Booking Through Thursday of February 26, 2009: Collectibles
Hardcover? Or paperback?
Illustrations? Or just text?
First editions? Or you don’t care?
Signed by the author? Or not?
I am definitely a reader, not a collector. I much prefer paperbacks and buy many of them used. For some of my favorite series, I will buy new but will still wait for the paperback version to be released. Most of the historical mysteries, fantasies and thrillers don’t include illustrations, of course, other than their covers.
I do like to have a matching series of books from the same publisher if possible, but that’s not always practical, especially when I’m buying the books from different sources at different times. My favorites sources for books include Half Price Book stores and Amazon Marketplace (where you can buy new and used books from many stores on Amazon.com).
The problem is, if I really enjoy a book and think I will reread it again, I will keep it instead of recycle it. That’s where the shelf-space problem arises. Since our house is too small and crowded to keep our already-ridiculous collection of books, many of them are stored in the attic, waiting for the wonderful solution.
As far as first editions and autographs, I’ll leave those for the true collectors.
© Jan McClintock of We Need More Shelves