All things being equal (money, space, etc), would you rather own copies of the books you read? Or borrow them?
If you had asked me this prior to 10 years ago, I would have said own, no question about it. I treasured my books and loved to just have them around me, all organized and available whenever I wanted to revisit them.
These days, I own a lot fewer books, having pared down my collection significantly. Just about everything I read comes from the library or is a review copy from a publisher, and I only buy books that I would definitely want to re-read (in the case of fiction) or feel would be a useful reference (in the case of non-fiction).
Of course, whose to say my answer wouldn’t be different if I actually lived in a big house with a room to use just as a library! 
How about you?
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I'm a mom with Asperger's raising an amazing son with autism, which means I'm basically the case manager/advocate/cheerleader/chauffeur. The rest of the time, you can usually find me with my nose in a book!
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I shared a lot with the library when we moved. I’m the same way, years ago I couldn’t imagine parting with them but now I wanted to. There are some I know I’ll keep forever but I want less stuff so I like to get rid of them now.
I am loving Kindle books on my ipod these days. Usually I buy, but some can be borrowed from booklending.com. I like to have “real” reference books, though and usually I like to own them (autism, photography, whatever)…Kindle is more for novels and “fun” reads.
My answer is sort of an “it depends”–hope you’ll stop by!
Cindy at Cindy’s Book Club
For me, it depends on the book. I like to buy my nonfiction books to keep as references. With fiction I usually borrow first and purchase the ones I love so that I can read them as many times as I want!
I’m definitely a book owner. But that is kind of ridiculous considering how rarely I reread books these days. I always tell myself that my kids might want to read them. I’m probably kidding myself.
I love owning books, but I did a quick inventory of my Goodreads to-read list the other day and estimated that I have about $2000 worth of books on it. YIKES!!! I guess I’ll be requesting Borders gift cards for my birthday and Christmas this year.
I borrow… as you very well know
. I figure that the library can store and catalog the books for me. I also am known to do inter-library loan a lot. I like to check books out of the library and “preview them” if I think I might want to buy them. Organization is not my strong suit!