Anticipation. Just yesterday a package, a much-anticipated package, arrived from Amazon. In it was:
50 Great Curries of India, Tenth Anniversary Edition
Anne Stuart, Ice Blue
Loretta Chase, Not Quite A Lady
I bought the 50 Great Curries cookbook because my friend Myretta Robens had it at her house when I visited a few months ago, and I love cooking and eating Indian food. But that’s not the point, either.
I got Stuart and Chase because they are two of my personal author goddesses. They are, in romance vernacular, on my auto-buy list. Other authors on that list include my fellow Riskies (and my budget thanks you for putting out so many books, Diane! NOT.), my writing friends, and other of my favorite authors: Mary Balogh, Eloisa James (who is also a friend), Laura Kinsale, J.R. Ward, Carla Kelly, Stephenie Meyer, Lilith Saintcrow, and yeah, there are more.
BUT, because I am so goal-oriented, I am going to have to wait to read Loretta and Anne (First-name basis? Sure, why not?). What will I have to do before I get to open the pages? A few ideas:
Lose three pounds
Write 50 pages
Dust the living room
Go through the 7″s in the closet that are haunting me (vinyl records, Janet, you filthy thing!)
Write 100 pages
Lose five pounds
…well, you get the idea.
So–do you hold out books as rewards for yourself, or can you not resist diving in as soon as the mailman has turned his back? What must you do before you indulge in reading? Are any of my auto-buy authors yours, too?
I sometimes use carrot-and-stick tactics with myself, but not with books, for some reason!
I have a lot of auto-buys, from a bunch of different genres — everyone from Carla Kelly to Diana Wynne Jones to Lois McMaster Bujold to Jennifer Crusie…
Cara (whose books will fall and crush her any second now)
I share many of your autobuys, and I must confess that I’m not good at the whole self-control thing. If I don’t have time to read, I should just not buy. A TBR pile? What the heck is that? LOL!
I don’t use books as rewards, but I’ll set them aside until I’m in the right mood for that author or genre, and I try to vary my reading so I don’t burn out on any one subject or style.
Autobuys? To name a few from across genres (including nonfiction), Loretta Chase, Jo Beverley, Jennifer Crusie, Jacqueline Carey, Bernard Cornwell, Jared Diamond, Lindsey Davis, Naomi Novik, Bill Bryson.
And unlike Kalen, I have a huge TBR pile. I find buying books to be a soothing form of retail therapy, even if I don’t have time to read them.
I try to hold off until I’ve checked things off of my list, but sometimes it doesn’t work. For instance, I failed this week – read a recent Amanda Quick/JAK book that I’d been holding back on. Didn’t do a bit of writing, but I did finish the book!
I usually have my nose in the book before the mailperson has turned their back. Patience? Isn’t that a game? 😉
I will use books as a carrot/stick thing, but only when I really have been procrastinating a task and there’s no other way. I don’t want my beloved books to become synched with unpleasant chores in my subconcious.
Auto buys? Hmm… Lisa Kleypas, Donna Jordan, Kat Martin, pretty much all the RR ladies (not all of whome I’ve read yet!), Sherrilyn Kenyon, Mary Balogh and more. How long a list can I have?
Nah, never use books as rewards. . . or maybe I do, since it’s a reward for getting money in the wallet when we go to the bookstore. . . LOL
I have way too many autobuys to list. . . I’ll be here all day I think. LOL 🙂
My TBR pile isn’t that large. . . but I do tend not to count all the science books, just romances. So it sort of depends how you look at it. 🙂
Lois
I usually allow myself to buy a much-wanted new research book once I finish writing a book, or finally clean out the kitchen cabinets, or whatever I need to do but don’t want to do. 🙂
As for losing pounds–TOTALLY recommend the Dancing With the Stars DVD. 🙂
(I’m so smiley today, sorry)
ytavovI have a TBR bookcase. And yes, books are my retail therapy. I love going to a bookstore and smelling the new-book smell, look at the colorful covers, touching the shiny spines…what a fun relaxing experience! And denying myself books? What’s that concept?
Auto-buys for me are many as my overflowing library can attest. To name a few in the romance genre: Mary Balogh, Lisa Kleypas, Julie Garwood, Riskies, Candice Hern, and Amanda Quick.
ytavovI
Okay, Keira, I’m dying to know: did your cat step on your keyboard, or is that an email abbreviation I don’t know?? 🙂
Cara
ytavovI
Toddler 🙂
She wants to say “hello” to my friends these days.
I’d just like to say “ytavovI” right back to The Daughter of Keira. Long may she type randomly! (Well, hey, it worked for John Cage.)
I don’t bribe myself with books. Books are a source of pleasure, but equally they are a source of guilt: the way they pile up endlessly without my getting to them, the way they have to be returned unread to the library because I didn’t get around to them and I can’t renew them anymore. If I started deliberately putting them off I would run mad and start gnawing the furniture.
Todd-who-has-no-idea-how-those-toothmarks-on-the-end-table-got-there