Rebuying books?

dr gonzo

Its a strange impulse i get from time to time thats overridden by good, old-fashioned common sense, an indescribable urge to pay good money for a book i already own. More specifically they are always books that i enjoy a lot and always better versions of the one i own, whether a better cover, a better size or just generally better quality. My shelves are littered with sh1te versions of books i like that i picked up in HMV for a few quid etc and i sometimes feel like buying a better copy...

Has anyone else done this, thought about it or am i just weird?


Incidentally im a bit sentimental so i like the idea of reading not just the same book but the same copy, the idea of both building a library and utilising it which is also a factor for not replacing them when the urge comes on me.

amacachi

Haven't done it with books, only really started reading about a year ago, but have done it with TV shows and films etc. that I'd already "acquired" elsewhere. It's stupid but it's a nice feeling too. :pac:

dr gonzo

amacachi wrote: »

Haven't done it with books, only really started reading about a year ago, but have done it with TV shows and films etc. that I'd already "acquired" elsewhere. It's stupid but it's a nice feeling too. :pac:

Haha, yeh i actually do this myself without hesitation.

amacachi

dr gonzo wrote: »

Haha, yeh i actually do this myself without hesitation.

I'm on a very low fixed income so I try not to spend. Stupidly booked flights to Berlin earlier, checked my email to see when I'm going and saw a confirmation email from Amazon. It's going to be a rough start to next year. :pac:

Dades

I have several copies of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials... the second copies because the covers were better... and the trilogy in hardback because it was signed!

Eliot Rosewater

Buying the same book is tempting because buying any book is tempting, but if you've already read it then you won't feel guilty about just admiring it without reading it again.

(The guilt is the main thing that stops me from buying more books.)

When I'm older and have more money than sense I'm going to collect special editions. At a book sale in Cork a few months ago I saw a first edition copy of The Old Man and the Sea - I'd have loved to have bought it.

Kinski

Done it many times, for various reasons. Sometimes to replace damaged or lost copies, though often I do it to get different versions of the same text, alternative translations, annotations, etc - though I suppose strictly speaking that's not really buying the same book. However, no matter how attractive a new cover is it would never prompt me to buy something I already own (though sometimes I might wish I'd waited!)

Villette

I often want to buy new copies of books that I love. If they're prettier, signed or special editions, or have added commentaries or something! The special editions of Penquin classics are so lovely that they are very tempting. However, common sense usually prevails when I remember that I could spend the money on a new book that might be amazing and I usually get the special editions as gifts.

JohnMearsheimer

I've only done it once. I bought a second copy of Catcher in the Rye because I loaned my original copy to someone and I never got it back. I like the jacket of new copy far better than the old one. I have bought a few blu ray copies of dvds I already own too but not too many.

Malari

I don't usually do this as I have an unnatural need for order, and two of any book on my bookshelf would appear out of place to me

Having said that, I have two copies of The Princess Bride (second one was a gift and it has a different cover) and two copies of The Selfish Gene (second one is a signed copy, also a gift).

I loaned Book 4 of the Harry Potter series to a friend and never saw it again so might have to re-buy that. That...gap...in the bookshelf is killing me :D

raah!

I plan on buying all of those books which I borrowed and did not get to add to my library. I haven't yet been able to afford buyign a book that I don't intend to read right there, but I did once buy my brother a new copy of war and peace so that I could keep his copy which I had read. This was to do with that sentimental value you spoke of, for this same reason I prefer not to read books with marks and folds made by someone other than myself.

Of course if I didn't enjoy reading the book then it doesn't matter, I've exiled many a piece of crap from the hallowed shelves of my library.

Sergeant

I have done this on a number of occasions. Usually if there is a different translation of a novel I had previously struggled with, the most glaring to me was a different translation of the Master and the Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Reading the first time ended in failure, but the new translation of the text was one of the most enjoyable reading experiences of my life, a true masterpiece.

I also bought the hardback of Flann O'Brien's complete collection, had most of his published work already, but good to have them all in a single volume.

dr gonzo

Malari wrote: »

I loaned Book 4 of the Harry Potter series to a friend and never saw it again so might have to re-buy that. That...gap...in the bookshelf is killing me :D

This sounds so familiar. Would it be fair to say that you dont even want to read that book any time soon its only the gap thats bugging you?

Malari

dr gonzo wrote: »

This sounds so familiar. Would it be fair to say that you dont even want to read that book any time soon its only the gap thats bugging you?

Oh yes, that's entirely the case! I've read the whole series several times, and probably will again some time but not in the near future.

It needs to be the same cover design too....I know I have a problem, I've come to terms with it ;-)