Building an antilibrary: the power of unread books(nesslabs.com)
nesslabs.com
Building an antilibrary: the power of unread books
https://nesslabs.com/antilibrary
41 comments
Your whole comment is exactly me to a “t”.
However I’ve also given myself permission to just read parts of books. Especially nonfiction: pull it down, read a specific chapter, eventually back to the shelf.
another cool thing is if you’re looking for something specific, rather than google it, you prob have a few books on your shelf. An example for me recently was something like “growing herbs”.
Anyway, nice to see someone else with the same strain of bibliophilia, hope you have a good week!
However I’ve also given myself permission to just read parts of books. Especially nonfiction: pull it down, read a specific chapter, eventually back to the shelf.
another cool thing is if you’re looking for something specific, rather than google it, you prob have a few books on your shelf. An example for me recently was something like “growing herbs”.
Anyway, nice to see someone else with the same strain of bibliophilia, hope you have a good week!
Same thing, except that my collection is digital (due to shipping issue). Any subject that interests me, I collect some recommendations and get all the books in my library. And just like the parent comment, I usually do a quick browse (1 or 2 minutes). That to have some kind of metadata in memory, that I have a book that talk about this specific thing.
The nicest thing is that I have enough books to read for years now, so if I'm bored and don't feel like reading, that usually means that I should either sleep or go for a walk.
The nicest thing is that I have enough books to read for years now, so if I'm bored and don't feel like reading, that usually means that I should either sleep or go for a walk.
"Not having something ready to read" used to happen - many years ago. Yeah, that problem has been solved for sure. That's progress right there.
I think people need to forgive themselves in the way you describe.
I am wasteful with books I physically purchase. I am wasteful with movies I physically purchase.
There is a used DVD store nearby. There are used bookstores.
Sometimes I buy a series of kindle books, and quit part way through the series.
Sometimes I start a project, then leave it unfinished.
forgive yourself for the mess.
because somewhere in all this mess is true happiness.
I am wasteful with books I physically purchase. I am wasteful with movies I physically purchase.
There is a used DVD store nearby. There are used bookstores.
Sometimes I buy a series of kindle books, and quit part way through the series.
Sometimes I start a project, then leave it unfinished.
forgive yourself for the mess.
because somewhere in all this mess is true happiness.
I like to guess the "timeless-ness" factor of a book. If a book seems to have it, I'm likely to shelve it to build a library for my kids. Filter question: will this book have any value in 10 or 20 years from today?
A late theologian from my country, truly wonderful and witty academic, used to say something like: it would be insulting for a book if you grab it from a store and start reading right away. A well-mannered, civil reader will first let the book mature in the shelf for a good ten years or so. :)
This was said tongue-in-cheek, obviously, but it's a good line. She was a classical philologist, translated works by Platon, Hieronymus, Martin Luther etc. So I suppose she lived in a somewhat different time zone as compared to the rest of us -- as in, if your mental horizon expands to some 2000 years, a decade of waiting for a book to "mature in the shelf" is, indeed, nothing. :)
A late theologian from my country, truly wonderful and witty academic, used to say something like: it would be insulting for a book if you grab it from a store and start reading right away. A well-mannered, civil reader will first let the book mature in the shelf for a good ten years or so. :)
This was said tongue-in-cheek, obviously, but it's a good line. She was a classical philologist, translated works by Platon, Hieronymus, Martin Luther etc. So I suppose she lived in a somewhat different time zone as compared to the rest of us -- as in, if your mental horizon expands to some 2000 years, a decade of waiting for a book to "mature in the shelf" is, indeed, nothing. :)
Sounds like fun with a lot of bookshelves. I have a crazy long "to read" note file. It's not possible that I'm going to ever read all that. And that file grows of course. So that a better procedure is for me to poke around the list when I have incoming time availability and get one or two that interest me NOW. After that, public and university libraries around me are very good - instead of a pre-filled bookshelf.
For reference books, I have started keeping around textbooks. When I want a discussion of X, between the web and the textbooks, it usually works out. (And my public libraries mostly don't stock textbooks - never understood that - so I keep some paper there.)
For reference books, I have started keeping around textbooks. When I want a discussion of X, between the web and the textbooks, it usually works out. (And my public libraries mostly don't stock textbooks - never understood that - so I keep some paper there.)
I behave this way with videogames, but here the result is called pile of shame
> a private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool
Honestly this is not a terrible approach. Years ago I bought TLPI and TAOE and have in felt a little guilty when I see them in my library (TBH being displayed with a bit of pride) but I haven’t read them.
The thing is that it’s been actually multiple times when I need to look up how to write to pipes in C or how to use a FET and I’ve just gone upstairs, grab the book and learn all I need to know. Sure, there’s kagi and chatgpt but I’d argue that both of those resources are not the same level of quality than a good book is!
Same has happened a Lua book, multiple Maths books and so on… bought them aspiring to read them, felt guilty about not reading them cover to cover, turns out they have been actually useful when I least expected.
Than Taleb would come up with the idea of an antilibrary in black swan makes a lot of sense… that might be another I might need to buy and not read :-)
Honestly this is not a terrible approach. Years ago I bought TLPI and TAOE and have in felt a little guilty when I see them in my library (TBH being displayed with a bit of pride) but I haven’t read them.
The thing is that it’s been actually multiple times when I need to look up how to write to pipes in C or how to use a FET and I’ve just gone upstairs, grab the book and learn all I need to know. Sure, there’s kagi and chatgpt but I’d argue that both of those resources are not the same level of quality than a good book is!
Same has happened a Lua book, multiple Maths books and so on… bought them aspiring to read them, felt guilty about not reading them cover to cover, turns out they have been actually useful when I least expected.
Than Taleb would come up with the idea of an antilibrary in black swan makes a lot of sense… that might be another I might need to buy and not read :-)
TLPI? TAOE?
The Linux Programming Interface and The Art of Electronics, perhaps?
Thanks, appreciated! Hard to know for sure.
Around 2005 I started to fill my amazon wish list with all the books I where liked the idea of having read them. It didn't take very long until I had two dozen or so wish lists (non-fiction subdivided by coarse categories of my interests, fiction subdivided by genres).
Last year I did the math: If I wanted to read them all, assuming I'd read one book per week (a pace that I was able to keep up with when I had no kids), I'd be way beyond retirement age until I could add another book to the list. And given my actual reading pace currently, there was no chance to finish the list in my lifetime. After some soul-searching I discarded all wish lists in an act of liberation from self-inflicted fear of missing out.
Last year I did the math: If I wanted to read them all, assuming I'd read one book per week (a pace that I was able to keep up with when I had no kids), I'd be way beyond retirement age until I could add another book to the list. And given my actual reading pace currently, there was no chance to finish the list in my lifetime. After some soul-searching I discarded all wish lists in an act of liberation from self-inflicted fear of missing out.
I have long gotten used to the idea that I cannot remotely read all my books in my years remaining. It bothers me only a little. When I feel like reading, I have a curated collection to choose from. A large fraction of it is deep dive material, so went I want more than the shallow tripe on the internet, it's available.
I realized that I'd finally accepted my habit of reading Ken Wilbur and others sideways an odd paragraph at a time when I saw your comment here. Thank you for the idea that my nonlinearity is ok with a tip of the hat to leo buscaglia.
I once had a debate with a friend who maintained that the nukes dropped on Japan did not cause the Japanese to surrender, that the declaration of war by the Soviet Union did.
I remembered I had two history books covering the Japanese surrender in detail, with proper cites and everything, which thoroughly supported the former.
I remembered I had two history books covering the Japanese surrender in detail, with proper cites and everything, which thoroughly supported the former.
Curation is the key. I also curate my media (movies and music albums) library. And it's more enjoyable to put on an album you like and purposely listen instead of launching a random playlist. Or browse Netflix.
I've had an anti-library for a good long while now, and what I've noticed is that occasionally I'll realize that I book I have is the perfect primer for a subject I need to get quickly up to speed on. This is usually only because I've spent some time thumbing through it already since it's been on my shelf for years. I'll subsequently devour the book and feel a great deal of satisfaction at the stars having aligned like this. It happens rarely but it's a nice treat, and always feels like taking a knowledge power pill.
Consider it your professional library.
I like the idea, but the terminology “antilibrary” really bothers me. It isn’t in any way a negation, inverse, opposite or dual of a library.
If you think about a traditional communal library, it will have many titles. Some you may have read, others you have not.
So this feels more of a cache hierarchy. You have many books you haven’t read, or at least fully internalized. The books you have read and internalized are in your head, and you can opt to not retain the physical instantiation if you are confident they will stay in cache.
If you think about a traditional communal library, it will have many titles. Some you may have read, others you have not.
So this feels more of a cache hierarchy. You have many books you haven’t read, or at least fully internalized. The books you have read and internalized are in your head, and you can opt to not retain the physical instantiation if you are confident they will stay in cache.
Can I instead maintain an anti-index of all the books that _would_ be in my antilibrary if I had infinite money and space, and which I would purchase (or, more likely, look up) if and when the need arises? Because otherwise this seems impractical (though I adore the spirit!).
I read that Taleb book when it came out and was inspired to build up a library. I mostly regret it. I used to be motivated to finish books because then I would allow myself to buy more. Now I read less and have a ton of books about things I lost interest in fifteen years ago.
My antilibrary is a growing folder of books downloaded from z-library.
The habit of accumulating books is one I find stress inducing. The best decision I made over the years is to give away most of my books except for a few non-technical books and some old comics. There's less clutter at home, less baggage occupying room in the mind, and less stress telling myself that I have to make time to read those books because I paid for them.
I have my books divided into two sections. The books I’ve read and those I’ve not yet read (or that I have read but desire to re-read). The latter currently takes up a bit less than 18 80cm Billy bookcase shelves. Allowing for incoming books,¹ I estimate I can clear a shelf a year, so I should get this down to zero before I die. I also keep a list of books that I plan to check out from the library, which currently has 1,255 books on it. This would be 25 years of reading if I never add anything to it, but if books go on at the same rate that they go onto my to-read shelves, it’s more like 50 years, and I doubt that I have 50 years of reading life ahead of me.
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1. Barring sudden influxes of books which does happen on occasion. Moving most of the books off of my Amazon wishlist into a wishlist at my local indie’s website² has reduced the chances of this happening at Christmas or my birthday which has happened in the past.
2. Which has about 130 books on it right now.
⸻
1. Barring sudden influxes of books which does happen on occasion. Moving most of the books off of my Amazon wishlist into a wishlist at my local indie’s website² has reduced the chances of this happening at Christmas or my birthday which has happened in the past.
2. Which has about 130 books on it right now.
The main part this leaves our is your digital vs physical library.
We keep about 1000 physical books (sadly constrained by space, we'll expand into a new house one day), but they're the kinds of books that 50 years from now you would still be interested in. Or that we would want to give away to people in that timeframe. Or that have some particular sentimental value. And a far larger digital library with both more breath and that's much more timely.
We keep about 1000 physical books (sadly constrained by space, we'll expand into a new house one day), but they're the kinds of books that 50 years from now you would still be interested in. Or that we would want to give away to people in that timeframe. Or that have some particular sentimental value. And a far larger digital library with both more breath and that's much more timely.
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Generational transfer is very important to me and the main reason I build my "antilibrary".
Not only has tech based "browsing" failed to even come close to the power of a full bookshelf, it has absolutely no transfer quality.
I want my kids to see my bookshelf!
Not only has tech based "browsing" failed to even come close to the power of a full bookshelf, it has absolutely no transfer quality.
I want my kids to see my bookshelf!
This is excellent. Another aspect that the author doesn't even point out is that if you're reading things that don't suggest more than one next thing worth reading... It probably wasn't that good. Basically you should be shooting for a kind of intellectual / inspiration R0 value > 1.
https://www.azquotes.com/author/4536-Desiderius_Erasmus
When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.
Your library is your paradise.”Read books are far less valuable than unread ones.”
What a wonderful way to praise curiosity and intellectual humility.
What a wonderful way to praise curiosity and intellectual humility.
> People don’t walk around with anti-résumés telling you what they have not studied or experienced
I kind of like this idea.
I kind of like this idea.
Back in the late 90’s when I was looking for a job out of college, I gave a resume to a company, and they called me up for a first round interview and mentioned a few keywords from my resume that were of interest, but some of those keywords were definitely not on my resume. It was some kind of OCR fail at their end. But it got my foot into the door.
I later joked with my dad about making a resume section like what you describe - saying I do not yet have experience with foo, bar, baz. Just to hit the initial keywords scan some shops were apparently doing, but without lying.
I later joked with my dad about making a resume section like what you describe - saying I do not yet have experience with foo, bar, baz. Just to hit the initial keywords scan some shops were apparently doing, but without lying.
Who was doing OCR keyword scans of resumes in the late '90s? IBM or Microsoft?? That seems like it would have been expensive and a lot of resources for most other companies
I'd be curious to try that for beating the terrible resumé screening tools that so many company seem to be using these days.
Yes, an anti-résumé listing only what one has not studied or experienced but limited to things that one has even the vaguest aspirations of one day studying or experiencing would be a great thing to have.
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If I read a book, I usually get rid of it by selling it to a used bookstore, or handing it to somebody else. I buy books that look interesting when I see them, then take them home and shelve them, and promptly forget about them. When I want to read a new book, I browse my shelves the same way I'd browse at a bookstore, except every single book is interesting, or was at once time.
Sure, it's insane, but it's what I like to do.
A side effect is that I occasionally buy the same books several times, either because I want to reread it, or just because I forget that I've bought it already. That doesn't bother me, they all come from used bookstores I want to support anyway.
I have separate shelves for books I don't want to get rid of, like nice editions and heirlooms. But for the most part, almost all the books I own are unread, despite reading being one of the things I do the most.