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Collecting a Private Library

Reference > Literature > The Pleasure of Books
 

Below is the second section of William Lyon Phelps' speech "The Pleasure of Books."

Everyone should begin collecting a private library in youth; the instinct of private property, which is fundamental in human beings, can here be cultivated with every advantage and no evils. One should have one's own bookshelves, which should not have doors, glass windows, or keys; they should be free and accessible to the hand as well as to the eye. The best of mural decorations is books; they are more varied in color and appearance than any wallpaper, they are more attractive in design, and they have the prime advantage of being separate personalities, so that if you sit alone in the room in the firelight, you are surrounded with intimate friends. The knowledge that they are there in plain view is both stimulating and refreshing. You do not have to read them all. Most of my indoor life is spent in a room containing six thousand books; and I have a stock answer to the invariable question that comes from strangers. "Have you read all of these books?"

"Some of them twice." This reply is both true and unexpected.

Questions

1.
Do you agree that everyone should have their own private library? Why or why not?
2.
How do you think devices like the Kindle will change the way people collect books?
3.
Do you think these are good or bad changes?
4.
Why does Phelps say you shouldn't have doors and locks on your bookshelves?
5.
What are two ways Phelps says bookshelves are better than wallpaper?
6.
Phelps says, "You do not have to read them all." Argue for or against owning books that you have not read.
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