Feeding the Book Dragon

My wife says I'm a "Book Dragon"—one who collects books just to have them, not necessarily to read them. To a certain extent, she has a point... my TBRs currently line multiple shelves on multiple bookcases. My Calibre library has over fifteen-hundred ebooks & digital comics of some stripe, of which I've read maybe a tenth. My Audiobookshelf has over two-hundred titles, with only thirty-three remaining unread, mostly because I can only squeeze reading time in while doing something else that requires my eyes and my hands but leaves my ears relatively free.

Except for the audiobooks, which are relatively recent acquisitions, I've built these collections over decades. My physical books are generally by favorite authors, or about favorite subjects. My digital content is often more adventurous, as I look for deeply discounted sale items, bundles, or freebies.

I prefer to own rather than rent—I don't want something I've purchased to disappear because some stuffed shirt decides they don't want me to have it anymore—so I mostly buy from places like Kobo.com, Libro.fm, or the aforementioned Humble Bundle, which offer relatively easy (usually DRM^[1]-free) downloads. This is also why I have robust Blu-ray, audio CD, and DRM-free MP3 collections. I buy the work of my favorite artists and creators both to feed whatever capitalist algorithm determines who gets to produce the work I enjoy, and to ensure that I have access to it for as long as I want, not as long as they want.

Almost every industry is moving towards subscription-based streaming, or "rental" models, where your ownership of a book, movie, song, software, coffeemaker, or car is subject to the whims of whatever entity paid the most money the most recently to control it. Some things, like the hundreds of terrible movies and shows on Netflix or my kids' latest pop music obsessions, I don't mind "renting" via subscription, but if I want to curl up with my wife and a bowl of popcorn to watch Kirk face off against Khan, or Deckard grapple with Roy Batty over the nature of existence like tears in rain, I don't want Paramount+ or Amazon getting in our way.

This tension between the classical "ownership" and modern "rental" models is why I've set up my website to sell my work to you directly and DRM-free, rather than solely through retailers. Yes, I also get a better percentage on direct sales, but what matters most to me is that you can get my work from wherever works best for you, and that once you buy it, that copy is yours to do with as you please.

So now, having unburdened myself and exposed my "Book Dragon" nature, I'm curious—what's your relationship with modern media? Are you, like me, a hoarder of beloved artistic or intellectual expressions, or are you more like my wife, who plows headlong through every eBook the library will lend her? Are you satisfied with transient access to the wider world of media afforded by the subscription model, or do you prefer to truly own a narrower selection of beloved favorites?

I'd love to hear how you are navigating the changing world of reading and media, so please share your thoughts or your personal approach to books and media by leaving a comment on this post.