> I have a 2k epub collection.

> My bookworm friends claim it's not a "real" private private library

As long as it's in an un-DRM'd format where your access to it doesn't require anyone else's permission, it's a real private library. Who cares what anyone else thinks?

Your friends are just poking fun, of course it's a real library. I also have a large number of ebooks (in addition to a 1-2k book physical library) and the ebooks are, paradoxically, less accessible. It's too easy to just download hundreds of books in one go (let's say if you wanted all the original Goosebumps books) and not actually look at them, whereas every physical book has to be obtained and shelved individually. Then ebooks disappear into Calibre where I utterly forget about them, whereas a physical book's presence on the shelf is a constant reminder that it exists and is waiting for me to read it.

That is one concern I have about a similar collection of Kindle titles --- I'm hoping that having access to the associated e-mail account (the password is on a slip of paper in an envelope in the safe) will allow my son on-going access when I pass away.

The one downside of ebooks is there's no way to donate them to a library. I have a hundred and something books on the kindle that will never be read again.

Although I guess I don't "own" them, I only license them.