This question has come up before and I’ve observed people tend to end up in one of two camps:
- Books are clutter.
- Books are an enjoyable hobby, and physically possessing them provides some advantages.
For the first: This side of the spectrum embraces a minimalistic philosophy, whether just in books or in all aspects of their life. Folks in this camp believe a true mustachian would only check books out from the library and see selling books as a positive to recouping some of the money spent on books.
For the second: This side gets positive, not negative feelings from seeing the books around the house and often has, or would have in a dream home, a library just dedicated to books. While these people may (and often do) check books out from the library, they are happy to own books. Some reasons include:
- Need for immediate (and irregular) access to textbooks in one’s career.
- Desire to reread books on one’s own schedule, not dependent on waiting to get it from the library (particularly if waitlisted), library hours (e.g. deciding to read in the evening), or library lending timeframes (e.g. want to travel Asia for 6 weeks, or a slower reader).
- Desire to financially support authors by purchasing their books.
Let me say upfront:
Neither camp is right or wrong.I fall into the second camp. We are thrilled to have a part of the basement be our library with built in shelves. I read a lot so despite the below book total, I am fairly discriminating in my book purchases. In the past year I have bought one book (on this past Saturday, used, $1, My Sister’s Keeper), and ok’d DH to buy two more (one, Words of Radiance, not yet out in paperback). On April 2, I posted in the “What are you Reading right now?” thread that I was reading Game of Thrones. Since April 2, I have read: Game of Thrones, Clash of Kings, Storm of Swords, Feast of Crows, Dance with Dragons, Way of Kings (reread), Words of Radiance, Divergent, and Acts of Faith. The first 5 were owned by DH that I had never read before, the 7th and 8th library books (7th is the one I ok’d to buy later in paperback, before I read it), the 9th a mini trading library at the train station (a reread, I had read it years ago, my mom owns it). I may be leaving a book out as well from this list. Total pages: 7385 in one month or akin to a book a day because some of the above are so meaty.
We own approximately 500-600 physical books. About 150-200 of those are textbooks. Both DH and I went to grad schools, so we likely have more textbooks relevant to our field than those who didn’t. I recently went through my textbooks and gave away four and listed three more on half.com. I asked DH to do the same two weeks ago and he refused because he does not believe we should ever let go of books once they are in the house. Approximately 100 more (not listed in the count) are over DH’s mom’s house and we’ll bring them over our house (now that we have one) at some point. I also own about 200 digital books. Although I like my (gifted) kindle, and definitely has it's place in when I prefer to use it, to me it is not the end all be all replacement for books because:
- It’s harder to get good quality cheap books on it. There are no thrift shops for this and I’ve discovered a lot of free books are pretty crappy. This is why I haven’t read a lot of my books on the kindle I’ve downloaded. Libraries don't tend to have very many electronic books and it takes longer to read the "backs" of the e-books than in hard copy.
- The battery will die on trips where you are away from plugs (e.g. sailing, camping).
- You can’t easily flip to “that page” to reread something.
- I worry more taking it near water than a book. A book can dry out and is much cheaper to replace than a kindle.
To the question of “Do you think about the book?” Well, it depends on the quality of books. For the series of Song and Ice, I enjoyed the books and checked the tv series out from the library (watched first two episodes last night). For all that it’s a meaty book, there’s not a ton that’s “hidden” in the books to catch. For the Stormlight Archive (Way of Kings & Words of Radiance), I have spent quite a bit of time researching online various nuances from the books and reading forums, as he weaves a lot in from his other books and there’s a lot of details and theories to catch and piece together. (I’m quite impressed by his skill.) I’ve also spent time reading the author’s blog as well. For Divergent, I’ve already reread parts (and read her guide in the back), but it’s not as dense material. For Acts of Faith, no. It was pretty light and straightforward, no “special” or extra digesting required. I don't join book groups, but will absolutely discuss if a friend has read the book.
If you made it through the tome, congrats!