I am like the author. Before 13 I had read the entire computer section, and maybe half of the math and physics sections. Plus the strips section, which was the only part of the library that very regularly got new stuff. I could not pay for those books with my allowance. I could not pay 1% of their price, and frankly it would have been several hundred dollars per month (because ... well, technical book prices). And this with it being a 70 minute bike ride to the library (I mean I just didn't return from school, which meant it was maybe 20 minutes, then returned in the evening).

Libraries worked for me until perhaps high school, back then. Now they definitely wouldn't.

Now there simply isn't any computer or math section anymore in the library. There's some leftover books but every month there's less. If you can't afford an ipad (ironically the only practical e-reader for zlib imho), you can't read books. Luckily an air will do, but still.