It used to drive my lib family insane that I would only buy used books and beat the crap out of them, because they didn't like the way they looked next to the good books (mostly stuff recommended by the NYT and NPR). So yeah, it's partly an aesthetic, trendy thing for them.
Do liberals buy books just to stack their shelves. They look so untouched. I beat the shit out my books, write in them, stick post its all over.
It used to drive my lib family insane that I would only buy used books and beat the crap out of them, because they didn't like the way they looked next to the good books (mostly stuff recommended by the NYT and NPR). So yeah, it's partly an aesthetic, trendy thing for them.