Today, as I brought home yet another book, I suddenly remembered the story about the Collyer Brothers. For those of you who don't know the story: Homer and Langley Collyer were two eccentric recluses who "became famous for their bizarre nature and compulsive hoarding". (Wikipedia) These brothers obsessively collected a wide array of items: books, musical instruments, furniture, and other strange items. They created booby traps in their Manhattan brownstone and created a huge labyrinth of tunnels made from piles of old newspapers. Yeah, they were what psychologists call "batshit crazy". Or maybe that's just my terminology for it. After their death, it was discovered that they had well over 140 tons of collected items including 25,000 books!
Consequently, as I'm bringing in yet another book, I flashed upon my death in about 30 years - being buried under an avalanche of books. All in all, I suppose there are worse ways to go. Of course, my fear if that does happen, by that time I will have 30 cats who will then feed off of my rotting corpse. Yeah, okay, can you tell I really like Edgar Allan Poe? That's totally something he would have written. But that image will not deter me from the purchase of books. Avalanche be damned.
If you have some time, read the entire Collyer Brothers' story. It's truly fascinating, including the fact that their parents were first cousins! Yuck! A gallery of pictures of the Collyer brownstone can be found here. Below is one of the photos from when the policy broke into the house in 1947.
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