Explaining the AntiLibrary
As Oliver Burkeman narrates it, the novelist and scholar Umberto Eco once bemoaned the fact that many visitors to his home, seeing his vast personal library, can’t help but exclaim: “What a lot of books! Have you read them all?” His jaw stiffens: the question implies that his floor-to-ceiling bookshelves are for showing off, when actually they’re a research tool. Unread books are where the action is. The writer Nassim Taleb approvingly calls such a collection an “antilibrary”; one’s shelves, he argues, should contain “as much of what you do not know” as finances allow. And don’t expect the proportion of unread books to fall, either. The more you read, the more the perimeter of your knowledge increases, and the more you’ll realize you don’t know. (Incidentally, Eco’s deadpan response to his visitors’ question is, “No, these are the ones I have to read by the end of the month. I keep the others in my office.”)
The more you read, the more the perimeter of your knowledge increases, and the more you realize what you don’t know. That alone is reason enough for a few souls to really stick to the reading habit.
An avid American book collector once remarked: “Even when reading is impossible, the presence of books acquired produces such an ecstasy that the buying of more books than one can read is nothing less than the soul reaching towards infinity … we cherish books even if unread, their mere presence exudes Comfort, their ready access Reassurance.” What a line!
Back in India when I was living in a large apartment all by myself, I used to stock my shelves with books both read and unread, the former over time outnumbering the latter. I naively thought that was a good thing then. Now in the limited confines of London where real estate is not cheap to put it mildly, the numbers have switched. London honed my skill at ditching mediocre books right after reading them into the local charity bin. So the books lining my limited shelf space are a few really great books I retain after reading because I plan to re-read them and mostly ‘pending to read‘ books. My very own TBR – the ‘To Be Read’ Antilibrary.
The Japanese have a cool word “Tsundoku“. It is the condition of acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one’s home without reading them. It is also used to refer to books ready for reading later when they are on a bookshelf.
Like most worthy things your antilibrary comes with its own set of pros and cons…
Book Recommendations
From since I was a kid I have been a dietary and reading omnivore. To this day I will read anything on any subject as long as the book and the subject sound interesting (My wife will vouch that this is my exact approach to food too). Over the last year I have purchased books covering wide and varied subjects and themes that I plan to delve into, in the hope of improving as Taleb aptly labels it – ‘the perimeter of one’s knowledge‘.
Recently I decided to summarize all the physical books I have on my shelves under clean themes and motifs. For two reasons primarily, one selfish and one altruistic. Writing about it here forces me to rationalize the actual purchases and also (I hope) serves as a starter for ten for anyone here looking for some book suggestions for the upcoming summer.
Welcome to my Tsundoku!
Well written autobiographies of 5 worthy people. The book ‘TITAN’ I would rank as one of the best 5 books I have read in the last few years, the apotheosis of what a good book ought to be. The middle book (Snowball) I am reading midway and I think it is going to rank up there with the best of them. The bottom two are pending. I would put all 5 in the curriculum if I were the dean of a decent undergrad college.
As someone who migrated from one country to another (India to UK) I am keen to fill the gap in my knowledge of my adopted country and these 8 books are an attempt at that. 3 of them I am through with and ALL of the 3 I heartily endorse.
- Tudors – what a cracking good tale
- The Angry Island – The best caustic prose I have encountered in the last few years.
- Longitude – a book so gripping I started at 9 PM and stayed up till 5 AM to finish it in one sitting.
The other 5 are pending a read.
If someone was looking to move to India and asked me for books to understand the country, I can confidently say the Naipaul Trilogy would get the job done. It is about India as it IS, not as it is ineffectually and prosaically penned about in most books and articles about the country. It was after reading these three books that I understood both Naipaul for the genius he is and the real history of my country that is never written about even today. The other 2 are pending a read.
I am a complete sucker for sea faring survival takes and anything old navy related. And these 5 scratch that itch. Two of them (Endurance and In The Hear of the Sea) I read one after another and was blown away by both. Set about 100 years apart, they suck you in and don’t let you go until the end. Last thursday I recommended the book ENDURANCE to my team at work as not just a survival take but also one of the best books on Leadership and Teamwork out there. The other 3 are pending a read.
These are assorted books on the subject of Metacognition, Heuristics, Forecasting, Thinking and Decision Making, an effort to polish my own executive functions & skills.
These two books are my attempt to understand Investing from someone OTHER THAN Warren Buffet for a change.
I would rank the decrepit looking The Best and The Brightest as one of my best books from the last decade. Halbertstam is a great writer and the book is just so good wading through the dense prose it feels akin to reading a John Grisham novel. A great primer on the pitfalls of Groupthink and Pink Flamingos.
This grandiloquent tome by Chomsky on the right was an eye opener in the real sense the word is meant. Depressing but oh-so-needed in these times. This too would go on the curriculum of my imaginary college reading list. The left one is pending.
Both books I have heard good press about. right one to understand Cancer, something that will kill the majority of us if heart related issues don’t do the job first. And the left book (GENOME) is to understand the new upcoming CRISPR related developments.
I am a sucker for crisp essays and I am promised by wise people that these two authors are worth the investment.
These 4 books are an attempt to better understand the events that shaped the superpowers in the first half of the 20th century. Definitely sombre reads I suspect.
These three to understand better the places I hope to visit someday. Africa, America and Europe. All covered here. The Bryson book, while dated, is hilarious and after a visit to a European destination mentioned in it, I always read the chapter on it to get at HIS funny and smart take on the place.
4 books to better fit into and understand the workplace. Prince and Effective Executive are almost mandatory reading at this juncture. The Peter Principle is wry but sharp. Inside Drucker’s Brain I am still to tackle.
Hope this wets your reading appetite and gets you onto a few of them. I can vouch that most have made it to the shelf only after some solid research and good reviews so the odds are decent that most are worth your precious time.
Happy Reading!
Third Eye Observations 