Book Buying Analysis 2019
19 January 2020 Leave a comment
This is the third year running i’ve kept track of the books I buy, to throw all the data into a spreadsheet, make a pretty graph, and talk about how much money I spend on how many books from what places. I just find it interesting, okay? Previous years can be found here.
Other than one spectacular anomaly (which I’ll get to later), my two biggest spenders remain unchanged: Page 45 and Wordery. I’m nothing if not a faithful customer, apparently. But not to Waterstones this year—I didn’t buy a single book from them! I’m lumping all charity shops together this year, as there was no singular stand-out shop. Five Leaves, a local bookshop, and Troutmark, in Cardiff, both make a reappearance after being missing in 2018. At the Sign of the Dragon is a science fiction shop in Wigtown, which I could have spent hours longer in. And Stella and Rose Books… my anomaly.
Here are the numbers:
At the Sign of the Dragon
Total number of books bought: 8
Total cost: £30.99
Average price per book: £3.87
Charity
Total number of books bought: 10
Total cost: £23.97
Average price per book: £2.40
Five Leaves
Total number of books bought: 3
Total cost: £27.98
Average price per book: £9.33
Page 45
Total number of books bought: 7
Total cost: £79.93
Average price per book: £11.42
Stella Books
Total number of books bought: 3
Total cost: £80.00
Average price per book: £26.67
Troutmark
Total number of books bought: 3
Total cost: £10.50
Average price per book: £3.50
Wordery
Total number of books bought: 6
Total cost: £52.48
Average price per book: £8.75
Cumulatively, this is the damage:
2019 Totals:
Total number of books bought: 40
Total cost: £305.85
Average price per book: £7.65
And visually, we’re looking at this masterpiece of a bar chart:
Let’s start by addressing the anomaly in the room. I spent £80.00 on three books. This has skewed these numbers a bit, but oh well. I bought the Folio Society John Wyndham editions. Secondhand, because the Folio Society isn’t printing any more copies. So technically a ‘rare book’ purchase—my first, in fact. I regret nothing. This tipped November into my highest spend month, when in the previous two years I haven’t spent anything in November.
Expensive anomaly aside, October was my most active month, when I spent almost £78 on eight books. The two main shops I bought from were Page 45 and Five Leaves, both local independent bookshops who I am happy to support. I didn’t spend anything in the first two months of the year. Which differs hugely from the last two years, where both months were pretty big spending months. But I made up for it in March, with £45.47 spent in the second busiest month (discounting The Anomaly). And I was too busy enjoying the nice weather in June and July to buy any books, apparently.
Although Page 45 was were I spent a high chunk of money, on average the cost of each book was £11.42. That’s an improvement from last year’s average Page 45 book price of £15.99, but not quite as good as 2017’s £10.79. My average book price at Wordery is only going up: £7.91 in 2017, £8.51 in 2018, and now £8.75 in 2019. As a more reputable competitor to Amazon with free world wide shipping on all books, i’m more than happy with those numbers.
Objectively, May was by far and away my best month. I bought the most books (12), but spent the least per book on average (£3.15). Once again not including The Anomaly, my monthly averages aren’t bad, with April being the worst, where I bought two books, spending an average of £12.90 per book (two totally-worth it books—I just went to check what they were!).
Even with The Anomaly, my overall yearly spent was less than the two years previously. So i’m pretty chuffed with that. But I did buy my lowest number of books—only 40 compared to 2018’s 58 and 2017’s 46. And that’s pushed the average price per book to the highest in the last three years at £7.65.
Looking at the books I got, I think on the whole I bought with more purpose this year. I chose books I genuinely wanted, mostly from independent shops, by under-represented authors, and on interesting and important topics. Plus a whole bunch of cheap, incredible, secondhand science fiction. Oh, and those rare John Wyndhams. I may not have read every book I bought in 2019 yet, but I can safely say I regret none of them.
This analysis thing is getting interesting. The only consistent similarities are the places I spend the most money, and December being a no-buy month. Otherwise I feel like I’m a bit of a wildcard with my book buying habits. And I’m okay with that. Let’s see what my 2020 book buying brings… can I bring in my total cost at under £300? Will I buy another set of expensive rare books? Could I discover a new favourite bookshop? See you next year to find out!