"A writer’s library is more than just a
collection of books. It is also a piecemeal biography of that writer’s
life, and measurably so, as most writers have spent countless hours
reading the books that they own or have borrowed, hours that add up to
years, perhaps decades, given a long-enough life"
From an essay "My Life in Books" by James P. Blaylock, at Poets&Writers. The full essay is here.