[jonnathanson]

Not only do people collect books, but in fact, more people collect books than read them. A lot more!

I'd bet your average book consumer, with rows and rows of beautiful, trendy, or important books on his shelves, has read maybe 10% of those tomes. If that. 10% is probably a generous figure. Even true bibliophiles have read maybe 25-50% of their books.

There is a long and well-known phenomenon in the publishing world, which I'll call "trophy collecting." It's the process by which someone buys and conspicuously displays popular or well-regarded books on his shelves, mostly for the social esteem of being seen to have them. This is, more or less, how most literary fiction and wonky nonfiction gets sold.

[larrys]

God know I still have all the O'Reilly books dating back to the 90's that I refuse to throw out. (They are in a back room not on a bookshelf although they were on a bookshelf at my old office mid 00).

But here's the thing. How do you do that with ebooks? No physical object to collect. Much different. Nothing to display.

[walterbell]

Maybe goodreads or librarything? They seem to have a lot of users, not sure about the social dynamics.