For the first 2 years of coding, I bought books almost every week.
Some were less technical than I anticipated.
Others had examples in languages I'd never touched.
A few were perfect. And yes, many still gather dust on my shelves—physical and digital.
The one subscription I don't feel weird about
I have 40 games on Xbox and hundreds of movies on Netflix, but they're not mine.
It's strange—we subscribe to everything and own nothing. But there's one exception where this model actually makes sense: software book subscriptions.
Want to learn Vue.js?
Instead of dropping €40+ hoping you picked the right book, you get access to an entire library. Pick the chapters that matter.
Code along with what's relevant. Skip the rest.
You don't own the books, but you own something better—access to all of them.
What I'm doing now
After losing too much money trying to find the "perfect" programming book, I switched approaches.
For the past 2 years, I've had just one subscription—and access to more technical knowledge than I could ever physically own.