Booking Through Thursday – Why Buy?
WHY BUY?
Even if you are a die-hard fan of the public library system, I’m betting you have at least ONE permanent resident of your bookshelves in your house. I’m betting that no real book-lover can go through life without owning at least one book. So … why that one? What made you buy the books that you actually own, even though your usual preference is to borrow and return them?
If you usually buy your books, tell me why. Why buy instead of borrow? Why shell out your hard-earned dollars for something you could get for free?
Sadly, my public library often does not have many of the books I am interested in, even by inter-library loan. When we lived in Grand Rapids, MI, home of several Christian publishers, I had a lot better luck finding the non-fiction Christian books I wanted to read, and thus did not buy as many. (Unless I felt like I’d like to have it in my collection after reading it.) Here in the DFW area, I’ve essentially given up trying to find them at the library. I often borrow fiction from the library, and will usually try to find a book I want there before looking for it on PaperBackSwap or buying from Amazon.
Some of them I’ve purchased because I know I’ll want to reread them. Some because I couldn’t find them at the library. Some because I didn’t want to wait for a copy to be available from the library. Some just because.
If everyone just borrowed books from the library, why would publishers bother? Would authors have to write in their spare time in the evenings after returning from a day on the job? Would we have as many options of things to read? (Maybe it would be better not to? I don’t know.) There is just a part of me that would like to support the person who wrote the book, I suppose.
Libraries are too far away from my place. Not worth the travel.
Must buy!