It’s a real thing. Or more precisely, a real pattern people notice in themselves. Calling it a “sickness” implies the person isn’t happy about it either — and that discomfort usually isn’t about the buying itself, it’s about not setting aside the time or energy to actually read what you bought.
It’s probably a way of coping with the day’s stress. You don’t want to deal with today’s responsibilities, so instead you make empty plans for a future version of yourself. You tell yourself “this book would be useful” and buy it, without factoring in whether you’ll actually have the time or energy for it. And if you managed to catch a discount on top of it, that little dopamine hit makes you happier — inching you a bit closer to a habit. Not like smoking, obviously — more like spending money as a way to feel good.
People who do this will usually admit themselves that they buy books and never read them. Is it about performing an image? Performing an identity happens through the objects you surround yourself with — you put a certain car key or a certain phone on the table, maybe a cigarette. That’s image-performance. Unread books on a shelf aren’t quite the same thing, though — because the books you choose still say something real about your actual interests, and interests are a genuine part of who you are. My own books happen to be from André Deutsch, a British publisher — though apparently made using Austrian forest timber — not that it matters, but hey, if that’s something to feel good about, so be it. A Kindle obviously can’t replicate that. People should just prefer whatever makes them happy, even if it’s a little irrational.
In Turkey specifically, physical books are genuinely cheap, which makes a Kindle almost unnecessary — abroad, a Kindle costs about as much as 2-3 books. Here, that same money buys you 40-50 books, depending on what you choose.
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