[ToALonelyPeace]

My dad is a book hoarder. He can probably appear on an American TV show if he doesn't live in another country.

His house was built in his grandfather time, back in the 1930s, with one upper floor and balcony, one living room, one small bedroom next to the staircase, a separate squat toilet next to a kitchen, and another bathroom. Every building stores books. The upper floor and balcony are uninhabitable due to dust and termites living on the yellow books with ink long faded away. To go up we would need to walk on books lining the staircase and risk falling, so we don't bother anymore and upper floor books live in isolation there.

The ground floor is also surrounded by books, and we had rats and cockroaches living among the book towers. Eating, gathering, sleeping are done in one small floor area . No bed, we bought a large mattress which can be pushed up against the wall to free up space. Otherwise we would have nowhere to sleep. Though when there wasn't enough space for books, my dad renovated the kitchen/toilet building so there would be another attic and the toilet hallway expanded for books. The bathroom building has some books wrapped in plastic bag, and no shower head because that might damage them.

Sometimes at night a huge swarm of termites and moths would gather on the neon lights, when we turn off the light they flee to disturb our neighbors. We should have been reported and fined for "public disturbance" already, but the neighbors are afraid of my father's possessiveness. Getting rid of his books equals a violence on his person and a lawsuit. It's also useless because he would buy 10 books every three days (minimum).

The funny thing is he spends more time buying books, put them in plastic bags, moving the stacks more than reading them. He only flips through a few at the old book stores.