[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

There's obviously some deep psychology going on with keeping books. I have loads but live close to a hermit-like existence so they're not there to show off to others. So why do I do it? I won't re-read most of them and itd probably take me more than a lifetime to get through all the ones that I own but haven't yet read, even once (a large bulk of which I doubt I ever will). I don't know why I do it but I'm sure it's some kind of attempt at trying to define myself to myself.

i know what you mean. they end up being a sort of amulet more than anything. or badges, as i said. hey, we have a social relationship with ourselves after all.

i drove across the united states with crates and crates of books. it was painful and expensive but at that point i thought an indispensable sacrifice. many years and purges later, i still have a storage room (free, thank fuck) half-full with them. i have to go retrieve them some day so i can take them to the various used book people. but at least i know now i have to put them out there for others to use.

the other thing is that when it comes to scholarly books they may be influential at some point but eventually become dated and even obsolete. i mean, what are you going to do with something like a book of freudian literary criticism these days? it's like trying to eat an expired can of tuna from the 1940s that might give you a case of cognitive botulism.