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70k Books Found in Hidden Library in This Germany Home (2023)

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Re: 70k Books Found in Hidden Library in This Germany Home (2023)

#4

Post by skyberrys »

The slanted library lining the attic of his home is to die for. I could easily see this happening to myself in my old age. I love books and it's quite a challenge to keep and collect all of them. Why haven't I thought of slanted ceiling book cases before? And 70k books by the time you are 88, that's only 1000 books per year after age 18. Okay that does work out to more than 3 books a day, so reading every single one is challenging, but in your old age an unread book is something to look forward to. I'm sad to read that he's passed away.

Re: 70k Books Found in Hidden Library in This Germany Home (2023)

#5

Post by e28eta »

I went to a local estate sale of a professor, whose entire downstairs (4+ rooms) was filled with bookshelves full of books. They were well organized by topic, and covered a range of topics (math, science, health, fiction, biographies, etc). It was more functional than artistic, comparing it to the pics in this post, but the number of books was probably the same order of magnitude as our local public library’s collection, or a small bookstore.

I went at the end of the 2 or 3 day sale, and it still looked full. They were charging fair prices for the used books, but were going to pay to haul the remainder to the dump. I’m still unhappy about the waste, even though I mostly understand it.

Re: 70k Books Found in Hidden Library in This Germany Home (2023)

#7

Post by gom_jabbar »

lava_pidgeon wrote: post #2

I'm not sure about other countries. There is a culture refuse to throw away books in Germany. People would put on the streets for free (I found two interesting books with this method).

German book culture is great! When he was in Karlsruhe to profile Peter Sloterdijk, The New Yorker reporter Thomas Meaney seemed surprised by it:

"Over the summer, ordinary Germans who spotted his [Peter Sloterdijk] books in my hands engaged me in conversation on trains, in coffee shops, at universities, and in bookshops." [0]

[0] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/26/a-celebrity-ph...

Re: 70k Books Found in Hidden Library in This Germany Home (2023)

#8

Post by pixelmelt »

mjd wrote: post #3

But you nobody can read 70k books, so what was the point? He had a library nobody knew about, full of books he hadn't read. That's not a library, it's an imitation of a library built by someone who doesn't understand what a library is for.

Hoarding/archiving/collecting is quite fun. I don't think it's a stretch to say he likely read more then the average person, and from his own collection too!

Re: 70k Books Found in Hidden Library in This Germany Home (2023)

#9

Post by gus_massa »

mjd wrote: post #3

But you nobody can read 70k books, so what was the point? He had a library nobody knew about, full of books he hadn't read. That's not a library, it's an imitation of a library built by someone who doesn't understand what a library is for.

[I had to do the calculation: 70K/365 ~= 192 years, i.e. 2.5 or 3 books per day assuming a standard lifetime. Yep, it's a lot of books.]

Re: 70k Books Found in Hidden Library in This Germany Home (2023)

#10

Post by gnatman »

mjd wrote: post #3

But you nobody can read 70k books, so what was the point? He had a library nobody knew about, full of books he hadn't read. That's not a library, it's an imitation of a library built by someone who doesn't understand what a library is for.

Not every book in a library is meant to be read like a novel. Some books need only be referenced, briefly and periodically.
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