The Rebellion of a Good Book

What's so special about reading anyway?

A cropped version of Steve Crisp’s cover for a 1990 reprinting of Fahrenheit 451.

‘There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.’

—Guy Montag in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451

When we moved further into Knox County at the end of 2022, I got two of the things I’d been hoping for since Haley and I got married: a garage where I could hang a punching bag and a private room to store my various possessions.

I’m not a collector. That is to say, nothing I own, besides possibly a Taylor acoustic guitar, holds resale value. But over the years, I’ve accumulated a few hundred paperback and hardcover books and a smaller number of DVDs, concert posters, soccer scarves, and vinyl records.

The books are arranged alphabetically by author on shelves in four cheap cases in what I sometimes call my office, other times my library. Beside them, I’ve taped inspirational quotes and reminders such as this one, which is poorly written on a yellow index card:

“Art is a place of maximal danger. It endangers the soul of the artist no less than the soul of the reader, viewer, or listener.”

—Daniel Mendensohn, “How to Be a Critic,” The New Yorker

Perpendicular to that quote, taped to the side of the bookcase on my right, is a printed version of producer Rick Rubin’s “Thoughts and Habits Not Conducive to the Work” from The Creative Act. (I’m pretty sure Attic Club member Chris Echols sent it to me, though it’s possible I uncovered it while procrastinating at work.)

The list includes:

• Believing you’re not good enough ✅

• Having goals so ambitious that you can’t begin ✅

• Abandoning a project as soon as it gets difficult ✅

• Having too many ideas and not knowing where to start ✅

• Blaming circumstances or other people for interfering with your process ✅

This morning, however, I’m thinking specifically about the books. Most of them, I haven’t read, though I continue adding to the collection each time I visit a thrift store or McKay’s, believing that I’m on a quest for a sort of Buried Treasure of the Mind and Soul.