[taming]

When I was a kidlet, I borrowed The Blue Fairy Book from the library, but used my allowance to buy the latest Nancy Drew mysteries. When I was in high school, I borrowed John Steinbeck, but purchased (and hid) Alex Comfort’s The Joy of Sex. I bought new books, used books, hardcover and paperback. I haunted our local bookstores and visited others when I traveled.

I had to balance my book-lust, my impatience, and my budget.

Nothing has changed, except now almost all the books I read for pleasure are purchased over the web and downloaded. I still must make the same decisions: do I get it hot off the press (perhaps paying more), wait for a cheaper edition, borrow from the library, or simply pass on it and read something else until the object of my desire becomes available to me at a price I can afford.

I didn’t think I was entitled to set the price of what I bought in 1960 and I don’t think I am entitled to determine the price I will pay now. What I did have the power to do was refuse to buy something I thought overpriced. I’m sure that there were many times I could have slipped a book I wanted into my coat pocket and gotten away with it. Other people did it all the time.

I didn’t do it then, and I won’t do the equivalent now. I buy my books, use my library card, and I wait.