How many books do you really own?

By Freitag October 24, 2008

Many years ago, I heard a library science professor speak about the real concept of book ownership during a book acquisition lecture. A voracious reader, he wanted to share with his students what it truly meant to ‘own a book.’

“To own a book goes beyond purhasing a book at the bookstore and putting it on your shelf back home,” he said. “No, it’s more than that. The only time you can say you own a book is when you’ve read it from cover to cover and have mastered its content by heart.”

It was such an erudite remark that I had to share it with my sister who, like me, is a certified bookworm. “That’s a great definition,” my sister said. In the months — and years — to come, my sister and I would read each other’s book purchases and declare at the end of each reading conquest, “Hey, I own your book!”

I can’t remember how many times my sister had told me this line. She had read most of my books (mostly modern classics, humor books, how-to books, self-help bestsellers, comic books, and reference books on PR writing and journalism) more than I had read hers (mostly must-read classics). Well, with my busy schedule as a journalist at that time, I couldn’t read as many books as I wanted to. More often than not, she would own my freshly purchased book even before I had the chance to flip through the first few pages! She would sometimes tease me that she was the rightful owner of some of my books (I’ve still not yet read all the books I had bought in the past — shame on me!).

Now, here’s the funny thing: my older brother is an avid book collector. When he was still living in Manila — he now resides in the US — he would buy lots of medical books as well as Christian books, and his bedroom would eventually look like a mini library of sorts. I loved his Christian book collection and found myself poring over his books during, say, my two-hour bus journeys from our home to the office and vice versa. Eventually, I ended up becoming the real ‘owner’ of his Christian books just because he had not found the time to read most of them — even to this day. He was more a book hoarder than a reader.

Fortunately, I now have more time to ‘own borrowed books’ on a regular basis here in Switzerland — although I still buy books online and offline as I was wont to do in the past — thanks to my public library membership and my less hectic timetable.

It was great to read from start to finish, for instance, Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Soseki Natsumi’s Botchan, Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha, Mitsuyo Kakuta’s Woman on the Other Shore, Sue Townsend’s Number 10 and Rebuilding Coventry, and be able to say to myself after reading the last page of each borrowed book, “Yes, I finally own this book!”

The other day, when I returned some DVDs at the library, I spotted Alex Haley’s Roots displayed on the English section shelf. My family has a copy of that book in Manila, but I never got around to reading it in the past. What a pity.

I really want to own Roots soon, without having to buy a copy on Amazon (not yet, anyway). Owning a book has never been so practical yet meaningful at the same time. Thanks, Prof. Cobaria, for your enlightening insight.

*****

TIDBITS: There’s a nice English bookstore located in the university town of Neuchatel called Used Ink, which sells used English books (something like what Booksale does in Metro Manila, albeit on a much smaller scale). Owned by an American expat, Used Ink also sells secondhand French titles. The bookstore relies mainly on book donations from owners of English/French books. For more information on how to get there, you can visit the Used Ink website here.

Tags: "I own this book!", book addiction, book ownership, collecting books, having a public library membership, owning a book, owning books on loan, owning borrowed books, public libraries, reading books, the real meaning of book ownership, used books for sale, Used Ink bookstore in Neuchatel

Books

17 Comments

By bw, October 24, 2008 @ 5:58 pm

This is a great post because frankly, I got shelves of books at home and looking at them I can say with certainty that ” I don’t own these books ”

Darn, I could count those that I read from cover to cover and many of them I really only read halfway through. Plus, I really only read in winter
By CN Heidelberg, October 25, 2008 @ 8:20 am

This concept definitely applies to fiction but for some types of non-fiction and reference books, which are used to have good non-internet sources of information on hand when needed, reading the whole thing to own it is not necessary!
By Freitag, October 25, 2008 @ 10:58 am

BW, I would love to ‘own’ your shelves of books (LOL)! But maybe you own lots of IT and golf books? Hope you will have the chance to read and really own your books this coming winter!

CN Heidelberg, funny, I was just thinking last night that somebody would comment about reference books and I said to myself, “I should have qualified my statement concerning some reference books.” Thanks for pointing that out. I do agree that we don’t need to read some reference books (e.g. encyclopedias, dictionaries, Bible concordance) from cover to cover to ‘own them’ (but using them a lot would mean that you really own them). As for non-fiction, well, I had read lots of biographies, autobiographies, and compilations of travel stories — to name just a few examples of non-fiction — from cover to cover in the past. So this concept also applies to many forms of non-fiction. Having said this, the main point of my blog post was simply this: Owning a book goes beyond buying it. I know that many people are mere book collectors, who delight in the act of building a private book collection, without them having to read/use the books they have amassed through the years.
By Share, October 25, 2008 @ 12:26 pm

I’ve always thought that books[just like music] is something you can never proclaim your ownership. You merely pay for the rights to read/listen to it. The authors or artists are the owner. =)
By Major Tom, October 25, 2008 @ 7:33 pm

In that vein, I can say i “owned” some of the very good books you mentioned, like Roots and Memoirs of A Geisha, both having been made into movies, but the movies just don’t do justice, very, very far.

aside from the two, I had truly enjoyed (from cover to cover)Pat Conroy’s “The Prince of Tides” and “The Thorn Birds”, “Crime and punishment” as well as “Gone With the Wind”. I should also mention Angela’s Ashes and The Color Purple, books that had somehow nurtured my present view about humanity and the undrstanding of the human psyche.
By Sidney, October 26, 2008 @ 5:23 am

It is a different concept… I like reading books but I also like to have books I will probably never find the time to read… some people like shoes, bags, cell phones, paintings…I like books.
I like to collect books not only for their content… but also for many other reasons…
By Freitag, October 26, 2008 @ 2:30 pm

Share, that’s another ’story,’ which can be reserved in another blog post Thanks for dropping by here.

Major Tom, I look forward to reading Roots (and Shogun, too). I do like the film adaptation of Gone with the Wind, I must say. And yes, BBC’s film adaptations of classics such as Pride and Prejudice (I love Jane Austen!) and Tess of the D’Ubervilles (I love Thomas Hardy!) — among others, that is — are great, too! Have you read the works of Amy Tan, Sue Townsend, and Edith Wharton yet? They are really great authors. I’ve not read Angela’s Ashes yet (I bought a copy just two weeks ago). Got to watch the film adaptation, though. What do you think of it (film)?

Sidney, yeah, I know; it’s something you had ‘discussed’ with me on my now closed X-Pat Files blog before. There’s nothing wrong in collecting books for their aesthetical value — and not only for their content — of course. My brother and my husband are book collectors just like you (they don’t have the time to read their entire book collection as well). My sister and I collect books, too, but my sister and I do try to read all the books we buy as much as we can because we firmly believe that books are meant to be read. To each his own.
By Major Tom, October 26, 2008 @ 3:05 pm

I’ve rented the movie adaptation of “Angela’s Ashes’ right about last year and i didn’t enjoy it as much as the book. I tell you, better rok first before seeing the movie because the other way around might just blunt the whole thing, since its a very good book, one that could be considered as one of my most fave of all time. The movie just didn’t made the grade…

BTW, i’ve read Amy Tan’s “Joy Luck Club” amd it was fascinating, truly enjoyable.
By Freitag, October 26, 2008 @ 3:16 pm

Major Tom, yeah, I know that one must read the book first before watching the film (it just so happened I got to watch the film Angela’s Ashes first due to circumstances). Years ago, I watched the film adaptation of M.M. Kaye’s Far Pavilions. I hated the film so much that I didn’t read the book anymore. My sister said. “That’s a pity because the book is really great.” So, lesson learned: read the book first before watching the film version. (Hey, read Amy Tan’s The Kitchen God’s Wife if you get the chance. It’s better than The Joy Luck Club, in my opinion. But they’re both great books, really. The Kitchen God’s Wife should be turned into a film, too.)
By ms, October 26, 2008 @ 9:42 pm

Jayred,

Roots…yes, I introduce this book to my ten year son 4 summers ago as our “summer reading book” This is one of his favorite. Alex Haley is a great writer and he takes you there to Kunta Kinte’s world. As my son marveled to the power of this book , saying that he can practically hear the twig snapping,and smell the Toubobs when they snatched Kinte…yes… this is what good books should do!
I remember there was a Tv miniseries of “Roots”- I have never seen it myself so we decided to rent it. Our verdicts…Blech…with the Hollywood spin as usual, just stick with the book. Michael Ondaatje”s “English Patient” is an exception, though. He is such a poetic novelist, enjoyed his work immensely and with Ralph Fiennes (great actor) the movie adaption did his book justice.

I hope things are good on your end.

MS
By jake m, October 27, 2008 @ 8:07 am

since i was hooked on internet, i gave all the books i owned except 3 cookbooks and a book on cocktails.
By Freitag, October 28, 2008 @ 4:16 pm

MS, you and your son must be avid book readers as well! I bet you’re terribly proud of your son — I mean, reading Roots at a tender age of six (did I get it right?). I plan to borrow the book at the library this week. And if I like it, I’ll buy a copy on Amazon.

Jake, thanks for the blog visit/comment. Well, for me, nothing beats reading a tangible book in bed. e-Books just don’t work for me.
By Sining :), October 29, 2008 @ 7:24 pm

Yehey!:) Is this your new blog? Congratulations!!! I love how you call it. I’m a member of the TGIF Club too. I love Fridays.:)

Speaking of books, I’m also a certified bookworm but I seem to prefer nonfiction books these days. It’s probably to offset my overdose of children’s fiction from my son’s collection and at school. I seem to “own” his books now too. He would sometimes ask me to read the same book TEN TIMES.:P I could already read it with my eyes closed. Hihi.:)

Have a good Halloweeny Friday!:)
By myepinoy, October 30, 2008 @ 2:49 pm

me, i got few but i read online. oh my children, they have a lot including videos (pag tinatamad magbasa).

The good thing is i got to read them during my vacation. The only problem is i must be careful not to remove the bookmarks and other stuff inserted there.

And you know why i opened astore? kasi pag di available sa Pinas, daddy is always on the rescue, buy online with the agreement that they will pay me later. ang siste, nagkakalimutan na… ha ha ha
By Freitag, October 31, 2008 @ 2:03 pm

Thanks, Sining. Here’s to joyful Fridays! That was funny: the line about you being able to read J’s favorite book even with your eyes closed (LOL). Hope all is well with you and your family in Basel.

Myepinoy, ‘Daddy’ is so generous talaga (LOL). Good you got the chance to read some of your books during your RP vacation (I don’t really like reading things online because it strains my eyes). I also opened my aStores (USA and Germany) so I could buy hard-to-find books for myself, husband, relatives, and friends.
By ms, October 31, 2008 @ 3:27 pm

Jayred,

My apologies - I got my first sentence jumbled there - he was 10 years old when we read “Roots”( he is 14 now).

MS
By Freitag, November 4, 2008 @ 2:30 pm

MS, no problem. Thanks for the clarification. I just borrowed a copy of “Roots” at the public library!