In today's New York Times Book Review's back page essay, "My Backlogged Pages," John Feffer writes of the great stocks of books, many unread, that he has on shelves and in boxes. What distinguishes this story from others about voracious book buyers and readers is that Feffer bought most of these books when he was a teenager. To quote him: "I made these purchases three decades ago...in the initial phase of my love affair with books. It all took place at a book sale that happened one weekend a year...in a church around the corner from my house in suburban New Jersey." He goes on to tell of his excitement about the sale, and of his buying piles of books of many genres, all at less than 25 cents per book, and at the end of the sale, at $1 for all the books one could fit in a box or bag. He has been reading those books ever since. Looking back now, he says that "I still may not finish all the books....But I could never sell them or give them away. They are not just books, after all. Provided I hold on to this library, I can still pretend that I will be all the people that I imagined I would be as a teenager, as I wandered the church book sale and selected gifts for my futures selves." I urge you to read the full essay; the URL is below.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/books/review/Feffer-t.html
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