It is foolish to think that you have to read all the books you buy, as it is foolish to criticize those who buy more books than they will ever be able to read. It would be like saying that you should use all the cutlery or glasses or screwdrivers or drill bits you bought before buying new ones."
"There are things in life that we need to always have plenty of supplies, even if we will only use a small portion."
"If, for example, we consider books as medicine, we understand that it is good to have many at home rather than a few: when you want to feel better, then you go to the 'medicine closet' and choose a book. Not a random one, but the right book for that moment. That's why you should always have a nutrition choice!"
"Those who buy only one book, read only that one and then get rid of it. They simply apply the consumer mentality to books, that is, they consider them a consumer product, a good. Those who love books know that a book is anything but a commodity."
Which is what Umberto Eco, who owned 50,000 books, had to say about home libraries. If it were it not such a mouthful, I would use it as my stock reply to anyone who criticises me for constantly buying books.
There is even a man in the neighbourhood who prides himself on never having read a book in his life, let alone owned one. He is also an ardent follower of Donald Trump and used to phone me up almost daily to launch into tirades of how great a man Trump was. All this came to a halt when, after listening to him for a good ten minutes, I quietly hung up on him. I don't know for how long he continued expousing Trump's genius before he realised that he had been talking into a dead phone, but he must've eventually, as I haven't heard from him since that day.
But let me circle back to the books I picked up during yesterday's excursion to Moruya's CWA Tea Room and Vinnies: "The Sweet Spot - How Australia made its own luck - and could now throw it away" by Peter Hartcher, "The Game - A portrait of Scott Morrison" by Sean Kelly, and "Oyster - From Montparnasse to Greenwell Point" by Nicolette Stasko. The last one is a book for lovers of oysters which I'm not - "It was a brave man who first ate an oyster", said Jonathan Swift in the 1700s -, but neither did I like Scott Morrison nor his politics.
Second-hand books often show interesting traces of their provenance. The oyster book had on its flyleaf the handwritten inscription, "This book belongs to Jaclyn - world's best oyster eater! - a gift from her favourite son (signature illegible)", while another one was bookmarked with the above Ansett Australia boarding pass. Thank you, Mr Duncan Waddell! I hope you had a safe flight AN115 from Sydney to Canberra.
Which brings back memories of a similar flight I was on in the early 70s in a small Electra from Canberra to Sydney. We were still boarding and I sat just a few rows behind a couple who had booked "First Class" which meant sitting a few rows in front of me and being separated from the "hoi polloi" by nothing more than a tiny curtain above their headrests.
The "lady" immediately queried the existence of their "first class" privileges as she was not satisfied with the tiny curtain and sitting just a few rows in front. Having been told by the hostess that a larger plane, departing several hours later, would give her all the privileges she had paid for, she grabbed her blushing husband and 'de-planed' to wait for the larger aircraft. The image stayed with me for over fifty years!
Funny what you remember in those still and early moments when the day hasn't quite decided yet whether it's going to be rainy and grey or just grey. To drag out these moments, I let sleeping dogs lie lest they drag me along on another long early-morning walk. I did enough walking in Moruya and swimming in the Bay yesterday, and all I want now is to enjoy my first cup of tea for the day and stick my nose into a book.
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe - I think I start on the oysters first. UGH!!!
