Classy Faustian rule

The book:

3000 pages of MLP fan fiction

You called? 👀

"I bought another book"

transactional
people will ask if you REALLY need more books
reminds you you live under capitalism and sends your money to someone who has enough money already

"i downloaded this PDF, and found a way to directly support the author (donation of some sort, some sort of merchandise, some other third thing)"

you didnt have to pay 3 different middlemen (a bookstore, a publisher, the manufacturer)
you either kept more of your money, or the author got more than if you had bought the book
you can share the pdf with friends and family, and it isnt taking up space.

finding a way to support the author is optional if its a college textbook or some shit you're required to have.

you can share the pdf with friends and family, and it isnt taking up space.
Ah, yes, but how will this appease the book hoarder in me?
- You can back it up across multiple RAID arrays as well as put it into cold storage on blu-ray discs.
- Pretty linux file explorer ux on a pi, projected onto a wall.
I'm supporting my bookstore(it's a small business and the old man is nice).

all books are priceless treasures

😐 https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2.The_Worst_Books_of_All_Time

Yeah, that's an extremely hot take. 90% of everything is garbage and books are no exception. I don't understand this mystification of books. As if shit becomes better when you take the effort of printing and binding it.
- I'm quite certain it's a carry-over from the 'middle' ages. Before the printing press, books would take an extreme amount of resources to create. You had to get the leather from a calf or ~~ten~~ twenty+ (IIRC one calf has enough skin for two pages), which would be bought from multiple villages within a lords domain (understand that cows were incredibly valuable back then for their milk and meat). Then you had to prepare it; the reason calves were used was because their skin would be relatively undamaged from bug bites (which would became holes during preparation) and would have somewhat less hair on it. Then you would have to have a scribe actually write in it and have it "illuminated" by other craftsmen (making it look pretty by applying gold leaf to the cover and/or the first letters of the chapter). This would all take years of labour as well.
  By the end, a finished, illuminated book would likely cost more than the entire building it's stored in, hence the chained libraries.
- I swear one of my mates buys books as ornaments…
The Giver is on this list?? It’s the only book I’ve wiling read three times!
- Northern Lights (The Golden Compass for you Americans) is also No. 25 on the list, so fair to say it's a rather controversial list.
That's a good list of utter trash. The Catcher in the Rye seems out of place though.
Is Twilight really such a bad book? I read the first book when I was 12. I can't remember it being exceptionally bad – but again, I was 12...
- I can't speak to that, but the two films I did go see ('ironically' apparently with my gf and our mate) were atrocious, despite a strong Robert Patterson

Ironically, I bought a financial advice book from (what I found out midway through to be) a British "finfluencer". It was bad. It came in a glossy and attractive packaging, but I would certainly not call it a priceless treasure.