Learning About Our Selves Through Our Bookshelves
Imagine you are an explorer in a desolate, post-apocalyptic landscape who comes across an abandoned house. The occupants have long departed but all their belongings are still there. Which of these things should you look at first to understand what kind of people the former inhabitants were? My suggestion is that you spend time looking over their books.
But we don't have to wait for a nuclear winter to perform this thought experiment on our own personal libraries. The books we possess stand for the things we are now, or were at one time, truly interested in. They are not the most utilitarian of our possessions. They don't keep us in physical comfort. They aren't food or fuel. The only reason to acquire a book is to have a specific interest in the things it talks about. This makes our per...