"Throw out all my old books? I don't have the spine" schreibt Ian Jack am 4. Mai 2002 im "Guardian". In seinem Artikel beschreibt er den sehnlichen Wunsch, in der Privatbibliothek aufzuräumen: "I have too many books. I have begun to hate their mess and reprimand ("You haven't read me in a long time," or even, in the case of Silas Marner, "You have never read me"). Many of them are crap." Aber ganz gelingt es nicht: "Into the bin bag; then into the bin. And yet, and yet. I opened it."
Und beim nächsten Buch: "I shall never read it again. I have still to read all of Philip Roth. Then there is the vexing question of Proust. Still, I put it back on the shelf". Und sein Schluss: "Surrounded by all these piles - books to be kept, books to be stored, books of uncertain destiny - I've come round entirely to the idea of libraries. Such sensible institutions. You borrow a book, you read it, which is what it exists for, and then you take it back. Otherwise, what are they? Memento vitae, furniture, ornament. This is the only spirit for the black bin bag".