This is a post about my books and why I love and want to keep them.
Also its about reading books twice, Or trice. Or …

Too much stuff

You may have noticed it already. Lately I’m thinking a lot about possessions and about how much stuff I really need and want.
Simple living and the like.
Some may call it minimalism but I wouldn’t go that far. Really not.

Seemingly this is a trend. The Internetz is full of it. Well, one corner of the Internetz. The corner in which I’m currently wandering about.
And while I’m in this corner I come ever so often upon people rambling on about books and book-shelfs and why the hell do you keep them?

You’re never going to read a book twice

‚Why keep books?‘ they say.
‚You’re never going to read them twice. Trust me.‘
‚Tell me about five books in your bookshelf you’ve read a second time!‘

Well, you can only laugh so much.
I think I have read every Terry Pratchett book at least twice – except maybe the more recent ones. I make a habit out of reading ‚The Lord of the Rings‘ once every (second)) Christmas and at the moment I’m feeling a strong urge to read about that young wizard again. Well, both of them really …

And in all the time I’ve known him, my boyfriends reading habits tend to orbit around five planets really great stories.

You know when you like stories, and you’ve found a good one, you really do want to read them again, and again, because they’re good, and rare and there is so much to discover in them.
Maybe if you don’t read books twice, you’ve never found the right books?

Not just a wall ornament

Yes, I do have a bookshelf. It’s the kind where you need to leave the room to take a picture of it. I covers the whole wall.
We build it ourselves, that is my father did.

Apart from being nice and quite remarkable, it’s also full of knowledge.
When I’m sitting at the dinner table and the question arises about the … say nutritional values of broccoli, I reach up to the shelf and grab a helping book. If I want to know about that bird I saw on my way home … bookshelf. Dreaming about my next holiday tour … bookshelf. Art nouveau designs …
It’s not just decoration, you know?

Surprisingly, yes, I do give away books. Ironically most of the books are the kind of books I use most. Cookbooks that is.

But enough rambling about me, what about you?