I'm jealous. Billy has room for all his books. The bulk of mine are packed in those file boxes you can buy for about a buck apiece at Office Max, currently occupying about 150 cubic feet in a storage locker. The remaining hundred or two are stuffed into what little room in my house that isn't occupied by eBay related crap. I lately buy books at the rate of about 5 for every one I have time to read, and probably own at least two or three times what I'll ever be able to read in my lifetime. But nothing beats being able to go into a room and browse for the next one to read.
I recently heard of an acquaintance who lost 30,000 books in a house fire. Short of losing a loved one or an important body part, this is one of the worst tragedies I can imagine. A house can be replaced, but all those books? I tell ya, if there was a fire here, the first, and maybe only things, I'd go back in for would be the data from my computers and the books. And the data can wait. Billy, you got a halon system for that library?
Another interesting tidbit, I used to spend a lot of time doing research in the downtown Chicago library. They had a rule there that the bums that came into the library to get out of the cold and catch a few Z's could not loiter there without actually using the library for it's intended purpose. So what did the bums do? They would take a book to their chairs or tables and snooze with the book in front of them, just for appearances, and often held upside down. Now, me, I have nothing but time and no responsibilities, and I'd be in heaven to be in such a place. But them? To them the books were nothing but props, worthless objects used as a talisman to protect them from being booted. That's why they're bums, and will always be bums.
I recently heard of an acquaintance who lost 30,000 books in a house fire. Short of losing a loved one or an important body part, this is one of the worst tragedies I can imagine. A house can be replaced, but all those books? I tell ya, if there was a fire here, the first, and maybe only things, I'd go back in for would be the data from my computers and the books. And the data can wait. Billy, you got a halon system for that library?
Another interesting tidbit, I used to spend a lot of time doing research in the downtown Chicago library. They had a rule there that the bums that came into the library to get out of the cold and catch a few Z's could not loiter there without actually using the library for it's intended purpose. So what did the bums do? They would take a book to their chairs or tables and snooze with the book in front of them, just for appearances, and often held upside down. Now, me, I have nothing but time and no responsibilities, and I'd be in heaven to be in such a place. But them? To them the books were nothing but props, worthless objects used as a talisman to protect them from being booted. That's why they're bums, and will always be bums.
Posted by kylben at 07:54 PM. Filed under: Intelligence
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