A while ago, when I was in the Oxfam bookshop I saw a book I didn’t buy. To be accurate, I actually saw thousands of books I didn’t buy, but there was one particular book. I picked it up, looked at it, asked myself if I had a good reason for adding it to my existing mountain of books, and reluctantly put it back. (Under my new system I’m trying to buy books only when I’m sure I’m going to read them within the next few months. It’s a forlorn hope but I have to tell Julia something.)
After I dropped Julia off yesterday morning I wondered about visiting the bookshop while I was on that side of town. However, I had a list of errands to do and decided to make a start on that. As for the book, it will either be there when I go back, or it won’t, and that was when the phrase Schrödinger’s Books passed through my mind.
As everyone knows Schrodinger’s Cat is an illustration of what he saw as the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects.
What? You don’t? You need to stay in more and read Wikipedia. Then, having read Wikipedia, you have to understand it.
It problem features a sealed box containing a cat, a source of radioactivity and a flask of poison. If radioactivity is released it is detected by the Geiger counter which releases the poison and kills the cat. If no radioactivity is released, the cat lives. Because the box is sealed the cat might either be alive or dead, or both.
Alternatively, like me, you can use cut and paste and get by with a vague understanding, secure in the knowledge that most of your readers are similarly vague. To be honest, when I first saw the words Schrödinger’s Cat, I thought it was the sequel to Flaubert’s Parrot. It would make quite a trilogy with Lady Chatterley’s Plover.
I’d have to take issue with “everyday objects” , as I don’t tend to have a Geiger counter, a source of radioactivity and a flask of poison lying around the house. However, it does make more sense than Einstein’s assertion that a barrel of unstable gunpowder can exist in both exploded and unexploded states. Having, in my re-enactment days, had an Explosives License, I can’t appreciate the subtlety of Einstein’s position. With gunpowder I’ve always thought of it as an either/or situation. Either you have a roof, or you don’t have a roof. There isn’t much room for compromise.
Anyway, back to books. You see a book in a shop and don’t buy it. When you walk out of the shop you can no longer see it and don’t know whether it is there or not, so it’s both there and not there.
My version of the problem works better with secondhand books. In a shop selling new books it’s more likely they will have a copy when you want one. In a second hand bookshop there’s probably a bigger chance of the book being gone when you go back. Unless it’s Fifty Shades of Grey. There are plenty of them about.
It also works better with books than cats: in the absence of food and water, there is, I feel, a fundamental flaw in the assumption that the cat is alive beyond a certain point.
This is probably a good way of defining a scientist – a man who can reveal the mysteries of the Universe but can’t run a cattery.
Books
It’s hard to find old fashioned bookstores here, period!
Same here!
There! You’ve summed it up.
I’m not good on Quantum Physics, but I get better when we move on to Books. 🙂
I have had Schrödinger’s lottery ticket on numerous occasions – if the winning ticket happens to be in my general geographic location – I wait a bit before checking the ticket – that way I can perversely torture myself with the notion that until checked – I have neither won nor lost. Actually the most annoying aspect of doing this is that nobody but me seems to find this either funny or clever.
I do that too. It’s not a losing ticket until it’s been checked, and until then…
Glad to find a kindred spirit. 🙂
Have you tried telling Julia you owe it to your fans – those who rely on your reviews to advise them to read or not to read?
No, I hadn’t thought of that. I’m thinking of it now…
I like the sound of it.
I’m just not convinced that she’ll fall for it.
I wouldn’t normally advertise, but on Amazon there are plenty of books around for 1p plus the postage of around £3. With them, you are in charge of the situation in that you can wait a day or so and it will probably still be there. Perhaps that would curb the urge to buy books right away. A lot of the books are brand new too.
Yes, I’ve had some good books that way, though I’ve never quite mastered the waiting bit. 🙂
I can resist going into second-hand bookshops for only so long and then I rush in and buy four or five. I have by then got beyond reason and have no thoughts as to whether I will be able to read them in the next couple of months. The answer would probably be no as I have such heaps of unread books. I then have to sneak the books into the house and try to merge them into the aforementioned heaps.
Sneaking them into the heaps sounds a bit like the actions of a book addict. Do we need to form a group to discuss this?
Haha!
🙂
I find that I can’t buy books in a second hand bookshop because, unlike that dratted cat, if you buy one then you can’t buy another and not buying the other one is so painful that it is best not to buy either….and in my (incorrect) view second hand bookshops charge too much.
I have mastered Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle by the way. I am uncertain about almost everything these days….and indeterminate too if needed.
As usual, you have put your finger on a number of important points.
I have often wondered about the price of secondhand books.
I often buy my books second-hand [only way I can afford them]. I am trying to do the same as you and judge just how soon I’ll be able to read it and will I still want to by then? I am so backed-up on my reading I can’t tell you – although I do read every day!! Maybe I need a speed-reading course?
I taught myself speed reading once, but I can only use it for picking out details as the concentration I need doesn’t allow me to read for pleasure. 🙁
I know what you mean. We’re two of a kind – I also taught myself speed-reading, but don’t really enjoy it.
Glad to meet a kindred spirit. 🙂 Also glad to know it’s not just me that has a problem with speed reading.
So, as I understand it, books in the Oxfam bookshop are neither bought or unbought until I get home and open my plastic bag to discover which ones I ‘couldn’t resist’ this time. I like your ‘next few months’ approach, although sadly I suspect a bike-lock on the Oxfam bookshop door might be more effective, at least until I go home and fetch the bolt-croppers I bought to access the fridge.
It’s a good theory, and seems to align with the facts. I may well try that on Julia next time she says: “Have you been buying books?”
I’ll let you know how it goes…