I found this piece in my print copy of "The Epoch Times," and found it delightful to hear from another bibliophile with overflowing shelves. When I moved in 2014 (first time after 23 years of marriage), the movers were shocked we had 10 bookcases. We were homeschooling at the time as well.
C.S. Lewis's comments about how books shouldn't be arranged by age group resonated with me. In fifth grade, I picked up "Watership Down" and "The Hiding Place," and my friends accused me of reading grown-up books. Recently, I've been going through Hillsdale College's online course on children's classics. In my mid 50s, I'm rereading Peter Rabbit and Winne-the-Pooh.
Books are also, I find, necessary references whenever I decide to expostulate or pontificate casually on some subject (and don't wish to come across as a total ignoramus w/o evidential backing for my conflated theories and opinions).
You can usually tell a TRUE hardcore book person (IMHO) by the presence of impromptu, cobbled-together book cases made from local HOME DEPOT wood planks that have been measured, cut, screwed (or nailed) together and stained so as to fill whatever likely empty space still exists under load-bearing walls. I like to think also that hard-core bookies (permit me the use of that misnomer here, eh?) have their books organised into smaller reference sections. I for example, have reference libraries divided into 'Polynesian culture', 'aviation and aerospace', 'automobiles and motorcycles', 'philosophy', European history', etc., etc., etc. There's also just something very basic and comforting about being surrounded by the collected, weighty wisdom of the ages (a nuance that having 10,000 volumes available on a smartphone device can not possible compete with, knowing that they won't all disappear suddenly due to a microdevice hard or software malfunction) although I do occasionally worry about being crushed to death under the combined weight of all those deathless tomes, should my house collapse suddenly due to weight-bearing physics miscalculations....
Finally, I thoroughly support the old fashioned idea of having a personal library or reading room in which one can wander at will and select whatever subject captures one's momentary fancy for a sit-down of indeterminate length! These are among the small treasures of an inquiring mind that has not yet begun the sad cognitive decline that afflicts so many in their later years! My grandmother had such a room in her home, in rural Idaho (where I spent my summers, with my school-teacher mother) and I can truthfully say that I received the most important part of my youthful education devouring the several thousand books she had there (not to mention her complete collection of the National Geographic, Magazine from issue Nr. 1).
I found this piece in my print copy of "The Epoch Times," and found it delightful to hear from another bibliophile with overflowing shelves. When I moved in 2014 (first time after 23 years of marriage), the movers were shocked we had 10 bookcases. We were homeschooling at the time as well.
C.S. Lewis's comments about how books shouldn't be arranged by age group resonated with me. In fifth grade, I picked up "Watership Down" and "The Hiding Place," and my friends accused me of reading grown-up books. Recently, I've been going through Hillsdale College's online course on children's classics. In my mid 50s, I'm rereading Peter Rabbit and Winne-the-Pooh.
Haha, well you make me happy to hear that I'm not the only adult who still picks up children's books! ;-)
Books are also, I find, necessary references whenever I decide to expostulate or pontificate casually on some subject (and don't wish to come across as a total ignoramus w/o evidential backing for my conflated theories and opinions).
You can usually tell a TRUE hardcore book person (IMHO) by the presence of impromptu, cobbled-together book cases made from local HOME DEPOT wood planks that have been measured, cut, screwed (or nailed) together and stained so as to fill whatever likely empty space still exists under load-bearing walls. I like to think also that hard-core bookies (permit me the use of that misnomer here, eh?) have their books organised into smaller reference sections. I for example, have reference libraries divided into 'Polynesian culture', 'aviation and aerospace', 'automobiles and motorcycles', 'philosophy', European history', etc., etc., etc. There's also just something very basic and comforting about being surrounded by the collected, weighty wisdom of the ages (a nuance that having 10,000 volumes available on a smartphone device can not possible compete with, knowing that they won't all disappear suddenly due to a microdevice hard or software malfunction) although I do occasionally worry about being crushed to death under the combined weight of all those deathless tomes, should my house collapse suddenly due to weight-bearing physics miscalculations....
Finally, I thoroughly support the old fashioned idea of having a personal library or reading room in which one can wander at will and select whatever subject captures one's momentary fancy for a sit-down of indeterminate length! These are among the small treasures of an inquiring mind that has not yet begun the sad cognitive decline that afflicts so many in their later years! My grandmother had such a room in her home, in rural Idaho (where I spent my summers, with my school-teacher mother) and I can truthfully say that I received the most important part of my youthful education devouring the several thousand books she had there (not to mention her complete collection of the National Geographic, Magazine from issue Nr. 1).