Here a Book, There a Book, Everywhere a Book Book

Mr. Richard Heber was a skosh addicted to acquiring books. He loved them aplenty and purchased them whenever and wherever he could find them. When asked about his habit of collecting multiple copies of the same works, he replied, according to his biographer:

Why you see, sir, no man can do comfortably without three copies of a work. One he must have for a show-copy, and he will probably keep it at his country-house. Another he will require for his own use and reference; and unless he is inclined to part with this, which is very inconvenient, or risk the injury of his best copy, he must needs have a third at the service of his friends.

(Kacirk 84)

All of those volumes sure add up. By the time of his death in 1833, he owned 150,000 volumes. To put that in perspective, the Mississippi Library Commission holds 124,534 volumes. I bet ours are much better organized than his were!

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alte_Buecher.JPG
Kacirk, Jeffrey. Forgotten English. William Morrow and Company, Inc.: New York, NY, 1997. Print.