It has always been my experience that, whatever groupings I choose for my books, the space in which I plan to lodge them necessarily reshapes my choice and, more important, in no time proves too small for them and forces me to change my arrangement. In a library, no empty shelf remains empty for long. Like Nature, libraries abhor a vacuum, and the problem of space is inherent in the very nature of any collection of books.
Interpretation
Books require space and organization, and libraries reflect the evolving nature of our collections.
Alberto Manguel's quote emphasizes the dynamic relationship between books and the spaces they inhabit. He suggests that libraries, much like nature, resist emptiness; they adapt and grow, requiring constant reorganization as new books are added. This highlights the importance of consideration for space in any collection and reflects the ever-present demand for knowledge and literature.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of libraries, you could cite this quote to illustrate how books fill spaces and minds.
The stories that unfold in the space of a writer's study, the objects chosen to watch over a desk, the books selected to sit on the shelves, all weave a web of echoes and reflections of meanings and affections, that lend a visitor the illusion that something of the owner of this space lives on between these walls, even if the owner is no more.
From fire, water, the passage of time, neglectful readers, and the hand of the censor, each of my books has escaped to tell me its story.
One book calls to another unexpectedly, creating alliances across different cultures and centuries.
My books hold between their covers every story I've ever known and still remember, or have now forgotten, or may one day read; they fill the space around me with ancient and new voices.
A society can exist - many do exist - without writing, but no society can exist without reading.
I have no feelings of guilt regarding the books I have not read and perhaps will never read; I know that my books have unlimited patience. They will wait for me till the end of my days.
The focus of entertainment is taking away from what the public needs as news. I think investigative journalism will always be important and always find its way, be it on the Internet or wherever.
I think people make certain assumptions about what they're interested in reading or what others would be interested in reading, and when they think of poor black people in the South, they don't think people are interested in reading about those people.
Mathematics is not a spectator sport!
You aren't learning anything when you're talking.
The more hours of television a girl watches, the fewer options she thinks she has in life.
True scholarship consists in knowing not what things exist, but what they mean; it is not memory but judgment.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.