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01Consuming Media 10/4/07 11:17 am Page 76

76 Consuming Media

Some say that one of the advantages of owning books is that one can lend them to
friends: ‘Books should be read and not collect dust!’ 13 One of our book lovers had
even made a system for her own book lending: her ‘library’, as she calls it, is visited
by a small band of good friends. In return for the borrowed books they buy new ones
for her. But others say that they do not want others to borrow their books since it is
so hard to get them back:

I am also completely manic about buying books. I want to own all the books I
read, so that I can write my name and the date in them when I have finished
them. But I am a bit stingy about lending my books. I am reluctant to lend them
since I find it so tedious to have to beg to get my own books back and then have
them back in a worse state. But of course some of my friends can borrow, and it
is fun to lend and give tips about good books to those I know take good care of
them and return them when they have read them. (Female, 32, student teacher)
Many explain that filling one’s bookshelves has to do with identity. To write one’s
name and the date in books like the woman above is a way of inscribing the book in
one’s own life story. Several others discuss the subject of identity by saying that books
are mementoes. Children’s books bring memories of childhood back to the nostalgic
reader, and other books are time machines that take the reader back to a special time
and place:

In addition, some books can work as souvenirs, for example, from a trip. I see
one of my worn paperbacks and remember that I brought this same book with
me on a trip to Stockholm a couple of years ago, and I read this once on the
ferryboat to Umeå. Things like that are nice, and that’s why I seldom throw away
or give away books. Moreover, it is always nice to look at other people’s books
when one visits them, and I don’t want to deny my friends that pastime.
(Female, 20, student)

Like the woman quoted above, many informants emphasize that books reveal a lot
about people, not least about themselves. Someone’s books reflect his or her personal
development and identity. It is also striking that so many of the informants talk so
warmly about their books, calling them ‘friends’, even ‘family’, and say that one
cannot throw away books one likes. But books are not just friends; they are also iden-
tical with their owner. A 55-year-old man expressed the connection between him and
his books succinctly: ‘For me books forge identity; one can partly see who I am by
studying what books I have.’ Walter Benjamin regards ownership as the most inti-
mate relation one can have with an object: the bookworm lives in his or her books. 14
Books certainly seem to offer this to our book lovers. They are a part of their lives,
woven into their identity to such a degree that losing their books would be a loss of
their personal histories and identities. This is why books have to be owned, since
one’s life history and identity cannot be returned to the library, or as one of them
writes: “I would rather read books that I own than books I borrow, perhaps because
I am afraid of returning them later, when they are read?”