InnerTeub

A common argument in my house: I think we have too few bookshelves, the Boss things we have too many books.

I love books. I love reading them, I love talking about them. I dog ear, underline, break the spine, read them again.  My favorite job I’ve ever had was working at Barnes and Noble, talking to people about books all day. When I’m in the middle of a good book, I’m almost incapable of participating in the world until I’ve finished reading it, and when I’m done I have a sad little moment, as if a good friend was visiting and has now left.

So I’ve been intrigued by devices like the Kindle and the Nook – the capability to download books with a click and carry as many as you like around with you? That sounds fairly awesome: How much easier would college have been if I could fit all my text books onto one device instead of lugging them all over campus? Much. How much easier would traveling be if I didn’t have to make room for books in my carry on? Much.

But I worry about the underlining, the dog earing, the loving of holding a physical book in my hand – would the experience be as satisfying on the screen? I don’t know, but I’m starting to come around on that thanks to a new post on Loo.Me:

What i think could happen with me is that my book purchasing starts to look like how many music lovers purchase vinyl.  These people consume music digitally, through mp3’s, but for bands they really love they like to have the physical product – thus they purchase the vinyl record.  I could see myself doing this with books.  I read them all digitally and for authors/books that i really like, I’ll actually pay a premium and buy the physical copy.

And there we go. Just like that, we’ve solved our bookshelf problem.