Books On The Floor

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 136, 5 March 1938, Page 1 (Supplement)

Books On The Floor

“Any bibliphile will admit that the most convenient place to keep books is on the floor, for there, as seldom in the bookcase, there is always room, either by sheer superimposition or by dint of a .little pudicious footwork (preferably with carpet-slipper-ed feet), for a few more volumes. So much is plain sailing, but what troublesome is for the bibliophile then to know where to put himself. “Books are bound to flow over in time when the ruling passion is strong. There are indeed only two things which may keep a library within bounds. One is the resolution to buy no more than a fixed number and to weed out as fresh acquisitions come in; this was notably the practice of one great collector, Yates Thompson. The other is that well-tried remedy for most human eccentricities —matrimony. There is no lady of a house —though there have been enthusiastic ladies who have supported their husbands’ hobby nobly—but will in time firmly announce that the floor of the study must be swept. If is no use answering ‘Why?’ The point is one upon which no wife is prepared to state her reasons. The floor must be swept, and the books, if they cannot be neatly shelved, must be sold —which is one reason, perhaps, why many of the great accumulators of books have been bachelors. They can keep their books on the carpet without finding themselves on it too.”—A “Times” leader writer.