All of us who do this blog possible, that is, both you who read us and we who offer you articles on a daily basis, we have something in common: our love for books and literature in general. We love to read, we like to smell old books, we admire the power of a ebook that makes it possible to have hundreds of books at our fingertips on a single screen, we are looking forward to finishing a good book that is hooking us but at the same time we feel sorry for it, and we even reread sometimes those that we liked so many in their day even though we have new books to read on our to-do list. Yes, this is "healthy" love for books, but when does a hobby become an obsession?
If we could ask Thomas phillipps we would do it. This man was a biblical (it is said of the person who has an obsessive predilection for books) came to collect almost 40.000 books and over 60.000 manuscripts. He was obsessed with paper, but neither could he read them all nor was he what is called happy in his madness. This obsession led him to lose his fortune and to each and every one of the women with whom he married or had a romantic relationship.
Some more facts about Thomas Phillipps
- He was born in Manchester in 1792.
- He was the illegitimate son of a textile manufacturer.
- When he died, he bequeathed him a mansion that would serve as a shelter to carry out his "great madness."
- At just 6 years old, he already had more than 100 books in his possession.
- He bought books by the kilo, without stopping to look at titles or authors.
- It was fear, or relief, depending on how you look at the booksellers. When I saw him walk through the doors of his bookstore, I knew he would run out of copies to sell.
- His family was left broke, having spent between £ 200.000-250.000 on books.
- Of the 20 rooms in the mansion he inherited, 16 were fully occupied by books.
- Upon his death in 1872, his grandson sold almost all of his books in batches to collectors around the world.
- The last part of his collection was not sold until 2006 ...
Who knows, maybe one of those old books that rest in your bookstore already belonged to Thomas Phillipps… What do you think of all this? Too much love or obsession? What's the use of having countless books that you won't even read for the most part?