For as long as I can remember I have been obsessed with nature. My childhood hero was Sir David Attenborough and I thought about nature basically all the time, which is why I became vegetarian at such a young age. When I was seven or eight I started to get into nature books. Encyclopedias and field guides entitled Birds of North America or Mammals of Southeast Asia. I eventually started to amass quite a large collection of them. Fast forward 13 years later and I still have most of the books from then. I have even replaced several books that I used so much they fell apart. 

The argument for me hoarding them is mixed. For one I do (did) use them quite often, everyday I took them to school, on vacation, everywhere, but more recently I haven’t been looking at them, they just sit on my bookshelf untouched. Many of them I have only read a few pages. I go back to them occasionally, but nowhere near the volume I once was. I have downsized quite a lot with all the moves I have done in the past couple of years, but my nature books are one of the only objects that I can say I have a collection of and have reservations about giving up. Clinically my nature books collection I would not describe ad hoarding. They are in the “correct” place, they’re organized, they’re not taking over anything, etc. They just exist as part of my room, my childhood and as a source of knowledge to look back at. I do keep them organized along with the rest of my belongings possibly because I feel like I have little control over my life and keeping my space where I live neat is just a way to have a little control. It does affect my mood when the space I am in is disorganized or out is not in the order I’m used to. 

To be honest I’m not much of a materialistic person and I don’t buy that much so I did struggle a lot to find something that fit into a significant amount of.