I don't think that's true. Between my wife and I, our personal library has nearly 1,000 physical books (and I have a few hundred more digital books), but having those print copies means kiddo can pull down many of the same books and learn from them.

We don't keep everything. We won't even buy everything. We're choosy. But we love good books. Biography and history, science, politics, classics, my computer books (the durable ones, not the ephemeral "Java 2" kinds of things), and a large swath of science fiction and fantasy, and some on general fiction, and finally... cooking.

Amazon, or Apple, or Google can't reach into my home and suddenly alter my books. They can't suddenly excise them from my library when their license to "distribute" the digital copy evaporates. Paper books are a good thing, and I'll keep buying them.

I think it can be both. We have quite a lot of books for our space (is that the right word for how much room you have in a house?), but we also curate our books. Once in a while we’ll donate books we don’t actually want to re-read or maybe don’t think are worth keeping anymore.

On the flip-side I do think physical books are good. I think they are decorative, and even though I basically only read audiobooks I buy a physical copy of the books I really like. The reason I read them as audiobooks has to do with my ADHD. I have a tough time reading a physical book because my attention goes away from it. Which has nothing to do with the modern age of distractions because it was also like this before the internet. Audiobooks on the other hand are relatively easy for me to follow. Part of it is because I can do “don’t require mental attention” tasks while I read them, which makes it easier for me to focus on the book.

I guess I didn’t have to buy them, but I think it’s important to have them.