| I get this logic, and it would fit better with the rest of my personality if I treated books this way, but I don't. Instead I have maybe 100 books, 90% read, even after culling stuff I don't like about once per year. And my default is still to buy books. Some reasons for this are: 1. Books are pretty cheap. If you're looking for something more than 15 years old, you can probably find a cool-looking used paperback on eBay for $4-5 shipped. This isn't as cheap as "free at the library" but my book habit still sets me back <$200 a year or so, with the cost dominated by a few expensive new books. 2. Some people (including me) like books as aesthetic objects. Maybe there is some element of "mmm, I am so smart" when I look at my bookcase, but it's also just a nice wooden case with a bunch of colorful objects in it. I like having it around. 3. It's fun to look at your old books and remember what it was like to read them. My books are physical objects that I actively thought about, held in my hands, and carried around for a week or whatever years ago, so it's a surprisingly effective way of conjuring up time and place. 4. Giving away books to friends is fun and makes it more likely they'll actually read the thing. 5. As a kid I loved big shelves with lots of books, they suggested so much possibility and I'm glad my parents had so many. If I ever have a kid I would enjoy providing them with a similar environment. So buying books doesn't make much sense from a pure information acquisition standpoint, but there are some more idiosyncratic benefits. |