Libraries are excellent for computer books, which I guess counts as reference. I'm not going to drop $70.00 on a book which has maybe 4 or 5 sentences I will find useful, and which will be obsolete in 6 months anyway.

Otherwise, the combination of a regular salary and amazon.com has caused the book population around my house to burgeon.

Raquel, could you maybe talk Nic into doing that? We're hipdeep in guides for various bits of software and programming that have been outdated since three weeks after they hit the selves, each of which we paid about thirty bucks and upward for.

The problem with getting computer books from libraries is that they're usually a few versions behind the software I'm using. Computer books do have a depressingly high cost to useful content ratio.

I really like owning books, as the wall-to-wall books in my house will attest, but I've gotten better about using the library since the county system put in place a really spiffy online catalogue that lets you find the books you want and have them sent to the nearest branch. I just sit there going, "And I want this one and this one." It's like Amazon.com without the credit card hangover.

In case anyone else is a Nevada Barr fan (park ranger Anna Pigeon solves mysteries), the newest is just out: High Country.

Sure deb! Although like Ginger points out it does depend on what you can get...but I'd think that the library system there would be able to get just about anything. The local library here is actually really good with the computer books, so I guess I'm lucky on that count.

Maybe I should send Nic to the Silicon Valley Libraries....

really spiffy online catalogue that lets you find the books you want and have them sent to the nearest branch. I just sit there going, "And I want this one and this one." It's like Amazon.com without the credit card hangover.

Yes! I love that I can be sitting at work, think of a book I want to read, go online and reserve it, and I get an email when it's sitting waiting for me. Awesome.

I don't buy every book I'd like to read because a)I'd go broke quickly and b) I don't want to own everything I read.

I divide my "want to read" list into a couple of catagories (with occasional subcatagories)

1)Buy in hardback when it comes out
a)Buy full price
b)Buy from the appropriate book club

2)Buy in paperback
a)Paperback originals
b)Came out first in hardback, but I can wait for the paperback

3)Library books
a)Search for and/or put on hold
b)If I stumble across it I might take it out.

Yes, I read that many books and yes, I am that anal-retentive. t g

I love the library, and it keeps me from going bankrupt and letting my book habit render our house completely uninhabitable. If I don't think I'll want to re-read, I get it from the library. It's also how I test drive new authors and/or reference books to see if they're worth actual cash money.

I am a book packrat as well. Nearly everyone else I met while travelling went the (much cheaper and easier) route of buying used and selling back for credit. Not me. I sent home at least five packages of books to my parents so I could keep them without having to lug them around in my backpack for the next five months. I get attached. I also reread a lot: not necessarily entire books (though I do plenty of that), but sometimes I just like to look for my favorite passage in a book, or just open it up and see what I find. I like visiting with characters and places I've come to love. And I like to be able to refresh my memory when talking, thinking, or writing about them. Plus, I like to recommend and lend them out (only to very trustworthy friends).

I grew up in a house with stacks and shelves of books in every single room, including the hallways. To me, it's not home unless there are books everywhere.