Those young people who "buy books like a mountain" on Double 11
"Are there any Chinese modern and contemporary writers that can collect the complete works?" "Is the documentary series of XX Publishing House available for sale?" "Will anyone buy a complete set of world academic masterpieces translated into Chinese?" The above question is Douban "Buying books is like a mountain to read." A typical topic of the "Spinning" group (hereinafter referred to as the "Book Falling Group").
It's the annual "Double 11", which is also the only carnival node of the book group every year. The other is naturally "6.18" in the first half of the year.
Especially in the peak period of book promotion, the number of posts within the group increased rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.
For a group with more than 460,000 members, this is not unusual.
In the book group, buying books is a technical task.
During the online shopping festival, the veteran team members can clearly understand the strange rules set by the merchants.
If you spend 100 yuan off 50 yuan, learn how to make your order to a multiple of one hundred yuan, which is an entry level; superimposing the use of a coupon of 400 yuan off 100 yuan to win at a price of 25% is the correct posture.
Of course, in the end, it depends on the hand speed. The large coupons issued by the platform are instantly grabbed. Some coupons issued in the early morning are even more a test for members who are used to going to bed early.
How low a set of "Complete Works of Zhou Zuoren's Translations" priced at nearly 2,000 yuan can be won is a topic of great interest among the members of the book inversion group.
From the half price to the actual payment of 620 yuan-the book was finally bought at a price of less than 30%, and Douyou's gods operated to refresh the reserve price again and again.
Until the platform informs: this book is sold out, please wait patiently for the next arrival.
Sometimes, the "bug price" of the platform or merchant is an unexpected surprise.
When merchants carry out promotional activities, they often choose to determine the category of discount promotion.
Those books with poor quality, poor printing, and low reading value are more prone to "extraordinary price". However, a qualified book inversion group member will never be satisfied with the "99 yuan to choose 10 books" game.
Only when merchants deliberately or unintentionally put books with high collection value into the ultra-low-price promotion sequence, will they be decisive.
Of course, such opportunities are fleeting, and merchants will either quickly cancel the offers or declare "out of stock."
Over time, the publishers lurking in the book group also got the hang of hunger marketing.
Whenever books are promoted, only a limited source of special offers is released, and even some academic works are not exempt.
After a lot of hype, only a few readers have actually bought the benefits, and the vast majority of consumers may only buy loneliness.
The most self-comforting statement in the book group is to claim that buying books is also a "financial management method."
Indeed, some books will not be reprinted in the near future, and the prices in the second-hand book market will immediately rise, and some may even be several times the price.
There are also books that are too powerful for e-commerce sales, and they can still make a difference after buying them and handing them to second-hand buyers.
However, these are all accidental situations. What's more, even if they succeed in the sense of "financial management", how many true book lovers are willing to transfer their books to others for realization?
After a battle of wits and courage with the merchants, the receiving link of the display of the results is often accompanied by a large number of photos of the book.
In the book dumping group, many people’s home study is like a small library, the bookshelves are already full, and the extra books can only be stacked on the ground and piled up densely. This is considered standard.
The real god bought a villa in order to house the book collection.
As a group specializing in instructing people on how to buy books, knowledge of book versions is naturally necessary, and this corresponds to the corresponding selling price.
Especially the complete works of famous masters that have entered the scope of public copyright, because there are so many editions, they must be carefully selected.
Take the "Complete Works of Lu Xun" for example, although the content is similar, the version of the "Humanities Society" is often enshrined in the center of the altar, and the natural price is also high; some rising stars in the publishing industry emphasized "the word has not been deleted" in their advertisements. The “original version of the year” can also win a group of fans; the most unwelcome ones are naturally the versions with unintended cover design, no aesthetic typography, and thin paper. Of course, their prices are also the lowest.
To be honest, if you are not picky, these "Complete Works of Lu Xun" can meet the basic needs of appreciating the charm of Lu Xun's works.
In fact, buying books not only involves general knowledge of mathematics and economics, but also a profound test of family ethical relationships.
At this point, the Shupao Group provided a lot of fieldwork materials.
In the group, another hot topic that often appears is how to put boxes of books into the home without the family noticing it?
Some team members said that because the bookshelves at home were full, they were afraid to take the courier home, so they hid the books in the trunk of the car.
However, it was impossible to hide it for a while. What the team member was most worried about now was that his family came to drive and found that the trunk and the back seat were occupied by books.
Arrange a time with the courier, take the book in while the family is away, and stuff it into a corner of the room. This is a common way for members of the book dumping team to resolve family conflicts caused by book purchases.
In the comment area of a post about "The way to bring books into the study without telling the family", many enthusiastic netizens offered tips: When you go home, you hide in the shoe cabinet at the door and sneak into the study in the middle of the night; disguise the courier box as a snack box and bring it in; Send it to the unit, and bring one or two copies back each time.
A team member as a father posed this question to his daughter: Dad has 40 books in his work, and he takes home 2 books every day. He will buy 10 books every 5 days. How many days can I take them home?
Another group member solemnly said that they would sit down with their family members and discuss the budget every year. If the budget of the year is not spent, it can be accumulated to the next year. Of course, if you encounter a promotion of your favorite book and the budget for the year is insufficient, It's not impossible to overdraft...
Just like Hu Shi was heartbroken for "playing cards today", how to get rid of the addictive habit of buying books has become a concern for some sane people in the group.
Someone came up with an idea for this: Whenever you want to buy a book, you can try to pack the heaviest book in your home into your backpack and go out for two laps, hold the entire box and do squats, and put most of your head on your head. Do splits on top, or put a few books on your back for a push-up.
However, discussions on this topic often go wrong, such as "a few months later, I find that I can memorize more books."
In a group focused on buying books, trying to provoke reading is always out of place.
Since talking about reading rates can always make colleagues in the group bow their heads in shame, it's better not to say.
Late-stage hamster patients face the mental food in front of them just to see the cover—in fact, just the spine of the book is enough.
When it comes to studying, everyone is looking around and looking for it, then find a place to drill in.
Of course, books are for reading, and content value cannot be realized without reading.
In the eyes of many members of the Book Inversion Group, books have actually become pure consumer goods, which is very much in line with the current trend of consumerism.
Before placing an order, I didn’t consider whether I would really finish reading these books. I was just satisfied with the excitement at the moment of payment and the short joy of receiving the goods.
As the announcement of the Book Falling Group stated: "When buying books, there is always a hoarding enthusiasm. When reading, there is always no time, no mood, no chance, and impatient. The shelves of calligraphy and paper look at me with resentment."
"Father of the Black Swan" Nasim Nicholas Taleb proposed an "anti-library" concept in his works.
He believes that surrounding himself in a large number of unread books constitutes a continuous reminder of his limited knowledge and ignorance, and these unread books constitute an "anti-library."
The question is, can remind oneself of ignorance really exchange enthusiasm for knowledge?
Some people even pointed out that the phenomenon of buying books like a mountain is a kind of "filling one's anxiety."
Someone argued that when you most wanted to read that book, it happened to be at your fingertips.
In view of this, the cost of satisfying this anxiety may be somewhat high.
As we all know, many famous writers do not collect books, not only because of understandable economic reasons, but also because they can’t live a wandering life with one collection of books.
The next time you empty your shopping cart, remember to remind yourself that buying a book is no better than buying cosmetics, snacks, and jewelry.
You just completed a precise calculation and took the lead in the ticket-grabbing battle, and there just happened to be free space at home for book storage, nothing more.
Fall in the City Source: China Youth Daily