I'll give you a couple numbers. Since January 2022 I have bought 44 books, of which I have read 23. I'm just talking about the books I've actually finished - if you wanna know more about this, check my previous post; there are many books that I've abandoned half way through, and of course I didn't even begin many of them. I'm also not mentioning comics and graphic novels to the counter, just for the sake of my wallet's integrity. It has become some sort of routine attitude of mine: almost every day, I spend a few minutes checking which book I could read next, and most of the times I put at least one volume in my amazon cart.
About the cart: it now counts 51 items, 47 of which are indeed books, for a grand total of over 1200 euros. Not to mention that the cart was so full at a point that amazon started to move one book in the "Saved for later" category each gime I added a new one. This "Saved for later" category is now stuck on 600 items (I refuse to check the total price), and I'm starting to suspect this number won't grow bigger, as amazon is probably shifting away the oldest item each time I add a new book to the cart.
So to recap, in 2022 we have 23 books read out of 47 (I'm talking about bought stuff, excluding old books I already had, comics, re-readings, internet essays and articles and so on), 47 books bought out of...well, hundreds or even thousands of the ones I've checked or considered purchasing. Yes because of course amazon is just one of the sources from which I buy my books. I have two other major sources, which are the libraries in my current town. One of them happens to be one of the most beautiful libraries in Italy, so the charm of the place adds much to the game, and I simply can't resist it and end up buying something or beat around the bush there, especially during weekends. You should check the place, anyway: it's called Palazzo Roberti, and it's also famous because Napoleon used to sleep there a couple times when he came to Italy, in 1797, while heading Venice to sign the Treaty of Campo Formio.
Enough with numbers. Now, I'll give you a word instead. It's Tsundoku ( 積ん読), and it describes the act of purchasing reading stuff just to pile it on shelves and desks. Therefore I'm finding to the brink on Tsundoku: 47 books in 8 months and a half is still doable - especially I fan can manage to read half of it - but compulsive purchase is just behind the corner. There's a positive thing though: I have spotted my situation. I know I have to find a measure, and of course at least we are talking about buying too many books, which may be better than purchasing, let's say, too much alcohol. Yet everything can become addictive. You just have to remember what 'addiction' really means: you can call yourself addicted to something when you start missing it after you voluntarily removed it.
When I was a kid, I used to drink a lot of Coke. I could easily drink one liter per meal: I knew it was bad. So I spotted that bad habit and then, ten years ago, I managed to remove Coke ever after. Whenever there's a bottle of Coke on the table, I don't even see it anymore, despite of the bright red colour used by the company to catch your attention.
Could I do the same with the compulsive purchase of books?
Interesting! Try staying logged out of your online amazon or other accounts and log in only when you need to make a purchase. Try and identify how you end up being on those websites if you do it subconsciously. If there is a particular time of the day when you are bored, let's say, and you casually open these websites for fun - consider filling that time with other activities. Do this a couple of times and you will find yourself not going back to these websites.
Just fyi, I used to be a book hoarder myself, and with the purchase of a super-expensive e-reader, I almost always manage to convince myself not to buy myself a hard copy of a book since I can always get it on my e-reader (for FREE!).
Thanks! That's very interesting. I used to have an e-reader as well, didn't end up well: I left it in a drawer taking lots of dust - packed with free classic books in it, of course.