Buying your first book with your own money feels different. You’re picking what goes in your head now.

Paying for something yourself changes your relationship with it. A book you were given was somebody else’s judgement about what you should read; one you bought is your own decision about what gets into your head, which is a bigger deal than the price. It is one of the first parts of your life where you hold the whole choice. Nobody has to approve the receipt.

Buy one soon with your own money, chosen for yourself rather than for a shelf. Write the date in the front, which costs nothing and makes it a marker later. Then actually read it, because the point is the contents and not the owning.