most of my bookish purchases come from the charity book market the local Children’s Hospital holds thrice yearly. I still try to be picky about the books I buy from them–like, I ask myself how quickly I’ll read this book, and whether it fits into my self-imposed geographic diversity requirements–but I usually end up buying lots and lots and lots, because the books are pretty cheap and all the money goes to sick kids. I can’t deprive the sick kids. I just can’t.

Slight sidebar: last Christmas, I gave everyone books, and I read them all before I handed them out so’s I could pair the right book with the right person (and so I could be sure I didn’t need to add it to my own library). This made me think of you.

Wow! Is Albuquerque really spread out, or were you just unlucky in your location relative to the library? Oo, and were there at least good book sales now and then? If I hadn’t had a proper library in Louisiana, I could have read all year on the books I bought at the big library book sale.

I’ve always thought that would be soooort of my downfall if I had an ereader; I’d just buy books nonstop without thinking about the fact that I actually need to READ them all. And it’s so easy to buy a book it would barely feel like I was making a decision/purchase at all.

I am heartbroken I did not know about this awesome booksale previously! I love awesome booksales, but now it is Sunday and I feel like even if the weekend trains were cooperating (unlikely) and my brunch ends early (no chance at all) so that I am able to get into Brooklyn before it is all over, all the good books would be gone.

I am hugely impressed by your restraint, however. Especially about White Boots, which is one of my favorites BUT at least it is now in print in the UK so if you really really want it, you should be able to get a nice shiny copy from the Book Depository