The April, May and June Tally

I have been lax on reporting my book savings for the last three months. You can chalk this up to it up to sloth and baseball season, but I have also checked out less books because my serial borrowing habits had resulted in an ever growing pile of unread books. Since April I have tried to borrow less and give more attention to the books I truly want to read.

That said, I went to the library on Sunday and checked out five books. Sometimes I cannot help myself.

Let's take a look at the last three months.

In April, May and June I checked out 19 books, two of which I acquired via inter library loan.

I determined that if I was currently buying books I would have bought 11 of the titles I borrowed for a combined total of $170.44.

According to the Denver Public Library's Value Calculator I received $305.00 in value from the Denver Public Library, and my personal return on investment for the three months was $73.35. This means that for every dollar I spent in taxes, I received $73.35.

So there you have it, I am half way through my year of not buying books and so far so good, though I must add that I have used my lifeline. I will fill in the details with my next post.

The February Tally

Alright, it's the first of March and I've got my February book tally. I checked out 12 books this month - 3 of which I received via the Prospector inter library loan service. I used many of the books as reference or read just a chapter or two of. Others, like The Moviegoer, Zazie in the Metro and How to Rig an Election I am on my way to completing. But more on those later, for now let's go to the tally!

As explained last month I keep a spreadsheet of the titles I check out and what each one costs according to the book jacket. Then I take the price of each book from the web sites for Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble to come up with an average price. Finally, I determine which books I would have definitely purchased were I buying books to come up with my monthly savings. In addition to this I enter my books into the Denver Public Library's value calculator.

I determined that I would have purchased 7 out of the 12 books I checked out for a savings of $103.46.

According to the Denver Public Library's "Library Value Calculator" for my 12 books (3 of which I obtained via inter library loan):

I received $50.50 individual return on investment meaning for every dollar in taxes I spend on the library, I received $50.50 value in return for the month of February.

I received a monthly value of $210.00 for the month of January.

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As an aside, tonight I am going to see recent Oscar nominee Hal Holbrook in Mark Twain Tonight! at the Temple Buell Theater. Hope to have a report for you tomorrow.