My Ideal Library

I am currently in the process of taking inventory of the books in my library. I’ve started with the physical books and so far I’d put the estimate somewhere between 1,200-1,400. I know that I have more than 1,700 audiobooks on top of that. And another 500 or so e-books. Call it 3,600 books all told. The physical books are dearest to me. The audiobooks get backed up locally “just in case,” but I don’t backup the e-books because I don’t care enough about them. I rarely buy e-books these days.

In my journal, I clip pictures of other people’s libraries and offices that appear in magazines. (I have a double-spread from a recent article in Smithsonian Magazine on Cormac McCarthy’s library.) I see these libraries with ten times the books I have in mine, and I’m envious.

Yet sometimes, early in the morning when I come into my office/library before my morning walk, I sit for a moment, surrounded by a library that I’ve built up over most of my lifetime, and I am grateful. Walking into my office is like walking into a bookstore tailored to just my taste in books. It is my ideal library.