Are you a collector or a hoarder?

A hallmark of the hoarder is that they have no real prospect of using the things they pile up... useful objects become pure matter, pure obstacle.

My father was a practical man, not given to superstition. But he did have one little rule, more ironic I think than serious: we weren’t allowed to count his owls.

He had started collecting them in his youth. Our mantelpiece was covered in owls of all shapes, sizes, styles, and materials, from thimble-sized painted wooden ones to a particularly imposing foot-tall metal statue. I don’t think Dad actually bought many owls himself; they were usually gifts, after he’d once told someone he liked owls and it snowballed from there. I don’t know how many he