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Ironically, Umberto Eco (quoted in the article) had a library of 30 000 books at his primary residence and 20 000 books at his vacation home. He probably hadn't

by GuiA 9y ago

Ironically, Umberto Eco (quoted in the article) had a library of 30 000 books at his primary residence and 20 000 books at his vacation home. He probably hadn't read most of them :)

defen 9y ago
He famously hadn't, as discussed in "How to Travel with a Salmon"
- GuiA 9y ago
  Can you elaborate what is discussed in "How to Travel with a Salmon"? The text is not available online, unlike the text that claims he did [0]. [0] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3642577/Heavyweight-champion.html https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3642577/Heavyweigh...
  - defen 9y ago
    It's in the chapter "How to Justify a Private Library". I found it excerpted here: https://books.google.com/books?id=xzjkYlfHXL4C&lpg=PP1&pg=PA34#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=xzjkYlfHXL4C&lpg=PP1&pg=PA...
    - fjsolwmv 9y ago
      Ironic that the way you showed the justification is proof that the justification is no longer valid. You didn't have to buy the book to use it as a reference when needed.
soneca 9y ago
And Nassim Taleb has a take on this fact that makes it a feature, not a bug. https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/03/24/umberto-eco-antilibrary/ https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/03/24/umberto-eco-antilib...
- fjsolwmv 9y ago
  But that "feature" was from an era before the internet and Amazon and Google Books, back when not-buying a book meant the information would likely be lost to you forever.
weinzierl 9y ago
Careful with that. Alan Kay claimed that at 76 he had read between 16,000 and 20,000 books[1] and that he now reads not more than about two hours a day[2]. When I first heard that numbers I was skeptical, but given that he started reading at the age of three[3], it checks out at about 500 words per minute, which is quite realistic. Now consider that Umberto Eco 1. was, in contrast to Alan Kay, a full-time writer, so reading books was basically his job 2. lived till the age of 84 3. probably required a solid library of reference works (which are not supposed to be read from front to back) for his kind of work 4. was a polyglot and his library possibly contained the same books in different languages it is not too unreasonable that he had read most of the (non-reference) books in his library. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11945100 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11945100 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14436018 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14436018 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11806477 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11806477

by GuiA 9y ago

Ironically, Umberto Eco (quoted in the article) had a library of 30 000 books at his primary residence and 20 000 books at his vacation home. He probably hadn't read most of them :)

defen 9y ago

He famously hadn't, as discussed in "How to Travel with a Salmon"

GuiA 9y ago
Can you elaborate what is discussed in "How to Travel with a Salmon"? The text is not available online, unlike the text that claims he did [0]. [0] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3642577/Heavyweight-champion.html https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3642577/Heavyweigh...
- defen 9y ago
  It's in the chapter "How to Justify a Private Library". I found it excerpted here: https://books.google.com/books?id=xzjkYlfHXL4C&lpg=PP1&pg=PA34#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=xzjkYlfHXL4C&lpg=PP1&pg=PA...
  - fjsolwmv 9y ago
    Ironic that the way you showed the justification is proof that the justification is no longer valid. You didn't have to buy the book to use it as a reference when needed.

soneca 9y ago

And Nassim Taleb has a take on this fact that makes it a feature, not a bug. https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/03/24/umberto-eco-antilibrary/ https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/03/24/umberto-eco-antilib...

fjsolwmv 9y ago
But that "feature" was from an era before the internet and Amazon and Google Books, back when not-buying a book meant the information would likely be lost to you forever.

weinzierl 9y ago

Careful with that. Alan Kay claimed that at 76 he had read between 16,000 and 20,000 books[1] and that he now reads not more than about two hours a day[2]. When I first heard that numbers I was skeptical, but given that he started reading at the age of three[3], it checks out at about 500 words per minute, which is quite realistic. Now consider that Umberto Eco 1. was, in contrast to Alan Kay, a full-time writer, so reading books was basically his job 2. lived till the age of 84 3. probably required a solid library of reference works (which are not supposed to be read from front to back) for his kind of work 4. was a polyglot and his library possibly contained the same books in different languages it is not too unreasonable that he had read most of the (non-reference) books in his library. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11945100 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11945100 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14436018 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14436018 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11806477 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11806477