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[miauw62]

You guys read books?
You're supposed to buy them to look fancy.

That is very, very rage-worthy to me. Or maybe it's more of a sad.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

... I'm not sure whether to be enthralled or disgusted by the existence of such a business. I don't know how I feel about this. Part of me thinks they're degrading literature by making it a decoration. Another part of me thinks they're essentially selling literature booster packs, which is an idea I want to throw money at because sometimes I want to read things without knowing what I want to read.

Bauglir has found a ☼Shiny How To Kill a Mockingbird☼!

Ah dangit I wanted something expository.

[Dutchling]

... I'm not sure whether to be enthralled or disgusted by the existence of such a business. I don't know how I feel about this. Part of me thinks they're degrading literature by making it a decoration. Another part of me thinks they're essentially selling literature booster packs, which is an idea I want to throw money at because sometimes I want to read things without knowing what I want to read.

I agree with the booster pack thing. I'm pretty sure they're mainly selling to professionals though.

And when you think about it, is it really bad that people want to buy books by the foot  / yard / actual unit of measurement in order to show off? It's not like those people like reading anyway, and this way they can at least make their friends think it's a good thing to do

[Vector]

... I'm not sure whether to be enthralled or disgusted by the existence of such a business. I don't know how I feel about this. Part of me thinks they're degrading literature by making it a decoration. Another part of me thinks they're essentially selling literature booster packs, which is an idea I want to throw money at because sometimes I want to read things without knowing what I want to read.

If you don't notice, a lot of it is to stage photos for magazine photoshoots or interior design projects, not for personal use in the home.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

You see occasional Etsy ads for lots of books that were put together by theme, size, and color. As if choosing six books that go together is a task worthy of charging an extra $20 for.

[GiglameshDespair]

Please add a credit card to redeem the MS points.

No. You know why?

BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE A FUCKING CREDIT CARD AS I HAVE TOLD YOU 5 TIMES.

Are you a robot? Do you not understand human speech? Must I translate to binary or hexicode?

aaaaaaaarrrrghhhhhhhhhh.

[Iceblaster]

Have I mentioned I hate it when my parents assume what I'm thinking?

Then they tell me to not assume things about them.

Sure, I may have been in the wrong for getting angry, but fucking hell, at least try not to be hypocritical >_>

[misko27]

Have I mentioned I hate it when my parents assume what I'm thinking?

Then they tell me to not assume things about them.

Sure, I may have been in the wrong for getting angry, but fucking hell, at least try not to be hypocritical >_>

This happens to me. Except not just my mother, but my sister too. Usually it's when I ask a question and they answer the question they think I'm intending to ask.

[Bauglir]

... I'm not sure whether to be enthralled or disgusted by the existence of such a business. I don't know how I feel about this. Part of me thinks they're degrading literature by making it a decoration. Another part of me thinks they're essentially selling literature booster packs, which is an idea I want to throw money at because sometimes I want to read things without knowing what I want to read.

If you don't notice, a lot of it is to stage photos for magazine photoshoots or interior design projects, not for personal use in the home.

True. My opinion on that is that they should be using fakes and leaving the real books for people who might read them, but that's an emotional kneejerk response (there surely isn't enough demand for that, or else they wouldn't have a business model like this). I do get the need for props, of course, and can't exactly object to that. So I suppose my comments aren't terrifically applicable. Ah, well.

[Descan]

That's what the Internet is for, to give you a chance to go "Hm, is this book any good?" and/or "What is a good book, given x,y,z preferences?"

Also, I used to do the whole "Answer your question before you finish asking," but I've gotten a lot more deliberate in my habits and speaking manner in the last half-a-year and that habit is a casualty of that process.

[Vector]

True. My opinion on that is that they should be using fakes and leaving the real books for people who might read them, but that's an emotional kneejerk response (there surely isn't enough demand for that, or else they wouldn't have a business model like this). I do get the need for props, of course, and can't exactly object to that. So I suppose my comments aren't terrifically applicable. Ah, well.

Yeah... problem is that print books really do vastly exceed demand, so in general it's this or pulping.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

Also these include law books and encyclopedias which are out of date. I don't know how they used to do with encyclopedias, but law books generally get slowly more and more out of date as laws change and new cases are decided by appellate courts. You get a packet to stick in the back which adds to or modifies the contents, and eventually the packet is big enough that they stop issuing new ones and instead you have to spring for a new set of books.

A full set of cases for a state and that state's statues could easily be two yards of books right there.

Then there's all the books that are shit and everyone knows it but the publisher thinks they can sell a few. They end up running off too many and offload the remainder. Derivative cookbooks, biographies for flash-in-the-pan celebrities, books ghostwritten for people you won't care about next year and probably don't know about now, religious and political screeds with all the literary weight of a joke on a popsicle stick. These are wastes of paper when they're new, and worth less than their weight in firewood after a couple years.

Then there's the books that were decent when they came out but are no longer relevant. Atlases with USSR on them, repair manuals for vehicles nobody drives because they're too old to be good anymore but not cool enough to restore, Dummies guides for things everyone knows how to do now, tech manuals for operating systems nobody uses at home, chemistry textbooks from the 50s.

Then there's all the niche books, of good quality but very limited interest. Maritime history, commercial aircraft identification, yet another Crimean War history, diseases and infirmities of the pangolin (which are adorable and I totally want one), butterfly biology, field guides to minerals for places nobody goes, local history series for places where people suffer alienation.

Sad as it is, sometimes there are just books that nobody wants to read anymore.

[Willfor]

True. My opinion on that is that they should be using fakes and leaving the real books for people who might read them, but that's an emotional kneejerk response (there surely isn't enough demand for that, or else they wouldn't have a business model like this). I do get the need for props, of course, and can't exactly object to that. So I suppose my comments aren't terrifically applicable. Ah, well.

Yeah... problem is that print books really do vastly exceed demand, so in general it's this or pulping.

This. I worked in a bookstore for three years. When I went in I believed that books were sacrosanct. When I came out I could strip the front cover and copyright pages of a book without blinking. If shipping costs are going to be an issue, the publisher doesn't even want them back because it costs more than they're worth. A lot of unsold books that take up valuable shelfspace in the store are just destroyed on site. Storing books that don't move is a net loss because they are an unsalable asset, and warehousing costs money.

[Flying Dice]

I don't understand this whole thing about books being special in some way.

They're wood pulp and ink, with a few other bits thrown in.

They are sacred, and they double as handy blunt objects.

[Aklyon]

I don't understand this whole thing about books being special in some way.

They're wood pulp and ink, with a few other bits thrown in.

They are sacred, and they double as handy blunt objects.

*TOME!*