I have about 6000 books, about 1000 of these are on Kindle.
Of the 6000, most have bookmarks. I read at least the first 50 pages of most of them. I've finished a couple hundred so far. I found my old business cards make perfect bookmarks.
I guess "No one buys books" isn't strictly true.
I tried to write 4 books. I was told that I'd likely sell less that 1000. Beyond that would be considered a major win. I finished one, published it, and have made about $500. It took me months to write.
I love books. I have a copy of "I, Robot" signed by Asimov. I really like books signed by authors.
My book took a year and a half to write and has made about $400 in direct royalties.
I can't precisely quantify the return on investment, but I believe that having the ISBN on my resume has resulted in me getting more work opportunities and/or salary, so it's a pretty good investment. Also people think you're smart for having the stupidity to start writing a book without having the good sense to abandon the project halfway through.
I'm not sure I understand the "I read at least the first 50 pages of most of them". Did you somehow receive 6000 books in one huge batch and you're just checking them out, one by one?
I mean, I've thousands of books in my collection (though I've had to dump a ton of them lately due to space restrictions.. that's sad), and I've read all of them end-to-end. If a book is so bad that I can't finish it.. it does happen with "free" Kindle books, but for my paper book collection I think there are maybe two or three I didn't read all through.
Of the 6000, most have bookmarks. I read at least the first 50 pages of most of them. I've finished a couple hundred so far. I found my old business cards make perfect bookmarks.
I guess "No one buys books" isn't strictly true.
I tried to write 4 books. I was told that I'd likely sell less that 1000. Beyond that would be considered a major win. I finished one, published it, and have made about $500. It took me months to write.
I love books. I have a copy of "I, Robot" signed by Asimov. I really like books signed by authors.