

Jay Walker's Library - aresant
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-10/ff_walker?currentPage=all

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grinich
Full article without pagination:

[http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-10/ff_walker...](http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-10/ff_walker?currentPage=all)

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Luc
My library has a Darwin bobblehead, a 4-bit relais computer, a rock from the
top of Vesuvius, a small meteor, a 1kg pure tungsten cylinder and a magnesium
one of the same size, some robot arms, a variety of Game&Watches, a Sterling
engine and a steam engine, and a 1 cm scale cube. It all feels kind of
inadequate now (on the other hand, that's enough crap already!).

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mtts
Mine has books.

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Luc
Yeah, but then those are implied. > 2500 last time I counted.

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Ixiaus
Impressive. Have you read all of them (that would be even more impressive)? I
know a lot of people with incredible libraries in their homes but they don't
read any of the books the have...

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Luc
It's quite an unordered mess, so it looks less impressive than it sounds! I'm
just getting old and have been buying for a while.

I think it is compensation for my _awful_ memory - I read books with pencil in
hand, underlining and making notes in the margins, so I like to keep the books
around after I have read them. Also libraries here often don't carry the books
I want to read (or they're translated), so buying makes sense for me. I don't
do this with novels of course.

Lately I have been thinking I should make notes on the computer instead, like
Derek Sivers does, e.g. <http://sivers.org/book/ArtOfProfitability>

To finally answer your question, I have a stack of about 250 books I haven't
read yet. Some of them I'll probably never read - I once bought the 10 best
poker books, but I just can't get interested in the subject anymore.

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boots
I had the great pleasure of visiting the Walker library last year. Not only is
the library packed inch to inch with incredible artifacts as Wired describes,
but it is truly his own as well, with items that have been great personal
inspirations to him as well.

What surprised me the most, however, is how down to earth the entire family
is. They are all energetic yet realistic, and some of the friendliest people I
have ever met.

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ryanelkins
That is a pretty sweet library. I could totally see myself doing something
like that someday - mostly because I love to hoard things I find interesting.

Some of those items are extremely unique or rare though and it does make me
wonder how much of those kinds of things should end up in private collections
versus being more available to the public to some degree. It seems like the
risks of losing some of these artifacts would increase over time if they are
held privately.

That's not to say that people shouldn't be allowed to own them privately...
just something to think about.

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mhunter
In case you were wondering, Jay Walker is the founder of Princeline:

<http://www.ted.com/speakers/jay_walker.html>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_S._Walker>

[http://www.forbes.com/finance/lists/54/2000/LIR.jhtml?passLi...](http://www.forbes.com/finance/lists/54/2000/LIR.jhtml?passListId=54&passYear=2000&uniqueId=AJXH&passListType=Person&datatype=Person)

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RyanMcGreal

        s/library/museum

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mitjak
If Wikipedia were to become a physical library, that would be it.

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chasingsparks
I'm a big Wikipedia fan, but I think its corporeal form would be more likely
to resemble the U.S. Government Housing and Urban Development building rather
than this.

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alxndr
How do you dust all that stuff???

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Ixiaus
This is very cool, it would be more cool if he made it a public museum. It
would obviously cost money to move the stuff into a proper building with
security and staffing but would be great for so many people...

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joezydeco
Being a patent troll and all, I'm sure Jay Walker could care less about
sharing anything with the public.

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chasingsparks
Ask HN: I need some motivation. Have anything for that? ;)

