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Comment by WolfeReader | Hacker News Reader

"I suspect most people who claim to love them are exaggerating."

I can't imagine why a person would either think, or write, this sentence. Most people are being honest when they say they enjoy a thing.

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Because it reinforces his own assumptions and prejudices. It's a way of justifying a thought that is easily disproven.

By portraying someone who doesn't think the way you do as a bad person (in this case, a liar), this person elevates themselves, in their own mind.

It's pretty much seventh-grade logic.

A (good) public library may also scratch a lot of the same itches: you can browse the stacks, they sometimes have events and "staff picks", etc.

I'd chalk it up to an egocentric assumption, because it's not hard to accept people love things. I don't care much for old cars but I understand that for some people it's a huge passion they have a lot of love for and they're not exaggerating when they mention how much it means to them.

Some people (myself included) genuinely love bookstores in general and used bookstores specifically. It's not an exaggeration, if I lived near a good bookstore I would be there regularly.

My reasoning is that loads of people I meet say they love books and bookstores - but when I go to one of the few bookstores left in my area they're mostly empty, or usually mostly families looking for kids books.

I'm probably one of those people who waxes lyrical about bookstores but don't really find myself in them nowadays. To me it's a special experience tho. I experience them like museums and there are very few left (!!) that are imbued with that character of poetic chaos and serendipity. The only book shops left may indeed only be frequented by the demographics that keep the margins nice and fat. So I suppose there's a hidden bias in your observation.

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