Oct 28 2008
Why I don’t mind how many of my books I *haven’t* read
Sometimes, when I’m buying a couple of books, I’ve had people say, “But why are you buying these when you have so many of your own books you haven’t even read yet?”
I live with 2000+ books. And it’s quite true that I haven’t read probably 1/4 to 1/3 of them. But weirdly, that’s part of the wonder and the fun and the attraction. And it certainly is no deterrent to buying more! 
I’ll tell you why. Imagine this scenario: I’m kind of bored, so I decide I need to find something to read on my next subway trip. I walk into my room with all the bookcases and — I’ve read everything on all the shelves! Oh no! What am I going to do?? I’ve got nothing to read! And if I want something, I’ll have to make a special trip to a bookstore or library, and it’s possible I might not find something that suits my current mood.
That never happens to me. Ever. I walk into that room and there is always something to read. I’ve got unread books waiting for me in almost every genre I might be in the mood for.
I once had a friend, in his 50s, take me to his farm and start telling me all the projects he had planned for the place. I asked, as delicately as I could, whether he hadn’t bitten off more than he could chew, and whether there weren’t too many projects for him to finish, realistically, considering his age. He told me that he’d far rather have some things he hadn’t managed to get done when he finally died, than to have run out of things to do and sat twiddling his thumbs in boredom the last few years of his life.
That’s how I feel about books. Imagine having finished reading everything that’s available to you. What would you do then? Far better, in my opinion, to have books you’re “planning to read” but haven’t yet gotten to, than to have gotten to everything and sit staring at the wall.
No twiddling thumbs in my library, by golly.
Thank you for giving me an excuse to keep buying books! (Now if only I could get a house with more wallspace for more bookcases …)
I do have quite a backlog myself. I don’t mind all that much. What I mainly want to do is get all the unread stuff in one location so at least I know what I’ve got. That will be a project in and of itself, though. Maybe organize the books into piles, where one pile is books I’ve tried multiple times and failed to get through, a small one of stuff on topics I’m just not interested in reading about any more (there’ll be about two books in that pile, heh, and I’m sure the library or 2nd-hand store won’t mind having them), and then ones that look like they might still be promising reads. Also fiction and non-fiction. I’m afraid most of these are non-fiction, which I’m just not in the mood for lately. I’m tired of the world, I want some escapism!!!
Ishtar, I am totally with you on that! I want to get a two-bedroom apartment again, specifically so I can have an entire room devoted to bookcases!
CKE, an alternative to giving away your books in the usual way is to try bookcrossing.com. That’s the site where you register a book, then set it in some public place (making sure it has the right information contained inside it) and wait to see if someone finds it and goes to Bookcrossing to register that they’ve read it.
Have you ever bought the same magazine/book twice by accident? I have! I needed a (very dry, very convoluted) book for a literary theory course and brought it home…only to discover that I’d already dutifully bought a copy. I ended up selling the extra. As for the copy I have…well, I never made it past the introduction. If all I have are “duty” books left (I’ll read that some day because it’s in my field and I really should) then I’m really in trouble! Besides, when you’re book hungry, you can’t just read ANY book!
I’ve bought books twice too, though not often in those circumstances. When I had most of my possessions in storage for four years (in an entirely different city!), I finally got so homesick for some of my most-loved books that I bought them again because I just couldn’t live without them any longer.
If I never bought another book — HA! like that’s gonna happen! — I wouldn’t be able to read all the books we’ve got on our shelves & in crates & stacked around the house on the floor as it is. But as you say, that’s the pleasure of it — you never know when you’ll want that One Book!