To Borrow or Buy

Borrow from the library, buy a book, or buy the Kindle edition?  So many choices, and to be honest, my answer is usually all of the above.

I have trouble remembering my own phone number sometimes, but I have my 14 digit library barcode memorized.  Yes, I use it so much to reserve books and check my account that I don't even have to look at my card to type it in anymore.  These days, I buy very few fiction books.  I don't often re-read fiction, so it's cheaper and easier to just use the library.  I also use the library for much of my TV and movie viewing (which is why I am about 6 years behind in my knowledge of popular culture.)  Tonight  I'm picking up a book that I reserved in July or August.  I'm not sure how I'm actually going to get it read in the next two weeks with everything else happening, but I don't care.  I'm excited to jump into a little fiction and a total escape from reality.

The non-fiction I'm reading right now involves a little too much reality.  Desmond Tutu is telling me about the atrocities that occurred during apartheid in South Africa.  I wouldn't be able to get through it, except for the fact that he is also telling me about the wonderful things that happened as the nation began to heal its wounds.  But I'll tell you more about that in a future review.

Non-fiction requires patience, and thought, and time, and most importantly, a highlighter, which means that I don't check out much non-fiction any more.  Instead I use Half Price Books, half.com, and amazon.com to get inexpensive copies that I can write all over.  I learn by writing and that is true even in my reading.  If the book is pristine, it means that either I haven't read it yet, or it wasn't very good.

A few weeks ago, I purchased my first non-fiction books for the Kindle app on my computer.  I didn't really like reading fiction on my computer, but I love it for non-fiction.  I can easily highlight, and adding notes is super easy since I can type them in.  The app will give me a list of all places that I highlighted and added notes to, so it's easy to find the sections I want to look at again.  I'm not ready to give up paper books, but this is a cheaper alternative for some things and I think I will be using it a lot in the future.

So where do you get your books?  And more importantly, if you buy, where do you put them all? Every time I've gotten rid of a book, I've wanted it again later, so my library just keeps growing and growing.