A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.
– Henry David Thoreau
Much of who I am today grew from seeds planted by interesting literature. As a 12-year-old magician, I consumed a large part of the history and practice of the art form by way of written word. A few years later, as an up-and-coming chess player, I met Bobby Fischer in the pages of My 60 Memorable Games. Jeremy Silman’s How to Reassess Your Chess virtually revolutionized the way I looked at the game. Eckhart Tolle’s words of wisdom helped me let go of the ego, which instilled in me a social fearlessness that has made meeting women a non-issue.
I am a writer today because of what words have done to me, and because delivering a message that changes people’s lives is, to me, a worthy challenge.
There is one downside to being a book lover though: I want to own them all.
The Road to Hoardom
I think Maslow’s Hierarchy needs another rung: Books–just above Safety and below Love.
As much as I love to read, my shelves are full of books I haven’t gotten around to. When a blogger I admire recommends an interesting book, I can’t help myself. They’re smart. They like this book. Maybe if I read it, I’ll be smart too. Sometimes I’ll drop everything and head directly to the bookstore, because clearly this book contains secrets I must know to make my next move. I bring the book home, glance through a few chapters while sitting on the can, put it on the coffee table for later indulgence, and get back to whatever I was doing pre-bookstore-run.
I don’t have time to actually read my new book yet. I’ve got a lot of work to do, and I’m already part way through a couple other ones, so it’ll have to wait.
But then a strange thing happens: Over the next couple weeks, I’ve done it again. I’ve bought another must-have book, given it some “can time”, and the last book, the one that was waiting for me on the coffee table, has silently migrated to my bookshelf, without ever getting read.
My name is Brad, and I’m a book hoarder.
How to Have Your Book and Read It Too
If you’re like me, and you love to buy far more books than you can read, how do you stop the insanity? After all, we’re not going to just stop buying books. Sometimes I hear of a book so intriguing that I’m not willing to wait until I’ve finished my current library. Giving our old books away won’t fix the overcollection problem. Even a strict book budget can be worked around by buying cheaper books. As for buying the audio version, no thanks. I learn much better with a dead tree in my hands.
Here’s the solution I came up with: Make a rule that you will read X number of books you currently own before buying another one. I call this the read-to-purchase ratio.
This solution works well for me because it lets me control my book purchasing habits without requiring that I wait several years until I’ve consumed my existing selection. Had I done that, I’d still not have read the books that inspired me to create 30 sleeps. It also encourages me to read more, particularly to make more time for books than for blogs or mailing lists, knowing that I can reward myself with a new book soon enough, and not feel guilty about it.
My own read-to-purchase ratio is 5-to-1. Choosing a ratio that’ll work for you involves finding that sweet spot between how much time you have to read, how quickly you read, and how many shelves you’ve still got to get through.
Using this simple rule, you can make steady progress at taming the literary beast, without having to give up your Amazon adventures.
I have come up with a similar solution. I make a “syllabus” of books to read. I look at my bookshelf, and pick out the next 10-14 books I want to read. The longer I’ve hoarded it, the better. Then I write down the total pages in each book and add up the total. I give myself a reasonable amount of time to finish all the books, break the total pages down into a daily reading assignment, and I tell myself that I can’t buy a new book until I finish half the books on the syllabus. Only really valuable books I will keep after reading. The rest I donate to charity. If a book is not worth keeping, but has a few interesting gems of advice, I will make notes of the few interesting tidbits from the books, save those tidbits in a word file for future reference and inspiration, then give away the book.
@T:
That sounds like a good strategy too.
Speaking of charity, I’ve got at least 15-20 books that I need to donate Real Soon Now too.
It really is the same as your strategy, a buy to read ratio. I just give myself a time limit to speed up the process.
Love your blog, by the way.
I’ll just go to the library and read the book, and I’ll only buy it if it’s truly life-altering and re-readable. My local library system is fantastic and has just about everything you can imagine. :)
Great entry!
I know this is a bit off-topic but in this entry you mention Eckhart Tolle. I’m checking out “The Power of Now” tomorrow but do you recommend any of his other works?
@T:
Thanks for the kind words. :)
@John:
I’ve never been into taking books out of libraries–not in a long while, at least–though I do occasionally spend an afternoon just floating around them, letting my curiosity have its way.
There’s something about the wear and tear of a book that I take personally. I also prefer not to worry about whether the library will have what I want. Just a personal preference, of course.
@rob:
Thanks. A New Earth by Tolle is also really good. It’s a more general treatment of the issues posed by the current state of human (un)consciousness. Enjoy!
Bump on Rob’s comment.
[...] though, Brad Bollenbach’s advice was sort of percolating in my head. I agreed with myself not to buy another book until I had gone [...]
Learn some skimming, speed reading techniques, or preferably photoreading to atleast get a sweeping overview of the messages the author is trying to get across. You should stumble on the 20% of the book that gives 80% of the value – read those sections in greater detail.
Noooooo!
My books are mine and no one else can have them!
;)
Admittedly, my ‘hoard’ is fairly low – I have read most everything I have, so I like to believe that I don’t have a book problem. Of course, the groaning shelves on the many bookcases might tell another tale…
[...] накопления неспрочитаной груды книг, предложенно в блоге 30 снов. Это решение хорошо работает для меня и побуждает [...]
Absolutely not allowed to buy any more books till I’ve read all the ones I have. The rule lets me go in bookstores and look, but not buy.
Great blog! Subscribed.
BTW, any clearer date on BarCamp Canada? I have a few ideas for presentations but will be out of the country till June.
There were so many books in my house that I hadn’t read and knew I wouldn’t read them all in this lifetime.
So I made a clean break—the books I knew I wouldn’t read I donated to the library or goodwill.
Now I don’t have books stacked up in every room in my house !!
I’ve always loved bookstores and libraries—have spent hours at a time there. Don’t let me loose in the bookstore !!
One thing that works for me is that if I buy a book, I immediately get rid of a book I already have. Either I donate it, trash it, or give it to a friend. That way I am not hoarding books anymore. I use this same rule for shirts, ties, etc….
I have a new rule that I will only keep one book on my coffee table–the one that I am currently reading. When that book is done, then I will choose another book from my bookcase and place that on the table. That way, I don’t feel so overwhelmed with books.
I go through my books regularly, but I still have lots – an occupational hazard, as I am both a writer and an English teacher. Oh yeah, and I am working on my Master’s in Lit. That is a book monster’s dream right there. Fortunately I am usually able to read several books at once. Currently I am reading Valfierno, Shakespeare’s Wife, Moll Flanders, and Scarlet Letter (this one I am getting ready to teach). I don’t feel as if I buy many books, but the evidence is all around me. I often will take books to school and let the kids have them. The library is also a great place to dispose of books; in Vegas, we have a non-profit book store group that works with the libraries to sell the books and donate the money to library programs.
At last I have found a kinship with people who hoard books! My shelves are bulging with so many ‘must read’ books it is ridiculous. Each time I visit Amazon, I will have ordered a book and immediately feel guilty. My wife questions me constantly about why I keep ordering books when we live on such a tight budget. I seem to be on a path of self-sabotage. I promise to stop but I will come across a ‘classic must read’ almost within the hour and succumb. I get a huge buzz out of book buying and feel on top of the world when I buy one. I even resort to sneaking books I have bought with library books to hide the purchase, as I know it will cause me trouble. Can anyone identify with this sort of behaviour? I will sink into despair if I do not follow through with buying a book.
David J. Palmer
Omg, i thought i was the only one that had this issue!
The library has been a wonderful resource for me lately – I’m getting much better about getting a book there rather than amazon or the store. If I begin reading it and I really need it, or really need to mark it up (i’m one of those), I can go buy it. But I end up paying monster late fees – because i’ll check out 10 books at a time. Like anyone has time for that – but also, i’m in grad school, so I’m supposed to be reading for SCHOOL.
The other thing I started doing was writing down the titles of everything that I thought I HAD to have while I was in Powells, and then went amazon to learn more about the book. If I still decided that I had to have it, I can put it on my wishlist, get it from the library, or order (and unfortunately for independent bookstores like Powells, usually get it for a lot less from amazon).
Great post. My book hoarding drives my husband crazy.
I have read all of my books and I love them. How can I just get rid of them? I have had some of them longer than my wife or kids or any of my friends. I can’t do it. I just can’t!
I can’t help thinking that the underlying reason for book hoarding is that we are on a quest for answers. That’s why the feeling I get when I go to a bookstore is that I want to own every book in the store. The answers have got to be in these books somewhere.
Haha, yes I have to keep an eye on my book hoarding habits too!
I find keeping the number of books I’m reading at a time to a miminum (4/5) is effective. I’ll also usually have a main book that I’m working through. Before I can start reading a new book, I have to finish one of the one’s on my current rotation.
In other words, before I can start on X book, I must finish Y book.
The desire to start on bookX is very often the motivation needed to get me to finish bookY!
Keys
I check out so many books from the library, and then continue to renew them for several months. I start and do not finish many of them. I try now to just limit myself to one or two books. I have been able to renew one book for about a year. There is only a limit on a renewal if the book has been placed on hold by another reader.
Magazines…newspapers…this year has been full for me…Newsweek, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Money, Fortune, etc., etc., I turned in frequent flyer miles for free publications. Now, they are piled up everywhere because I want to catch up on the year’s reading. Oh well, I did this before, and eventually donated them to the local library.
I’m trying to live a more minimalist life, but I am surrounded by junk…it makes it hard to think.
I don’t share your problem as such…
I am a book hoarder in my own way;
I read, then re-read & the book is shoved into my cupboard to be re-read again at a later date. I’ll buy more, do the same & sometimes depending on my mood I may go back to one specific novel.
I love my books and don’t want to leave the world they create for me.
They get doggy tagged, bent and torn, coffee stained, disrespected but very much appreciated.
I do hope your theory has worked out for you.
I like your call to action in all of your posts. I struggle every day to perfect successful methods, but I believe that I would be doing it wrong if I felt as though I was doing everything perfect. I think you do a nice job of explaining the thoughts and motives of the successful.
On this post however, I disagree with your method of book reading. I think that books have a real flaw to them that go against productivity: you have to invest way to much time in conventional reading methods before you realize a book is a dud or not applicable to you.
Reason #1 for books unread: commitment of time.
We all agree that it is very difficult to continue to pick up and put down a book and be able to retain it’s contents. We fail to read because we rarely ever have an hour + to dedicate to a book.
Reason #2 Poor Content Reluctance. What if we invest all of that time and the books sucks?
Solution: Create your own preview.
1. When beginning a new book or deciding to buy it, take 2 minutes to open it up, and read the table of contents. Does the book refer to items that are interesting or applicable? If yes, buy the book, move to step two.
2. Read the first sentence of each chapter. If the first sentence is not enough, the first paragraph. earmark any chapters that are interesting or need further explaining. Chances are that you can put the book down at this point and have confidence you have retained 90% of it.
3. Go back to earmarcked portions for your own entertainment.
4. Make some basic notes that will help you remember the book and place inside. Anytime someone wants to talk about the book, you can always go to that paper to refresh your brain.
This method helped me “donate” nearly 50 books I had horded while being able to speeed read about half, retaining most and really only reading about 2.
Novels and books for entertainment cannot be treated this way, but I assumed you were referring to self-improvement, business books.
Cheers and good luck. Thank you for the posts.
Ha ha! I loved this article! I laughed all the way through it… Thanks. :)
Hey! I just found a great website: paperbackbookswap.com
You can swap books for others you want, or havent’ read. I’m nuts about old science fiction, & my hubby has a hard time letting books go…
this seems to be a good site, so far.
Ann
I’m sitting right now, surrounded by four foot stacks of books all over my living room. I’ve killed another bookcase; it disintegrated under the weight of books forced into it. Tomorrow new bookcases will arrive, two to replace the one that died. I KNOW I have a problem. I am a compulsive book buyer. I just don’t know how to fix that problem. For you, it’s “maybe this book will make me smarter.” For me, it’s my remote brain. All the knowledge I don’t yet know or can’t remember is hiding in these books, and the ones in my bedroom, the garage, my mother’s attic… and there’s this weird, insane fear that if I let them go, I’m somehow losing part of my knowledge base. Like braincells dying off or something. It’s why I can’t do libraries, or read and release into the wild, or whatever. I just know that somewhere in the house is the book I want, if only I can find it.
I guess I have a different perspective on owning books. Currently I have about 3000+ and have donated perhaps 1500 more in the past to libraries, as well as selling another 500.
To me, the book itself is personal. The cover, the feel of the pages. Some books have harsh, unfriendly pages, while others are smooth, and the book falls open gracefully. Are the edges smooth or cut ragged? What about the font? Oh, there are so many. I reread some of my books, others have been only partially read, or not at all.
What I like, however, is when I get interested in a particular subject matter, I can investigate further, knowing I may have another book, or two, or more, on the subject.
What I can’t bear the thought of is having my books thrown in the trash! But, I know many of them are probably worthless, meaningful only to me because I’ve hung onto them for so many years. Surprisingly, some of them are now worth money, being out of print, first editions, or privately published.
Like many others posting here, I need to do something to manage my “collection” and have been searching for a way to dispose of the books. I guess the best way is to bite the bullet and sort, and then donate to libraries, hospitals, etc.
Seems like a good winter project !!!
there is absolutely nothing wrong with hoarding books, I’ve been doing it for years, occasionally getting rid of books I’m not interested in anymore and there are advantages-you don’t have to worry about returning them to the library, you’ll never be bored when you have so many of them and are looking for something new to read, they make your home look colourful and interesting, they reflect your personality and they make you look like a supersmart university academic when you’ve got hundreds of books. I will always love having lots of books!