Letter to the Editor

To James Wood,

You wrote in the November 7th, 2011 issue of the New Yorker that “our libraries are universal legacies pretending to be individual ones.” I liked this.

However, I borrowed the same title from multiple collectors, each time recognizing new notation and emphasis among the pages. Libraries are all legacies, but whether we recognize them for their individuality depends on how often the owner shares with others, how often he gives physical copies of his books away. Stagnant libraries become universal legacies, products of some proverbial book factory.

Fluid libraries beget individual legacies, personalizing them like casts on a broken legs: with signatures and notations from her patrons. For this reason, my friends and I try to share our books, mobilize them, give them away in hope of preserving our individuality. We grasp desperately at generosity, for in giving our universal legacies away we hope to receive individual ones.

A fumbling writer & fellow reader,