The Traveller’s Antilibrary

Posted on 3/27/2008 by Younghusband

Oh “this is a brilliant concept”:http://zenpundit.com/?p=2652#comment-6493 (EDIT: An “updated post here”:http://zenpundit.com/?p=2656 at Zenpundit) that “Münzenberg picked up”:http://soobdujour.blogspot.com/2008/03/what-is-in-your-antilibrary.html and got me thinking. I have a small stack of to-read books but it has remained small because I am often on the road. When I was younger a personal library seemed a worthy goal, but considering the moving I do from country to country it is just not practical. I have a few dozen books that I have hauled back and forth overseas, plus a few dozen more in the basements of friends and parents all over Canada that I plan on consolidating one day. But for an itinerant like me, an Umberto-esque library is not possible.

The digitization of information and organizational power of the internet are extremely helpful in this regard. For one thing my personal library includes tons digital (pdf) and audio books on my that are in various read/un-read states. PDF management and annotation software has been a huge boon for my personal research. Reading on screen is still a pain, granted. If I lived in the US I would absolutely own a “Kindle”:http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Amazons-Wireless-Reading-Device/dp/B000FI73MA.

My antilibrary basically consists of my Amazon wishlist. Applications like “Shelfari”:http://www.shelfari.com/ help to keep track of books that I have borrowed and read, or plan on reading in addition to the books I actually own. The only problem is that at least with a dead tree system shelf space is limited. Digital antilibraries have infinite potentiality and thus infinite menace.

About Younghusband

Sir Francis Edward Younghusband (1863-1942) was a British explorer, army officer, military-political officer, and foreign correspondent born in India who led expeditions into Manchuria, Kashgar, and Tibet. He three times tried and failed to scale Mt. Everest and journeyed from China to India, crossing the Gobi desert and the Mustagh Pass (alt. c.19,000 ft/5,791 m) of the Karakoram mountain range in modern day Pakistan. Convinced of Russian designs on British interests in India, Younghusband proactively engaged in the nineteenth century spying and conflict over Central Asia between the British and the Russians known as the Great Game. "Younghusband" is a Canadian who has spent a number of years bouncing back and forth between his home country and Japan. Fluent in Japanese and English with experience in numerous other languages from Spanish to Georgian, Younghusband has travelled throughout Asia. He graduated with an MA from the War Studies Department at the Royal Military College of Canada, where he focussed on the Japanese oil industry and energy security issues. He has recently returned to Canada from Japan, and is working in the technology sector.
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4 Responses to The Traveller’s Antilibrary

  1. Pingback: I Dream Awake » Blog Archive » The Antilibrary

  2. Chirol says:
    3/28/2008 at 6:57 pm

    Indeed, were I also not set on a life of moving and living in different countries I would accumulate a much bigger library. Alas, this is the business we’ve chosen =)

  3. Pingback: ComingAnarchy.com » Blog Archive » Homo mobilis younghusbandus

  4. Pingback: The anti-library: Books to be read, knowledge, life, and love of books