And they are everywhere in my house and garage. I can’t even give most of them away. Why? Because they are my friends. They are part of me. Most of them are marked up. Underlined. Highlighted. Scribbled in. Even fiction books.

I love books.

I need an intervention.

Unfortunately for me I’m very busy with a law practice that’s officed 50 miles from home, and I live in a rural area, so I seldom have time to to one of those long, lovely bookstore visits. So most of the books I buy these days come from Amazon. Fiction often goes to my Kindle, but nonfiction I buy in “real” book form, in case I want to tab pages and so on.

I do occasionally lend books out, but I’m neurotic about my books and take very good care of them. Even books I’ve read multiple times look brand new. And too often book borrowers aren’t as careful as I am.

Sometimes, I will borrow a book from my Dear Daughter’s friends. Yet, I almost always purchse the book in the end–see the above disclaimer.

I don’t believe that book sharing is
“stealing” because in the end, most avid readers will either purchase the borrowed book and/or other books by the same author. If they are library lovers, they will request the author, creating a demand for future sales.

As a writer, I would never be offended that someone liked my work enough to share it. In the end, that is why I write–to have my words out there for others to enjoy.

Thanks for the recommendation! I think I’ll go buy that book on Amazon right now. My almost-4-year-old nephew and I can read it together!
He loves books like his auntie does and is already reading.

I do lend and borrow books as well but have become more selective about that. My friend “B” is something of a black hole. The books go to his place and are never seen again. My friend “J” is better, we swap books on a weekly basis, returning the last borrowed item while offering up a new read at the same time. He and I have similar taste and I we often introduce each other to new authors.

I’d like to use the library more, but like many of the others, I was never adept at returning things on time. Rather than racking up the fines, I just buy and now have a fairly large library (books stacked all around the house) of my own.

When I can, I certainly support our local Christian bookstore. They are a wonderful bunch that also work to support the authors as well as the readers. And when I’m book shopping for the sheer pleasure of it, I’m more likely to hit a second hand bookstore. Better smell

As for book sharing – no, I don’t think it’s the same as music sharing. When you share the digital/music file, you create another (illegal) copy. When you share a book, it’s still one physical copy. (Not sure how this related to e-books yet, though.) I think it links back to good word-of-mouth promotion. If someone likes it enough to share it, you build your reader base and they might be more likely to buy your next book, etc.

For the same reason, as an author I’m always happy when my books are checked out of the library. (I should point out that as a Canadian author, I do get a small royalty based on library usage so it’s all good to me.)