My friend Scott Carson of An Examined Life addresses the great existential question for many of us - "So Many Books, So Little Time" 10/2/2006
It turns out that, if you are around 40 and expect to read around 1 book per week for the rest of your life, you only have around 1600 left. If that is the case, why own around 4,000 books, one has to ask oneself. And why buy any more?
These are deeply disturbing questions, involving not only great decisions about not only what to read, but calculations of U-Haul and shipping rates, and $120 month storage units.
PS: A friend suggested a solution - "You go back and reference them after you read them! Right?"
But what happens after Google Books digitizes everything? After all a $15 a month Google full text access fee (it's coming) would work out cheaper than rent or mortgage, and it would be searchable.
1 comment:
You might consult those books. If you will neither read them nor consult them on any important matter...
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