It's possible to take this way too far. When my grandfather passed away, I helped my father clean out his house.

The man had a 5-bedroom 2500 sqft house, basically full wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling with books and magazines. Most of them were clearly unread.

Getting rid of all of the books was a big effort. Both physically and mentally. Turns out that not too many too many places want to take a bunch of obsolete computer books, and we didn't have the luxury of a couple of years to sell them all on Amazon or something.

It was a burden on all of us. Image a week-long bucket brigade from upstairs and downstairs. Every armful got heavier and heavier.

In the end, most of them went into the dumpster. Probably $100k worth of books purchased over the years, all obsolete and rotting in a hoarder's trove. I'd guess a couple of tons by weight.

I was really struck by the waste of it all, and it's dramatically altered my perception of owning books.

If you buy too many books, remember - your habits will eventually become somebody else's problem to deal with. You could be doing anything else with the money instead of wasting it on dead trees that somebody will eventually just have to throw away.