12/20/2009
Buying books vs reading books
I have too many books; too many both because I do not have enough space to keep them and because I do not have enough time to read them. But then why do I keep buying books? I suppose I can say I am truly interested in the books I bought and think one day I will read them. But if I have to psychologically analyze myself, I may say buying and owning books gives me a false sense of becoming more knowledgeable. It is a false sense because buying and owning books is, obviously, not the same as reading them. I am not sure whether this is a form of self-deception, but what makes it psychologically interesting is that even though I know that it is a false sense, I can't help feeling the same way. Just today I ordered two books, not knowing when I will read them, but felt good just because I bought them; and I know that I will feel even better when the books arrive and I can touch them (well, one of them is a Kindle book and can't really be touched).
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I discovered this about myself and resolved to practically never buy books. Instead I get books from the library. This way I don't pay anything and, maybe more importantly, I have a deadline to read the book by. It's a false deadline since I can always renew, but somehow the illusion of a deadline makes me put aside time to finish the book. And when the book is returned, I still have all my shelf space for the books that were too obscure or otherwise unable to get at the library.
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