I can't go a week without going into a book store. If you count comic books stores then I average two stores a week. If I am bored and looking for something to do I will almost always end up at the local Books-A-Million or Barnes & Noble. I suppose it is because I feel comfortable in that environment and that there is always something for me to look at, read, or drool over. Even bigger than that is the fact that I like books.
Let's be clear about that though, it is not so much that I have some kind of love for stories which I do, but there is something special about the physical thing that is a book. I can't really explain it but I enjoy the whole process of reading a book. This includes holding the book, looking at the cover, turning the pages, etc. I don't get that same enjoyment out of reading the same material on a computer screen. Even the fact that something is printed is not the same as reading a book.
For example, I recently downloaded Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. Doctorow makes all of his books available for free through Creative Commons licensing. You can download the books in many formats including .pdf and ebook versions. I love that Doctorow is experimenting with new distribution models but I find the book is not easy for me to read that way. I downloaded and printed the book. Then I used a three hole punch to make it possible for me to put into a notebook. I have struggled to read the book since I downloaded it and I think it is because of the format in which I am reading the work. I don't enjoy the experience and thus the book has sat on my end table for a while unread and unloved. For me, it seems, having that traditional book format is important.
All of this brings me to my current problem. I buy a lot of books. Less than some I am sure but more than probably 90% or higher of the population if I had to guess. My purchases tend to stick to hardbacks although I have recently been buying trade paperback editions of some books. I have avoided mass market paperbacks for years as they don't hold up very well and don't stick out on my shelves. As you can probably guess by now, this hobby takes up a lot of room in my house and also represents a significant portion of my lifetime earnings and I am not even talking about my ever expanding comic book and graphic novel collection. I am practically out of shelf space at this point and have been reduced to culling my collection in order to find space for the new stuff that ends up in the house.
I don't like having to remove books from my shelves. I know it is not rational but I always feel like I am loosing something. The old paperbacks have long been imprisoned in the attic along with most textbooks. Some of my lesser read coffee table books and fictional reference guides are starting to look like targets for the next purge. Of course I haven't considered a situation where I would stop buying books. Such a change in behavior would be very odd. No, the best solution to my problem is to buy a bigger house so I can finally build that reading room I always wanted.
So tell me, do you buy books or do you use those things called "libraries" I hear so much about?
Let's be clear about that though, it is not so much that I have some kind of love for stories which I do, but there is something special about the physical thing that is a book. I can't really explain it but I enjoy the whole process of reading a book. This includes holding the book, looking at the cover, turning the pages, etc. I don't get that same enjoyment out of reading the same material on a computer screen. Even the fact that something is printed is not the same as reading a book.
For example, I recently downloaded Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. Doctorow makes all of his books available for free through Creative Commons licensing. You can download the books in many formats including .pdf and ebook versions. I love that Doctorow is experimenting with new distribution models but I find the book is not easy for me to read that way. I downloaded and printed the book. Then I used a three hole punch to make it possible for me to put into a notebook. I have struggled to read the book since I downloaded it and I think it is because of the format in which I am reading the work. I don't enjoy the experience and thus the book has sat on my end table for a while unread and unloved. For me, it seems, having that traditional book format is important.
All of this brings me to my current problem. I buy a lot of books. Less than some I am sure but more than probably 90% or higher of the population if I had to guess. My purchases tend to stick to hardbacks although I have recently been buying trade paperback editions of some books. I have avoided mass market paperbacks for years as they don't hold up very well and don't stick out on my shelves. As you can probably guess by now, this hobby takes up a lot of room in my house and also represents a significant portion of my lifetime earnings and I am not even talking about my ever expanding comic book and graphic novel collection. I am practically out of shelf space at this point and have been reduced to culling my collection in order to find space for the new stuff that ends up in the house.
I don't like having to remove books from my shelves. I know it is not rational but I always feel like I am loosing something. The old paperbacks have long been imprisoned in the attic along with most textbooks. Some of my lesser read coffee table books and fictional reference guides are starting to look like targets for the next purge. Of course I haven't considered a situation where I would stop buying books. Such a change in behavior would be very odd. No, the best solution to my problem is to buy a bigger house so I can finally build that reading room I always wanted.
So tell me, do you buy books or do you use those things called "libraries" I hear so much about?
I buy books. In the new house, I can't think of a single room (including the bathrooms) that don't have a book or 10 in them. Even the guest room has some books in case people what to read before bed - and since it's soon to be a nursery, it'll have even more.
The other day my husband told me he was going to the library, I asked why, do you need a book on tape or something? It never occurred to me that someone would want a book just to read and then return... what if you want to read it again??
I used to buy a lot of books, but I've calmed down these days and now I stick mostly to the library. If I read something I really love, I may be inclined to buy a copy, though it's unlikely I'll read it again -- reading books twice is rare for me, hence why I try to check them out from the library.
Incidently, I read "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" in actual book format. And yes, it was from the library. It may not be the format that's slowing you though -- I found the first few chapters to be pretty lousy, but it picked up a lot once it got into the meat of the story.