On collecting books

“We collect books in the belief that we are preserving them, when in fact it is the books that preserve the collector.” -Walter Benjamin

Andreas reading, by Edvard Munch (1883)

Walter Benjamin once characterized collecting books as the process by which one “locks” them into a “magic circle”, thereby sublimating the pleasure of acquisition into the more enduring pleasure of association. Which is to say, the collector doesn’t simply accumulate randomly, but follows a taxonomy entirely of his own making. The more he reads, the more he wants to read. And in so doing, he creates a portrait of himself.

As Walter Benjamin puts it:

“We collect books in the belief that we are preserving them, when in fact it is the books that preserve the collector.”

Indeed, personal libraries are rarely about size, but rather tend to focus on specific themes and topics that mirror the reader’s enduring and expanding obsessions. This means that you’ll always end up buying more books than you’ll actually read. As Schopenhauer once quipped, ideally when we buy books we should also be buying the time to read them.

And yet, perhaps the whole point of a personal library is that it reflects an ever broadening horizon. As, Umberto Eco (who had a collection of more than 50,000 books), wrote, the point isn’t to show off how much you’ve read, but to keep encouraging yourself to read more. In fact, he said that when he had visitors over to his home library he could always judge if they were true readers or not. Those who truly read books would never ask, “wow, have you read all of these?”

A true library, pace Eco, should always be an “anti-library”, i.e. not a literary trophy room, but a place that invites you to keep on reading.

And on that note, please see this as a tacit encouragement to keep discovering new books. Whether you get them from the library or a bookstore. The joy lies in the exploration, and in the turning of the page.

Julian

Thank you for reading my newsletter. After a short hiatus, I’ve decided to expand this substack to include writing on literature, philosophy, cinema, and -of course- fine art. Thank you for your support. And if you’d like to access my weekly podcast where I discuss what I’m reading and watching, please click below. Thank you.