A room without windows…
“A room without books is a body without a soul.”
-Cicero
“A house without books is like a room without windows.”
-Horace Mann
My room has two windows. But no books!
Or at least, no books to speak of.
There are half a dozen of my favorite books on marriage (watch for reviews coming soon). A couple wedding planning books (wedding planning post coming soon). The indispensable books of quotations. And of course, You’re in Love, Charlie Brown.
But that is only around 1% of my entire book collection. The rest of my books were packed into 14 cardboard boxes earlier this month, with the help of my cousin Jennifer.
My books were shelved two rows thick, piled on the floor, arranged in baskets, and hidden in cupboards. When I taped up the boxes and carried them outside, my room felt so empty, so devoid of personality.
Like a room without windows.
But not for long. Eight weeks from today, I will marry my best friend and fellow bibliophile. Our merged book collections will create quite the library for our new home.
Friday morning I watched as Merritt drove away with a trailer full of my belongings, our newly purchased appliances, and my many boxes of books.
I look forward to unpacking my books onto our shelves. I look forward to making our house a home. A home with many books and windows.
“Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.”
-Henry Ward Beecher
I just loooved this post, Gretchen!! We have TONS of books as well and we all love reading. 🙂
we discovered we had 70 boxes of books upon moving house once, and have severely limited our purchase of books since 🙂
amo libros! 😀 😀 Since almost our entire house is lined with bookshelves already, I’ve tended to limit my purchases in later years to hardbound (hopefully leather!) books from used-book stores, the older the better. Just today, thanks to reviewing it for my mom (I love my job!), I acquired a copy of Ussher’s Annals of the World, in lovely red leather. Ahhhh…
But goodness, girl, you have me beat!
I love that quote! I remember seeing it on a bookmark at a library, and the author was Desiderius Erasimus.
If I remember the quote correctly, it ends with, “If I have some left over, I buy food.” I’m not positive on that, though. And sorry, but I can’t help you with the author :(.
I understand the love of books. I was beginning to wonder if I had too many crammed into my closet, but that certainly isn’t possible! Who was it who said, “When I have money, I buy books”? 🙂