What do you think of when you think of the word “materialistic” or “materialism?”
When I think of this word, I think of typically expensive things, such as jewelry, and designer clothes and shoes. Things that are pretty but not what you might call “useful.” At least, I don’t. Then again, depending on who you ask, (like my dad) the same could be said for books.
Personally, all my extra funds are spent on books. Since discovering PangoBooks, the majority of the books I buy are used and discounted. But since I could get them from the library, you could make the argument that buying so many books, new or otherwise, could also be considered “materialistic.”
What do you think?
Some would argue yes, but I actually say not in the same sense as other objects since you are getting something else out of them like knowledge, inspiration, etc. A book can also be passed around to other people to share knowledge or ideas. If you buy and don’t read them there’s still the potential that you will eventually or someone else will read them.
Pretty sure it entirely depends on the reason that you value said books
When we moved cross country, mine and my partner’s fairly extensive book collection turned immediately from luxury to liability.
We each picked out a few boxes of keepers, turned the rest into digital versions and then donated them.
If you are buying books to read, and you are reading them, that’s just engaging in a hobby. If you are buying books just to have them, buying expensive first editions or fancy versions to show off and display for clout, that kind of thing, that seems materialistic to me.
Materialism isn’t so much about what you buy, it’s about the intent behind it. Buying stuff just to show off how much money you have and gain prestige through your material possessions is very different from buying things you genuinely enjoy and use and would buy regardless of if it positively benefits your social status or not.
Yes. I had several large bookcases in my old house. Nearly filled with books. And when I decided to downsize I had to have a come to Jesus with it. We had read the vast majority of them, but we never looked at them or used them anymore. In deciding to get rid of them, I realized how much of my identity was tied up in thinking of myself as a person with books - but that’s fairly silly. Books are just objects. They’re impermanent like everything else. And that’s just not the world we live in anymore. Everything is digital now. So I got rid of them - it was hard, but as I suspected then - I don’t miss them now.
I will say, that I do have some deeper thoughts on the importance of having libraries with physical copies, because if we were to ever have some massive solar storm, or other catastrophe that decimated the internet and electronics…we’d lose a great deal of knowledge and information. That is concerning.
It depends on why you buy them.
But, yes, buying books to show them off on a shelf or because you like being surrounded by books or something is probably in some sense materialistic.
After all, you could get ebooks or borrow them from your library or something like that.
For example, I will normally read ebooks or library books but then buy the ones that heavily influenced my thinking. Part of it is so I can reread them. But mostly I want to display them on a shelf both for other people to know what matters to me and so I feel surrounded by these pieces of myself. I think both of those are materialistic goals.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with being somewhat materialistic though.
If having the physical book matters to you then yes by definition.
If you mean, could they become something you value and prize like jewelry or other wealth, then yes of course. Anything could be that for a person.