For those who don't know, I used to buy almost every book I read. In the last few years however, we've become a lot more discriminatory in the books that we'll actually buy. (By "we", I actually mean "I" or "Me". It's not like my wife spends a lot of money on books!). Each week, we take our kids to the local library. Our library is set up with a bunch of other libraries around, where they have an extensive interlibrary loan system. Just about any book you could want can be found in at least one of these libraries, which makes it available at our library, if you put it on the wait list.
So, our kids love the place. The boys really enjoy the kid books about dinosaurs, trucks, planes, etc. Our six-year-old has recently gotten into the "drawing" books, where he can learn to draw new things. Our oldest has discovered that they have a "teen" section - and she spends a lot of her time there.
Anyway, because we are at the library so often, if there's a book that my wife or I want to read, we'll check it out from the library, rather than buy it. We've gotten to where we buy the books that we think are really good (or ones that we want to have in our own home library. Of course, most of my home library is in boxes in the garage, but that's a whole 'nother story!) So, if you see on here that I actually bought the book, then you know it has to be good!
I'm the exact same way. I love the library and get most of my books there. I love being able to request things online and then pick them up at the library; it's so much easier to find what I want that way! I hate that I can only request 5 things at a time, though, so I totally cheat and have cards for everyone in my family, even though I'm the only one who uses them. :D
ReplyDeleteI buy books when I know I'll want to reread them and when I know I'll want them available for my kids to read someday. There are way too many books on my to-buy list, though!
Emily - we have a card for every member of the family as well (well, at least, those over the age of 8). I tend to use the 5 book limit to limit myself - if I had more than that, I'd never have time to actually read all of the books I could put on the list.
ReplyDeleteI use the "is this something I'd like to have around for the kids to read someday" test when buying new books too. If it's not something I care about them reading, then it's probably not something I need to actually buy.