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> book lovers love to have an item/collectible rather than the content

I think it's that they (I guess I'd say we) love to have the item _in addition_ to the content. I read books because I like to read. I will happily acknowledge that I buy physical books for mostly nostalgic reasons, and for the added benefit that I can give/lend them to people easily. Physical books were such a massive part of my childhood that the experience of reading one conjures up decades of positive memories and emotions.

That said I don't think it's a signaling thing, really. At least not for most folks. I mean I don't think there are very many people out there accumulating books in the hopes that people who come to their house will see them and think something about them.

I bought a kindle years ago and love the convenience and compactness of having all of my reading material on that little device.

Now I have two young children, and I've gradually started to build up a collection of physical books at home - not just children's books, but books for myself as well. I realized at some point that:

* I want them to know (I would even say "take for granted") that we value reading

* I want them to have easy access to lots of good books at or slightly above their current reading/maturity level

* I want them to see the sort of things their parents are interested in (they rarely see me reading for pleasure, even though it's one of my favorite things to do, because I mostly do that when they're asleep).

There is definitely an intentional signalling component to this, but it's not about signalling to the outside world for status, it's about signalling to our kids/each other about the kinds of things that we value.

In addition:

> Physical books were such a massive part of my childhood that the experience of reading one conjures up decades of positive memories and emotions

My hope is that we can create an environment for them that is conducive to exactly this sort of experience.

As for the third point: when I was a kid I stumbled upon a collection of books at my grandmother's house, mostly sci-fi (Dune, Asimov, some Vonnegut), that my Dad had read when he was young. It introduced me to a whole world of literature that would become very important to me, and also gave me a glimpse into a side of his personality that I wasn't aware of.

> * I want them to see the sort of things their parents are interested in

This is one thing smartphones have destroyed and no one ever mentions. From the ouside you can't know what someone is doing when they are on their phone. That's ok when it's strangers in the underground.

But at home 90% of what my wife does is on her phone whether it be reading, watching photos, shopping, ... and to me it's a sort of inaccessible world.

Honestly I find it embarrassing that I have so many books because I think the default assumption people have is that it's related to signaling on some level. If I easily could I'd hide 'em away before people came over (or reduce the appearance of the collection to something more reasonable ;)

I have the hopeful notion that one day I can re-read a book. But there are few books I've actually read twice or more.

> It's amusing when I say that 'I hate books'. But usually I read more (books) than my peers, I just don't like the form factor of the book. It's heavy, making notes is clunky compared to Kindle or any other ereader. I don't care about all that fluff and 'smell of paper'.

Paper books are a very different form factor, with some definite UI benefits over ebooks—though how important those are depends on the book, and what the reader's doing with it. The size & weight cost of paper books is, undeniably, huge, though. (also, they're impossible to pirate in bulk at ~zero cost...)

Put it this way: if ebook readers—the devices themselves—cost the same as paper books, but each one could only hold one book, and that one book couldn't be replaced, I don't think many people would choose them over paper books. The size and weight factors are a huge benefit, but they're also nearly all of the benefit, so if that's much reduced, there's not a lot left to recommend ebooks over paper books. Whatever's left of their advantages wouldn't have been anywhere near enough to create a market for them. Paper book UI is really good—but damn, are they heavy and bulky.

> Put it this way: if ebook readers—the devices themselves—cost the same as paper books, but each one could only hold one book, and that one book couldn't be replaced, I don't think many people would choose them over paper books.

The first commercially successful category of e-book was the e-dictionary, in the early 2000s. Being able to carry in your pocket the equivalent of a 2000-page tome and search it instantly was a gamechanger for language learners and translators, so people were willing to pay $200-$400 for it.

Sure, dictionary databases replace the primary reference-focused use case of huge—the really good ones are multi-volume, and cost a lot more than $400—dictionaries, much as desktop reference books of facts & figures, books of field-specific tables, et c., are all but entirely replaced by Google or other, more specialized databases. This is the same dynamic that saw filing cabinets and card catalogs replaced with computer systems—I'm not sure it applies to books, broadly, but certain types of reference books, so far as their primary role as on-demand lookup systems, are generally much inferior to searchable digital databases, that's clear.

I mean, you aren't wrong about some people, who buy books as a status sign.

But, as a counterpoint - I buy physical books because (a) my eyes hurt when reading an e-reader; (b) paper-white are laggy so far, that's annoying; and (c) I am easily, EASILY distracted when on a device that faces the internet. The only way to get immediate response, no eye-strain, and no access to technology is a physical book.

> my eyes hurt when reading an e-reader

You are not supposed to get eye strain with e-paper. There's no light source. I mean, newer ones have 'backlight', but you can just turn it off. For me it's good because I can make the font bigger, so less eye strain.

Also, at least for a kindle paperwhite (older 2018 model, I think), it's very slow to do anything on the internet, so I never used it save for checking the next volume of a book on the amazon store.