Books...

Is it possible to have too many books?
You see, I accidentally ordered a book from Amazon while browsing books tonight.  I had not meant to browse but found a book token from Xmas that was just lying there and considered how to make use of it.  So I browsed.
Of course had I actually entered the book into the account it would have been better but I just went on browsing and found a book and purchased it without doing that very thing.  So I paid for it myself anyway.  It took me many years to realise I was not an intellectual giant.  It did not take long for others to discover this.
I looked at the small bookshelf next to my bed, the 45 books gathering dust, and wondered if maybe you can collect too many books?  I do not mean 'collect' in the sense of gathering old books and worshipping but not reading such items, I mean just discovering you have quite a lot.  
Some go back many years, quite a few had to do with the failed Open University History study (at least I can proudly claim to be a  B.A. (failed)) which I keep in a vain effort to imply I had a brain.  That proved incorrect, but fun anyway.  Others cover the many years reading about Jesus, some are books I could not let go, 'Mere Christianity' by C.S. Lewis was very helpful in the 70's and Jim Packers 'Knowing God' is a must I say for all Christians, a book full of Christian knowledge and common sense.  Others were glanced at and never finished.  
The Great War has resulted in many a book landing on my shelves.  Not counting all those I read in the library years ago.  Adolf Hitler, a man you may have heard about caused me to buy many books in an attempt to understand where he came from and how he got 60 million educated Germans to follow him, it was of course the supernatural evil power that took a bore from a hostel and made him Fuhrer. His behaviour makes clear how easy it can be to change a nation, if you find the right slogans.  

However as I look at the shelves I wonder whether it is right to have so many?  Is there not a way to make use of them, and ensure they return?  I almost gave one away recently but found it would not leave my tight grasp.  Cold that be a danger sign?  
Obviously some have not been read, that is, quite a few are more reference than reading books.  More detailed than the internet could be, though it takes longer to search through them.  Others have been read in bits, the irrelevant pages omitted.  Most have been read from cover to cover, but can I remember what was therein?  It is amazing how many individual lines come to mind along with an inability to remember which book I read them in.  This is unfortunate.  
There is a queue of books waiting to be read, one or two can wait, others must be read soon, possibly two or three at a time.  The thing is some books fit the mood, you cannot put it down, other plod along but must be read, slowly.  Usually I read a bit from one, consider I need a change and move to another, that way happily progressing along.  Of course one lying there has small font and 780 pages, another large font and considerably less pages, it does not take much guessing which is the first to be finished.

  
So, should I feel guilty about accidentally buying another book?  If my cough does not leave I may be forced to 'self isolate' and read all my books, returning to the start.  There is no football to distract me, TV is vile so books would be great.  
Books are so useful.  You learn about the world from them, a wide variety of subjects can be found therein.  I remember standing in a bookshop cogitating on the vast array of literature around me, most in my view worthless but never mind, and I wondered what the Sumerian scribes would think if they could see so many books crammed with writing, the writing they developed.  I suspect they would be happy about this, and promptly by the worst type of slop to read.  Consider how powerful words can be.  The Reformation was powered by 'tracts' from all sides.  A printer was, like a scribe, a powerful and useful man to have on your side.  Quite what Sumerian scribes down in Uruk would think if a copy of the 'Sun' cam into their possession however I am not sure.  They might consider that beneath them.
Books, magazines, Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and so on all push out words, all shout loudly, some intelligently, all demand our attention.  Books offer a more considered system of debate than facebook or Twitter, at least that is what I have found, and the pictures are better.  
Discuss...