Grasping and non-attachment

[flemmings]

The FFL tempts me. Someone draws my attention to an online auction of Yoshitoshi prints at ridiculously low prices (some; so far.) And I think, I might buy some of those; I could at least bid; but... but... Sight unseen is always dangerous with hanga, and I'm wondering how something that cheap could be original, and what shape they're in if they are. But even so... My Yoshitoshi prints were bought at a specific time (fall of 1985 to spring of 86-- how odd that it was in fact so short a period) for a specific reason-- an embodiment of the Japan I'd never seen at that time. That's over now; buying from nostalgia for a brief season that ended a quarter of a century ago is not a good idea. (Mind, if I won a lottery tomorrow I might fly down to New York in pursuit of Hasuis, but that's different. That's nostalgia for a place I saw.)

From the other non-grasping side, someone else is going on a bookfast. "I can read books. I'd better read books! But I can't borrow any from the library or download any unless I had a pre-existing hold on it.... And I can't buy any!" And in my case, I can't pick any off people's front lawns, which is how I scored Ackroyd's Chatterton, Bruce Chatwin's The Viceroy Of Ouidah, and The Oxford Book of Lies this afternoon. I mean, I *should* read all the stray books I've acquired over the years, as well as rereading all the books I've forgotten in the last 30. One might turn up gems amid the (let's face it) run-of-the-mill dreck.

This segues into that Facebook entry of rasetsunyo's, quoting The Guardian quoting Umberto Eco to the effect that he's a writer, not a reader, in spite of the 30,000 books in his library. Someone in the comments then quotes Nassim Taleb's Black Swan:

a private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight read-estate market allows you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books.

Which would be too post-whatever for me if someone else hadn't elucidated the anti-library in a way that makes sense:

My unread books are an expression of faith. I'm banking on my future self needing them some day, and I want to give him everything he needs when the time comes. It's a kind of preparation for the unknown, I suppose...

Perhaps it is in that our antilibraries represent the person we would like to be (the one that has read those books) and the one we would be if only we weren't so busy being this person. When we finally do read one of those books, it is a little graduation..

Or of course it could just be the truth of that Robertson Davies quote, courtesy of incandescens, to be found in my lj profile.

Comments

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I've never seen any deeply-felt explanation of this! I tend to read the books I buy XD - so I've never thought about what the difference is for ppl who do buy a lot of books they don't read. After consideration I think it has to do with an internal concept of... ready access? The stuff I do buy falls in two categories: 1) I'm likely to pick it up and reread bits casually, eg. a novel or manga I enjoy, or 2) I had no idea this existed before I saw it, in all likelihood I will never see it again, so if I want to read it I had better buy it now. So I end up with stuff like used editions of Catalan symbolist poets... this tends to be poetry, in general, or minor works by major authors. It's like buying rare vinyl records. Stuff that after being read diffuses into one's house as art objects, or become transparent and unnoticeable. But if it's something I can find on Amazon or in Chapters, then it can stay on Amazon or in Chapters (or the local/uni library) until I need it; presumably my future self will still be capable of Dewey Decimal and Google. XD;

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Ready access is my pitfall, or rather, the concept of it, and in a general diffuse vein. 'I want to read a book. I want to read it *now*. A light-hearted English mystery. Oh woe! I have no light-hearted English mysteries in the house. What to do, what to do?' Or the 'I always meant to read...' temptation. If someone is giving Bruce Chatwin or Mark Twain's Gilded Age or the history of the Rothschilds away free, it would be madness not to take them. I've grown wary of good intentions when buying stuff first-hand, or even second, but not nearly wary enough. Paid full price for Palimpsest, meaning to read it on the long weekend just past, and of course read two pages and stopped.

Obscure poetry and minor works of course need to be snapped up where and when found. You really won't find them again. In Japan I'd buy 'this might be interesting' manga because it was cheap. It's no longer cheap so I only buy what I really want, though five years back when I was very flush I did buy indiscriminately from amazon.jp, is one reason I'm not flush any more.

[incandescens]

Perhaps a personal library needs no justifications. "Le coeur a ses raisons, que la raison ne connait point."

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

It's still enlightening and a bit embarrassing to examine the heart's reasons. In my case, I fear much of it comes down to a vulgar love of LOTS.

But arguably one wants one's personal library to be like a public library, or even better, someone else's library: a place you can find unexpected treasures. Impulse acquisition may be the only way to do that. 'Oh, I'd forgotten I'd bought that!'

[incandescens]

The same logic may apply to a crafter's stash. The stuff accumulates. Beads, yarn, fabric . . .

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

But that's raw materials! It has a purpose in life!

[incandescens]

Well, yes, theoretically . . .

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

I usually buy books because I want to read them, frequently I have bought because of aesthetics, or not even that ... just because I like the look of it. Nowadays I avoid buying books because I just don't have the time ... BUT I am buying for the next generation so I have enjoyed getting things for my girl especially. Some have been gems to read. And I should really count those as reading. ^_^

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Well naturally they count as reading. Some people's whole careers involve reading children's books and YA; which are often more satisfying than high lit ever is.