How to stop buying chess books?

Because you just watch don't you? Ok you can pause and try to analyse by yourself. Still it's incomparable to playing every position and variation against an engine. Except if you are talking about Chessbase videos? Well I agree that those are nice because it's actually a fusion of video and CBH file. But I still prefer books...

Hi.  I have a handful of chess books and read completely most of them.  I use a similar strategy as Daniel (2nd post) but I just buy 2 chess books at one time.  As soon as I finish one book I buy another one to refill.   In the end uri65 you buy a chess book to fulfill a goal; get better at chess.  So stick to your intial drive roll up your sleeves and get to work on them, one book or two books at a time will do.  Cheers.

Hey guys, by the way.  I sarted a thread on Books & Equipement exactly on a related issue as the one by uri65.  Please be kind and answer the following post.  Thanks.

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/why-did-you-put-your-chess-book-ebook-away

I try to finish my books before I go on to a new one, the exception being Silmans endgame manual and opening books. However, I caught the "book fever" when I put 20 library books on hold. I quickly realized I couldn't possibly read them all, so I returned all but one. (The Amateurs Mind)

I just recently finished it, and Reassess your chess is next on my list.

What you are displaying are symptoms of a type of addiction called impulsive shopping. It might not be destroying you financially but it's obviously still causing problems. I think you should analyze when you get urges to buy. Like, do you feel upset? Bored? When you buy something does it make you excited or happy? Then do you regret it? But you still can't control yourself? You have to exercise self control. Tell yourself that you'll only buy another book when you finish one book. Or only buy a book once every other week. If you feel like you have a real psychological addiction then you should get help or else you'll keep wasting money until you're in debt. If you don't think it's that serious, then you should be able to get control over your impulsive actions. 

I think we buy more chess books than is good for us because we believe one of them will have the 'magic secret' that will add 500 rating points without having to actually work too hard. Unfortunately you learn by playing rather than reading, whats the point of being shown endless positions from high level grandmaster games that you will never reach? You need to find out what goes wrong in your own games at your own level and work on fixing those errors. Silman gets panned for showing examples from games between 1300 rated players but you can identify with the types of mistakes they make rather than the 'errors' in GM games that take 4 pages of computer analysis to explain.

I visit local libraries- one also has open chess games one day a month.

It is not a matter of opinion, but a different way of learning:

Passive learning is when you only absorb information (reading, watching videos or hearing lectures). Active learning is when you use your brain to think about what is being taught.

Chess videos are usually a passive way of learning, but can be used actively if you pauze the video to analyse (form your own opinion, critize).

Reading books is also passive learning, unless you set-up a board (or visualize moves from diagrams) and actually start analyzing.

There is no wrong or right. Passive learning can be really effective to transfer knowledge. It is used every day at schools. The homework assignments are part of active learning.

So, to conclude. There is no real difference between watching chess videos or reading books (both passive), but what you do with it (thinking).

If you're broke it's easy .

Ok, you've convinced me - I'll try them again. What are your favourite ones?

15-20 books doesn't seem like an excessive amount, but if you just ordered 3 new ones than it is starting to sound compulsive.  How long did it take you to acquire the 15-20 books.  I have over 100 books, but they were purchased over a 50 year period.

You don't have a problem until you get the new purchase home, take it to the bookshelf, and find another copy of it already there  (did that myself once but not with chess books, it was a history book I had read a couple years earlier and it was republished with a new cover... doh!)

Do you only have this problem with chess books?

Yeah that happen to me once, luckily it was a library books.

That's 20 books over 5 years. May be it's not too excessive, but still I buy more that I read. I think I know what to do - I'll try to find some extra time during the weekends for reading them.

Yes.

You're lucky some people are impulse buyers overall or "shopaholics" I have your problem with books in general and now own more unread books that I'll have time to read in the rest of my life, but at least I am trying to put a dent in the unread ones and limiting my purchases as much as possible.

The only advice I can offer you is the obvious - you just gotta go "cold turkey" and stop buying chess books!

I have that problem and have had it for 30 years. One day it dawned on me that I have more unread chess books than I'll ever be able to read in my lifetime. I still buy them from time to time, but since then I've instituted a strict policy against myself that for any book I buy I have to get rid of two unread books that I already have. That has really reduced my chess book purchases.

Well women have far more shoes than you will have chess books in your lifetime, why nobody speak of that compulsive behavior?

If you think something goes wrong. Then don't buy on impulse. If you want to really improve on the game, then don't buy many chess books. They just gives you information but not on the game (practical) itself.