Signs that the books have taken over

  • Your parents send you an article from the L. A. Times that describes the lengths to which people will go to house their personal libraries--converting a garage, for example.  It's not clear if this article is meant to be prophetic or admonitory.
  • You remember that one of your father's professors kept books in his oven (until, that is, a graduate student turned it on).  After all, you don't use your own oven for much of anything, so...
  • Your mother recommends building library stacks. 
  • The books have pride of place in your voice mail message.
  • When visiting someone's house, you automatically calculate how much wall space could be used for bookcases.
  • You take the local bookstores into consideration when deciding whether or not to propose a paper for a conference. 
  • Visitors inquire if books have the same mating habits as rabbits.
  • The furniture store deliveryman remembers you.  And your bookcases.
  • A trip to Chicago is incomplete without expeditions to Powell's, O'Gara's, and the Seminary Co-Op.  Who needs to go clothes shopping on the Miracle Mile?   
  • Will work for books.