A Personal Library

G.W. Bowersock, "Reflections on Gibbon's Library," in From Gibbon to Auden: Essays on the Classical Tradition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 33-42 (at 41):

A personal library is not merely a collection of books. It is a mirror of its owner, but a magic mirror that reflects far more than the image that is put before it. It can expose secret aspirations and cut deeper than any scalpel into an unquiet heart.

Carl Spitzweg, The Bookworm
Related post: The Anti-Library.