There is this woman I know, and she has a thing for books. Old books, new books, dusty books, picture and photography books, text books, travel books, 'how to' books, historical books...you get the picture. There are a lot of them lying around.
This same woman is also a book binder, she repairs old ones, or makes new custom ones from scratch. They are very cool, she even gave one or two as gifts. One is a beautiful leather bound sketch book that I use for pencil and charcoal stuff.
We were at dinner the other day and for various reasons her father was there. It became apparent that he also shares this same book obsession. Again, lots of variety too, ancient greek history, cooking, computer networks, local history. Tonnes of books. I wheeled the conversation back around to this fact and ask her father "Where do you think your love of books comes from?".
As it turns out his late father was also a book obsessive, and a book binder! What a fun coincidence? He also had a huge collection of books I was informed. Massive in fact. Maritime history, book binding texts, history of all types. As you might expect, I queried further.
"What happened to this massive book collection?"
He replied "Oh we kept them. They are all in storage, the place is huge. My daughter stands to inherit them."
Can you imagine!? What fun! Thousands and thousands of books this woman stands to inherit and...Ok its my wife. The woman is my wife and I'm drowning in books. There are more coming send help.
I asked her about this issue and do you know what she said, the little scamp?
"The number of books I have is nothing compared to the number of books I don't have. Its all a matter of perspectivel. You should be greatful really."