“A man's bookcase will tell you everything you'll ever need to know about him.”
- Walter Mosley, The Long Fall
It was once common practice for all homes to contain personal libraries, both within mansions of the wealthy and the humble dwellings of the masses. It seems, for a variety of reasons, this is becoming a lost feature in today’s homes.
Not everyone has the ability to reserve an entire room for books, but nearly everyone has space for a bookshelf. That being the case, I’d like to share six reasons why, even in today’s digital world, it’s still worth having a bookshelf.
1 You Will Read More
In Atomic Habits, James Clear writes that one of the most effective strategies for developing a new habit is to make it obvious. In other words, if you want to read more, make your books more visibly obvious.
When your books are tucked away in drawers, or stacked in closets, you hardly ever see them. That alone leads to less reading, because the aphorism holds true—“out of sight, out of mind.”
Thankfully, the principle is also true in reverse—in sight, in mind. When your books sit beautifully arranged upon a bookshelf in a space you inhabit you often, you can help but lay eyes upon them. More consistently, you will be drawn to them. And you will read more often.
2 Your Family Will Read More Too
Both C.S. Lewis and Bob Iger, the former CEO of Disney, are known for being avid readers. What do they both credit with the development of their literary interests? The bookshelves of their parents.
Growing up, both were given the freedom to explore their parents’ bookshelves, to indulge their curiosity and delve at random into different authors and genres.
So, if you desire to raise readers, buy a bookshelf. And allow your kids the freedom to peruse, to wander, and to discover new worlds and ideas within the books you’ve curated upon its shelves.
3 You Will Better Remember What You’ve Read
A few years ago, my wife and I road-tripped out West. We tented in the Badlands, hiked around Mt. Rushmore, and in a Yellowstone campsite, we huddled together for warmth with our two little kids on an air mattress, hoping no nearby grizzlies were hungry that night for the taste of human flesh.
It was a great trip.
I’ve remembered it better than just about any vacation or trip I’ve ever taken. Because, once it was over, my wife created a photo book. Regularly, I’ve flipped through those pictures with our kids, recounting the details of the trip, which has cemented the memories in my mind.
In the same way, keeping the books you’ve read upon a shelf allows you to recount the details of the stories, every time you lay eyes on them. You can even pull books down occasionally, and flip through favorite pages you’ve marked, just for fun.
In doing so, you will better remember the books you’ve read for years and years to come.
4 You’ll Make Greater Connections Across Books
One of my absolute favorite leisure activities is rearranging the books upon my shelves. In my opinion, it’s an act of the highest order.
Here’s my argument. The books upon your shelves are artifacts whose origins, as well as contents, differ vastly. Taken altogether, they are a veritable wealth of chaos. The task at hand is to take that chaos and, with the invention of categories, rein it into order.
Inevitably, in doing so, you will stumble upon connections as unexpected as they are revelatory. Which is one of the features of true great thought—the ability to take subjects and material that differ vastly, and draw connections between them.
I ask, where else are such differing ideas displayed alongside one another, presenting the opportunity to draw such connections, as upon a bookshelf?
5 When Readers Visit, You Will Have Something to Bond Over
Readers are curious people. Not much sparks their curiosity as much as an unexplored bookshelf.
For this reason, having your own bookshelf presents an opportunity to connect with such people. Because to readers, books are like friends.
When we find that another person has read and enjoyed the same book as us, it’s like stumbling upon the discovery of a mutual friend. It affords the opportunity to discuss their merits, chuckle at their faults, and to bond over our mutual experience of them.
Very often, our circle of acquaintance is broadened in these conversations as well, as they’re able to recommend the particular virtues and merits of books we have not read yet. And us, the same to them.
All that to say, if you find yourself entertaining guests and running short on subjects for conversation, there is no boon that can help you like a bookshelf.
6 People Who Don’t Read Will Imagine You More Intelligent
Your bookshelf may not serve as a catalyst for bonding with people who don’t read. But they will still notice it. And because reading is associated with intelligence, they will have a higher estimation of your own because of it.
Now, in truth, this is a somewhat vain benefit. I really do believe that reading is a hobby that fosters the mind. But being smart and being seen as smart are not the same thing.
What I’m saying is that owning a bookshelf will not only help develop your actual mind, but it will also raise the estimation of it in the opinions of others.
At the end of the day, who doesn’t want that?
So, stop stowing away those books in bedside tables and hidden closet stacks. Quit hiding the evidence of your intellectual prowess from your guests. Get yourself a bookshelf. And start enjoying every one of these six surprising benefits today.
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