When it comes to books, some people are pack rats; others make a point of periodically culling from the word herd. In a recent New York Times essay, Laura Miller describes her own mixed feelings about getting rid of unwanted books. A full shelf of unread books, she writes, can feel like “a kind of charm against mortality.” Martha and Grant discuss Miller’s essay, “The Well-Tended Bookshelf.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Shelf of Unwanted Books”
There was an essay in the New York Times recently that I loved.
It was by Laura Miller, and it was called The Well-Tended Bookshelf.
Did you see this, Grant?
She was talking about culling books from her library.
Don’t get me started.
Oh, start.
Go ahead.
No, you go first.
Okay.
Well, she was talking about how she chooses books to take out of her library or not to make room.
But there was one part I really identified with, and I want to share some of it.
It’s right at the very end.
She says, as actuarial tables advance, the number of books you’ve got time to read diminishes.
Dr. Johnson once said of second marriages that they represent the hope of triumph over experience.
So too do my bookshelves.
I’ve turned out to be less rational about this than I thought and have made my library into a charm against mortality.
As long as I have a few unread books beckoning to me from across the room,
I tell myself I can always find a little more time.
And Grant, I really identified with that.
That’s how I feel about so many of the books in my office.
I went in there and I took a look and I thought,
You know, there’s so many of these that I’m never going to read.
But if I keep them on the shelves, maybe I’ll live long enough to.
Did she expressly use the phrase reading mortality?
Because that’s the phrase that I use.
I think I picked it up from an article in the Boston Globe a few years ago.
Oh, really? No.
I don’t think she did.
It’s the realization that comes upon you when you realize that you will never,
You will never, absolutely, it’s impossible for you to finish all the books that you want to read.
Oh, that’s an actual term. I didn’t know that.
I would have to be like 180 to finish all the books I want to read.
Yeah, with a MacArthur, right?
Right, exactly. Yeah, without a day job.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. All the time in the world.
Sure.
Book lovers unite.
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