This came across my inbox today. It’s an article that talks about the neuroscience behind why some of us buy more books than we can ever possibly read in a lifetime. Definitely seems true!
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A reason to buy more books…duh, yes, please!
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That is an interesting article, and being as that I am a psychologist, I completely agree with her assessment. I have not reached the point yet where books are piled up around my house or falling down out of closets. I do have a bookshelf or two in all the rooms of my house with the exception of the bathrooms and one guest bedroom. I sometimes wonder if I should walk around and count the ones I have not yet read. I honestly still believe that I will read (almost) 
all of them in my lifetime. Hopefully.
Thanks for sharing this! I no longer identify as a person with a book acquisition problem, but rather as a practitioner of tsundoku. (Still trying to convince my husband of this, but the Nassim Taleb antilibrary concept is helping me on that front 
)
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Haha, doesn’t that sound so much better than “book hoarder”?
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Glad to know that I am not alone in this pursuit.
I agree; I think eager readers want not to miss out on a good story and always hope to find more time than they have. I’m guilty of taking way too many books from the library, say seven at a clip and reading only three of them but I’m impulsive and want to see what’s being well-written.
Good to read. Thanks.
My husband doesn’t mind my many, many books at all. He just builds me a bigger bookcase.
I have literally had books fall out of my closet when I open it.
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I worked in a public library for 30+ years with one of my duties being collection development so I vicariously bought books for others but which I had access to and since my retirement I have limited my book buying since I still have the library’s collection nearby. But during the COVID lockdown, I saw how many people didn’t have access to books until we were able to set up a curbside and delivery system (I had a key so I was fortunate enough to still get books whenever I needed) But that has stuck with me & if something like that happens again, I won’t have a key to come & go so I want plenty of back-up books. So yes, I buy more than I probably need. But as Ann Patchett says, better to have too many books than not enough. I can think of worse vices.
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My journey with “too many” books is long and complicated. When I was a graduate student I bought nearly every book my professors mentioned as bringing added depth to a subject. My pleasure deprived brain was sure that I’d read those books and become entrenched in academia. When I finished that degree, I had bags of books I had to give away to the professional library as my life was taking me in a different direction. It was a painful parting.
Fortunately, as the years passed, I managed to give the outward appearance of curbing my habits when ebooks entered the scene. I still have ebooks I bought for professional development, many of which never added a jot to my development. I also amassed a number of cheaper ebooks for leisure reading. I read a few here and there and learned that snatching up those bargains reading books that just weren’t worth the reading time.
To be clear, I still bought books for professional use in paper versions…again more than I could read even in a 30 year career.
Today, my overreach is limited to building TBR lists that would last me into the next century. (More economical for sure.) Often, as soon as I start salivating over a recommended book on BookBrowse I put in a library loan request. Sometimes the books arrive in batches so large I find myself returning some of them unread. I know I could request them again, but there’s always the tantalizing pleasure of another newly published work to build my request lists around.
I have to admit I’m still chasing the lovely hopefulness of the next book and the next book and the one after that.
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Hummmm…luckily, “my charming eccentricity” as the author calls it now plays out in the digital realm where it is easier to expand storage space than adding new shelves, closets, and rooms. However, I do still have a jigsaw puzzle closet that is overflowing!
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Remember, “it’s not hoarding if its books!!”
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