In ‘The Night Bookmobile’ by Audrey Niffengger, a book-lover picks up librarian skills in this life, ‘dying’ to be a librarian in the next. She loves the books she had read so much that it is as if being with them would be being with the embodiment of good memories, being in a kind of book heaven. Yet, isn’t this a whole lot of attachment, a heavy burden to bear?
It is so for her because she once encountered a magical library that contained all her read books, and longed to return to it for the rest of her life. In her quest to become qualified to man the library, should she encounter it again, she worked in a public library to train herself. Now, isn’t an ordinary public library fuller with possibilities, with books both read and unread? And what about a huge bookstore with new books?
I would prefer infinite openness instead of clinging to the familiar. Books are after all, for broadening the mind, not constricting it. This reminds me of the Heart Sutra which I’m currently teaching: http://thedailyenlightenment.com/2011/05/course-the-heart-of-the-heart-sutra-run-4. (The response is amazing – with more than 170 participants.) Even this ultimate sutra about wisdom is to be let go off, for true wisdom to be realised!