How many books do you really own?
Many years ago, I heard a library science professor speak about the real concept of book ownership during a book acquisition lecture. A voracious reader, he wanted to share with his students what it truly meant to ‘own a book.’
“To own a book goes beyond purhasing a book at the bookstore and putting it on your shelf back home,” he said. “No, it’s more than that. The only time you can say you own a book is when you’ve read it from cover to cover and have mastered its content by heart.”
It was such an erudite remark that I had to share it with my sister who, like me, is a certified bookworm. “That’s a great definition,” my sister said. In the months — and years — to come, my sister and I would read each other’s book purchases and declare at the end of each reading conquest, “Hey, I own your book!”
I can’t remember how many times my sister had told me this line. She had read most of my books (mostly modern classics, humor books, how-to books, self-help bestsellers, comic books, and reference books on PR writing and journalism) more than I had read hers (mostly must-read classics). Well, with my busy schedule as a journalist at that time, I couldn’t read as many books as I wanted to. More often than not, she would own my freshly purchased book even before I had the chance to flip through the first few pages! She would sometimes tease me that she was the rightful owner of some of my books (I’ve still not yet read all the books I had bought in the past — shame on me!).
Now, here’s the funny thing: my older brother is an avid book collector. When he was still living in Manila — he now resides in the US — he would buy lots of medical books as well as Christian books, and his bedroom would eventually look like a mini library of sorts. I loved his Christian book collection and found myself poring over his books during, say, my two-hour bus journeys from our home to the office and vice versa. Eventually, I ended up becoming the real ‘owner’ of his Christian books just because he had not found the time to read most of them — even to this day. He was more a book hoarder than a reader.
Fortunately, I now have more time to ‘own borrowed books’ on a regular basis here in Switzerland — although I still buy books online and offline as I was wont to do in the past — thanks to my public library membership and my less hectic timetable.
It was great to read from start to finish, for instance, Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Soseki Natsumi’s Botchan, Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha, Mitsuyo Kakuta’s Woman on the Other Shore, Sue Townsend’s Number 10 and Rebuilding Coventry, and be able to say to myself after reading the last page of each borrowed book, “Yes, I finally own this book!”
The other day, when I returned some DVDs at the library, I spotted Alex Haley’s Roots displayed on the English section shelf. My family has a copy of that book in Manila, but I never got around to reading it in the past. What a pity.
I really want to own Roots soon, without having to buy a copy on Amazon (not yet, anyway). Owning a book has never been so practical yet meaningful at the same time. Thanks, Prof. Cobaria, for your enlightening insight.
TIDBITS: There’s a nice English bookstore located in the university town of Neuchatel called Used Ink, which sells used English books (something like what Booksale does in Metro Manila, albeit on a much smaller scale). Owned by an American expat, Used Ink also sells secondhand French titles. The bookstore relies mainly on book donations from owners of English/French books. For more information on how to get there, you can visit the Used Ink website here.

