1. New popular books take months or even years (looking at you harry potter, got a call from my local branch 2 years after I bought the book that it was ready to pick up) to become available. I know a lot of people can wait, but maybe you need to read it sooner so you can talk about it with your friends while it is in the zeitgeist. Maybe you don't want to wait half a year only to have it for 2 weeks before it goes to the next person with a hold
2) You mention interlibrary loans, every library can do that but every library has different polices and because there is a cost (somebody has to pay to have Dan Brown shipped from Kirkwood to Albuquerque) most place limits on how often, fiction vs non-fiction, etc. It won't help you at all with 1) because if's nationally popular, every branch is checked out.
3) Can't markup a library book, which to me is one of the only advantages of a paper tree-killer vs my e-ink reader.
1. New popular books take months or even years (looking at you harry potter, got a call from my local branch 2 years after I bought the book that it was ready to pick up) to become available. I know a lot of people can wait, but maybe you need to read it sooner so you can talk about it with your friends while it is in the zeitgeist. Maybe you don't want to wait half a year only to have it for 2 weeks before it goes to the next person with a hold
2) You mention interlibrary loans, every library can do that but every library has different polices and because there is a cost (somebody has to pay to have Dan Brown shipped from Kirkwood to Albuquerque) most place limits on how often, fiction vs non-fiction, etc. It won't help you at all with 1) because if's nationally popular, every branch is checked out.
3) Can't markup a library book, which to me is one of the only advantages of a paper tree-killer vs my e-ink reader.