With digital content and ebooks, isn’t it possible for even the relative poor to have home libraries?

Don’t know a hell of a lot about e books or anything like that, but I guess it is possible to have as many ’‘books’’ in digital form, enough to rival big libraries of actual books. Heck I don’t think you even need e books, I know people who have entire books on their computers, and they take very little space. So you could probably gather a slew of books through e books or by storing them on your PC that you download online.

As far as affording it goes, I don’t know. Books are still pretty expensive, if not more than before…I’m guessing e books aren’t given, either. But yeah, I do believe that the ’‘relatively’’ poor are able to have a vast amount of reading material, if they want it. Although personally, nothing beats normal books.

also I wouldn’t consider the 70’s as ancient…

I get some of my material from Audible.com I get them at a discounted price but I see retail values for the books and they are often in the $40 to $50 range. That’s about what a hard cover book costs. My wife uses Kindle and some of those books are pricey. If I was really poor, I’d make great use of my library card and spend money on books that I need for reference.

No, because then they need an e book reader that costs a couple hundred dollars.

Besides, public libraries are a lot cheaper!

A stack of paperbacks has never smacked of wealth. Who the hell gave you that idea?

@zenvelo you are correct in everything you said except that Kindles and other ebook reading devices cost less than $90.

Only if they pirate the ebooks.

For many families, finding $90 extra for anything is iffy.

@Sunny2 unfortunately that’s very true and a disgrace for a country like the U.S.

Over the years I accumulated a collection of some 3,000 books. It is less now, because of storage problems, climate and termites but still substantial. Every city I visited, if there was time, I looked at the bookshops, especially the second-hand ones. If it was more than I could carry, the purchase would be posted directly to Trinidad. It was a blast. They cost very little. The most expensive purchase I made was a 4-volume translation of the J. C. Mardrus and Powys Mather, trans., The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night. It cost 10 pounds in an absolutely fantastic antiquarian book shop in Aberystwyth (1974–1975).

Books were a great deal cheaper in the late seventies. EDIT: I wish I could afford an electronic reader, but that is not possible at this time.

Assuming they can read, sure.

Ever tried to sell your huge, beloved, lovingly acquired, expensive, hard-backed library? Anyone can own books on the cheap these days.

Our local performing and studio arts academy has a used book sale every Sept. to raise money. You can buy a u-Haul-it filled with astonishing books of all genres for very little, particularly on day three in the afternoon.

People like me donate fifty books and then buy fifty more, belonging to someone else.

I don’t really get the whole e-book thing.
I would much rather have an actual book in my hands. Staring at a screen makes my eyes hurt.
It usually only takes me a couple of days to get through a book, and seeing as I’m not Donald Trump, I go to the library a lot.

@Katniss Yeah. Nothing beats a real book, being all comfy in your couch while reading it. I guess you can do that with an e book, but I denno…fuck em. I’d only consider one if it was a book I really couldn’t find.

If you enjoy reading, then an e-reader will do. It should be possible to get used to them, but @Katniss, I do agree with you. You cannot leave e-equipment about, it will get stolen. Books, especially paperbacks, are easy to replace. The only thing wrong with the library services is that books must be returned. You undergraduates on Fluther must have noted that academic staff tend to use the universlty library as an addition to their ;personal collections (they are usually allowed more loans than the rest of us).