< the merits of a bookshelf

~starbreaker

One of the reasons I like having physical bookshelves is that printed books are the original ROM (read-only memory). Once printed, they can't be altered save by printing a new edition that readers who prefer the older edition are free to ignore. The only way to see what I'm reading when I read a paper book is to look over my shoulder -- which is a good way to get punched in the face if we aren't close.

Bookshelves are also good places for Smudge to perch when he wants to watch over me like a guardian beast.

Some of my paper books also hold important memories. For example, I've got an edition of Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot that I bought from a street vendor overlooking the Seine in Paris back in 2017. I had also bought a French translation of Philip K. Dick's Ubik in a shrink-wrapped paperback. I had managed to dredge up enough high school French to hold a halting conversation with the vendor; her English was even worse than my French but we managed.

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~tetris wrote:

Very writable ROM however! (At least according to every book I've checked out from the library)

> Bookshelves are also good places for Smudge to perch when he wants to watch over me like a guardian beast.

I definitely agree that bookshelves have use. My SO uses them to holds various plants, and I love watching them climbing up the walls every year.

I like the memory you tie with the book. Some have that for me, but most of my books I got from some online book retailer, and very few in person.