the first is the property right you establish by paying for it, just as you pay for clothes and furniture. but this act of purchase is only the prelude to possession. full ownership comes only when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it is by writing it. an illustration may make the point clear. you buy a beefsteak and transfer it from the butcher's icebox to your own. but you do not own the beefsteak in the most important sense until you consume it and get it into your bloodstream. i am arguing that books, too, must be absorbed in your own bloodstream to do you any good