Not in our family, although everyone reads a lot. It is further seared into my brain not to buy books as we are downsizing and over the last few months I have taken 1,000+ books to the local donation place.
We do have a local independent bookstore, and I’m friends with the owner. It makes no profit, the family basically runs it as a community service (they can easily bankroll the shop.)
I use my kindle because my eyes have a hard time with normal sized fonts, one of my daughter’s uses a kindle reluctantly but prefers real books, they’re just not as practical (she uses public transportation daily).
I am a big reader and so are both of my daughters. I consume regular books as well as books on the kindle. D1 reads mostly on the kindle and D2 reads all real books. We used to have a Crown Books (anyone remember them) across the street from us. When the girls were little we spent so much time there looking at books and buying their favorite ones. After Crown Books left that space an Ulta went in there, but has since left. A few weeks ago I saw a sign on the space that said a Barnes and Noble is coming there this summer. I am so excited to have a book store so close once again. I get many of the books I read from a second hand book seller that is at many of our farmers markets in town. He sells books for $5 each or $20 for 5 books. After I pass around the books I buy to family I usually put them in the little library that we now have near our house.
My area has a very diverse housing stock: high rise housing projects, subsidized housing in small garden type apartments, lots and lots of condos in all configurations and price ranges, lots and lots of single family homes at all price tags. We do have a small homeless population- the main shelter in town is for men only, but various organizations work hard to place women with children (or single women) in some type of supportive housing situation.
BUT (you knew there was a but). In order to get the higher density buildings approved, the developers got waivers on what had previously been iron clad rules on parking. Every apartment, condo built needed to have two dedicated spaces, either underground or in an adjacent lot. The public/private consortium that got a lot of the subsidized housing built successfully got that regulation waived (arguing that a low income family does not own two cars).
Well- guess what- it is impossible to park in many parts of town now, and it’s equally impossible to drive down some of those streets at certain times of day. Turns out that a low income family (especially a multi-generation one which many of them are) DO own two cars. And because their buildings lack parking, every single conceivable space on the street is taken. You can’t return a book to the library without paying to go into a lot or garage- there is no way to just park your car for two minutes, dump the book in the slot, and move on. And when school buses are picking up or dropping off- just stay home.
So I love the diversity of housing options, which leads to diversity of people and families and all that stuff. But city planners who focus on housing don’t necessarily think through the entire model. Everyone wants to live in a walkable community (which this one is, at least the parts near the urban core, the commuter train, etc.) but that doesn’t mean not being able to drive through town to get somewhere else. Density is great, but the streetscape wasn’t built for so many vehicles!
Guilty pleasure here. The first thing first-time visitors (especially, anyone under the age of thirty) notices when they enter my apartment is that I have bookshelves.
That makes sense, I can see why someone might like to do this. My husband occasionally says he wants to do this in retirement, but we don’t have the appropriate bankroll size.
As it is, he probably singlehandedly supports our local independent bookstore… seems like every day, I see a new book or two sitting around (and we have bookshelves covering EVERY wall and also PILES of books that don’t fit on the bookshelves…)
Personally I read a LOT but I prefer Kindle, because I can enlarge the print! And usually, I just check the books out of the library online. So I’m not really doing my part to support bookstores (or publishers or authors for that matter… 
) But H buys enough for the both of us.
My S23 doesn’t seem to read for pleasure much (he prefers video). However, D26 likes to read, prefers physical books to Kindle, and I have noticed a lot of physical book reading among her friend group. They also frequently buy each other books as presents, and lend books to each other.
Sweet.
Love it. The tintin books - we have the whole series!
Many of our apartment complexes are old and don’t offer any parking, our town doesn’t allow street parking from 3 am - 5 am. Unfortunately some realtors aren’t forthcoming with this information.
H has all of his Tintin books from his childhood. He just framed the two posters in the picture and is trying to decide where to hang them.
This is the same issue we are having here. The ADU’s or apartments are being built without any parking required if they are within a mile of public transit. Unfortunately most people here in Southern California have cars so the street parking is then filled up.
And the law of unintended consequences then kicks in- folks DO take public transportation to work, but use the car on the weekend. Which means during normal business hours you cannot park on the street. Not to run into the dry cleaners, grab a bagel, mail a package…
As someone who is having to physically pack up to donate all the books in my mother’s home, I am no longer a book buyer (and way over 30). There are so many books! Coffee table books with beautiful photography, gardening books, bird books, travel books, Red Sox books, my father’s college year books…
My 28 year old daughter, who was never a reader but is now, is a minimalist. She doesn’t want to own books but gets them from the library. Not sure what her husband does, but if he buys books he has to get rid of them right away because she doesn’t want any ‘junk’ at her house, and even nice beautiful books are junk to her.
My 29 year old daughter hoards books. She was a history major. She wants all the books she can collect. Her husband doesn’t feel the same way. He hoards tools. No one wants to help them move as everything is heavy. (she just called me…she’s on her way to the book store).
(all bookstores here, including Barnes and Noble) have coffee shops in them. Tattered Cover, a ‘rated’ independent bookstore, always had a cafe and later had a coffee bar in all locations)
We own an indie bookstore. When doing our research, industry best practices noted that a town that can support a farmer’s market will also support an indie bookstore.
We have a 20 year old Farmer’s Market and that best practice was spot on. We have grown in sales every year and are an anchor in town. People come from HOURS away for some of the small, niche authors we host. Our customers tell us they do not want to do business with the 800 pound behemoth, they would rather come in and browse and perhaps spend a little more.
The independent bookstore industry is actually growing and a lot of it is pushback to the unethical practices of that behemoth. Customers love that we can suggest personalized books, that we sponsor release day parties for the new Taylor Jenkins Read book for example, that we provide authors to the local school and can fulfill book orders for the school librarians at a great price.
Our town of 16,000 also has 3 indie coffee shops nearby and an indie theatre. All the restaurants in town are locally owned as well.
I want to live where you live… 
Another fire station.
In NYC, developers of new apartment buildings usually agree to accept a big percentage of units (25-50 percent) which will be filled via the affordable housing lottery system. The developers get a variance for more density or a tax break. The system works very efficiently and rent is 30 percent (approx) of income with apartments offered at various percentiles median incomes. Although there’s still a huge shortage of affordable housing, this puts a dent in it. It also allows families in NYC public housing project buildings to move elsewhere that’s affordable, opening space for families in the shelter system (of which there are many, including a big proportion of working people who just can’t afford the rent).
Here’s the affordable-housing lottery site. I believe you can browse without registering. Whatever info re income and assets you register with is verified if you are selected.
But we do have independent bookstores and coffee shops, a variety of restaurants (including fine dining), grocery stores, movie theaters, and sidewalks!
I was shocked when my D (who lives in a rent stabilized apartment building in Brooklyn) told me that her landlord (who lives in Kansas City,KS) pays $900 a year for property tax. This is for a brownstone with 4 apartments.
