In his 1912 book about books and bookselling, Joseph Shaylor repeats a story about bookdealer in Barcelona who had particular methods for maintaining his inventory. “Don Vincent, . . . on his own confession was arraigned for the murder of customers who had bought from him rare and precious editions which he thus recovered, and on more than one occasion ‘set fire to the house of a rival, so that in the confusion he could secure some unique rarity of which he could not otherwise have been possessed.'”
He said there was another collector who bought a rare book at a high price. When someone suggested he bought the book in order to reprint it, the collector said, “Heaven forbid! If I were to, it would no longer be scarce and would therefore be valueless; besides, I doubt if the volume is worth re-printing.”
Friends, if you feel the temptation to do something like this, get help. Don’t live with the shame of bibliomania alone. Share it with others.
These home library ideas may also help. Number 2 is so moving it’s hard to scroll past it. Architectural Digest has warm-warming ideas too.
Chekhov: Hai Di Nguyen points to some stories in which Chekhov humanizes his characters through shame. We probably need more shame, more human humility, in real life.
Religion: A year ago today, “22-year-old Mahsa Amini died after being arrested by Iran’s morality police for wearing her hijab ‘improperly’.” Now, millions of Iranian women reportedly refuse to wear a hijab in public.
Evangelism: Here’s a post on a book about making “evangelism a less intimidating” by rethinking the goal and asking questions.