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I bought a kindle years ago and love the convenience and compactness of having all of my reading material on that little device. Now I have two young children,

I bought a kindle years ago and love the convenience and compactness of having all of my reading material on that little device. Now I have two young children, and I've gradually started to build up a collection of physical books at home - not just children's books, but books for myself as well. I realized at some point that: * I want them to know (I would even say "take for granted") that we value reading * I want them to have easy access to lots of good books at or slightly above their current reading/maturity level * I want them to see the sort of things their parents are interested in (they rarely see me reading for pleasure, even though it's one of my favorite things to do, because I mostly do that when they're asleep). There is definitely an intentional signalling component to this, but it's not about signalling to the outside world for status, it's about signalling to our kids/each other about the kinds of things that we value. In addition: > Physical books were such a massive part of my childhood that the experience of reading one conjures up decades of positive memories and emotions My hope is that we can create an environment for them that is conducive to exactly this sort of experience. As for the third point: when I was a kid I stumbled upon a collection of books at my grandmother's house, mostly sci-fi (Dune, Asimov, some Vonnegut), that my Dad had read when he was young. It introduced me to a whole world of literature that would become very important to me, and also gave me a glimpse into a side of his personality that I wasn't aware of.

toto444 5y ago
> * I want them to see the sort of things their parents are interested in This is one thing smartphones have destroyed and no one ever mentions. From the ouside you can't know what someone is doing when they are on their phone. That's ok when it's strangers in the underground. But at home 90% of what my wife does is on her phone whether it be reading, watching photos, shopping, ... and to me it's a sort of inaccessible world.

toto444 5y ago

> * I want them to see the sort of things their parents are interested in This is one thing smartphones have destroyed and no one ever mentions. From the ouside you can't know what someone is doing when they are on their phone. That's ok when it's strangers in the underground. But at home 90% of what my wife does is on her phone whether it be reading, watching photos, shopping, ... and to me it's a sort of inaccessible world.