Re:The value of owning more books than you can read (2018)
by Brian_K_White on Monday August 15, 2022 @11:24AM
(#32470877)
A disordered bookshelf is priceless for discovery and unplannable connections.
It's like a slow version of having a drink or weed to get mildly randomized and form new ideas you would/could never while sober.
It's like the difference between directed and basic research. You need them both.
So the ordered bookshelf is necessary if you know what you want. It's a database.
But the unordered bookshelf is maybe not strictly necessary but certainly facilitates when you don't know what you want, or you don't even have a want but are simply open to seeing what happens for a bit. I cannot have a novel idea through intention, it must be instigated by something random.
It's like a slow version of having a drink or weed to get mildly randomized and form new ideas you would/could never while sober.
It's like the difference between directed and basic research. You need them both.
So the ordered bookshelf is necessary if you know what you want. It's a database.
But the unordered bookshelf is maybe not strictly necessary but certainly facilitates when you don't know what you want, or you don't even have a want but are simply open to seeing what happens for a bit. I cannot have a novel idea through intention, it must be instigated by something random.