Discussion Post - Book Buying

I've been feeling a lot of pressure lately. And I know that it's all in my head, but it's stressing me out nonetheless. I've suddenly been hit by the pressing desire to own ALL OF THE BOOKS. Which requires me to purchase all of the books. Less appealing.

Dream big, Rose

As a general rule, I don't buy books. 90% of what I read is from the library, and the other 10% is ARCs. I wish I could afford to buy all of the books I want to, but I just cannot afford it. Books are expensive, yo! I'm a poor university student who lives off of student loans and very part time jobs (as in, 8-15 hours a week). I can barely cover my rent most of the time. And if I have to choose between a book or groceries, or a book or a new dress from H&M, the book never seems to win out. The only books I ever seem to buy are school texts. And I hate it.

I've been splurging a bit lately - in the past seven days, I've bought four (FOUR) books. I've been adding and deleting books on my Amazon Wishlist. I've had books on the brain all week and it's driving me insane. I have over $100 worth of books in my Amazon cart and I just don't have the money to purchase them despite how desperately I want to. It doesn't help that there are no used bookstores in my hometown, so if I decide to purchase from a local retailer I have no choice but to hit up the super-overpriced independent bookstore downtown. I like supporting local businesses, but I really don't like the hit my wallet takes.

I think a big part of the problem is seeing people rake in books week to week in their Stacking the Shelves or Weekly Wrap-Up style posts. I get jealous. I don't hold it against them, because I'm happy that other people are able to buy the books I cannot afford, but it makes me feel inadequate. Like I need to cut back in other areas of my life to fund my book habit, but I just don't know where to do so. Why can't I just be rich? That'd be the solution to all my problems. I feel like I need another job just to pay for all of the books I want. Unfortunately, jobs are tough to find in my neck of the woods. Until then, I'll just have to settle for library books. Which is really not a big deal for me - I love the library. I mean, I work there. It's a pretty important thing to me. But that doesn't mean I don't want to hoard all of the beautiful copies of my favourite books and display them on my shelves for all the world (read: nobody but myself) to see. 

Do you buy many books? Are you a library patron like me? How do you fund your book habit? Do you just starve yourself in anticipation of the next big book release so that you can buy that book straight away?