“Oh, the shame of it!” I used to think. ~So many books, so little time. Piles of books with scant attention lay upon them.
I used to struggle with the guilt of the incomprehensible size of my interests, but my more modest ability to actually sit down to read with any level of commitment other than what one might consider a torrid one-night stand here for there.
In recent years I have processed this emotional turmoil and come to terms with my average for a book. In particular, second-hand books are a particular love of mine. The opportunity to find an unknown treasure suddenly thrust into the light, or a sought-after title that was not on the cards for perhaps some time, is a wonderful feeling. It almost outshines the joy of finding someone else's notes still living within the book, ready to strike up a three-way conversation between myself, the author and the previous reader.
My bookshelf therapy has led to discovering a few different philosophies on the potential over-committing to book purchases. I will share a few of them below and, where known, hopefully give fair attribution.
Treat books like a bottle of wine. You do not need to drink your books in purchase order. There are books for different times and places, moods and inclnations. You are in fact creating future possibilities that you presently might not recognise. (Japanese idea of Tsundoku)
Unread books remind you that there is more to know. You are neither at the bottom nor at the top of the mountain in any given subject. There are always new ideas, old, undiscovered perspectives and otherwise new tensions and positions to encounter. (Antilibrary - Nassim Taleb)
Books are avatars for the ideas they contain. Running your eye over a shelf, pile, bookshelf, or higgledy-piggledy occurrence can create novel connections between the ideas contained within that might not occur through thoughtful consideration. Rather than being accomplishments of the past, books can be an aspiration for the future. ("Gymnasium of the Mind", Umberto Eco)
More abstractly, they collectively create a tone for what you see, think about, and feel in relation to your life as a whole ("Atmospheric Anchors" - Walter Benjamin).
So books are more than literally just ideas on a page; they are tools for the mind, the heart and the soul, your present, your future and indeed anyone that might trip over them and pile what you were thinking of getting rid of.