I spend what may seen like an inordinate amount of time in bookshops. I am, even as I type this, sitting in Waterstones, stewing over a novel by Italo Calvino. I’m a bit pressed for time so this won’t be a full review. Instead, I’ll post the practically perfectest quote I’ve ever come across.
“Sections in the bookstore
– Books You Haven’t Read
– Books You Needn’t Read
– Books Made for Purposes Other Than Reading
– Books Read Even Before You Open Them Since They Belong to the Category of Books Read Before Being Written
– Books That If You Had More Than One Life You Would Certainly Also Read But Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered
– Books You Mean to Read But There Are Others You Must Read First
– Books Too Expensive Now and You’ll Wait ‘Til They’re Remaindered
– Books ditto When They Come Out in Paperback
– Books You Can Borrow from Somebody
– Books That Everybody’s Read So It’s As If You Had Read Them, Too
– Books You’ve Been Planning to Read for Ages
– Books You’ve Been Hunting for Years Without Success
– Books Dealing with Something You’re Working on at the Moment
– Books You Want to Own So They’ll Be Handy Just in Case
– Books You Could Put Aside Maybe to Read This Summer
– Books You Need to Go with Other Books on Your Shelves
– Books That Fill You with Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not Easily Justified
– Books Read Long Ago Which It’s Now Time to Re-read
– Books You’ve Always Pretended to Have Read and Now It’s Time to Sit Down and Really Read Them”
~Italo Calvino, If On a Winter’s Night A Traveler (A Book That Filled me with Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not Easily Justified, but Upon Reading, is Now Entirely Justified..)
One reply on “Sections in the Bookstore”
As I read this list, I knew that I always had these categories in my head but just never realized it. Having someone else verbalize is wonderful.