How to Money · Wednesday, August 5, 2026
Jack Raines has shifted from e-books to a strong preference for physical books, inspired in part by writing his own. He has purchased a significant number of books recently to fill out his bookshelf, viewing it as a form of intellectual status signaling.
“I have gone full circle and I'm so in on physical books.”
“I've bought like fifty or sixty books in the last two months, and I'm probably only going to read maybe a third of them. But I'm trying to fill out the bookshelf.”
“So the it's one of those like intellectual status signaling. I have a bookshelf, but the most recent splurge has one hundred percent ben like, let's fill out the shelf with physical bucks.”