[spindlegirl]

When my children were little and we borrowed books I had to be on them like white on rice - they were hard on books. That having been said, even the books we *owned* lasted a while longer than one would expect with a 5-children household.

Publishers must think the people they are selling books to (or should I say, not selling) have never handled physical books in their normal day to day lives, or lived with people who are hard on books. Do they only hope to sell to people who were born after 2001?

I have some books that I have had and used since I was in grade school that I still read and use. I've lived long enough to do considerable damage to books. With the exception of extraordinary circumstances, in my 40+ years of book ownership, I'm finding the 26 loan thing extremely hard to swallow just based on my personal experience alone.