{"id":5009,"date":"2016-07-28T13:55:58","date_gmt":"2016-07-28T08:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=5009"},"modified":"2016-07-28T13:55:58","modified_gmt":"2016-07-28T08:25:58","slug":"books-book-hoarder-hoarding-reading-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=5009","title":{"rendered":"All Day I Dream About Books: How I Became a Book-Hoarder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I<\/span><\/p>n Anton Chekov\u2019s classic short story \u201cThe Bet\u201d, a young man in the prime of his life places a very unlikely bet with a millionaire at a party. After a discussion on whether the death <\/span>penalty<\/span><\/a> is a better option than life imprisonment, which involves long stretches of mind-numbing isolation, the youth tells the millionaire that life imprisonment is a better option. To prove his point that a person can survive in isolation, he agrees to live 15 years in solitary confinement, his only company being all the music and books that <\/span>money<\/span><\/a> can buy. If he manages to pull it off, he gets two million rubles at the end of it. By the time the 15 years wind down, the millionaire who offered the money falls on hard times and wonders how he is going to fork up the required money. A night before the 15-year time period gets over, the youth, older and wiser, escapes, forsaking the money he was supposed to receive. He leaves behind a letter in which he says that he has learned and experienced everything that he ever wanted to through all the books he read while in isolation and that he no longer has any use for the money.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nTo tell you the truth, I have had similar fantasies. I have dreamt of shutting myself off for days and reading with no interruption whatsoever. I have wondered what it would be like to take a year off and <\/span>read<\/span><\/a> as much as I want to.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nA few years back, I made a bargain with myself that I would buy new clothes only if I discarded a few old ones. I have been somewhat successful in that experiment. Then, <\/span>Marie Kondo<\/span><\/a> suddenly became the talk of the town and I decided to embrace her philosophy. I parted with a box of <\/span>cassette tapes<\/span><\/a> that I had painstakingly collected over the years and foolishly got rid of a vintage typewriter that my grandfather owned, decisions I would later come to regret. Then I got over-ambitious and tried the same with books. \u201cNo more buying a new book until I complete at least two books that I have left unread,\u201d I said to myself. I then realised the futility of Marie Kondo\u2019s approach when it came to books. Minimalism isn\u2019t always the path to maximum happiness.\u00a0<\/span>\n

I have dreamt of shutting myself off for days and reading with no interruption whatsoever.<\/blockquote>\nIn times of <\/span>war<\/span><\/a>, people stockpile essentials in case they can\u2019t get out of their homes. I have been stockpiling books for as long as I can remember. There is a reason why I buy more books than I can ever read \u2014 I\u2019m afraid I\u2019ll finish all of them and be left empty-handed and lose my sanity. My worst fear in life is not having a book to read, and it has many side-effects. I\u2019ve even installed a small bookshelf in my toilet, which is, by the way, one of the best places to finish a book.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nWhen I\u2019m halfway through a book, I start thinking about the next book to read. This results in some anxiety. Should it be Janaki Lenin\u2019s <\/span>My Husband and Other Animals<\/span><\/i>?<\/span> What about Stephen King\u2019s <\/span>The Stand<\/span><\/i>,<\/span> which I bought years back<\/span> in a secondhand sale? How about re-reading Arthur Hailey\u2019s <\/span>The Final Diagnosis<\/span><\/i>?<\/span> I find security in the numerous unread books on my bookshelf. Then I hear about a new book by one of my favorite <\/span>cricket<\/span><\/a> writers. Now I am very tempted to order that.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nA few years back, I bought my sister a Kindle. When I realised she was hardly using it, I took it back. I thought my book-sourcing problem would finally come to an end, now that I possessed something that could hold thousands of books. No more books lying around everywhere the <\/span>house<\/span><\/a>, creating a mess. While it is convenient in some ways, I soon realised the Kindle missed something very important: The aroma of a new book!\u00a0<\/span>\n\nHaven\u2019t you ever got high after opening a new book? The possibilities, the hours of living in a parallel universe? A good book is one of the best legal drugs there is. Sending a bibliophile to a bookstore is like sending an <\/span>alcoholic<\/span><\/a> to a bar. I can\u2019t leave a bookstore without buying something. I can\u2019t spend less than an hour in a bookstore. Even then, I need to be dragged out and threatened with dire consequences.\u00a0<\/span>\n
I then realised the futility of Marie Kondo\u2019s approach when it came to books. Minimalism isn\u2019t always the path to maximum happiness.<\/blockquote>\nBorrowing books is fun. Lending books is a nerve-wracking <\/span>exercise<\/span><\/a>. When I lend books, I feel like a librarian waiting for the customer to return the book. Much to my wife\u2019s dismay, I can\u2019t leave home without a book, knowing fully well that the odds of me reading a single page are remote. Books are like a security blanket, keeping me eternally warm.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nToday, technology has put the brakes on life, forget reading. We think we are getting somewhere faster by scrolling, liking, commenting, sharing. But we\u2019re merely running around in circles, unable to account for the lost hours. It\u2019s become normal to go around phubbing the world, checking our <\/span>phones<\/span><\/a> everywhere, dying slow deaths. But I want to be able to open a book in a mind-numbing client meeting, at a soul-crushing office party, in the midst of a boring conversation, and not be looked at strangely. There is no substitute for the great feeling that a good read gives you.<\/span>\n\nI always wonder why billionaires need to earn more money. Why can\u2019t they just retire into the <\/span>sunset<\/span><\/a> and spend everything? I look at my book collection and realise I suffer from the same problem. If I am asked why I need to buy more books when I have 30 unread ones in my bookshelf, I am speechless.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nI now divide my time between three books. One on the way to work, one on the way back, and one just before I crash.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nIndia isn\u2019t playing in the finals of the cricket <\/span>World Cup<\/span><\/a>. Bummer.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nThen I get a message that puts a smile on my face.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nThere\u2019s a book sale in town this weekend.<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In times of pandemic, people stockpile essentials in case they can\u2019t get out of their homes. I have been stockpiling books for as long as I can remember. If I am asked why I need to buy more books when I have 30 unread ones in my bookshelf, I am speechless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":5010,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[8607,6426,8608],"class_list":["post-5009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pov","tag-book-hoarder","tag-books","tag-reading"],"yoast_head":"\nAll Day I Dream About Books: How I Became a Book-Hoarder<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In times of pandemic, people stockpile essentials in case they can\u2019t get out of their homes. I have been stockpiling books for as long as I can remember. 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