August Haul—Ending My Book Ban?

August 30, 2018

Another month has passed, and it’s time for another haul post! This was the final month of my book ban, but… I didn’t do a very good job of sticking to it.

I originally planned on going back on a book ban immediately after placing a few orders, but have decided instead to just impose some strict limitations on myself for the rest of 2018:

1. No purchasing a book unless I am going to read it within TWO (2) WEEKS of acquiring it!
1b. THIS INCLUDES KINDLE SALES.
2. No pre-ordering a book unless I HONESTLY plan on reading it immediately upon release. (See rule #1)
3. Choosing a scheduled review date for each ARC before requesting/accepting it. Looking at my planner and seeing how easy or difficult it will be to fit the review into the ideal time frame is something that helps me a LOT with weeding out the ARCs that I don’t really want to commit to.
4. Only buying books I feel very optimistic about. If I think there’s any chance at all I would give it less than 4 stars, it has to come from Scribd or the library.

Okay, those are the new rules! They’re going into place for the rest of 2018 as a trial run, but if it goes well, I think I’ll make them a permanent thing. Mainly because I am out of shelf space AGAIN and have to go purchase a new bookcase next month.


New this month: STATISTICS!

A lot of you have been telling me how much you love my statistics and charts lately, so I’m going to start incorporating them in my monthlies (haul, wrap-up, TBR)!

Total Hauled This Month: 59

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(Click the titles for Goodreads links!)


PHYSICAL HAUL

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BookOutlet:

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We Have Always Lived in the Castle // The Doll Collection // Stranded // All Systems Red // One True Loves // Apart in the Dark

Pre-orders:

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Fence, Vol. 1 // Catwoman: Soulstealer

ARCs & Review Copies:

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(Don’t) Call Me Crazy // A Curse So Dark and Lonely // Doorbells at Dusk // The Sisters of the Winter Wood // The Girl King // Keeper of the Bees

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Ink and Bone // Lost Boy // Wild Hunger // Phoenix Unbound

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The Siren and the Specter // The House by the Cemetery // The Toy Thief // Ten Thousand Thunders

Gifts/Trades/Prizes:

(for some reason, August was the month where everyone sent me random surprise gifts, and I literally cried over basically all of them because I have the best bookish family in the whole wide world and I love all of you tremendously)

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Running With Lions * // The Kiss Quotient ** // Starfish ** // The Prince and the Dressmaker *** // Amina’s Voice *** // The Bird Eater **** // The Mortal Instruments: The Graphic Novel, Vol 1 ***** // Sleeping Giants ****** // Deep Roots *******

* trade // ** thank you, Katy! // *** thank you, Madalyn! // **** thank you, Jes! // ***** thank you, Terry! // ****** thank you, Kaylin! // ******* thank you, 24in48readathon hosts/TorDotCom!

Misc. Purchases:

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Kill Creek // Emma in the Night // Kings of the Wyld


EBOOK HAUL

eARCs:

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The Owls Have Come to Take Us Away // The Good Demon // Heretics Anonymous // Other Words for Smoke // Since We Last Spoke // Dreaming Darkly // Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss // The Meaning of Birds // If You’re Out There // City of Ghosts // Priest of Bones // We Sold Our Souls // Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked // Kingdom of Needle and Bone // An Anonymous Girl // Kill Hill Carnage // Suspended in Dusk II

Kindle Purchases:

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Roomies // Untouchable // Corpse Cold: New American Folklore // Written in Red // Breathe. Breathe. // Hunted // Pestilence // Heart of the Fae


How big was your August haul, or did you stick to a ban?


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More about Destiny @ Howling Libraries

Just a horror aficionado/geek girl trying to juggle motherhood, reading, blogging, gaming, and everyday life.

64 Comments
    1. I didn’t have a ban in place, but I only got a small number of books this month (I’ve been sick, I swear that’s the reason!!). I hope you love Fence Vol 1! I’ve been getting each of the Issues, and I am loving it!!

      1. Aw, I hope you’re feeling better (or that you do soon, at least)! ♥ And thank you! I’m super excited for it. I didn’t put it on my september TBR but I do feel like I’ll probably read it some time this month.

      1. I’m super excited for Sleeping Giants! And I’ll go check your haul out right now! <3 I've been so bad at checking my Reader over the last few days – it's been a weird week and I need to catch up! Lol I feel you on September, though. I'm hoping to do better in September, too, but I placed an order for 5 books today… in my defense, though, 4 of them were self-published authors I wanted to support, so I don't even feel bad lol!

    1. Your haul is AMAZING… I can vouch for the awesomeness that is Ink and Bone. It’s becoming one of my favorite series! Also, so jealous that you got an ARC of A Curse so Dark and Lonely. That’s one of my most anticipated releases for next year, especially after reading a sampler of it at BookCon. I can’t wait to hear what you think about it!

      1. Thank you! Oh that is awesome, I’m really looking forward to Ink and Bone. Is the series complete or still ongoing? And thank you, you’re the first person I’ve heard talk about the sampler so that’s awesome!!

        1. You’re welcome!! And yeah there’s one more book in the series to come out next summer, so you have plenty of time to pick up the first 4 books! ?

    1. I love the rules you have in place! I may need to adopt a similar mindset, to get caught up on ARCs by the end of the year! Also, I can’t wait to hear your thoughts over Kings of the Wyld. It’s one of my favorite books EVER.

      1. Thank you! That’s honestly the biggest reason I’m trying to buy less books, besides saving money – buying new books makes it harder for me to focus on my ARCs, lol! Good luck to you on catching up. <3 And that makes me so happy to hear about Kings of the Wyld – I'm super excited to read it!

        1. Oh, absolutely, I totally agree! I’d love to try and figure out the magical balance between balancing ARCs, catching up on old books from the TBR and reading other books randomly that I want to…hopefully, one day! Good luck and I can’t wait to hear what you think about KotW!

    1. I almost doubled my August haul when a BookOutlet sale happened literally a week after I’d made a purchase from them. Wish I had waited since I probably could have gotten a better deal, but I ended up chickening out and not going through with the second order during the sale because I just couldn’t justify spending any more on books when I have so many that I haven’t read yet already at home.

      1. I don’t blame you at all lol! BookOutlet usually gets me, but lately I have been “lucky” (I guess?) in that they haven’t had a ton of stuff I’ve felt like I just HAD to have.

    1. Rule #3 is something I should try to implement as well. Sometimes I feel like reading ARCs is a chore, when really it is such an amazing privilege. I gotta relax on what I request in order to appreciate them more.
      You bought Written in Red?!?! I cannot wait to read what you think of it. I’m such a huge fan of the series and really the world.

      1. Yessss to everything you said! They really are amazing, but you can have too much of even a good thing, right? Hopefully we will both be able to cut back on our requests so we don’t feel like it’s a chore anymore, because I feel you FOR SURE on that!
        And yes, I did! 🙂 It sounded so good and I got excited after we talked about it, so I checked Amazon and it was only $2 for the ebook!

    1. I don’t even have a ban in place rn but I think I only got one book this month and it was a gift?? I just sort of forgot buying books was a thing??
      Good luck with your future ban/limitations!

    1. Rules shmools, LOL! Actually, those 4 limitations are brilliant, and I should really be imposing something similar on myself. Too bad I know I would probably be breaking them in about two seconds flat! 😛

    1. amazing haul!! i think having guidelines to help with your purchases is always a good idea compared to a full-out book buying ban. they’re easier to stick to and you can change them as you need, rather than feel guilty for ‘failing’
      i’m so excited to see ink and bone and amina’s voice in your haul! they’re two of my faves so i’m interested to see what you’ll think of them!

      1. Thank you! Yes, that’s exactly what I’m thinking re: rules vs. bans. I think bans are just too hard for me to stick to!
        Aww, that makes me so happy because I am so excited to read both of those <3

        1. i have the some problem. something about cutting everyone out all at once makes it too difficult to stick to, rather than getting smarter about what you do buy
          I hope you love them both! happy reading ?

          1. Also, WTF, I know for a FACT I was following your blog but I was replying to your comment and thinking you hadn’t posted in a while… no, you HAVE posted, WP had just removed you from my Reader?! This has happened to me 4 times in the last month with different people. 🙁 Anyways, I just wanted to say I’m sorry!

            1. that’s wordpress for ya ? i don’t know why that happens but i swear it happens to me too. but no hard feelings! i hadn’t posted for awhile anyway so it would’ve been easy to think that. i missed it, so i am trying to make an effort to get back into it. thanks for the follow! ?

            1. Of course! <3 Good luck with getting back into the rhythm. My issue right now is checking my reader and commenting on other posts – for a few weeks there I was doing so well at doing it everyday but then classes started back and I'm struggling to stay afloat 🙁

    1. ahhh this haul! I can’t imagine trying to read all of these in a timely manner! I definitely stick by rule #4 on your list. If I don’t think I’ll enjoy the book, I get it from the library. It has definitely helped me cut down on buying books!
      Also, I think giving yourself a budget at the beginning of the month helps a lot too! That’s what I do! 🙂

      1. That is honestly so smart and 100% what I need to start doing! The only bummer is that my local branches have a TERRIBLE selection and our system doesn’t allow for borrowing from other branches until the book has been out 6-12 months, so it doesn’t work out for brand new books unless I’m willing to drive an hour to a big branch. That said, I don’t feel like I read THAT many *brand new* books unless I’ve pre-ordered them, so… I think it should still work out okay!
        I may try the budget idea, too! I can see how that would help a lot. 🙂

    1. My August haul was a reasonable amount, but I still feel guilty buying books knowing I have so many unread at home at my shelves. I’m trying to limit myself a bit until I get through some more books on my TBR. Hopefully I’ll have better luck in September.
      As for the books you acquired, this haul is amazing! So many awesome books! I love the stats. Have you read any of these books though?

      1. That is totally understandable! I get to feeling guilty about it sometimes, too. 🙁 It’s kind of a hard balance to find – we want the new books, but at the same time, we wanted the OLD books when THEY were new, too… lol! And thank you. 🙂 So far I have completed 7 from this list and am almost done with the 8th.

    1. Destiny I love this post so much and applaud you for your new book buying rules! Something similar may work for me since I am having a serious PROBLEM with the ban. I should just give up the ghost and try to just be smarter.
      Also love those stats girrllll you know it’s true! ?

      1. Aw, thank you! Bahaha same, the ban failed sooo hard for me in August! I’m really feeling optimistic about the new rules – I think they’re gonna be so much easier to follow. I did order a few things on the 31st that were “freebies” and didn’t follow the rules, but I’ve only ordered 1 thing and pre-ordered 1 other thing so far in September, and both of them are books I’m doing group reads of THIS MONTH, so they follow the rules. 😀

    1. That looks like a great strategy! 🙂
      I think i sometimes overestimate just how much i will be able to read, or how good i feel about a book. And the sales of course. Can’t resist those… :/

    1. I love this giant haul. Simply because mine consisted of three books – HA. BEAT YOU. [Never thought I’d be able to have such a small haul, to be fair. But hey, different priorities now so things might change? Haha.]

      1. Hahaha for sure! Seriously, for my entire pregnancy and the first… almost year? of Isaac’s life, I only bought $2 kindle sale books. Otherwise, I used the library and asked for books for my birthday/Christmas. Kids are expensive in general, but the worst of it is definitely during the end of your pregnancy and the first several months of their lives. Once they hit 6-9 months old or so, from my experience at least, costs really stabilize aside from diapers (unless you’re doing cloth diapers – huge upfront investment but no upkeep cost, or so I’m told!). But during my pregnancy I felt like every spare penny we had went towards a stroller, car seat, clothes, medicine, diaper bag, blah blah blah… ? And like every parent, we bought a bunch of crap that NEVER. GOT. USED.

        1. I’m totally seeing myself doing that as well. BF wants to buy a GPS for his car and I’m all “BUT WE HAVE ONE FOR MINE.” Seriously. We could use our money for other things! He doesn’t get it – yet – but we don’t have even one thing for the baby. Not one thing. Simply because we’re too scared right now to start buying things already but still. All the money we’re saving now, is bound to go to furniture should everything end up being okay with the little one.
          Cloth diapers sound.. cheaper.. but I don’t feel like washing dirty diapers? Might be weird of me but, like, I wouldn’t want my own clothes in the same wash and then you’d end up doing more washes than you usually would and your water bill will go up anyway? I think? Idk. :’)
          Okay, so what stuff never got used? Like, then I can properly think about whether or not we need to buy it, haha!

          1. Yep, that was me too! “No, you can’t buy that! We need XYZ instead!!” I feel you on being too scared to buy things, though. I’m sure I’ve told you about my fertility issues before Isaac? And we didn’t buy things for a long time because I was so scared of jinxing it. It might sound silly, but I was very superstitious about my pregnancy (and still am about Isaac in general). I am still crossing everything I can cross for you. <3
            No, I feel you 100% on cloth diapers. I almost went with them because you save so much in the long run and they're more eco-friendly, but when push came to shove, I just could not bring myself to square with the idea of POOP in my WASHING MACHINE. Lmao. I also wondered about the water waste and costs versus disposables, like you mentioned.
            Okay, stuff that never got used – mostly furniture. We had a playpen, a bassinet, a rocking chair, another little chair, etc., and honestly, the only stuff he laid on/in was this swing we had that you could turn on and it would rock him back and forth and play music. He ADORED his swing and the only thing he wanted besides being held was that. I can't recommend a swing highly enough honestly, I can't tell you how many naps I was able to take because I strapped him into it and knew he wouldn't suffocate or something and then I could pass out on the couch right beside it! Oh, and we thought we would need a "big" stroller and a "little" one – nah. We just use the big one for everything. He didn't need NEARLY as many clothes as we had for him – he seriously wore the same 3-4 outfits in rotation because they were the cutest and most comfortable, and he grew SO FREAKING FAST – and we had way too many bibs. He only really needed, like, maybe 3 bibs. We had tons of pacifiers and he literally never took to them so none of them were ever used. Oh, but do buy lots of socks, because you will lose them constantly. :') They're so widdle. lol.
            (I love that I just wrote you like 9 pages on baby stuff in a blog comment – we are legit #friendshipgoals ♥)

            1. Yes, you told me about that. Guess it’s only normal for us do think and feel like that if you’re in a situation like ours. It isn’t easy and the insecurity is hell. It definitely feels like jinxing it to already start buying things and.. yeah, every chance I get to NOT jinx it, is one happily taken. :’)
              Exactly! Skies, I’m glad I’m not the only one feeling that way about it because I felt a bit superficial when I was saying that but.. honesty, right? Haha!
              Ooh! Gust’s sister-in-law already told us we can have her kid’s swing when ours is born because she’s too big for it already and she absolutely loved being in there, haha. So that’s a bonus! Don’t even have to spend money on it, hah.
              Good knowing about the stroller! We definitely have to look into that properly because I’d like one that’s for EVERYTHING. Has to take up as little space as possible, but gotta be usable for years preferably. And should the stroller equal car seat, that would be even more brilliant. So many things to consider. :’)
              Oh, the clothes.. That’s the hardest thing lately! The more the kid’s moving, the more my brain wants to go “he’ll be alright! everything’s fine!” and then I start looking at all those cute little outfits and I swear.. Once I’ll allow myself to actually buy some, I’ll probably have the same thing as when I get to buy books after a long period of buying none: OVERLOAD.
              We already have two or three pacifiers that were in pregnancy boxes I got when I first had to go to the doctor’s. Idk if we’re going to buy more. I know my sister-in-law has four or five laying around so there’s always one nearby though. Guess we’ll have to see how much the kid likes pacifiers? :’)
              HA. SOCKS. We’re already the worst at socks. We keep losing OUR OWN socks. Not to mention how that’ll go with tiny socks. Disaster. I swear. That’s a given.
              [Haha, I absolutely love this!! <3 ]

            1. Dude, free baby stuff IS SUCH A SCORE! That’s awesome! Oh and if you can find a car seat and stroller that fit, you will not regret it. I can’t tell you how much ours came in handy. I have no clue what your brands are like there, but if you have Graco as an easily accessible brand, I highly recommend their strollers and car seats. They use this technology in most of them now called… “Click-Fit”, I think? Anyways, what it does it makes it so that all of the car seats with that technology snap into all of the strollers that have it, so you don’t have to buy a “combo” set, you can just grab whatever you like if it has the Click-Fit thing. (If this doesn’t make any sense, please let me know and I’ll see if I can send you examples online!) It was so helpful for us because Isaac always fell asleep in the car when we drove places, so we could just pull his car seat out of the base in the car, snap it into the stroller, and pull the little cover over him, and he would stay warm and snuggly and sleep while we did whatever we needed to do.
              Also, hard same on socks. I actually need to purge our sock drawer this week because we have so many that don’t have a match anymore and one of my weird OCD things is that I can’t stand to wear mismatched socks. 😡

            1. I know what you mean! I’ve no clue what brands we have over here that have that system but I’m sure I heard people talk about something alike before so I’ll just have to look / hear around!
              It’s definitely something we’ll need since I’m not planning on being a hermit all of a sudden. We’re used to going places during the weekend and I definitely want to keep doing that after the kid’s born so we NEED a car seat / stroller combo like that!
              Hah, same. I don’t even want to see it as an OCD thing. It’s simply something that’s been taught to me always and forever. Do not wear mismatched socks. :’)
              Boyfriend doesn’t really care about it though. But that has more to do with his tendency to buy all the black socks – but still different ones, you know? – and he’s too lazy to decently figure out which ones go together so it’s like.. “Black and black = a pair”! and that’s that. :’)

            1. I hope you can find something like that! It’s just so convenient. And yeah, you won’t want to be hermit-y! Honestly a lot of new moms that I’ve talked to, and myself included, feel like they HAVE to go places at least a few times a week to maintain sanity. :’) So I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re the same way. I think we stayed home 24/7 for the first 2-3 weeks because of my c-section, but then we were out having family dinners once a week, grocery shopping, etc.
              That’s funny, what is it with people and mismatching socks? UGH. lmao. Terry actually hated wearing matched socks when we first got together and we would basically pick on each other. Now he’s gotten used to me coupling the socks together in the drawer and he’s gotten over it. 😛

            1. I already have that exact behavior now. I can’t stay home an entire weekend and not go out. It’d drive me NUTS. Even if it’s only doing groceries or something. I just need to get out at least once. :’)
              Hah, I’d definitely be the same. I’m also one who loves driving her car, so I can totally see myself going “let’s go for a ride!” and randomly drive around or something. :’)
              How can you.. hate.. matching socks.. WTF EVEN. That I do not understand one bit. I don’t. I can’t wrap my head around it. My socks need to match. I pretty much CRIED when I lost the other pair of my HP socks because now I can’t wear them anymore :’)

            1. Same! I get so stir crazy sometimes because we just have the one car. It’s helped a lot lately that I’ve started taking Terry to work one day a week so that I can run errands all morning and just shop or do whatever. Sometimes I’ll even just drive around a little and grab myself a donut from the little donut place in town. 😛
              Right?! I have gotten SO upset over losing socks before for the same reason – if I lose one, I’ve basically lost both, but sometimes I’ll hold on to the other one for ages because I just keep hoping the missing one will show up again ?

            1. I can totally imagine. When Gust had just changed jobs, he used my car for a month because his job’s way further now and it drove me NUTS. It’s my car, which I’ve been paying off for years and the moment my loan was paid off, he claimed my car and I had to take public transport. I couldn’t do ANYTHING anymore. Whenever I needed to make an appointment, I had to make sure I could get there first. I could never go to my mom’s when I felt like it. I literally went mad and started crying over it every time I was confronted with not having my car anymore. :’) Which is why he bought his own. I pretty much stated “He was lucky I ALLOWED him to use my car. I could easily just tell him to figure it out himself and take my car back.” Made him realize I needed my freedom back, hah. :’) I never want to go back to that, never ever.
              YUP. Right now, I’m not throwing out any socks because I’m hoping they’ll turn up once we start packing and have to move. They’re bound to turn up at some point? Right?! Right?! ?

            1. Ooooooh, no no no no no. That would not fly with me at all! I’m glad he got his own and stopped taking yours! I don’t mind sharing with Terry since our situation is unique with me being a stay at home mother and all, and he’s offered to look for a cheap used car that we could afford but I tell him not to worry about it – but if we were in the situation you were in, it’d be so different and I’d be mad as hell lmao. :’)

            1. I did get why he didn’t want to get his own car immediately though. Like, he didn’t know yet whether he’d like his new job or not and he had never had his own car before. So he also didn’t know if he could handle it financially and stuff like that but.. enough’s enough, right? :’)
              Haha, the different situations we’re in definitely makes it hard to compare but I get you need some sense of freedom as well! Even if it’s only one day a week. Me-time outside of home is important as well. :’)

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