Virginia Postrel and friend endorse the Amazon Kindle because it takes up less space than books. Postrel:
I love books too, and I wouldn’t want to relinquish all those individual physical volumes for an electronic reader. But, that said, I had to give up hundreds of books when I moved back to L.A., because there just wasn’t room for them all. I buy a lot fewer books than I would if I didn’t have to store them (and live in fear of having them fall on my head in an earthquake). So maybe I need a Kindle after all.
I am inundated in books. I have way too many. I have no place to put them. I often can’t find them when I want them. I often don’t know what I want to read on a trip, so I carry six heavy books with me, which sucks.
Heresy! Heresy! Do you know what I do when I run out of space for books? I buy a bigger house!
Apparently, Tam of the mere sixty boxes understands.
(Link seen elsewhere on Dynamist.com.)
Unless there are a lot of shelves you don’t show, you might be surprised at how few boxes they take up. ;)
In my case, ~110 feet of shelf (paperbacks double-shelved) went into a pile of boxes 25’x4’x2′. This does not count effluvia like periodicals, gaming books, or comics, of course.
And yes, electronic “books” *spit!* are the tools of the devil. If you don’t turn a page, it ain’t readin’.
That’s so cute!
Of course, I ran right out and measured our bookshelves. I’ve got 9 5-shelf bookcases, a 4-shelf bookcase, a 3-shelf bookcase, and a 2 shelf bookcase (the last two stacked atop each other, natch). Leaving out the one five shelf bookcase that contains photo albums, periodicals, video game schematics, and gaming books and adding in a 24″ shelf in my hutch that has reference books, my arithmetic indicates 111.5 feet of shelf space here in my office alone.
Which is, sadly, only half of the 221.5 shelf feet in the house (calculating in the 2 3-shelf bookcases and a small 4-shelf book case in the basement, 2 4-shelf bookcases in the dining room, the 5 5-shelf book cases in my beautiful wife’s office (plus 3 shelves since she’s got books atop 3 of the 5), and the 2 3-shelf bookcases in the boy’s room).
And, as I mentioned, I’ve left out the bookshelf in my office with the effluvia as well as the 2 shelf bookcase in the utility room with magazines in binders. Comic books remain in boxes.
So what you’re saying is I need to provide an update on the Noggle Library.
You know I’ve been wanting a Kindle since they came out, but I think I’m getting over my lust. Electronic readers just aren’t cozy and, besides, I read so quickly that I’d probably strain my thumb paging down.
I’m not about to buy a bigger house to make more room — but I am considering turning my guest room into a library with a futon sofa. Not only would that give me more room for my books, but it’d discourage my in-laws from staying more than one night.
Win-win.