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!)
I did it once with the same cover, but I've got a million books, but not about chess. It was a book on astronomy.
i love books and collecting books - jefferson wrote "i can't live without books" - i do wish i could understand and improve my ability to learn from my chess books. i have collected about 200 of them and use them for reference - i can never read one cover to cover as i get lost in all the suggested variations - i have been able to go for long periods of time without the compulsion to buy more chess books but then along comes some new must have title (for me anyway) like capablanca move by move - i love these books and wish there was one devoted to each world champion as well as the challenger
and i wish there were more books on the history
of the world chess championship
I guess I am not the only one with this problem - buying more chess books again and again. I already have like 15-20 titles. In best case I've read 10% of what I own. It might take me another 10 years to finish the rest. And still I have this urge to buy more - I've almost ordered another 3 on Amazon today.
I don't buy blindly - I choose them carefully, read reviews, try to download an excerpt. But I know in advance that I will read few pages and then store it on my shelf because I'll have no time!
How do you deal with this?
I even get into all kind of strange arguments with myself like "buying a book is good because it mill give some money the authors" and "not buying is good because it will save some trees"?
It is easy for me really, I order one book every month from amazon. It takes one month for a book to come to where I live. During that month, I read the one book I ordered last time. If I don't get to finish that book in that month, it is either not as interesting as it should have been or it is too long. If too long, I give it another month and I don't buy another book that month. If not interesting I just drop it in the shelf until I am out of books :)
buying more books than you will ever read in your life is one of the very few facts that distinghises human beings from animals. Scientifically tested. for sure.
Hey antonreiser. Only humans can buy and read books. What scientific test are you talking about? 
Books on openings are the most popular and the most useless. That still leaves me with a lot of other chess books to buy 
.
I too have more chess books than I could possible read. The sad fact is I'd probable only need a fraction of what I have.
The Newcastle club champ back in the 1960's, Ken Hill, didn't own a single book. He relied on newspaper columns.
public library?
public library?
Librarys usually don't have a big selection, but you can often request the library to buy a certain title.
I guess I am not the only one with this problem - buying more chess books again and again. I already have like 15-20 titles. In best case I've read 10% of what I own. It might take me another 10 years to finish the rest. And still I have this urge to buy more - I've almost ordered another 3 on Amazon today.
I don't buy blindly - I choose them carefully, read reviews, try to download an excerpt. But I know in advance that I will read few pages and then store it on my shelf because I'll have no time!
How do you deal with this?
I even get into all kind of strange arguments with myself like "buying a book is good because it mill give some money the authors" and "not buying is good because it will save some trees"?
Stopping compulsive chess books buying is really a difficult task... Maybe you should aim for something easier, like an international title 
Just spent all your money. I can help you with that.
I guess I am not the only one with this problem - buying more chess books again and again. I already have like 15-20 titles. In best case I've read 10% of what I own. It might take me another 10 years to finish the rest. And still I have this urge to buy more - I've almost ordered another 3 on Amazon today.
When I was a kid I borrowed the whole city library took home all the books they had on chess (they were old ones from the 1960's and 1970's) read all of them I don't know how many times (yes it was many) then I started working on my book collection I've been at that for close to 33 years now have around 355 chess books old ones, new ones, fat ones, skinny ones, medium ones, monsterous ones I love them all.
My Family and Chess are two of the most important things in my life nobody can take away my love of the game from me :)
give me all your money, then you wont be able to buy any.
problem solved.
I've got several shelves, filled with books, and more books, but fortunately they're not about chess.
Jeez I got a chess book and never again...I just don't have the patience to read all the notation
Haven't read all the posts but I fell into this about eight years ago - bought chess books on a regular basis until I had more than 100. I think I was in search of the "Holy Grail," the chess book that would cover everything I needed to know to improve to a high level. Took me a long time to realize that no one book like that exists. I mostly like playing over grandmaster games with descriptive annotations as opposed to reams of variations. Wound up donating a ton of chess books to my local library for its annual book sale so they went to a good cause. Only kept about two dozen
I have well over 200 printed chess books, as well as nearly 100 electronic chess books. These represent perhaps 10% of my library. These reflect not addiction, but culture. Of course, I am always shopping for more.
Instead of buying a lot of books, you should study and understand your current books. If you finished with it, you can buy another one. It just does not make any sense to have a lot of chess books, but do not read them.
I had the same issue with American Civil War books (I'm an amateur CW historian). I have close to 500 volumes that take up 4 6' book shelves.
I already have 10 chess books. After 4 months of playing...looks like a similar trend.
Sorry for bringing back this old thread of mine - I wanted to share my recent experiences.
I was clean for 2 years - no book purchases in 2014/15. And then I've discovered the e-books and… the shopping frenzy hit me again. So in 2016 I've purchased a total of 21 e-books.
Here is a list:
Forward Chess (Android):
Srokovski - Chess Training for Post-Beginners
Neiman - Tune Your Chess Tactics Antenna
Neiman, Afek - Invisible Chess Moves
Hertan - Forcing Chess Moves
Guliev - Winning Chess Manoeuvres
Bronznik, Terekhin - Techniques Of Positional Play
Oudeweetering - Improve Your Chess Pattern Recognition
Dvoretsky - Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual
Hickl - The Power of Pawns
Grooten - Attacking Chess For Club Players
Soltis - The Inner Game of Chess
Gambit Chess Studio (Android):
Rowson - The Seven Deadly Chess Sins
Rowson - Chess for Zebras
Muller & Lamprecht - Fundamental Chess Endings
Muller & Pajeken - How to Play Chess Endgames
Marin - Secrets of Attacking Chess
Marovic - Secrets of positional chess
Everyman books for Chessbase+Kindle:
McDonald - The Giants of Strategy
McDonald - The Giants of Power Play
Giddins - The Greatest Ever Chess Endgames
Hellsten - Mastering Chess Strategy
Some of these e-books are duplications of my paper books but electronic versions are much more convenient for learning. I still like to browse through my paper books, but all the serious work is done with e-books. Now I hope to stop buying for another 2-3 years and just study.
I only buy chess books on the topic where I know I'm weak or doesn't have enough knowledge with.