Well. All in all I bought fifteen books in February which is – too much. Four of those were free, one was 69 cents, and three were 99 cents. So it seems I still can’t resist a bargain.
The five free books were: „3 Breaths“ by L. K. Collins, „Public Speaking for Authors“ by Joanna Penn, and „Magical Machinations“ by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris. I think two of them were incentives for signing up for newsletters and „3 Breaths“ sounded really interesting when I read the blurb. And then there was „Emma Schumacher & Der verschwundene Professor“ which was written by a sewing blogger that I really like to read, and it was free.
Like many people I often don’t read those free books for ages or at all but I’m pretty sure I will read these.
The 69 cent-book was „Falling from the Sky“ by Sarina Bowen. As I said I’m enjoying her books tremendously and don’t want to pass any deals.
I had pre-ordered „Fast-Draft Your Memoir“ by Racheal Herron and „Queen of Gods“ by Scarlett Dawn and then I stumbled over a deal on the Orson Scott Card-book „The Worthing Chronicle“. There used to be a time when I would buy anything Card put out but I have moved away from science fiction in the past years. With „Queen of Gods“ I liked the sample chapter that I read, and since I really, really love Rachael Herron (I’m listening to all her podcasts) and since I have had this idea of a memoir in my head for years I thought I’d take advantage of the special low price for preorder.
Books that were allowed by my rules were:
- The third Amber Fang-book by Arthur Slade because I had already enjoyed the first two in the series and can’t wait to read the last one.
- “The Netscher Connection” by Estelle Ryan because it’s the next in the series. I have been making my way through the Genevieve Lenard-books slowly but steadily over the past few months. And I have to confess that I have already preordered the one that will come out in March.
- “The Emotion Thesaurus“ was on my list already, and I finally got it. Haven’t looked at it yet, though.
The books I bought even though they were not allowed by the rules (in addition to all those bargains) were:
- Dean Wesley Smith: „Heinlein’s Rules“. After looking up his articles on the subject on his website for the third time in a row I caved and bought the whole thing so that I can reference it easier.
- Kristine Kathryn Rusch: “The Pursuit of Perfection”. This was almost the same story. I felt that I needed to read this, and it has helped me, and I didn’t want to spend the time reading her whole blog.
- Johann Hari: „Lost Connection“. I found an online article about this through an online friend and was totally blown away. I spent a weekend doing nothing but reading this book and thinking about our society and happiness and depression. I can’t recommend this book warmly enough. It did blow my mind.
- Kristine Kathryn Rusch: „Familiarity“. Another book that I felt I needed right now. Bought it, and read through it in one sitting or so. I really like the stories. Another instance where marketing tricks were working on me. Rusch is putting a free story out on her website every Monday, and they often leave me wanting more.
So yeah, I definitely bought too many books in February. I do regret buying the Orson Scott Card because I probably won’t read it at all. Looking around me and thinking about all the projects I have taken on in my life I also just realized yet again that every book I buy is a project too. Every book means that I have made a promise to myself that I will spend several hours on it. I don’t have that many hours. I need to become more stingy with that.
On the other hand, just the thought that I have hundreds of wonderful books hanging around that I can read if I want makes me happy.
And I did read a lot. According to my notebook I read eighteen books in February. One of them was a reread, five of them were in Kindle Unlimited, and a lot of them were rather short.
For the first time in ages I started two books and decided not to finish them. They were both Kindle Unlimited books. I was about to slog my way through them until it occurred to me that I don’t need to. If something doesn’t appeal to me I don’t have to finish it.