Now that 2016 is (nearly) over, I’m running stats on all the things I measure (books read, books bought, novel drafts completed, miles swam, etc.) and starting to think about goals for 2017. As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve decided to put a temporary hold on purchasing backlist ebooks just because they’re on sale. However, I’m not entirely eliminating my book buying budget. I’m just reallocating it.
I believe strongly in supporting authors/artists by buying their books (and especially in pre-ordering if it’s a new release). I also feel strongly about supporting my local library. And, most of all, I am passionate about supporting diverse books written by #OwnVoices authors.
So, my book buying rule for 2017 is going to be: no buying new books unless they are 1) pre-orders of new releases that I plan to read right away, or they are 2) written by #OwnVoices authors and I can’t get them from the library.
Just for fun (and to keep me honest), every few months I’m going to try to do a summary post where I share the books I’ve pre-ordered.
Below are the books I’ve pre-ordered that are coming out in January and February:
- Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day by Seanan McGuire (Kindle) — This is a novella and priced accordingly, plus the author also wrote one of my favorite novellas read in 2016 (Every Heart a Doorway). So it’s kind of a no-brainer in terms of purchasing. This one is not in that series. It’s either a stand-alone or a new series, not sure which. But, I heard the Galactic Suburbia ladies talking on their podcast about reading a review copy this and it sounds great!
- Bitch Planet Vol 2 by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro (trade paper) — It feels like I’ve been waiting FOREVER for this next volume to be available. But it looks like my wait will be over at the end of January. Hooray!
- Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor (Kindle) — This is a follow-up to my favorite novella read in 2016 (Binti), and it looks like it will be another novella (and priced accordingly). So, another no-brainer, one-click buy.
- Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman (tbd) — Okay, I haven’t technically pre-ordered this yet… I’m still trying to decide if I want a hard copy or if I want to just get it on Kindle.
- A Conjuring of Light by V. E. Schwab (Kindle) — Final book in this series! I can’t wait to see how she wraps this up!
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (Kindle) — This book has been the talk of “book Twitter” for probably a year now. It’s possibly one of the best “how I got my agent” and acquisition success stories I’ve read recently, and I’m super excited to finally get a chance to read this book!
Between these, the books I got for Christmas, my library holds, and my massive backlog of unread ebooks, I should have plenty of books to keep me entertained for the foreseeable future. There are just so many good books and never enough time to read them all!
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