I'm definately in the first camp, though once I read them I do get rid of 2/3rds or more. I'm pretty good about only keeping books that I will want to reread or refer back to or loan out. Unfortunately, while I was in grad school and reading NOTHING I didn't have to, I kept aquiring books at the rate of someone who reads voraciously. Oops. :) I now have bookshelves of books...I was making inroads...then L came along and stole shelves for his books...now I have books in the basement again.

My only nit is putting "time aquiring" under book owners. I think I spend less time aquiring books as a book owner than I would as a book renter. I go to a library book sale a couple times a year (or did...I've stopped for now), or I make a wishlist on an online swap site, and that's my time investment. I don't know when I'd actually make it to the library, let alone actually get the books back on time. Buying books in a pile and putting them on a shelf saves me a lot of time.

eBooks need a lot of work before they will compete with library book sales and my online swap site.