So what is the nature of this library? What function does it serve other than being a filing system for books? What, to use the phrase beloved of cultural criticism, does it say about me, and to whom is it addressing this message?

Linda Grant, I Murdered My Library

Hermetic quote Grant Murdered library

Consider also:

  1. “The idea that I was building a library to bequeath to the next generation is one of the greatest fallacies of my life. The next generation don’t want old books – they don’t seem to want books at all.”
  2. “There are not enough books here. The sight of the bare shelves shames me. What have I done?”
  3. “You cannot have a taste for minimalist décor if you seriously read books.”
  4. “They don’t read. They don’t read books. They have no books.”
  5. “I think many writers are notoriously conservative and superstitious about their work methods, with rituals and incantations and other rubbish we won’t mention, apart, obviously, from the enormous amount of time spent staring out of the window.”