I don’t like buying books. Sort of. Let me explain.

When I own a book and I haven’t read it yet, it makes me feel guilty and weird. It feels overwhelming, like a huge responsibility that I need to read this book, and if I don’t do it soon, I’m doing something wrong.

I know lots of people who own books and they like collecting them and having them and reading them when they feel like it. I am not that sort of person.

What I like to do is read books first and buy them second.

I recently purchased three books. I’ve read them all before, but I loved them, and I want to refer back to them. Those are the sort of books I like to own.

I’m not a big physical book reader. I prefer reading audiobooks and e-books. But I still find physical books handy for reference. I just pulled out an economics textbook the other day to check on something. I like having books on the shelf that remind me of what I’ve read and what I’ve loved.

So this is my ideal way of interacting with books: listen to the audiobook, read it on my Kindle, or read/highlight a pdf. Then if I really love it, I want to buy an actual version of it that I probably won’t ever read, but I will refer back to on occasion.

Sidenote: I got rid of all my philosophy books after I graduated from school the first time. I didn’t think I would ever need them again. I sort of regret that, but I also moved a lot, and it isn’t fun to move lots of books around.

(My books in 2013. I got rid of a lot of them.)