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Totally with you on the books thing. In fact I was a bit disturbed to see you admit how absurd the thought of buying some favourite Kindle books in paper is, because I was still secretly holding out for that possibility to become my reality. I'm curious about this aversion to the 'incomplete' book shelf though. To not allow any books to be displayed because it wouldn't be the full collection seems absurd as well! Where in life do we have the complete collection? Our decades of music collections must be spread across numerous formats, does that mean we don't display the records/cd lest the mp3s or streaming history goes unrecognised?

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I didnt actually answer your main point. It's not so much about the collection being 'incomplete' for me. All collections are incomplete because I read books that I don't own etc. It's more that it just stops at a moment in time....but my life of the mind carried on. And it just felt a bit weird to me

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It can be your reality! My absurd doesn't have to be yours too :)

I even had a daydream about a startup that connected to your Kindle library and made fake books for your shelves...

(I also don't have a music collection. Books are pretty much the only thing I've ever had a collection of!)

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Yeah maybe it's okay. Like when you buy a favourite album in a different format cos it is so important to you (or it is remastered). I do have a physical music collection but when I moved across continents I put all the CDs into a binder. Now I'm settled back in UK I really wish I could put the CD cases all back on a shelf - for the same textural reasons you describe, but also as a navigation device.

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