The other week, I stopped to see a friend who runs Panoply Books. Roland is the last of a breed. He is an independent rare book seller who actually handles quality rare books. Im talking here about books that you really want to own and cherish as much as you want to read. We were chatting, and I was so impressed by the steady stream of customers who came in over time. They were mostly young Millennials and Gen Zers. Some wandered looking at the books, but most had very fixed ideas of what they wanted to get. For years, I have heard the stories that books were as dead as a doornail in the antiques world. No one wanted them, and the dumpster was the only solution. I recall when we moved to New Mexico offering several rare book dealers my collection of early Presbyterian imprints. I was told they were valueless and that I might find a theological seminary who would want them as a gift but otherwise they were nothing more than kindling. And certainly, the market for older books has softened considerably. The audience that bought and read books seemed to disappear quickly. The scholars told us that the value of knowledge is not in having it but rather in simply being able to find it. Thus, books had no purpose in a world where all you needed to do was to be able to look up the information online. However, in saying that, I was watching young people coming in and buying not just one or two books but handfuls. Now perhaps it was a unique moment for those sales, but I bet not. Why are books popular? My millennial/Gen Z daughter told me that all of her friends are book readers. When she was in graduate school in Washington D.C., she would take carloads of friends to Second Story Books warehouse north of the city. Books had value as tools for their scholarship, and they were there for what they said was both fun and joy and sadness. So, what is the explanation about what happened to books? It becomes too easy as I get older to blame younger generations for the ills of the world. Well, I have to say that probably the real book-hating culprits are my generation, the Gen Xers. We were the generation for whom online books were peddled, and we drank that Kool-Aid deeply. I remember seeing the virtual books being sold at Barnes & Noble. It was like witnessing a heathen in the cathedral. But I am pleased to say that perhaps that virtual book world is now being forsaken by new generations who like the smell of paper and printer ink as much as I do. My charge to all of you is go out and buy a book. Better still, buy a used book and, best of all, patronize a rare book dealer. Indulge yourself with some Hervey Allen or John Steinbeck or John OHara or any of the other great Pennsylvania writers. Born to collect should be the motto of Peter Seiberts family. Raised in Central Pennsylvania, Seibert has been collecting and writing about antiques for more than three decades. By day, he is a museum director and has worked in Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Virginia and New Mexico. In addition, he advises and consults with auction houses throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, particularly about American furniture and decorative arts. Seiberts writings include books on photography, American fraternal societies and paintings. He and his family are restoring a 1905 arts and crafts house filled with years worth of antique treasures found in shops, co-ops and at auctions.