I saw a questionnaire going around on some british literature blogs, that sounded like fun, so I thought I join in and reveal some of my darkest book buying secrets:

Where do you buy your books?

I have my favorite book shops in pretty much every city that I visit and of course in Munich. It’s hard for me to pass a bookshop without going in and buying something. When I was younger I liked big book stores like Thalia, Hugendubel, Borders or Waterstones but for a long time now I prefer the small ones with interesting selections of books rather than the “we’ve got them all and especially the bestsellers”. If you wanna know a few of my favorite haunts check out the section “Meine Lieblinge” where I introduce some dearly loved book shops in Munich and around the world.

Besides the small indie bookshops I buy a lot of books in charity shops. I love the idea of finding books and books finding me, so going on a treasure hunt in a Charity Shop is definitely super tempting for me and the idea of helping good causes whilst shopping is an additional bonus.

 Do you ever pre-order books and if so do you do this in store or online?

Not very often, but yes I have done that before and for that I usually go to Amazon.

On average, how many books do you buy a month? 

I was a lot worse, but now I think an average would be about 4 a month. I try to restrict myself as I have still so many books at home that I have not yet read, but buying books is unfortunately not a purely logical decision.

Do you use your local library?

Absolutely. I’ve been a library member since early childhood – the library in the place I grew up was sort of a safe heaven in my childhood. It was quite on the opposite end of the borough I lived in but I loved cycling and I would hop on my bike once sometimes twice a week (it was only open Tuesdays and Thursdays) and spent hours in the library. In the entrance hall there was a mug shot of a killer the police was looking for and it scared the hell out of me. So after locking the bike, I opened the door of the old building, and ran with my eyes closed as quickly as I could past that terrible poster. I can still see it when I close my eyes.

The library was not very big and when I sort of finished all the kids books I moved on to the grown-up books and started reading some of the classics when I was like 9 and could only understand half of it. There was a very kind man working there who selected books for me and sometimes even saved one for me so I could be the first one to take it out. Oh and he let me stamp the return date in the books myself – I loved stamping.

Now I often go on a Saturday mainly to browse, read magazines and I often take out Graphic Novels and Comics.

If so – how many books can you/do you borrow at a time?

I tend not to get too many out in one go because I know I’ll never read them before the loan period is up.

What is your opinion on library books?

They are terribly undervalued. When you come from a more uneducated background with little money like I came, libraries can safe you and broaden your horizon like nothing else. It saddens me to see more and more of them close down.

How do you feel about charity shop/second hand books?

I love them, love them, love them – hunting for books is one of my favorite past times. I used to work in a Red Cross Charity Shop in Scotland years ago and I still feel the thrill of going through the books of donations that came in every day.

Do you keep your read and TBR pile together/on the same book shelf or not?

They live happily together next to each other on the shelves. I use the “The Books to come” on my blog to log my unread or to be read again books that I have at home.

Do you plan to read all the books that you own?

Absolutely. That’s why the whole Transhumanism / Cyborg thing is so fascinating to me. I would love to become a cyborg and/or upload my brain to the cloud in order not to die and just keep reading 😉

What do you do with books that you own and that you feel you’ll never read/felt you didn’t enjoy?

I donate them to a charity shop or to put them into an open library. I sometimes use Tauschticket but that somehow seem to have died a slow death now.

Have you ever donated books?

Regularly.

Have you ever been on a book buying ban?

As books were so hard to come by when I was a kid I’ve always spent far too much of my money as soon as I started earning some on books. I had to put myself on a ban a few times in life, especially when I lived in London for being completely bankrupt. I admit now that I sometimes bought a book and read it so so carefully and returned it the day after claiming the person I meant to give it to had it already, so I could get a second book for the price of one.

Do you feel that you buy too many books?

There is no such thing as too many books, right ?

Hope you enjoyed this – I’d love to see your answers to these questions fewllow bookworms 🙂