I stop by local bookstores during some of my commute, and there's just so much bad, uninteresting, and cringe woke books. The classics section is almost nonexistent, a good chunk of these shops are filled with useless toys and crap, and the history section has just become propaganda and gender theory. Does anyone else here keep a personal library and if so, can you name a book you own that you believe is now rare? I don't mean rare as in just a first edition, either. Rare as in you can't find it in most bookstores and can't easily find used copies online.

For my own reasons I have started to build my own personal library even though I don't have any room for one. I buy tons of books every month and just toss them in a corner, gonna sort it later. I didn't start this because I noticed a decrease in quality of books. I started this because I'm a collector and like owning my own physical copy. As for owning rare books I wouldn't say I have any of those. There are a few books now that if I sold a used copy could fetch around a nice amount, but you can still find used copies online for costly values. I do have 1 book that you won't find in any bookstore or library, but that's because it's a self published book from a local author and he gave it away for free. (I should've had him sign it, then it could've been considered rare.)

I doubt many people start their own library as a result of a decrease in quality of books. Most people do these things because they simply enjoy them, myself included, and I started my library all the way back in middle school for this reason. There's just something so great about physical books that ebooks cannot replace. The whole experience is different and I believe physical books make the mind sharper. There are some people nowadays going around claiming that reading makes you dumber, but I really can't take them seriously.