Within sight of my desk is an abundance of printed matter. Including magazines, a conservative estimate is a bit over 3000 items. Limit the count solely to books, and we’re still talking around 2000. There are floor-to-ceiling shelves on two walls, with three other free-standing shelves, plus a double-decker closet shelf. (I have a button with the motto: “Of course you’re out of book space. Everyone’s out of book space. If you’re not out of book space, you’re probably not worth knowing.”) Since the question “Why so many?” is heard often from non-book people, I thought I’d set out some reasons.

1) They serve notice on visitors. This is probably the least important reason to have books, but it’s still useful. If you walk into someone’s home and see books, check out the authors and subjects. They tell you something immeditely about the owner. If you see lots of paperbacks, the owner likes to read for entertainment. If the books are hardcover bestsellers, the person is impatient. If you see hardcovers laying on their sides on shelves (more than just the one or two the owner might currently be reading) rather than standing up, You know the owner is Faking It. No one who cares about books would do that. In addition, if those piles are artfully arranged on multiple shelves, the owner is anathema, a believer in Book As Art Object, and you should make a polite excuse and leave as quickly as possible, never to return. True Believers in the printed word do not associate with that ilk.

2) They’re cheap travel. Histories and biographies can take you to places and times you will never be able to visit, for less than the cheapest airfare, and you don’t even need to pack.

3) Unlike real people, many of the characters you meet in books are intentionally likable. This means you’ll associate with a much better class of people in a book than outside of one. These people can also show you how to behave yourself; while your friends can only serve as Bad Examples, the characters in good books can serve as positive examples.

4) They stretch your mind. Most people associate with like-minded folks. This is human nature, to want to be around more of Our Kind. But a book is a great way to explore a different point of view, to see life through different eyes. You can invite an author into your house to preach, pontificate, or simply propose and you will not incur any further social obligations. You can stretch your mind by trying to wrap it around new ideas. To quote Oliver Wendell Holmes, “A mind, once stretched by a new idea, never quite returns to its former shape.” Books are dangerous that way, good ones will change you. But change is good. No human is ever 100% accurate; everyone (including yours truly) is wrong about something; the only way to reduce that amount is to be exposed to other views.

5) Books are “off-line storage.” They can serve are references for both data and opinion. The Internet is gaining on the Library as repository for fact (once you acquire the skill of sorting out the crap; too many people still believe that if it’s on the ‘net, it must be true) but it still lags as far as opinion goes. If I want to know what Alexander Alekhine thinks of 3 Nc3 in the Slav (chess reference, if you don’t know chess, just pass on by) I won’t find it on the net. But I will find a nice article on it written by him in a book. And if the rodent-worshippers down by Orlando have their way, that will continue to be the only way for me to find anyone’s opinion published after 1932. And that’s important, because while access to data is essential for forming a good opinion, it’s also essential to see what other intelligent people have made of that data. “If I see farther than those who came before me,” said Isaac Newton, “it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants.” Only a fool would reject out of hand the chance to learn from the great minds which have already tackled an issue. The previous thinkers can be wrong about the data, unquestionably; keep that firmly in mind. But even if wrong, their views will help strengthen your own, “just as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17).

Yes, I have a lot of books. I’ve sold to used book stores over twice as many books as I have, and the turnover continues. I have a few hundred right now in a box waiting for the next trip to the used book store. (In addition to “normal” turnover, I just cleared off 7+ linear feet of shelf space this morning, to make room for other books stacked around the room). I will continue to have a lot of books (as long as you define “a lot” as “more than 1000”) for the forseeable future. Some I need for reference, some are part of specific collections (such as chess biographies, or Sherlock Holmes) and some are, quite simply, friends.

Excuse me. I have to go. With a few more volumes I “could just fill that gap on the second shelf. It looks untidy.”

(That final quote is offered in honor of a departed friend, Al Kovacic. I was holding it together at his funeral rather well, until I encountered the Complete Sherlock Holmes on the memorial table. The quote is, of course, from “The Adventure of the Empty House,” but, unlike Mr Holmes, Al will not return from his particular Reichenbach. Still, whenever I return to Baker Street of 1895, I’ll feel his presence there, and that’s something.)