William Marvel: American Peerage

Bookshelves and bookcases dominate my house, filling all the walls in every room and closet upstairs, as well as the guest room and living room on the first floor. Spillover occupies the front porch and the nook my wife calls her office. Most of the 3,000-or-so volumes consist of primary sources or secondary works in history. A sizable selection of science and philosophy has been smuggled in when my back was turned, and several dozen shelf-feet of fiction and poetry crowd the bedroom.

Whenever one of us has finished a book, we start scanning the spines for something that remains unread, or unfinished. With my recommendation, my wife recently made a second attempt at "The House of Mirth," and enjoyed it. Someday I will get beyond the battle of Austerlitz in "War and Peace," but not this year. After a decade or two, we might reread something, such as "Middlemarch" or "The Brothers Karamazov." Often, though, it seems we've devoured the entire library, so we undertake a trip to The Local Bookie.