Book Hoarding

[Pan Michael]

Great post Gveranon.

Yes, this is me. I have 5000 or so books spread throughout three rooms, and they are gradually overtaking all my living space. It's kind of funny, since they literally cost me more than a small house. And, with my low-paying, increasingly uncertain job, I now have the background anxiety that some day I won't be able to afford to house either myself or my books!

Speaking of which, what does one do with that many books if one is evicted? Buy a small trailer to cart them around? Dig a large hole in the woods and line it with plastic so they don't get wet? I think I can live in a tent without much bother. But I'd definitely lose sleep if my books weren't safely stowed somewhere.

Plus, my car has 100,000 miles on it, and seems to be rusting out. So when that goes, I will likely regret all those Tartarus Press and Centipede Press deluxe editions! Yes, if it weren't for the books, I could easily own a small house and have a new car! Alas, I'm not sure what to make of that....

At any rate, I'm very much like Lovecraft in needing to be surrounded by books, and by various things that remind me of my childhood. Without that, life is not in any way appealing to me.

At this point, my only desire is to be left alone with my dreams and my books, and not have to work. I do get frustrated that I've spent so much money on rare first editions, when I think that that money could have been put towards retirement. I certainly have a deep need to be free of work.... OK, so maybe after I buy that new Machen autobiography, and that ninth volume of Kenneth Grant's Typhonian series (to just have 8 without the final 9th volume would drive me crazy!), I will REALLY start saving? Yes, that will work!