A few years ago, Melissa Boyes's collection of 3,000-plus books had started to overcrowd the family house.
"When my husband told me that I wasn't allowed to buy any more books because we didn't have enough bookshelves … my solution was just to buy more bookshelves," Ms Boyes jokes.
"He was worried the house's foundations weren't going to take it, so we decided this was a good space to set up and have somewhere safe for them to be stored."
The "good space" is an old shed on the family property in Wodonga, in north-east Victoria, that Ms Boyes and her husband Lachlan Smith started fixing up in 2019.
"The roof had caved in – there was no door, [no] windows and there was no floor, and it was full of hay and snakes and rats," Ms Boyes says.
Fixing up the old shed ended up being a COVID 19-related lockdown project and after a three-year effort, the 3,000 plus books moved in.
Immersed in a story
Ms Boyes loves the "physical artefact" that is a book — and their smell.
"There is just something about it," she says.
"I like being immersed in a story, it's different to watching a movie or TV show.
"When you are doing that, you can be distracted, you can be on your phone, eating, or doing other things.
"In a book you are in the land of a story; you have to be paying attention."
A shared experience
Charles Sturt University teacher-librarian educator Krystal Gagen-Spriggs says there is always room for books in a digital world.
Physical books offered something unique, she says.
"Research says that holding a physical book gives a much greater sense of physical location within the book and the story
"This includes sensing where you are in the text or story and ability to move very quickly back and forth.
"Physical books can be shared in a way that usually a digital book can't — like shared experiences — think story times at public libraries and with your kids at home."
Ms Gagen-Spriggs says some people keep paper books because they are a record or have information that may never be digitised.
Alphabetically ordered
In Ms Boyes's shed, the 3,000 – possibly 4,000 — books are categorised and ordered alphabetically by author.
Many of them get donated to local charities for fundraising events or sold for a small price, and are quickly replaced.
"The money I make on sales usually just goes to buying more books, although anything left over, I've been using to plant trees on the property," Ms Boyes says.
"The books pay to replace the trees that were cut down to make the books."
Almost all of Ms Boyes books are in the shed, but some — about 700 — remain in the house.
"My precious ones that I don't want to give away."
Ms Gagen-Spriggs says paper books continue to be an important part of society, because libraries, and the books in them, can represent a culture.
"This is why the destruction of a library or a museum or a gallery can be first in any conflict — destroy these and you destroy a cultural memory and cohesion," she says.
