A shelf of unread books is either a monument to intention or a working library of possibilities. Which one depends on a question most of us never ask.
In this episode
- The antilibrary: Eco’s answer to "have you read all these?"
- Owning a book as a bet on a future self
- When the pile becomes debt instead of promise
A library is not a record of what you know. It is a map of what you are still willing to be wrong about.
Full transcript below. Runs about forty-two minutes.