The concept of Homo Bibliophilius

A quick trip to the bookstores is enough to meet a kind of consumer that is quite differ-ent from what the neoclassical economics textbooks claim. It is a consumer who is not con-tent with one book, but wants it all, who opens and smells the pages and ink, and who ul-timately cares for nothing more than the enjoyment of a good book and a good story. This is Homo Bibliophilius. The aim of this research is to prove that the neoclassical model of rational choice and the approach of the consumer as an experience machine is inadequate to explain the intensive consumption of cultural goods. Taking booklovers as an example, this research tried to an-swer the question whether the behavior of the book lover is compatible with the model of homo economicus and whether it is ultimately an irrational actor or just a different kind of consumer, a Homo Bibliophilius, who follows different valorization processes. To achieve this, fifteen semi-structured in-depth interviews with Greek intensive readers were conduct-ed. Greece was chosen as a case study, as the Greek book lover is a typical neoclassical irra-tional actor, an actor of different valorization, with high percentage of book love and low share of household expenditure for books by the general population, which quite specifies this particular group of intensive cultural consumers. The results showed that there is no question of objective rationality, extreme cost-benefit calculation, marginal utility and prioritization of needs. On the contrary, book lov-ers, intensive consumers do what they do because it is important to them, because they at-tach a much higher value to books than to other goods or services. For them, a book is a symbol of security, a part of their character and a door to another life.