A lot of people have already discussed the "presence" that a physical collection of books can have, so I'll touch on personalization. I adore public libraries,

A lot of people have already discussed the "presence" that a physical collection of books can have, so I'll touch on personalization. I adore public libraries, but one of the few downsides I find is the inability to mark up the books I borrow. When I own a physical copy of a book, I can highlight things that stand out, jot down notes in the margins, add book darts to the pages where I want to quickly reference upon re-reads, etc. All of those things add a unique history to my particular copy of a book. For me, it's always a joy to buy a used book that has been marked up like I tend to do. There may be many copies of that book, but there's something special about my copy—a shared experience with the previous owners. Sure, an e-book can allow for bookmarks, highlights, and notes, but for some reason it just doesn't feel the same to me. It could even be argued that e-books provide a better experience for revisiting previous notes because of the search functions and the ease at which you can see markings, but there's something just... different about it. E-books lack the same personality that I find my physical books to have. I certainly have a fair share of both e-books and physical, but for every inconvenience that the physical copies have, there's something special about them to me still. Perhaps the inherent flaws with the physical manifestation of the books makes them inherently more relatable to me? A simple reminder that just as people are flawed, things can be too.