My love of the library by the numbers

I keep a log of the books I read.  You all know that, right?

So I was writing down my latest just now, The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes...a snooze fest full of philosophical navel gazing, if you ask me...also won some prestigious prize in England...apparently I have bad taste in books.  It doesn't bother me in the least that I didn't like this book, because I borrowed the e-book from the library right onto my Kindle.  No money spent...not even a trip to the library wasted.  Love this library thing.

I decided it would be interesting to go back and count how many books I've checked out and how many I've bought.  How much money I've saved.

As you know, I got a Kindle Fire for Christmas last year.  My one worry was that I would stop using the library as much and start buying books.  For someone who reads as much as me, that is an expensive proposition.  Would we have to start turning down the heat?  Take out a second mortgage?  Stop feeding the children?  Then I figured out how to use their e-book system and have not looked back since.

So here are the numbers:

2 = total number of paper books that I have bought and read this year.

1 = total number of e-books I have bought for my Kindle

1 = total number of paper books that I read that have been sitting on my shelf for so long I can't remember if I bought them or not.

5 = total number of free e-books that I downloaded and read.

17 = number of paper books that I have borrowed from the library or from a friend.

24 = number of e-books I have borrowed from the library and enjoyed on my Kindle



50 = total number of books that I have read so far in 2012.  This only counts books that I have finished...I have set several aside this year that I couldn't stand...getting wimpy.  Also it skews the figures a bit, since I know I bought one book that I never finished.  But I started and left behind more library books...maybe 4 or 5?

If we try and make the math easy, let's just say that a book costs an average of $10.  Many of mine would cost more since they were new releases or large books.  Some would be less since they are older releases or e-books that cost a teeny bit less than the regular price.

That means I spent $40 on books this year.

And I saved $460 by getting the books from the library.

And I'm not even counting the children's books we have enjoyed!  Or the movies!  All the kids movies we get and enjoy!  Or the music!  That we pirate enjoy and then return responsibly.

Damn.  I deserve to go out an buy some new pants and shirts.  Look at the money I saved this year!