I had a similar dilemma when an uncle told me that my library of books was showing off. I gave it a long thought and donated all my books save three to the public library.

After they were gone I have since re-established a new personal library, again. I've decided of the things that I could show off I like showing off books and that is ok ... it is past ok it is a good.

reading is sort of like that. if you like it then reading can be a good. you only owe yourself the reason why and even that is really just a guideline in my opinion.

I'm really loving your writings. This post really made me chew on my own motivations for constantly reading novels for almost all of my now sixty years of life. And when I got to your final point: "no novel—not even War and Peace—is as good as a truly great conversation", I found myself in complete agreement with you.

Being morbidly shy most of my life, I've enjoyed tragically few truly great conversations. But those few were peak moments in my existence. They always made it feel obvious that human connection was the reason for existing.

Reading a really good novel, I think, is a reasonable substitute for a conversation, even if it feels a little one-sided.

Thank you for writing. You're a pleasure to read.