My Obsession with Books Explained

 A lifelong Blessing

I love books and more precisely, good, physical books. Aside from when I am moving, I consider this passion to be a blessing and thanks to my love of books, I will never feel alone. 

And to ensure my future happiness, I have a fair amount of great unread books on my shelves that I very much look forward to reading at the right moment. More than once have I found myself joyfully reading books that I picked up a whole decade earlier.

My insatiable curiosity and appetite to know more is not all roses though. The need to know and learn more is perhaps futile and possibly (like Sisyphus) a fool’s errand – the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know. 

From Boredom to Magic

Ironically, it was boredom that led me to books. As a boy in boarding school, before the internet, when TV was limited to 1 hour on Sunday evenings, boredom led me to the school library.

The library was a serene sanctuary, an oasis of peace and tranquility. Libraries are different from other spaces. Their very existence as repertoires of knowledge and storytelling garner near-universal respect.

For me the library has always been a meditative, safe space; a secular temple of tolerance, free of dogma or judgement. At times, I imagined all these authors physically present, each wearing the attire of their times; Caesar holding a scroll of his Gallic Wars next to Stephen Hawkins and Sun Tzu. To this day, whenever I walk into a library or good bookstore, I feel humbled by the spirit of all the grand characters that come to life within the books. It’s the magic of books.

The Book as a Rebel

The very concept of the book is extraordinary. When Gutenberg perfected the movable-type printing press in 1450, and thus enabling the mass production of books, he created a truly extraordinary, revolutionary – and dangerous tool. The total monopoly on information was broken. 

The printed book was an act of rebellion. Gutenberg was the ancestor of the cypherpunk and of the net anarchist. His invention enabled the sharing of information that built the modern world.

Eventually, libraries were built to not only house books, but extraordinarily, to make them freely available. 

The public library is one of the defining institutions of any great civilization.

Freedom and Suppression

Great modern public libraries now offer more than books, but books and libraries still symbolize the freedom of thought that all tyrants, autocrats, and obscurantists despise.

In my travels, I’ve witnessed countries suppress books through censorship, tariffs, or the suffocation of publishing industries. Entire regions exist without a single bookstore.

Thankfully, the internet was invented and those same populations that were deprived of books, can now access vast amounts of information. The book, like the internet, is glorious in its power to change the world. It is a tool for freedom and is another reason I love it so.

Books as Objects

At university, my studies in Political Science sharpened my appreciation of freedom and democracy, while my work in Historical Theology (Christianity in Roman North Africa during Late Antiquity) deepened my relationship with books as physical artifacts.

Many of the volumes I needed for research were old, but I noticed the ones that were well made. As I wrote in What Makes a Book Truly Valuable books have an architecture and a soul; and some books are beautiful not only for their content, but also for their design, cover material, paper, and so on. It’s a whole universe, and one that I find wholly satisfying to be a part of. 

The Joy of Browsing

It also gives me great joy to browse physical bookshelves. I can spend hours exploring shelves in good bookstores. Unlike algorithms, I am exposed to unexpected ideas, subjects and authors that I may never have searched for online.

Reading encourages deeper thinking and reflection in a way the internet does not always deliver. Books also undergo some level of editing and filtering by publishers. The internet and AI, while offering infinite choices and possibilities, can with algorithms turn into echo chambers rewarding quick consumption over deep analysis.          

Estimable Books: The Culmination of an Obsession

The world of books is pure joy for me, and Estimable Books became their natural home. Each day, the simple act of handling, photographing, and curating beautiful volumes reminds me how fortunate I am to be surrounded by knowledge, art, and imagination. Just as meaningfully, it is a great joy to connect and meet remarkable fellow readers, collectors, and curious minds.