I’m someone who’s always liked nice editions and hardcover books, though I haven’t bought any for a while. I’ve been tempted recently to buy a few classics in hardcover, but then I glance over to the kindle price (which is usually <1$), and I find it hard to justify. Or you can find a used paperback edition either online or in a bookstore for very cheap. Of course, buying a few nice editions now and then would not break the bank, but it still feels like quite a frivolous use of money.
How do you approach this decision? I don’t think there’s any “correct” answer here, since there’s nothing wrong with spending money on things you like, nor with wanting to minimise unnecessary spending. Just interested to hear people’s thoughts.
by David-Max
6 Comments
I can always justify it. I don’t like buying secondhand, and I like to try and find the prettiest version of a book that I can.
My disposable income is to be used how I like, and sometimes that includes paying a bit more for a fancier version of a book
The physical copies of books I buy are likely to sit on my shelf until I die. The extra money is always worth it for a prettier collection.
I like hardbacks, particularly Folio Society books with slipcases. I buy them at auctions and sell on the titles I don’t want to keep. I have two rooms lined with bookshelves as I inherited my father’s library and have also bought many over the years.
For most I buy cheapest that is still print. (Don’t own a kindle and can’t read too long on normal screens after staring at them all day for work.)
But then again I have 5 different versions of Alice in Wonderland here and love them dearly. Highest price for one was 50€, but that one is also just flat-out amazing, with fold-out pages and illustrations all around the book.
I see both. The fancy versions are nice. I don’t buy them for the text really. They are works of art themselves around the text.
I actually can’t get lost in a book on my kindle the way I can holding a physical copy. I don’t know why, it’s just the way I am. I also can’t listen to audio books. I always buy the physical book, whether it’s used or new. I love old book smell, so I do frequent used book stores, but there are certain authors that I just like to have a new copy.
If it makes me happy and I can afford it I buy it and don’t think anything else of it. Sometimes I just love the aesthetic of a book and the point isn’t that I could get a less aesthetic version for less the point is that I want the pretty one. I very rarely buy books, I mostly use the library, so when I do buy a book I’m going to buy exactly the version I want.
Buy whatever makes you want to read it! I read very long books on the Kindle because it saves my arms (eg Clarissa, A la Recherche, A Dance to the Music of Time) but I am unlikely to re-read those. I have the complete Charles Dickens and Jane Austen on paper (nice copies) and on Kindle, so I can travel light on holiday. Also, the free/very cheap versions on Kindle tend to be messy – changes in font, mis-spellings, punctuation that looks as if someone threw a heap of commas at the page to see what stuck…