Jacob Weisberg has a satisfying series about book collecting on Slate this week (the first installment is here). It includes the paragraph below, which appears near the top when he’s itemizing the pleasures of bibliophilism. This excerpt name-checks a HarperCollins author (though this book of his is by another publisher), but that’s not why I spotlight it. I spotlight it because I’m a fairly enthusiastic book- and music-collector, and this gets at what, for me, besides the actual reading and listening, is the primary thrill:
“The second pleasure is simply that of making a collection—assembling objects that are related in some way and then filling in holes and extending from the edges. Book collecting is a largely solitary, mostly male, and completely absorbing activity. Nicholas Basbanes’ wonderful study A Gentle Madness explores what has driven the great book collectors. As his title indicates, it’s not necessarily outstanding mental health. But while “completism” is clearly a form of nuttiness, it is for the most part a benign one, causing no harm to others and usually little to oneself.”
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