More More More

I filled up my shelves with books, so I got more shelves, but now I have empty spots in the shelves and I think I need to get more books.

And the foolish thing is that there are lots of books on my shelf that I haven't read, books bought because I found them at a good price, books I got with a whole pile of other books, books that were given to me, and books bought simply because it felt like they should be books on my shelf (the sad state of self-conscious book buying), yet even with a healthy to-be-read pile, I'm still tempted to get more. There's the smell of bookstores and the possibility of finding something new or weird or obscure hidden away somewhere. There is the infinite availability of anything you want online. There are those books that I had once but lost, and I'm not sure if I really want to read them again, but I want them again. I want them on my shelf. I want to be able to look at my shelf and see them there.

I worry when I think about what this might mean for me psychologically. Is this simply emotional security that I am attempting to purchase? Some lack I am filling? A way to distract myself from reality? Freud would claim that I have some lingering conflict from when I was toilet training.

Whatever the reason, I want more. I'll go through purges of books every now and then, but I'll always be back buying more.

This week I am...

Reading:
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Nobrow 8: Hysteria edited by Alex Spiro and Sam Arthur (I linked to Amazon because it's sold out on the Nobrow site, but everything they put out is super tight)
The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists by Seth
Island 9-14 edited by Brandon Graham
Outcast 19-24 by Robert Kirkman and Paul Azaceta
Black Science 22-28 by Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera

Watching:
Fargo Season 1

Listening:
The Jam