99% of the books I’ve read get moved from the shelf on my desk to the old cabinet outside my room. It serves as a sort of archive for all the piles of paperworks, magazines, pamphlets, school papers and books I’ve accumulated over the last five years of college.

I can’t remember if I’ve thrown away a book I’ve finished reading. Perhaps it ended up in my sister’s room or somewhere in the house. To recap, my general rule is, once I’ve finished reading a book, it leaves my room. It lessens the clutter and helps in trimming down the weight on my aging study desk.

I can’t stand to throw away a book. Even if it’s a trade paperback not worthy of a second read. Even the books I have an e-book version of are still with me. It’s old school but I am the sentimental type anyways, especially with books.

But it seems that I belong to a dying breed of book lovers as industry experts are saying that printed book sales are on downhill while e-books are on the rise. It’s all part of the ‘minimalist’ lifestyle that is slowly gaining popularity in Europe.

Susannah Straughan of Blogcritics.org tells of this lifestyle that seems to have resulted in throwing away printed books:

Earlier this week, The London Evening Standard, ran a piece called “Living the iLife”, which promised to clue us in on what “today’s smart movers” were doing with their laptops.

The unfortunately named Mark Prigg describes the radical, stripped-down lifestyle of young, London-based entrepreneur Hermione Way. Apparently, she is one of the “digital minimalists” who are perfecting the art of living without clutter and running their lives from a selection of gadgets — MacBook, iPad, iPhone. She has already junked her CDs and DVDs and says “I’m in the process of chucking out all my books as I can read them on my iPad.”

A room with no books on the shelves. The thought of it unsettles me. Sure I want to own a Kindle device but throw away all of my books and replace it with e-book equivalents? No way!!!

Just like Ms Straughan, I still:

appreciate the deep satisfaction of owning, living amongst and — yes, Guardian columnist Charlie Brooker — smelling books. You cannot enjoy a meaningful, lifelong relationship with a collection of digital files — no matter how good the contrast of the e-ink screen.

How about you? Would go down the similar path to a minimalist living and trade all your books for an e-book reader and have your library digitized?