Though I have never been an avid reader, buying and collecting books has always been my hobby. Unfortunately, I had to part with almost 500 books, because I did not have space to keep them in the apartment I shifted to. I donated some of these to free libraries run by some NGOs. Others I had to sell to the pavement book sellers at a fraction of the price at which I had bought them. In fact, many of those had been bought by me from the pavement book sellers themselves.
What attracts me to buy a book? Sometimes, only sometimes – it is the need. But often it is the satisfaction of acquiring something precious which will come in handy at the time of need. How often I may need a particular book is a question that I never thought important to answer. Yes, whenever it was possible I would go through the contents page on the pavement itself. Whenever the contents were spread over two or more pages, I invariably ended up buying the book.
I am not too happy with the trend of buying books online. You do not get the first hand experience of touching the book cover, browsing through the contents, and some of the pages that might interest you at random. The best piece of decoration in any room – any room in a house, according to me is a well crafted book shelf. It must be well stocked with books both new and old. Old classics, like the complete works of Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Poets of the romantic era constitute the essentials.
Cicero indeed left a great advise for all of us, “A room without books is like a body without a soul”.
