‘You’ve got too many books,’ your partner says. ‘Your clutter is blocking your energy flow,’ a book on feng shui advises. As you head for the check-out at bookstore, a well meaning friend notes, “You’ve got so many books you haven’t read, piled up and overflowing your bookshelves. Why are you buying more?”
Okay, that last voice is probably your own. We book collectors, literary pack-rats, often question our own obsession. What is this compulsion for the written word? If you shop firsthand, collecting books is expensive. If you, like me, generally pick up books second hand, you pay for it in space.
If there’s one thing that loves to live in piles, on chairs, on desks, on shelves, on tables, it’s a book.
When it comes to vices, however, collecting books is benign and even edifying. When you spot a favorite–I tend, for instance, to read “Autobiography of a Yogi” anew every year or so–it’s like coming back to an old friend. And then, there’s never reason to be bored because I can always crack into a thriller, ranging from a post-modern Swedish whodunit to an installment of Dorothy Gilman’s hoot of a mystery series, “Mrs. Pollifax.”
What can I say? Readers gonna read. Collectors gonna collect. When the two collide, it’s a real dust-up. It’s a page-turner. It’s a pot-boiler. It’s a barn-burner. And it’s a lot of books.
And now, I will fan the flames of your bibliophilia by sharing some deep thoughts by smart people who encourage the amassing of a home library. The words of these enablers won’t gaslight you into abstaining from book-buying, painting the fruits of your intelligence as junk. They will serve as cheerleaders, as a veritable marching band, guiding you to Barnes & Noble or your local Friends of the Library bookshop.
Bon Appétit and good reading.
–Sarah Torribio
Think not of the books you’ve bought as a “to be read” pile. Instead, think of your bookcase as a wine cellar. You collect books to be read at the right time, the right place, and the right mood.
— Luc van Donkersgoed
Of course anyone who truly loves books buys more of them than he or she can hope to read in one fleeting lifetime. A good book, resting unopened in its slot on a shelf, full of majestic potentiality, is the most comforting sort of intellectual wallpaper.”
—David Quammen
“A home library is an act of hope.”
—Toni Morrison
Book collecting is an obsession, an occupation, a disease, an addiction, a fascination, an absurdity, a fate. It is not a hobby. Those who do it must do it.
— Jeanette Winterson
“All the books we own, both read and unread, are the fullest expression of self we have at our disposal.”
— Nick Hornby
“Collect books, even if you don’t plan on reading them right away. Nothing is more important than an unread library.”
— John Waters
“The buying of more books than one can read is nothing less than the soul reaching toward infinity.”
— A. Edward Newton
“It is foolish to think that you have to read all the books you buy, as it is foolish to criticize those who buy more books than they will ever be able to read.”
— Umberto Eco
“Any house that is stuffed with books resonates with civilization… Not to mention warmth and the comfort provided by the presence of old friends.”
— David Mason
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