Essays
May 19, 2010
I was impressed to see you read up to 200 books a year. Do you prefer to buy and keep the books you read, or do you borrow them from the library? I prefer to buy and keep them. –Cristy, Gulfport
The correct thing, the courteous and moral and courageous thing, the wise thing, is to buy a book to read, buy a second copy to maintain in pristine condition in a vacuum under glass, buy a third copy to donate to the library, buy a fourth copy as a sign of solidarity with the author, and buy a fifth copy as an attaboy for Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of movable type. In our library and at various other locations throughout the house, we have close to 40,000 volumes–even after I conducted a ruthless culling of the collection four years ago.
