I am most definitely a person of the book. Judaism and law school only made this natural tendency worse by justifying being a book hoarder.
This week, my missing seven boxes of books from California finally arrived! I mailed nine boxes when I moved from California to New York, for a total weight of approximately 200lbs. Two boxes arrived at a neighbor’s, and the other seven have been missing for almost a month. This has caused me an unreasonable amount of anxiety. However, everything is okay now.
Like a good hoarder, I immediately unpacked the books. This means that the only two things that are completely unpacked in my new apartment are my books and my office supplies/desk area. There you go, there are my priorities in life. I slept on an air mattress for a month before I got a bed, but I couldn’t let my books sit in boxes for more than 20 minutes. I don’t even have gas in my kitchen yet, so I’ve had to live on take-out food for the last month! (Lucky Stove #3 arrives today, so let’s hope it’s not a safety hazard too!)
So here is the finished product! There are about 2 dozen more books on a smaller bookshelf not pictured.
I was quite surprised that the entire left bookcase is JUST Jewish books. I thought I owned a lot more “general,” non-Jewish books than I do, but on the other hand, I significantly underestimated the amount of Jewish books I own. I would say that there are now more Jewish books than “regular” books! Of the books that can be “read” (aka, not cookbooks or reference books), I have read at least half of them. Having them all back in my greedy little hands means that I’ve been furiously sneaking in “pleasure reading” as much as possible, and probably to the detriment of my bar studying.
Full disclosure: I haven’t even touched a Kindle or other electronic book thingy-ma-do. I have way too many real books to read without giving myself access to an unlimited library that doesn’t cost $100 and a chiropractor to ship. And there just ain’t anything like the real thing 😀
Shabbat shalom, and read something good before your Shabbos nap this week!
We could start a game of how many of your books we recognize. I see the 39 Melachos, a set of artscroll machzorim, and RCA artscoll siddur, Rabbi Forst's books on brachot and niddah (you don't have his kashrut book?) among others.
Hahaha…I made the picture "extra large" in the blog editor for expressly that reason! I do have the Kosher Kitchen, but it's a black binding, so I could imagine it being harder to find. It's to the right of the brachot book. It's the book I'm focusing on most right now (and Sefer HaChinuch), and I've been very pleased with it!
There is nothing quite so comforting as having your books surround you. 😉
Can you talk about what some of those books are? (The Jewish ones, I mean.) I'm always in the market for new Jewish books, and I don't own many series or series-looking books, so now I'm intrigued about what is on your shelf!
PS. Totally get you on the book hoarders thing. My husband and I are both librarians. I'm afraid our book collection is going to get us on an episode of Hoarders some day! Must be a Jewish/nerd thing. 😉
I'm the same way . . . probably why I went back to school to be a librarian (there are few such wonderful career options for us book hoarders than librarian, lawyer or rabbi) . . . though my collection is about 30% children's lit (going to be a children's librarian), 10% performing arts (was a theatre/music major in under grad) and 25% religious books, including multiple translations of the Bible and at least one giganormous concordance. 🙂