Came via the Book Bench to a piece on Publishers Weekly by a book addict, a man who habitually goes to bookstores with no particular book in mind and walks out with three or four. He thinks he has too many books. He comments that most of the books are unread. (He has read 85 of 371.) He likes to think being surrounded by so many unread books is an expression of aspiration, on the whole a good thing.
Commenters then offer advice. The advice given in at least a couple of cases is be ruthless and get rid of UNread books.
12 comments:
So too many books is... 371? I think this falls under "don't know whether to laugh or cry."
That is indeed baffling advice. I'm glad I don't follow it. If I had, I would have let go of The Last Samurai, which sat unread on my shelves for years only to thrill and fascinate me utterly when I belatedly took it down.
I commented in there that Brazilian poet Haroldo de Campos' collection hit some 20k books; Mário de Andrade's, 17 thousand. I hope it helped the poor guy to put his level in perspective.
These collections were of course donated to libraries, which is such a great legacy to leave behind—Mário’s, extensively annotated and full of marginalia, is now primary research material for lit scholars. My impossible dream is that, after dying, my collection would become a small and charming private library for people to have adventures in, like in Kafka on the Shore.
LH: Well, I'm sure at any given time the number of books I had was more than I had room for, and at one point that number was probably 371.
I moved in September and I think I got rid of 371 books. Mostly read or half-read. The idea behind getting rid of UNread books sounds like a misapplication of the decluttering principle: if you haven't worn this sweater in a year or two, you probably won't ever wear it. But I don't have to remind the astute readers of pp that books aren't sweaters. I've never been thrilled and fascinated by a cableknit my aunt gave me with, like, two dot-matrix-syle deer mating on the front of it.)
I've had a tendency to acquire books over the years that I fully intended to read, but which no longer interest me some years down the road. So lately I've been discarding books unread. Now, I give them a chance, reading several pages to see if perhaps my superficial lack of care can be overcome by the experience of the book. Sometimes yes, usually no. In any case, in many of these examples, the library remains a viable option should one day the urge again strike.
LH: Well, I'm sure at any given time the number of books I had was more than I had room for, and at one point that number was probably 371.
Well, yeah, me too, but that's not "too many books," that's "too little living space."
That is a good way to look at it.
In an ideal world, I would be part of a group of writers, each with a library of several thousand books, and we would move nomadically through living spaces. So at any one time one could live with a different library, and the living spaces would not become inadequate so quickly.
I'm glad you posted this today. nyrb is having a 50% off sale and I was looking to justify a purchase.
Er, rather, posted this recently.
I want to live in your ideal world.
Umberto Eco hits 30 thousand: “Read books are far less valuable than unread ones.” http://ruchir75.blogspot.com/2008/01/umberto-ecos-anti-library.html
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