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Comment by kwamenum86 | Hacker News Reader

156 items in 3 years? That is obscene. He averaged one purchase per week from amazon over this time period, which basically makes Amazon.com PB's religion.

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If you s/Amazon.com/public library/, that is fairly typical of people who read a lot. There is a LiveJournal community called 50bookchallenge that encourages people to read 50 books a year, keep track of them, and share what they're reading with others. It has 7000+ members. My reading lists for 2003-2006:

2003: http://nostrademons.livejournal.com/24851.html

2004: http://nostrademons.livejournal.com/60579.html

2005: http://nostrademons.livejournal.com/83785.html

2006: http://nostrademons.livejournal.com/105646.html

(The part I can't imagine is spending so much money on books when the library is perfectly adequate, but I imagine that's not so much of a concern for PB.)

The money isn't my primary problem with buying so many books, though it is a factor...it's the weight of having all those books. When I moved from Austin I sold 26 boxes of books and several bookshelves. I promised myself I would never collect that many books again. I'm moving into an RV this week, and so had to sell all the remaining books (and any that I'd collected since that last move), and I sold 8 boxes of books and three book shelves.

Having large piles of things, like books, makes it too easy to slip into a rut and stay in the same place doing the same thing out of mere inertia (more mass==more inertia, and books en masse are heavy).

"Having large piles of things, like books, makes it too easy to slip into a rut and stay in the same place doing the same thing out of mere inertia (more mass==more inertia, and books en masse are heavy)."

This is excellent insight and something most people don't consider until they have to move for the first time after a few years in the real world and suddenly their possessions which used to fit in the back of a SUV in their college days now require a small truck to move.

The problem is also compounded if you are the kind of person that feels bad about throwing away perfectly good books etc... out.

Tell me about it:-( I've shipped mine across the Atlantic several times, and it's not cheap. I think when e-books hit the sweet spot for even technical things, I'll probably get one and sell off the real books, even though it would hurt to do that, as I really love books.

A friend bought me a Kindle for Christmas. I still have issues with the non-sharable nature of Kindle books, but the convenience factor so dramatically outweighs everything else that I'm willing to live with the negatives. It basically comes down to ebooks or no books (or very few), since my living space is becoming so much smaller.

Maybe he gives them to friends or a local library after he's done?

You can return any new book bought on Amazon within 30 days, as long as you pay return postage, so it is, in a sense, a library.

Postage can get rather hefty for some of those books. (Though I admit I did this with some of my textbooks in college...I'd register for the course, buy the textbook, read the whole textbook in the first week, return the textbook for a full refund, and then drop the course and take something else.)

I donated a bunch of books to the library, as well, but that was problematic...I don't have a car, so hauling boxes worth of books to the library on my bike one backpack full at a time was time-consuming.

If I'd thought to donate them immediately after reading them (as though I were simply returning checked out books), it would have worked better. But I never trained myself to think that way about books I bought. But, the library here in Mountain View is extremely good; it was very rare that I wanted a book that they didn't have, though sometimes I had to wait a week or two for a copy to show up.

...he stated that he has not read most of the books he purchased. That is what makes it obscene...they are impulse buys...

I've placed about 130 orders through Amazon in the past two years, which is more than once a week.

Having Prime (free 2-day shipping) helps a lot. They sell almost everything: I've bought books, yes, but also protein powder, grocery items, exercise equipment, notebook batteries, tools, screws, jeans, and shoes.

I concurrently read 2-3 books per week; just finished one since yesterday morning. And it's not a hobby.

It depends how big the books are. How much time do you spend reading everyday?

What do you mean when you say it is not a hobby? Is it your job?

Not a job, but it's stuff that keeps the job/company/vision straight. Broke into an industry all on my own with no training, mentor or previous experience.

This is exactly what I am thinking. The problem with it is that I am by far not fast or concentrated enough for doing this parallel to my job. I still wonder if I ever will be able to speed read. Is there a special technique or habit you have embraced or developed? It would be so great being able to read real literature again and not only having time for technical books. Sometimes I feel like turning into a machine myself.

2-3 books/week isn't really speed reading, it's just making time for reading. Say that you have 3 hours/day that you can devote to reading. That's 21 hours/week. If you read a fairly average 60 pages/hour, a typical 300 page book will take 5 hours, and you'll be able to read 4 of them a week. At 100 pages/hour, you're at 3 hours for a book and will be able to read 7 (or cut your reading time down to an hour a day and still read 2-3/week).

It's much like programming though - you have to do it in big blocks or you won't get anything done. The first 15 minutes is just getting into the book, your mind wanders, and you don't get much out of it. It's once you've curled up for a half hour or more that you start really getting into it and can get decent reading speeds.

I can get through a book in on average - for a 250 page hardback - a week, so this isn't obscene.

...wow people downvoted the crap out of that comment. He said he has not even read many of the books he has bought. Clearly a lot of those are impulse buys. There is nothing wrong with that...we all make impulse purchases...I was just saying that is a lot of impulse purchases.

Make your mind up.

"a lot of those are impulse buys. There is nothing wrong with that"

three minutes later,

"That is what makes it obscene...they are impulse buys..."

Yeah, I was using it in the hyperbolic sense. I am not actually offended by PB's Amazon purchases.

My mother buys at least 1 book per day on average from amazon. (she can read very very fast)

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