I made a point to stop buying new books
about forty years ago
when I was reading a fantasy series
and I bought the hardcover
of 13th book in the series new
and realized I still hadn’t read it
when I saw the paperback of the 15th book
selling on the street for a dollar.

I decided I didn’t need to crowd my shelves
or waste my money if I wasn’t going to immediately
be on top of my reading
(I’m not sure if I ever did read that 13th book).

I started exploiting the library system, too,
so that I could share the books with the rest of the public,
since I rarely needed to own the book I wanted to read,
simply choosing to rent the information
for a little while.

These ideas haven’t changed much.
Only occasionally do I feel the need to own a book.
Sometimes, I like to buy them for other people, of course,
and purchasing second-hand is a great pleasure.

Also a pleasure? Sharing ideological priorities with others. I’ll do that whenever I can.