## Unread books matter most than read ones The concept of antilibrary had been first developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book [The Black Swan](https://www.amazon.fr/Black-Swan-Improbable-Robustness-Fragility/dp/081297381X/ref=asc_df_081297381X/?tag=googshopfr-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=54244672732&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14716889262467973201&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9056566&hvtargid=pla-93480367020&psc=1). He's refereing to the italian writer Umberto Eco's uncommon relationship with books. [Umberto Eco](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_Eco) owned a [very large personnal library](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czc_KjWji8E) filled with around 30 000 books. He was separating people in two different categories: the ones who were asking him how many of his book did he read and the others who got the point that having a so large library wasn't just an ego-boosting practice, but the constition of a big research tool.  This state the importance of unread books in a library. They're the reflection of the things we don't know. Just like [Empty notes are better than no notes at all](202106122255%20Empty%20notes%20are%20better%20than%20no%20notes%20at%20all.md), it's a very socratic approach, considering his famous quote: > What I know is that I know nothing Knowing this, we should not expect the proportion of unread books in our library to decrease. As soon as we admit that the more we know, the more we're aware of things we don't know, having this proportion decreasing would be like we gradualy stop learning and/or that our ego is taking the advantage on our humility. Building an antilibrary will also improve our relationship with knowledge. We wouldn't have to be anxious towards acquiring books that we're fairly sure we won't read. By the way, not all the books has to be read the same way. [Reading technics should differ depending on book type](Reading%20technics%20should%20differ%20depending%20on%20book%20type.md). According to the [The three kinds of reading](202106270021%20The%20three%20kinds%20of%20reading.md) and the four technics described by [How To Read A Book, The Classic Guide To Intelligent Reading](How%20To%20Read%20A%20Book,%20The%20Classic%20Guide%20To%20Intelligent%20Reading%20-%20Mortimer%20J.%20Adler,%20Charles%20Van%20Doren.md), we could just sometimes, do inspectionnal reading on some books and still grasp great insights, that will maybe lead to better [Syntopical reading](Syntopical%20reading.md) and favors [Osmosis](Osmosis.md). Those will sometimes feed our ideas, especially if we're taking advantage of this to take some small [Fleeting notes](Fleeting%20notes%20to%20capture%20thoughts.md) or [Litterature note](Litterature%20note%20to%20quote%20and%20reference%20content.md). Antilibrary are also a great source of inspiration. [Collectors should have an anti-library](202106270049%20Collectors%20should%20have%20an%20antilibrary.md) for inspiration, just like artists as [Best collectors are artists](202106270039%20Best%20collectors%20are%20artists.md). In my library (see: #books/not-read), I have some [Old books](Old%20books.md) that I will never read, because they aren't aimed for that. But still, they're a big source of inspiration, because the knowledge and the ideas proposed in these are so old and forgotten that they sometimes seem absolutely new. ## References - [The Antilibrary: Why Unread Books Are The Most Important - FS](https://fs.blog/2013/06/the-antilibrary/) - [Umberto Eco's antilibrary](https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/03/24/umberto-eco-antilibrary/) - [Building an antilibrary: the power of unread books](https://nesslabs.com/antilibrary) - [Cabinet Of Wonders - Viktor Wynd's](Cabinet%20Of%20Wonders%20-%20Viktor%20Wynd's.md)