Why buy instead of borrow?

Amy over at My Friend Amy has asked an interesting question, and I thought I'd answer it from an Aussie perspective.

Amy asks: I’ve asked, in the past, about whether you more often buy your books, or get them from libraries. What I want to know today, is, WHY BUY?

Even if you are a die-hard fan of the public library system, I’m betting you have at least ONE permanent resident of your bookshelves in your house. I’m betting that no real book-lover can go through life without owning at least one book. So … why that one? What made you buy the books that you actually own, even though your usual preference is to borrow and return them?

If you usually buy your books, tell me why. Why buy instead of borrow? Why shell out your hard-earned dollars for something you could get for free?

Well, in Australia, we can't actually get Christian books in our libraries. We might have a Christian library somewhere in the state if we're lucky, but generally it's not anywhere really close like the public libraries are.
But even aside from that, I love to buy my books or get them to review because I love being able to pull out a book whenever I want instead of having to go somewhere to borrow it. I also love to lend books to my friends and recommend ones that I think they would enjoy.
I love owning my books, and I'm a HUGE bookworm :)