Bibliomania and the Backup Book Closet

A Confession

The Main Shelves

My library setup suffers from split personality disorder. My main shelves (shown above) hover over my desk. They are arranged in the exact order of this reading project. The first book I read in January 2017 is in the top left corner. As of March 2025, I’m on the 3rd row of the 3rd shelf of books. Anything after that is coming up in the Immortal Books reading list or is a very special book. As I purchase more books for the Immortal Books list, the books on the right get moved to the…

Backup Book Closet (BBC)

There is no chronological organization in the Backup Book Closet. This is where books move when they’ve been kicked off the main shelves. Nothing personal against them, there’s simply no more room at the inn. And there’s actually not much room left in the closet either.

I’m not quite sure what to do next.

Some possibilities:

• Stop buying books.

• Switch to Kindle.

• Give away books.

• Dig a basement underneath the BBC.

None of these options are particularly enticing and yet I have 13 years remaining of the Immortal Books reading project and probably only own 20% of the books on the list. Space limitations vs space requirements.

I like physical books. Arranging them in chronological order is a lovely practice. I know exactly where to look for a book because I know exactly when I read it. It’s easy and it helps me visually map my intellectual journey every day I walk into my office.

I like to write in physical books. It helps me remember what I read. Interaction with an actual page does something in my brain that scrolling in iBooks on the iPad doesn’t do. My iPad also doesn’t have the same delightful smell as my books.

There are a few books in the BBC I could give away, but on the whole, I’m rather attached to them. For nearly every book, there is a story behind how it ended up in my library. Maybe it was a gift. Maybe it was a special signed copy where I met the author. Maybe it was a book I picked up in a random bookstore on a trip in my 20s and shows how my interests have changed over the years. Maybe it’s a book my grandfather owned. Maybe it’s a book that radically changed the direction of my life.

I realize things have gotten out of hand and apparently that is the first step in recovery. However, I don’t want heal. I want to keep building my library. I want to get random translations of The Iliad and periodically take them off my shelves to compare the first lines of the epic. I want to hunt in bookshops around the world and find new treasures to join the collection. I want to take a book off my shelf and have a photo, bookmark, or note fall out that brings back a flood of memories.

For now, I must diligently search for a Backup to the Backup Book Closet (B-BBC).