Genius Fan

On New Year’s eve my parents-in-law came over to our place for lunch. When they were leaving and making their way to the door, passing one of our two bookcases, my wife’s dad said over his shoulder, “Where d’you get all the books?”
“Bought them. Second hand. Over the past five years,” I replied, offering too much detail.
He poked one of the books in line with its neighbours and then joined his wife leaving the room. He paused and asked: “Have you read ALL these?”
I managed to hold back and ignored his goading. All I said was: “I’ve probably read about ten per cent.” But his goal was complete, he’d gotten under my skin and I spent the next few hours ruminating over his remarks and all the witty things I could have said, but didn’t.” I mean, I’m writing a post about it, nearly three weeks later…he’d be proud to know his little remark had got me tied up!. lol

A week before that I opened my Christmas presents, one of which was Edward Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire* – a set of books I know I’ll probably never read. Why did I buy it? And is my father-in-law right (in whatever he meant)? I bought this set – sorry Santa Claus gifted me this set – because this year, 2026, is the 250th anniversary of the publication of volume one of this monumental work. I gotta have the books on my desk so I can handle and ‘read’ them. Writing about any book without owning it, or at least seeing and handling it, doesn’t feel right somehow. There’s 525 pages in Vol 1, 592 in Vol 2 and so on for six volumes. That’s approximately 3,500 pages across all the whole series. Three and a half thousand pages about the Roman empire…? Genius Fan is a blog about the Eighteenth century, not the First to Fifteenth centuries.

This is what I didn’t shout back at my father-in-law: “The books I buy make up a reference library about the Eighteenth century.” I consult the books by reading chapters or looking up references in the Contents or Index and then read the relevant sections I need. I know I’ll never read the whole of Gibbon’s Decline and Fall or, another classic I bought (sorry Santa delivered) that I won’t read in its entirety, Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations**. This book was also published in 1776 – 250 years ago – so I wanted to have a copy so I can write about it. I’ll not complete that book. I know that. I’ve been buying less books because I know, realistically, there are only so many books (or pages) that I can expect to read before I croak. I’m 60 years of age. Thank God I’m not a book-buying addict. Despite what my wife and her dad, may think.

* I found the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire edition I wanted online and sent the link to my wife who bought it and hid it from my noseying round the house. The edition I got was the six-volume, hardcover Everyman’s Library (2 box sets of 3 vols each), featuring cloth sewn bindings, gold stamped covers (under the cover) and ribbon bookmarkers.
** The Wealth of Nations edition I got in the same orgy of book buying was, of course, Everyman’s Library. Same description as Decline and Fall. I love this edition. Affordable and yet beautiful to handle.