So many books…
Many people don’t realize the number of items they have until it’s all in one place.
Case in point: our books.
We bought bookshelves and put them together in the same small room in order to create a “reading room” and a more dignified looking office area. And now that we’ve added a couple of chairs and have organized everything in some semblance of order, everything actually looks dignified. It looks great, actually.
But while organizing and placing our entire library, I came to one conclusion.
I’ll never read all of these books.
And yet, I’ll buy more. It’s not an uncommon trait, actually, especially with books. It seems that many of us find a book we want, buy it with all of the intensions to read it and place it on the “finished” pile, and revel in the new knowledge that had been absorbed. But unfortunately, few of us are actually able to read at the same pace as we’re able to purchase.
Buying a book takes seconds, minutes at the most. Reading a book takes days. Months, if it’s a thick one. Add into this books that aren’t even purchased – library books, borrowed books – and the cheap, fifty-cent selections from rummage and library sales, and you’ve got an income that far exceeds expense. Or, in other words, too much comes in, and not enough gets used.
I have no problem with this, personally. I enjoy sitting back and staring at the vast amount of books we’ve collected. And I’m not willing to get rid of a majority of them. The ones I’ve read, I’m proud to keep. The ones I haven’t, I still intend to. It looks impressive, if anything.
It’s comfortable, this new room. And regardless of how many of the books will actually be read in my lifetime, I’m excited to have them all.