No. 197 - Fifth Business

A Facebook friend posted this today:

That lust for books which rages in the breast like a demon, and which cannot be stilled save by the frequent and plentiful acquisition of books. This passion is more common, and more powerful, than most people suppose. Book Lovers are thought by unbookish people to be gentle and unworldly, and perhaps a few of them are so. But there are others who will lie and scheme and steal to get books as wildly and unconscionably as the dope-taker in pursuit of his drug. They may not want the books to read immediately, or at all; they want them to possess, to range on their shelves, to have at command. They want books as a Turk is thought to want concubines-not to be hastily deflowered, but to be kept at their master's call, and enjoyed more often in thought than in reality. ~ Robertson Davies

I read this post. Then read it again. That's exactly how I feel about books. I love to collect books. I love to be around books. I love the feel and smell of books. If I was addicted to something it would be books. I know there's a good chance I'll never read some of them but I keep acquiring more, to have at command.

This morning I was thinking of a question that goes something like this: If you could only choose one of the following what would it be? Your favorite book, or your fifth favorite friend? I was thinking of fifth favorite friend because no one should trade their best friend, or second best friend, for a book but maybe by the time you get to your fifth favorite friend that book starts to look interesting.

OK. So where's the tie-in and what did I learn today?

I looked up Robertson Davies, the guy who is quoted above, since I had never heard of him. I learned he was a Canadian and a novelist so I was intrigued to read a little more.

Then my eye was drawn to that word: Fifth. 

As in Fifth Business, a novel he wrote in 1970 which is the first book in The Deptford Trilogy. The series revolves around a simple act - a young boy throws a snowball at another, but it misses its intended target - and the effect this act has on a number of characters. Fifth Business is his best known novel, and considered his finest.

So the demon in my chest raged, and I knew that I just had to have that book, whether I read it immediately, or not at all.