I'm presuming that anyone who takes the time to visit this site is a reader, and most readers own books.
Collectors definitely own books.
Writers sell their works to publishers, who print them in the hopes that somebody will buy them. Once a book is sold to a consumer, it passes out of the system, and if that consumer then passes it on to someone else, or even sells it, the author gets nothing. I know that new books, especially hardcover editions, are expensive, but the only way we can really support the authors we love is to buy the books new . No number of rare titles discovered on dusty shelves and purchased at collectors' prices will bring a dime to the author, and our substantial collections of old editions may flatter the author but represent no practical value to him or her. In an ideal world, perhaps there would be a way to track such sales and compensate them, but I don''t see it happening any time soon.