To buy or not to buy?

The other day, I was thinking about the large stack of craft books I have....

And the fact that I've only made 2 projects from said stack:

And only one is a quilt. Hmmm. I thought it might be time to evaluate why I buy these books. Here's some of the reasons I came up with:

{Inspiring quilting}

Supernova Quilt from Quilting Modern by Jacquie Gering and Katie Pederson

{Inspiring color palettes}

Winter Windows from Quilting Modern by Jacquie Gering and Katie Pederson

{Inspiring quilts}

Xylphone from Modern Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman

{Quilts I actually want to make}

Cut Glass Baby Quilt from Vintage Quilt Revival

{Interesting information/techniques conveyed}

I definitely reference these books to look at color palettes and quilting patterns that have stuck in my head. Even though I haven't actually made any projects from the books, I still feel like I've gotten my money's worth out of them. The one I've looked to the most is Quilting Modern by Jacquie Gering and Katie Pederson. I find myself constantly returning to it for inspiration.

Beautiful photography does a lot to influence my purchases. I think I'd probably do better with a magazine whose sole purpose it was to provide inspiring photography of unique quilts - not just pattern after pattern with simple, staged indoor shots (what I usually find in magazines - functional, but I don't need another 10 patterns every 2 months). I haven't yet found a magazine that reached that level of beauty - so tell me if you know of any!

Looking at the stack of books has helped me re-evaluate my purchasing criteria. I've definitely bought books because they were suggested by popular bloggers and the sample photos shown were alluring, but the book as a whole fell flat. And while I've decided that I'm ok with buying books even if I don't make projects from the patterns, I do still want to use the book somehow (like as a reference for quilting ideas or color/fabric inspiration). There are a number of these books, though, that I definitely don't use for any of those things.

So from here on out, I'm going to be a little pickier when deciding "to buy or not to buy".

What about you? What makes you decide to buy a book? Do you always end up making projects from them, are they mainly inspiring, or are they collecting a little too much dust?