Sections in a Bookstore | Italo Calvino, 1979

Edinburgh, 1955

-Books You Haven’t Read
-Books You Needn’t Read
-Books Made for Purposes Other Than Reading
-Books Read Even Before You Open Them Since They Belong to the Category of Books Read Before Being Written
-Books That If You Had More Than One Life You Would Certainly Read But Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered
-Books You Mean to Read But There Are Others You Must Read First
-Books Too Expensive Now and You’ll Wait Till They’re Remaindered
-Books ditto When They Come Out in Paperback
-Books You Can Borrow from Somebody
-Books That Everybody’s Read So It’s As If You Had Read Them Too
-Books You’ve Been Planning to Read for Ages
-Books You’ve Been Hunting for Years Without Success
-Books Dealing with Something You’re Working on at the Moment
-Books You Want to Own So They’ll Be Handy Just in Case
-Books You Could Put Aside Maybe to Read This Summer
-Books You Need to Go with Other Books on Your Shelves
-Books That Fill You with Sudden, Inexplicable,Curiosity, Not Easily Justified
-Books Read Long Ago Which It’s Now Time To Re-Read
-Books You’ve Always Pretended to Have Read and Now It’s Time to Sit Down and Really Read Them