Friday, November 12, 2004
Professor Admits Bibliomania
Here's a kindred soul:
My Own Private Library
by Thomas H. Benton
An assistant professor suspects that he is a scholar because he is a bibliophile rather than the other way around
from The Chronicle of Higher Education, via C. Max Magee
"There are at least 700 books in my English department office. There are another 200 stashed in filing cabinets in the hallway. In my home office I estimate there are more than 2,000 on the shelves and another 300 in a pile on the floor. There are about 400 books on cooking and gardening in the kitchen. And, finally, there are about 50 books on a shelf next to my bed. Those are the ones I intend to read soon. That shelf tends to fill up during the academic year and empty out during the summer."
"People don't really "own" books; they are custodians of them for a time. Sometimes I think about who will own some of my books after I am gone, and I write short notes to them in the margins."
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My Own Private Library
by Thomas H. Benton
An assistant professor suspects that he is a scholar because he is a bibliophile rather than the other way around
from The Chronicle of Higher Education, via C. Max Magee
"There are at least 700 books in my English department office. There are another 200 stashed in filing cabinets in the hallway. In my home office I estimate there are more than 2,000 on the shelves and another 300 in a pile on the floor. There are about 400 books on cooking and gardening in the kitchen. And, finally, there are about 50 books on a shelf next to my bed. Those are the ones I intend to read soon. That shelf tends to fill up during the academic year and empty out during the summer."
"People don't really "own" books; they are custodians of them for a time. Sometimes I think about who will own some of my books after I am gone, and I write short notes to them in the margins."
