------------------------------------------------
Too Many Books...
-----------------

Little Duffy Wallace was a normal fan, you see
E      F  E  D       C   B A  C   B    A   G

He started out with Star Trek at his grade-school library
G  F       G   F    E    G    C            A      B C D

Then Arthur Clarke and Asimov, and Heinlein juveniles
G    E      D      B   C  B    G   A   C    B A G

The library was small - he didn't notice for a while
G   F    G  F   E       G  C        A    B   C D

That there were
B    C     D

     [Chorus:]

     So many books, so many books
     E  D# E C      D  C# D A

     It really doesn't matter what your reading speed
     A  B   A  B   C   D  B   A    G    C  D    E

     There's too many books, too many books,
     D       E   D# E C      D   C# D F

     Too many books to read.
     G     F  E     D  C

Duffy did okay in high school - he was bookishly inclined
His homework left him time to read whatever he could find
He broadened his horizons, hitting math and science too
With English Lit and hist'ry he began to get the clue
That there were...
                     [Chorus]

Now, a glacier's created when each winter's fall of snow
Is just a little heavier than summer's sun makes go...
Of books he had too many, and of reading time a lack
And of this situation, there was born - a TO-READ STACK!
For there are...
                     [Chorus]

For a couple years of college, things were still okay for Duff
But he had less time to read, and still more sources for his stuff
Used-book stores and garage sales, they began to take their toll
And library disposal sales made Duffy lose control
You see there's...
                     [Chorus]

[Play chorus theme quietly behind announcer-type speech:]

    "And, turning to City news...  A local resident was killed in
    his home in a bizarre accident today.  Mr. Duffy A. Wallace
    apparently was adding a book to a stack of several HUNDRED in
    his library, when the shelf collapsed, killing him instantly.
    A... `friend'... was quoted as saying, `It was how he would
    have wanted to go.'"

Now Duffy's fannish friends preserved his treasured memory
They kept up his collection as a lending library
And sometimes, late at night, you'll hear the shuffling of feet
And a ghostly voice complaining of the task it can't complete
Since there are...
                     [Chorus]

Copyright 1992 by Joel Polowin.  Permission is hereby granted to copy this song 
for any non-profit purpose provided that its content is not altered and that 
this notice is included.  If you include it in a publication, I'd appreciate a 
copy: mail to 205 Toronto St., Kingston, Ontario, CANADA K7L 4A9.  E-mail to 
Internet polowin@silicon.chem.queensu.ca or polowinj@qucdn.queensu.ca, or 
Fidonet Joel Polowin @ 1:249/106.4.

----------

[I actually wasn't planning to post this here until after I had a shot at 
performing it at FilKONtario this weekend...  but I decided I wanted to get it 
out so I could get to work on the follow-up right away.  Little Isaac Asimov 
was just a fan, you see -- but there were so MANY books to write...]

My first attempt at original filk.  I'm middlin' pleased with it.
