Well Andrew, I think the only term for you trumping my approximately 1m² hallway corner with an entire wing of a building, custom built to house your literature would be, ( and with the greatest respect.... ) " Taking the piss!!"
However, I do not take it badly, as I live in one of the most beautiful cities on earth, ( Stockholm ) , and when the kids grow up and bugger off, then at least, I will have space to indulge myself.... Just a decade or so to wait.....
It may sound like the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, but that entire wing came as a free alternative to that same square footage of outdoor space. The apartment directly above has a roof terrace of the same dimensions in place of that
gallery, but was otherwise identical, and sold for the same
price. My intended
library is actually a very wide corridor between building blocks in its former non-residential use. As a through-route it can't be classified as a room in a sales description, and most families would have no idea what to do with a 35'x10' space (visualise the interior dimensions of a
London tube carriage). But for a
library, with books against the long wall, it is ideal. I just
hope it gets dedicated to its intended purpose, and not used for a TV room by noisier people.
Most of us live in the most beautiful city/town on earth. That's why we chose to live there. In your case that is Stockholm. In my case the most beautiful place on earth is
London. For another collector, it will be a rural Pennsylvanian town, or somewhere else. I suspect that most contented people are living in the most perfect place they can imagine. One shouldn't expect one's kids to follow one's taste however. I'm really scared that my daughter is going to live in a farm or on a mountain, or somewhere else not within a short distance of a major airport and a
choice of multiple high-end cafes and bakeries. The thought of it gives me agoraphobia. She actually likes camping and outdoorsy things. Can you imagine that? Istanbul, Hong Kong, and
New York run
London a close second as ideal places to live, and perhaps I will, in time, live in all of them.