Wednesday WTF: Books
Happy Hump Day everybody! Welcome to another edition of “WTF Wednesday,” my weekly rant about things that waste your money. Today my victim is a controversial one. I believe knowledge is power and educating yourself is the key to happiness in life. Despite that statement, I refuse to buy books. That sounds weird and sad, but it’s true. Now I have purchased books in my past, many of them in fact. I have a bookshelf in my office full of books and probably spent thousands on them. The few times I have had to move that shelf it’s been a terrible ordeal and I usually end up cursing part way through. I look at that shelf and it nauseates me. Today I am going to go over why I don’t buy books anymore and I don’t think you should either.
1) Once you’ve read it….what do you need it for?
On that shelf containing dozens of books, there are only 3 that I have read more than once. “The Wealthy Barber” by David Chilton, “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” and “Roots” by Alex Haley are the only books on that shelf that I have read more than once. If I have all those books on there and I still won’t read them again why do I have them at all? If it is questionable that I should own them at all, then it is questionable that I should have bought them in the first place.
2) That Interweb thing people always talk about
Once I started writing this post I googled several book titles and found web based PDF versions of them. Those web versions of those books had the amazingly low cost of FREE. Yes, books you can buy are available on the web for FREE. The good thing about web-based books is that they don’t take up a heavy shelf in your office and if you ever move you don’t have to lug them up a flight of stairs. I do like an actual paper book better, but free is free.
3) Buying textbooks in university haunts me till this day
I have an idea. Let’s take young people with very little income who are struggling to pay rent and keep food on their table and make them buy textbooks. Oh yeah, these books will cost anywhere from $50 to $200!!! It made me sick every September when I had to go to the UWO bookstore and drop $500-$700 on books that I would never use again. In fact, those books are on the shelf in my office. What made me even angrier was that every year the publisher released a new edition of the same textbook. They did that so that people couldn’t sell their older versions to younger students. Nice little racket they have there isn’t it? No wonder they have security guards in the university bookstore. Who wants to pay for that nonsense?
4) The Library is not just the place where homeless people play chess
Downtown London has a massive library. You can get your library card for the lofty price of you guessed it, FREE. It kind of warms my heart knowing someone else has shared a book with me. Knowing that several other people and I have shared some knowledge is pretty cool. Having access to thousands of books for free is pretty cool too. Makes you wonder why anyone would ever buy a book.
Please don’t get me wrong, I am not anti-book. I love books, actual books you can hold in your hand, you know old school. I personally just don’t see the point in buying them. I think books should be traded freely amongst people at no cost. I love that take a book, leave a book system. Oh yeah, and the library is pretty cool too. Knowledge shouldn’t have a price tag on it, it should be accessible to all for free. I am also not saying that people who buy books are suckers. All I am saying is that I don’t enjoy paying for them. My thoughts are that buying them is a luxury and if you are on a budget it’s a good thing to trim.
Thanks for reading “WTF Wednesday” and tune in tomorrow for “Trim the Trash Thursday.” Have a great day friends!
“I’ve given up reading books. I find it takes my mind off myself.” – Oscar Levant
https://budgetboss.ca/624-2/
Facebook – @JoeBudgetBoss LinkedIn – Joseph James Francis Quora – Joseph James Francis
Twitter – @JoeBudgetBoss Instagram – @JoeBudgetBoss
Joseph James Francis is a Financial Advisor. You can find him on various social media platforms and at budgetboss.ca.