Dead Library stacks in dreams

Library stacks in a dream are the dream's image of stored knowledge that no individual will read in their life. The stacks are humbling; they say that what you know is one spine in many shelves. The dream brings the stacks when you are encountering a body of work — a discipline, a tradition, a person's life work — that is larger than you expected. Walking the stacks calmly is the dream telling you the size of the unknown is acceptable and you can still pick a shelf. Stacks that close in around you is the dream noting that the volume of what you do not yet know has become overwhelming, and the practical reading you should be doing has been replaced by anxiety.