I don't know who needs to hear this, but it's okay to:
-Write in books that you own.
-Buy more books than you'll ever read.
-Read whatever books that interest you.
-Quit bad books to make room for brilliant ones.
-Read books in all formats (print, ebook,... See more
Alex & Booksx.comI don't know who needs to hear this, but it's okay to: -Write in books that you own. -Buy more books than you'll ever read. -Read whatever books that interest you. -Quit bad books to make room for brilliant ones. -Read books in all formats (print, ebook, audiobook).
Umberto Eco, who owned 50,000 books, had this to say about home libraries:
"It is foolish to think that you have to read all the books you buy, as it is foolish to criticize those who buy more books than they will ever be able to read. It would be like saying that you should use all the cutlery or glasses or... See more
treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket. That is to say: think of your backlog not as a container that gradually fills up, and that it’s your job to empty, but as a stream that flows past you, from which you get to pick a few choice items, here and there, without feeling guilty for letting all the others float by.
Oliver Burkeman • Meditations for Mortals
Quit more books: From a young age, school taught us that if you're given a book you have to finish it. But sooner or later we come across a book we don't like and stop reading altogether. A better option is to treat books like blog posts and feel no obligation to finish them. It's much better to quit a book than to quit reading altogether.
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But also—I think we’ve gotten kind of weird about reading books like reviewers, in the age of the internet. I saw a bit of a video once where this aspiring book influencer delivered this pained, extended apologia for not finishing an essay collection, like it hurt him so much not to finish the book but he just couldn’t. And I thought…most people... See more