[_carl_jung]

For me, no formal metric can capture what I get out of buying books at an independent book shop. I feel like I'm trading with an old currency, only the books I own and buy are a reflection of my own character, or even soul.

When I lend or trade a book with a friend, it's a transaction using those same fragments of our souls and we grow slightly closer. We now have a shared experience in those books and each understand each other's view of the world a little better.

Reading might be a largely solitary experience, but the passing of a book from one pair of hands to another achieves a communication far beyond reading a review or even a personal recommendation. Somehow the mass of the book itself carries with it a greater weight to the recommendation.