Our Views: Dealing with book overload

wlip through the cable TV channels, and sooner or later you’ll find a reality show or two about the dangers of hoarding. But when does the love of books cross the line into book hoarding, threatening domestic tranquility?

It’s a question that bibliophiles everywhere must consider as their living room bookshelves crowd with new acquisitions, and that dilemma rests at the heart of “Phantoms on the Bookshelves,” Frenchman Jacques Bonnet’s new book on the perils and possibilities of owning a personal library.

Perhaps banking on the theory that confession is good for the soul, Bonnet, a publisher, translator and author, concedes that his love of books has occasionally — okay, frequently — affected his household. “I once had a bathroom full of bookshelves, which made it impossible to take a shower, and meant running a bath with the window open because of the condensation; and I also kept them in my kitchen, which made it out of the question to use certain strong-smelling foodstuffs,” Bonnet tells readers. “As was the case for many of my colleagues, it was years before I could afford a living space equal to my book-collecting ambitions.”

Bonnet did draw the line, though, at storing books above his bedroom headboard.

Here’s why: “I learnt, long ago, the circumstances of the death of the composer Charles-Valentine Alkan, sometimes described as the ‘Berlioz of the piano,’ who was found on 30 March, 1888 crushed to death by his own (bedroom) bookshelves.”

That limitation aside, Bonnet’s book acquisitions have continued with few reservations. The reason, writes Bonnet, is that the personal library “is what brings us closest to paradise on earth.”

A nice thought, we imagine, although one which might not be greeted with enthusiasm by a book-lover’s spouse.

Comments

1) Comment by Elderly Man - 31/10/2012

I do hoard books. This disgusted my former wife even though she was an avid reader. She left her books when she left me. That did not help me but I like her books.

2) Comment by Bouncer - 27/10/2012

Obviously, some people could benefit from reading more and posting less moronic tripe on the internet. Oh, well....when you're an idiot, I suppose you might as well use a book as a suppository, since you're too dumb to actually read one.

3) Comment by tradewinns - 27/10/2012

out of the top 1000 hoarded items, i don't remember books as very high on the list. hoarders normally (what's that word doing in this conversation) do NOT hoard items of value. they would then be called collectors, and probably wealthy also.

4) Comment by [e-mail] - 27/10/2012

There's nothing wrong with book love, and hoarding books is entirely worthwhile and is nothing at all to be concerned about healthwise. If one was in some sort of terrible castrophe that forced a return to a life devoid of modern convenience or electrical power, which would be of more use, an IPad with a dead battery or the first edition of "The Way Things Work"?

5) Comment by bourbon-soda - 27/10/2012

Despite the occasional fatality, this has to be one of the more benign forms of hoarding in that the collected items more often retain value than do less informational items. It will be interesting whether possession of or access to electronic volumes correlates with achievement to the same extent as do volumes of forgotten lore in a household, apparently even they are not read. There is probably no substitute for an accessible paper encyclopedia on a shelf, for an inquisitive child. Even a printed newspaper destined for the catbox or birdcage, has a connotation of commitment and permanence. Electrons are too easily disposed down the memory hole so not even a Winston Smith notices what is being done.

6) Comment by Mr. T - 27/10/2012

Why don't you take your stinking books and stick then where the sun don't shine. They will all be replaced soon by ipads anyway. Just like your stupid newspaper.