Do you really think that spending $28 on a book is prohibitively expensive or are you playing devil's advocate? I've certainly bought computer games for $50, I definitely spend more than $28 per month on coffee and other incidentals. I wouldn't necessarily buy a book that I know nothing about for $28, sure, but a book that I know and love, or one that's a classic? I'm not made of money, but I can certainly afford $28 for that, especially since I also know it'll look great on my bookshelves for years to come and won't fall apart after 3 readings like a mass market paperback.

For me, cost per hour of involvment cost, game < book << dvd, sometimes with the double angle brackets on the left and sometimes not on the right. However, I don't re-read novels, and only re-skim technicals.

If you never reread something, I'd argue the best route for you is a library, as opposed to buying. Especially now that some of them even lend e-books.

Most books I own, I have never seen in any library near me. I'm sure this varies from region to region, but I stopped getting much value from the public library in high school, and started collecting my own. Even my university library where I went to school, with its plethora of fascinating books, has little overlap with the shelves in my house.

Books I really like I re-read many times. But for the most part I agree, probably 80% or more get read only once.

Reference type books I will use a lot, I still prefer paper books over reading on a screen for anything more than quick lookups.