So I really like buying books, I consider myself both a book reader and a book collector, so I buy books by the dozen. But there are some things that we should all consider before running out and spending our hard earned cash on books (or anything really.)

Am I buying it just because of the hype?

You don’t want to get something just because everyone’s talking about it. You want to make sure you’re spending your money on books you will like. It’s not a bad thing to buy a book that’s talked about a lot but ask yourself if you would get it if it wasn’t.

Does this book seem to fit my turn-ons and offs of reading?

Look at your favorite and least favorite books and see if there’s a pattern. If most of the disappointing books you’ve read were disappointing because they were romance focused, maybe don’t go buying a book that sounds like it’s romance focused. And if a lot of books you’ve really enjoyed had wizards in them, maybe look a little more into buying books that you know have wizards in them. It sounds like common sense – because it is – but I feel like I forget this too often myself, so here it is.

Do I want to spend money on this book?

When you’re not sure if you’ll like a book or not, maybe don’t just go out and buy it. Like that super popular book everyone’s talking about but you don’t know much about or if you’ll like it, this is the time to use your library and if you really enjoyed it or you enjoyed it and you didn’t get to finish it before you had to take it back, you can get your own copy! And if you hated it then guess what? You didn’t waste your money on something you didn’t like and you didn’t financially support that book. Double win.

Can I find this somewhere cheaper?

Now, if you want to support the physical bookstores, that’s awesome, I like doing that too, but I would recommend that if you don’t a) have a gift card, or the book you’re getting isn’t b) a book by an author you really like or c) the next book in a series you really like, then maybe you should try to find a nice, used copy on Amazon for five bucks instead of getting it from Barnes & Noble for twenty dollars, plus tax. If it turns out the book is terrible, it’s going to sting a lot less. Fifteen dollars less.

I hope you found this post helpful and it gave you some things to think about next time you have a book in mind to get.

What was the last book you bought? Tell me in a comment.

Bye, RRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWRRR