4 ms·

It's nice to own books. Read them multiple times, dog-ear the pages, scribble in the margins, risk reading them in the pool. But for the price conscious genera

It's nice to own books. Read them multiple times, dog-ear the pages, scribble in the margins, risk reading them in the pool. But for the price conscious general reader just inter-library loan. If you want to buy To Kill A Mockingbird or The Hobbit be my guest, but any library in the US would have a few copies of those. Public libraries are awesome. Use it or lose it.

VoodooJuJu 6mo ago
[dead]
palmotea 6mo ago
> It's nice to own books. Read them multiple times, dog-ear the pages, scribble in the margins, risk reading them in the pool. Responding to the dead child comment: that's what common paperbacks are for. Don't don't mess up a nice hardcover or anything rare.
- Emma_Goldman 6mo ago
  Why? Books are to be read, annotated, lived with and lent out, not treated as precious objects in a way that is completely orthogonal to their use-value.
  - palmotea 6mo ago
    > Why? Books are to be read, annotated, lived with and lent out, not treated as precious objects in a way that is completely orthogonal to their use-value. I'm not being black and white like that. Some books "are to be read, annotated, lived with and lent out" others should be treated with more care. For an extreme example: if somehow you come to possess the Book of Kells, don't go scribbling your brain farts all over it. You're a modern person who can easily buy paper or a notebook to hold such things.
  - darth_avocado 6mo ago
    Growing up, I couldn’t afford new books for school all the time. Ended up thrifting a lot of them. Annotations were like a mixed bag of candy. Sometimes they were your favorite flavor and sometimes they would give you brain aneurysms. Unfortunately that experience makes me treat books as precious objects.
- dpark 6mo ago
  I cringe watching my daughter dogear her books. It hurts me deep in my soul to see her nice books damaged that way. But objectively my reaction is wrong. Books are not mystical objects to be revered. They are objects to be used. Nearly all books end up in a landfill or recycled eventually. What does it actually matter if they end up there covered in annotations and filled with dog eared pages? Books you have borrowed? Absolutely do not write in them or dogear pages. Books you intend to share with others? Generally the same. Rare books or valuable books? Of course. Normal books you got on Amazon or from your local bookstore that you use only for your personal enjoyment? Use them how you want.
rahimnathwani 6mo ago
AFAICT, publishers don't donate books to public libraries. Those public libraries use our taxes to buy books. So if books are expensive then our taxes buy fewer books. San Francisco public libraries spend $200m per year, of which 15% is spent on 'collections', including books, ebooks, magazines etc. That's $35 per resident. The denominator includes newborns, infants and others that can't read or don't like to read.
- jmcqk6 6mo ago
  Libraries also do a lot more than just provide books. $35 per resident per year for everything that libraries do provide is forking cheap, and we would be greatly impoverished if they were to disappear.
  - rahimnathwani 6mo ago
    The $35 is just the 15% spent on collections. The total is $235 per resident per year. But my point above wasn't about whether that number is high or low. It's that the price of books is paid by us, even it's funneled through taxes and librarians.
  - flumes_whims_ 6mo ago
    Unless I am misreading the GP, that is $35 per resident on purchasing books. The amount for everything would be $233 per resident.
- tonyedgecombe 6mo ago
  >That's $35 per resident. Seems like good value to me.
  - rahimnathwani 6mo ago
    That's the amount spent on books etc., not the total library budget. What do you think is the mean number of library books read by a San Francisco resident per year?
- so-cal-schemer 6mo ago
dhosek 6mo ago
I’ve been looking at a potential move to another country (which is momentarily looking like it will happen this year). Because I prioritize things badly, I went through my list of books to check out from the library and searched the catalogs of the two English-language libraries at my destination city. The list has 1,190 books. 175 are on the shelves of my local suburban library and all but 69 are available through the suburban library system (those 69 are available from the Chicago Public Library though). In the destination city, one library has 289 titles and the other 71.¹ The local public library will be the thing I miss the most if I move. ⸻ 1. I omitted audio books and translations to the local language² from the counts. 2. I speak the language decently and can read it fluently, but my general policy is not to read a book in translation if I can read the original language. This does mean that some of the books in translation, if the native system in the other country has them translated to the local language (they have a much less robust public library system in general and I’ve not seen any indication of any significant numbers of English-language books) I can get those there.
neonstatic 6mo ago
My issue with borrowing books was the logistics of it. Showing up, borrowing, returning on time, remembering to return. I'd rather own. Plus, I really like Kindle. It eliminates the largest annoyance I had with books - keeping them open while reading. It introduced an annoyance of its own though; it has to be charged. Once a week or two. So not that bad.
- MattSayar 6mo ago
  You can borrow ebooks via Libby to your Kindle.

VoodooJuJu 6mo ago

[dead]

palmotea 6mo ago

> It's nice to own books. Read them multiple times, dog-ear the pages, scribble in the margins, risk reading them in the pool. Responding to the dead child comment: that's what common paperbacks are for. Don't don't mess up a nice hardcover or anything rare.

Emma_Goldman 6mo ago
Why? Books are to be read, annotated, lived with and lent out, not treated as precious objects in a way that is completely orthogonal to their use-value.
- palmotea 6mo ago
  > Why? Books are to be read, annotated, lived with and lent out, not treated as precious objects in a way that is completely orthogonal to their use-value. I'm not being black and white like that. Some books "are to be read, annotated, lived with and lent out" others should be treated with more care. For an extreme example: if somehow you come to possess the Book of Kells, don't go scribbling your brain farts all over it. You're a modern person who can easily buy paper or a notebook to hold such things.
- darth_avocado 6mo ago
  Growing up, I couldn’t afford new books for school all the time. Ended up thrifting a lot of them. Annotations were like a mixed bag of candy. Sometimes they were your favorite flavor and sometimes they would give you brain aneurysms. Unfortunately that experience makes me treat books as precious objects.
dpark 6mo ago
I cringe watching my daughter dogear her books. It hurts me deep in my soul to see her nice books damaged that way. But objectively my reaction is wrong. Books are not mystical objects to be revered. They are objects to be used. Nearly all books end up in a landfill or recycled eventually. What does it actually matter if they end up there covered in annotations and filled with dog eared pages? Books you have borrowed? Absolutely do not write in them or dogear pages. Books you intend to share with others? Generally the same. Rare books or valuable books? Of course. Normal books you got on Amazon or from your local bookstore that you use only for your personal enjoyment? Use them how you want.

rahimnathwani 6mo ago

AFAICT, publishers don't donate books to public libraries. Those public libraries use our taxes to buy books. So if books are expensive then our taxes buy fewer books. San Francisco public libraries spend $200m per year, of which 15% is spent on 'collections', including books, ebooks, magazines etc. That's $35 per resident. The denominator includes newborns, infants and others that can't read or don't like to read.

jmcqk6 6mo ago
Libraries also do a lot more than just provide books. $35 per resident per year for everything that libraries do provide is forking cheap, and we would be greatly impoverished if they were to disappear.
- rahimnathwani 6mo ago
  The $35 is just the 15% spent on collections. The total is $235 per resident per year. But my point above wasn't about whether that number is high or low. It's that the price of books is paid by us, even it's funneled through taxes and librarians.
- flumes_whims_ 6mo ago
  Unless I am misreading the GP, that is $35 per resident on purchasing books. The amount for everything would be $233 per resident.
tonyedgecombe 6mo ago
>That's $35 per resident. Seems like good value to me.
- rahimnathwani 6mo ago
  That's the amount spent on books etc., not the total library budget. What do you think is the mean number of library books read by a San Francisco resident per year?
so-cal-schemer 6mo ago

dhosek 6mo ago

I’ve been looking at a potential move to another country (which is momentarily looking like it will happen this year). Because I prioritize things badly, I went through my list of books to check out from the library and searched the catalogs of the two English-language libraries at my destination city. The list has 1,190 books. 175 are on the shelves of my local suburban library and all but 69 are available through the suburban library system (those 69 are available from the Chicago Public Library though). In the destination city, one library has 289 titles and the other 71.¹ The local public library will be the thing I miss the most if I move. ⸻ 1. I omitted audio books and translations to the local language² from the counts. 2. I speak the language decently and can read it fluently, but my general policy is not to read a book in translation if I can read the original language. This does mean that some of the books in translation, if the native system in the other country has them translated to the local language (they have a much less robust public library system in general and I’ve not seen any indication of any significant numbers of English-language books) I can get those there.

neonstatic 6mo ago

My issue with borrowing books was the logistics of it. Showing up, borrowing, returning on time, remembering to return. I'd rather own. Plus, I really like Kindle. It eliminates the largest annoyance I had with books - keeping them open while reading. It introduced an annoyance of its own though; it has to be charged. Once a week or two. So not that bad.

MattSayar 6mo ago
You can borrow ebooks via Libby to your Kindle.