Books bring comfort in tough times

This edition of my book club isn’t about a specific book, but books in general.

It’s true that I have stopped buying books and turned to the public library for the latest tomes, but I do have the comfort of many books that I’ve bought over the years.

A neighbor walked into my house one day and noticed something that you apparently don’t see in houses nowadays: several bookcases with books on every shelf. I am a bookish fellow, which usually scares people away, and those shelves are all full, and some are doubled up.

I can’t help it; books are a passion for me. Sure, I watch TV and have a small DVD collection of good movies and episodic TV, but my books are my pride and joy.

The first hardcover book I bought was “The New York Philharmonic Guide to the Symphony,” and other notables in my collection in include Will and later Ariel Durant’s epic 11-volume work, “The Story of Civilization” (I bought it in hardcover from a book club back in the 1980s), and books that I took home from my last newspaper job. In the latter case, the books editor received books and put them on a giveaway table after she was finished with them.

When I moved from my house in Lake Worth in 2001, I dumped a large collection of “Star Trek” novels, something I regret to this day. In my house moves, most of the stuff that goes is boxes containing books, and in my garage are stored a few more books.

Some were bought on a whim, some were for a serious effort at self-improvement, and most were for entertainment. They’re not on the shelf to impress people, but to show that I am a man of words.

No matter what happens, those books will stay with me forever. When I die many years from now, I hope there are still libraries, and that they will accept donated books, so someone else can have the pleasure I have had over the years.