On Books

An unread shelf is medicine for the heart.

I have too many books. I’ve been told this before, repeatedly. “Why more books when you haven’t read the ones you have?”

Books came into my life late. A teammate carted his around in suitcases—it looked weird to me. He was an academic cricketer. I was just a cricketer. He captained England, I didn’t!

It started with a Kindle. From there, to book fairs, Amazon, and bookstores. I knew I was screwed after spending an afternoon in Powell’s in Portland, Oregon when I could have been sipping.

Then I found Umberto Eco. He owned 50,000 books and harboured no apologies. My kinda guy.

“It is foolish to think that you have to read all the books you buy. Consider them medicine — it is good to have many at home rather than a few. When you want to feel better, you go to the medicine closet and choose the right book for that moment. Those who buy only one book, read it, then discard it — they apply a consumer mentality to something that is anything but a commodity.”

Umberto, I wonder what you make of the Kindle.

Nick

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Links:
Umberto Eco
https://www.penguin.com.au/authors/umberto-eco
https://www.powells.com/