Time to Sell Your Hardcopy Books?
John Armstrong blogs about why he is selling off portions of his large library.
Digital Books, the Internet and the Future
I am both a reader and a writer. I once had an immense library but I have sold about 60% of it in the last four years. I sold some of my best books earlier this year, removing about 35-40% of my theology section. I confess that this was not easy to do but it became increasingly obvious that it was the right thing to do.
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While I understand his reasoning in doing so, I am not sure it is the 'right' thing to do. I am still in the stage of building my library and is looking into addition space to store my books (I do not have a large basement). Maybe one day I will sell some of my books...maybe one day.
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Labels: Books and Reading
posted by Alex Tang at 8:15 AM
4 Comments:
Hi Alex,
Thank you for highlighting this.
John Armstrong:"A third reason for selling my books is that I have easy access to a huge library because I am an adjunct professor at Wheaton College. I can get much of what I need for three months at a time."
He can afford it as there is a ready resource. That is the same reason why Tony Siew stop buying books ever since he started teaching at TTC.
As for me, I still buy books (which I really wish I don't have to). Most of them are my textbooks. The rest of the books that I buy are either (1) they are not in TTC library, or (2) books that I look forward to engage with, to learn deeply into it.
I stay in a small one-bed room in TTC. There are about 500 books here. The psychological effect they had on me is that I feel spatially suffocated, partly because this space is also my resting space. When resting space filled with working symbols (books, laptop, etc), one hardly can rest without the thought of jumping up to work.
Hi Sze Zeng,
Interesting that you associate books as "working symbols." I prefer books as friends, comforters, supporters, companions, room-mates, lovers, dream-catchers, cheery decors, security, cathedral of memories,Ebenezers,doorstops,anamcara,repositories of wisdom,and something that evokes my sense of wonder.
I may have access to a well equipped library but what happens when I move away from that campus?
have you all seen ebrary.com? you know within 2 days aku dah add 30 books to my e-bookshelf.
thing is: with the advent of e-libraries and stuff, surely the buying of 'physical' books will be falling, no?
Sell my books? Till death do us part.
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