Have you Neglected your Bookshelf?
Make it a healthy part of your life again.
Just the other day I had to run an errand which took me near my university campus. It’s been years since I’ve graduated, but every now and then and I like to go back and sink my soul in the college atmosphere. This usually inspires me to readjust my focus from my 9 to 5 and financial woes to the more broadly philosophical and spiritual sides of life.
This trip was special in particular. Right on the second floor of one of the apartments right next to campus where a close friend of mine used to live was now occupied by a used bookstore. I usually am not too intrigued by used bookstores, and just the sight of one makes my body cringe as it remembers the moldy stench of old books that makes its throat itch, and the indignity that some stores have to sell “packs” of books which the authors would be horrified to see. (Today’s special: $5 for 3 paperbacks. Crime and Punishment, Ivanhoe, and The Financial Crisis. Excuse me?) However this new used bookstore looked more up to date with the ages, and its sign and logo made it look more like a New York hipster cafe, something in between SOHO and Meatpacking.
When I stepped inside, the store glanced back with a reassuring nod. Indeed hipster, in a tight space of about only fifteen square feet were books from the bestsellers of last year to handwritten books from a century ago. The shop owner was young, probably in his early thirties, and the books were neatly organized by publication period and genre. Even the old books were in great condition, and the whole shop smelled nice. Every step and look around that tight space was more inspiring and re-ignited my inner reader.
That’s when I realized — what about my bookshelf? When’s the last time that I’ve picked up a book from my own bookshelf, and read it? I remember in a time before Steve Jobs cozied up in our pockets, that not only would I be reading books, but that I would also be rereading books constantly. It was a cycle of reading new books, rereading old books that I liked, and throwing out or giving away the ones I didn’t appreciate. And now that I had thought about it, it’s been almost a decade since I re-evaluated my bookshelf.
In fact, my bookshelf is cluttered. There are books I haven’t read for years, that I don’t even remember the main characters’ names. There are books that I was in the middle of reading, but never finished because of life’s exciting distractions. Then there are the books that other people gave and recommended me to read, that I didn’t touch at all. And of course, the books that I did buy upon subjugation by furious advertising that I read which served my life no purpose.
If my bookshelf was my bloodstream, then I’d have had a heart attack long ago. The ecosystem has been clogged, and there has been no economy there for years, because all of my daily reading has been on my Apple devices. It took me a new used bookstore’s bookshelf to realize that my bookshelf desperately needed attention. Just in the way that the bookstore’s bookshelf was vibrant with literary energy, I feel that by having neglected my own bookshelf in my own house I have been unintentionally growing the mold that will come to sting me in the throat.
Reading is important, and I’m sure anyone on Medium does not even need to be told that. Although there is an element of Feng Shui in this theory, I believe that the books that you take into your home need to be properly read and attended to, like you would a pet or plant. Just how we take care of our electronic devices — use them every day, charge them every day, replace them when we need a new one — we should be doing the same with our bookshelf, whichever room we make it a part of. Not every single book needs to be read or dusted every day, but your bookshelf should be part of the “flow”, and it would definitely appreciate the attention. Especially of disposing the books you don’t read.
I already feel much better having re-examined my current bookshelf, which I’ve had for three years. I’ve thrown out all of the supposed “bestsellers” that really let me down, and rereading some of my favorite classics. And most importantly, I already finished a book that someone recommended to me, and let them know what I thought of it with some actual excerpts and reflections. Now that feels really good.
