Thursday, February 20, 2014

The percentages

What percentage of the books you read, did you

buy hardback new-
buy hardback used
buy PB new
buy PB used
buy ebook
check out of library
borrow from friend


Mine would break down something like 10% HB new; 10% used, 10% paperback new, 20% PB used, 15% ebooks, 35% library and a scattered few are borrowed.

19 comments:

Court Merrigan said...

0%
10%
25%
25%
25%
15%
0%

Maybe I need more friends.

Olivia V. Ambrogio said...

HB new - 2%
HB old - ~0%
PB new - 5%
PB old - 3%
e-book - 1%
library - 88.5%
borrowed - 0.5%

Anonymous said...

Tough question as I don't have all my records with me down here.

Probably not quite as extreme as Olivia but:

HB new 3%
HB used 8%
PB new 4%
PB used 25%
ebook 7%
library 53%
borrowed 0

Understand this is off the top of my head and could be way off.

Jeff M.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Mine is off the top too. And recently with the holidays I bought more HB new than usual. For many years, I bought no new books and borrowed almost every book except what I found at used book sales for almost nothing.

Prashant C. Trikannad said...

Eighty per cent paperback used.

Gerard said...

Library 99% last year.

Charles Gramlich said...

I buy 99 percent of everything that I read. I typically read no more than 2 books or so a year from the library.

Of what I buy, it's about 60 / 40 paperbacks and hardbacks. Most hardbacks I buy I buy new through the SF book club. About a third of paperbacks are bought new. the rest are used.

Steve Oerkfitz said...

HB New-25%
HB Used 10%
PB New 30%
PB Used 10%
EBook 5%
Library 20%
Borrowed 0%

I would use the libray more but a lot of stuff I read is from small presses and they don't carry them.

Rick Robinson said...

Most of what I read comes off the shelves here, but if I bought them new, I guess they are still "new" when I start them, yes?

HB new - 20%
HB used - 0
PB (trade and mass market) new - 50
PB used - 5
e-book - 0
Library - 25
borrowed - 0 ("neither a borrower nor a lender be")

Brian Busby said...

buy hardback new-3%
buy hardback used - 40%
buy PB new - 6%
buy PB used - 50%
buy ebook - 0%
check out of library - 1%
borrow from friend - 0%

So much of what I'm looking to read is out of print and, depressingly, gone from libraries, hence the overwhelming "used" percentage.

Unknown said...

All except "borrowing from a friend" would be equal percentages. I have never borrowed a book from a friend. I have loaned plenty (most of them never came back), but I have this aversion to borrowing anything. I do not even like car payments and mortgages; except for the latter, I have avoid all such borrowing traps.

J F Norris said...

Guesstimates for this year only: hardback new 5%
hardback used 70%
PB new 5%
PB used 10%
ebook 0
Library 10%
borrow from friend 0

No surprise that the books that interest me the most are out of print. I try the library first, but as most of them were never published in the US I am often out of luck. Interlibrary loan has been a bust 99% of the time. I gave up on it. Since 1999 I have been purchasing about 80% of all books I own via used booksellers, both online and from Chicago dealers.

My new book purchases are substantially down for the past five or six years. I get most of my new books free from publishers and PR firms now.

Deb said...

A few years ago, as my TBR pile (well, mountain) reached close to 700 books, I made a new year's resolution to buy no more books until mount TBR had been considerably reduced. From that point on, it's been almost 100% library books along with the books that I already had. But even before my attempt to curtail my book purchases, I'd say a good 75% of my books were used (ah, Friends of the Library Book Sale, how I miss you). I couldn't break it down further than that such as hardcover versus paperback.

George said...

buy hardback new- 20%
buy hardback used- 10%
buy PB new- 20%
buy PB used- 10%
buy ebook 5%
check out of library 35%
borrow from friend 0%

David Cranmer said...

Hardback used, paperback new, and eBook run neck and neck, Patti. I never borrow from a friend and rarely go to the library. I hunt through used book stores though.

TracyK said...

Over half the books I buy for a year are at a charity book sale, and many others are used online (out of print) so... mostly used.

buy hardback new = 15
buy hardback used = 20
buy PB new = 10
buy PB used = 40
buy ebook = 10
check out of library = none
borrow from FAMILY = 5

I buy more ebooks than I read, but I won't spend a lot on each one.

That was fun. I love numbers.

Rick Robinson said...

When I read George's answer, I thought "Wait, he says buy and I thought the question was read. Somehow I buy many more pb than I read.

Al Tucher said...

My pattern has changed a lot in the past five years. It used to be 10 HB new, 30 PB new, and 60 library.

Three things happened to change the breakdown. I started getting paranoid about too much stuff in my life, I got my Nook, and the Newark Public Library, where I work, racked up a string of zero acquisitions budgets.

Now I would say it's 10 HB new, 10PB new, 10 library, and 70 ebook.

Gerard said...

I would use the libray more but a lot of stuff I read is from small presses and they don't carry them.

Yeah, it's not easy keeping track of all the new stuff. My collection budget couldn't afford it anyway. Not to mention the shelf space.