When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.
Erasmus, 16th century scholar

I can identify with Erasmus. The associated picture is one of the walls of my personal library. When students would enter my office they would ask, “Have you read all of these books?” To which I would reply, “Some of them I’ve read twice!” I would then tell them “No, I haven’t read all of them.” I would feel a twinge of guilt lamenting that there are so many good books and so little time.

Nassim Taleb, author of The Black Swan, helped me gain a new perspective with regard to my unread books.  The Black Swan helps us understand that we have a tendency to underestimate the value of what we don’t know and we overvalue what we do know, so we misunderstand the likelihood of surprises.

Taleb points out, “You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary . . . Let us call this an antischolar — someone who focuses on the unread books, and makes an attempt not to treat his knowledge as a treasure, or even a possession, or even a self-esteem enhancement device — a skeptical empiricist.”

My unread books help keep me humble, a constant reminder of how much I don’t know. Now I must end this blog post and follow Solomon’s admonition,

But beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body. (Ecclesiastes 12:12)

Associate Pastor – Discipleship.  The Church at LifePark

Professor of Discipleship, Columbia International University

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