Casting around for a subject for a test post, I came back to the syllabus and the mentioned example column, about "books he's purchased and the books he's read (which are not usually the same)" and the phrase brought me to thinking about how I really don't buy books, anymore. I'll rent, if I can, whatever the required course materials are. For anything else, I'll get it from a library or, increasingly, write down the book in my phone's notes on my "things to read" list and let it languish there with other things to read for months or years. Between all of my classes, I sometimes have trouble wanting to read for fun. I'd love to buy books - I love the feeling of a new book in my hands - but it's so hard for me to justify. What if I don't like it? What's my plan for getting rid of it - where am I going to give it away if I don't like it? My likes and dislikes are so variable that I don't really know what my tastes are anymore. It feels frivolous to buy something without a guarantee that I know and trust the author, or have read this already and want my own permanent copy, or I'm really confident I'll like the subject material.
I wonder what side of the divide people tend to fall on - buying things they often don't get around to reading, or not buying things that they probably would read and like.
I usually agree with your thoughts on buying books as I'm not big on collecting and accumulating things but I recently went on a book-buying-binge so I wanted to comment. As of late I can justify buying lots of books I am not sure I'll get around to reading or even enjoying reading once I do get around to it if I am supporting local book stores (Brattle Book Shop has a 1, 3, and 5 dollar rack that I can't resist rummaging through each time I pass it) as I at least feel that my purchases- even if its a book I'll give to away at some point - are helping the community or at least helping bookstores remain open when it seems like there's a headline about bookstores in crisis every year. Meanwhile I continually cannot justify to myself doing the same while buying books on Amazon or another other online seller for that matter. Maybe it's that one more dollar for shipping, maybe it's the lack of the feeling of finding the book crammed between the others on the shelves but I just cannot justify Amazon ordering binges the way I can carrying an actual stack out of a bookstore even if I don't plan to read all the books initially. I think there are further divides as well when you look at people who may buy books for aesthetic or decoration purposes or people who collect certain additions of books. Anyway, I found the discussion of physical Amazon Book Stores in class interesting as I am curious if the stores will be able to integrate into the communities they are located in and how are Amazon books sorted by things that people would read and like if not everyone likes the same thing out of a book?
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