Jun
The Prized Collection
This past weekend, I had the pleasure of signing books at Chicago’s annual Printer’s Row Lit Fest. If you’ve not been (and you love books), you should add it to your must-do list. Being around that many booklovers is–in a word–exhilerating.
Being there, watching people try new authors, chat up strangers, and search for particular books, I began to think about my own books. The special ones.
Just this past summer, while getting ready to box up my life and start if over in New York, I was faced with a need to conserve space. Which meant giving things up. I spent days bagging up old clothes and taking them to Goodwill. I gave my next door neighbor (also a single mom) stuff I knew would help her out. And I boxed up my complete collection of Mary Higgins Clark hardcovers (minus the first three titles as I could only afford them in softcover) and donated them to a local assisted living facility.
I know that those books are giving others enjoyment but, I’ll be honest, I miss them. I’d purchased them all on the day they came out…year after year. But what’s done is done, right?
Aside from those books, my other prized collection of books is the Little House series I got for my First Communion when I was eight. Those I still have…and always will.
So how about you? Do you have a prized book collection?
~Elizabeth
**Hey, check this out! My Southern Sewing Circle series earned a mention as a favorite “Crafty Read for your Vacation!” Click here to check it out.
**Oh, and one more thing…I’ve just announced a new contest on my “latest news” page!
June 15th, 2010 at 7:01 am
Cograts on your “crafty read” status.
Books. I left so many behind when I moved. I had a Stephen King collection. I had a collection of fantasy that were on the Knights Templer theme…(love these..) and I had one little book that I still can’t remember the name of but I loved reading it over and over. A fantasy about a prince who came from another world to rescue the heroine.
But I’m well on my way to having a new collection. I got a new book in the mail yesterday that I won off Books on the House. I have another one coming from a contest. Now I’m collecting autographed copies. Much harder to leave behind…
June 15th, 2010 at 7:41 am
I periodically try to go through the collection, which fills our bookshelves to overflowing, and weed out and donate the stuff we’re unlikely to ever read again (or to read in the first place). But then I hit the “must keep” books. Can’t send off the Ian Rankin…Can’t send off the Ken Bruens….sure as heck can’t get rid of the John D. McDonalds…and I give up.
June 15th, 2010 at 7:56 am
Neat idea for a blog post.
The first series I remember collecting were the Thomas Covenant Unbeliever series. My brother or I bought each new book as they came out. I’ll bet my brother still has all of them.
At the same time I had the Lord Of the Rings, the Terry Brooks Shannara series. I don’t know what happened to the Shannara books.
More recently the George R.R. Martin Throne series, but I’m losing faith he’ll ever finish it. I have most of them in hardcover.
June 15th, 2010 at 8:42 am
I do! I have the complete collection of Trixie Belden books and Cherry Ames books. And I am constantly working on completing my collection of Nancy Drew books. These books take me back to a place and time that I cherish most – my sweet childhood. when I hear you were moving to New York, I envied the fact that you were going to be living near Trixie! (Yes, i am sure she still lives there and is STILL solving mysteries!)
June 15th, 2010 at 9:24 am
I have all of Agatha Christie’s books (except a few duplicate titles printed only in England, but I do have a few), and they are on a little wooden bookshelf that I built with my dad at least 20 years ago. We made the shelves the right height for paperbacks (since that is what I could afford for this collection at the moment), and they are all in chronological order
I did manage to get my hands on one hardcover first edition of The Hound of Death, copyright 1933, for $35!
June 15th, 2010 at 9:29 am
For my girls I had a wonderful collection of books…all the ones I read to them as babies, then toddlers, then as they entered school. Mr. Brown Can Moo, the Little House picture books, Are You My Mother, etc. Probably a hundred books I wanted to give to them when they were parents so THEY could read the same exact books to their own kids. Unfortunately their father opted to sell them all at a garage sale. I can only hope the people that snagged those titles for five cents or whatever they paid for them realize just how treasured they were by two little girls.
June 15th, 2010 at 9:41 am
My collection of Gerald Durrell books came to mind. They remind me of growing up, and the me I wanted to be. Durrell lived adventure, and he told the tales well.
Congrats on being recognized as a favorite vacation read!
June 15th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
Congrats on your book being recognized as a summer read.
I have this one book that I have no idea where I got it from. It’s a children’s book and I can’t recall the title, but it’s a book that if I saw on the shelf today, I would not pick up, but I do recall that I loved it. I’ll have to search for it.
June 16th, 2010 at 10:16 am
Collecting books is so much fun until they have to be packed and moved occasionally. My collection includes all of Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody series, working on getting all James D. Doss’ Charlie Moon books, Laura Haney, too many books on Ancient Egypt (I am paring them down), plus many, many more. Between my husband and I, we have about 10 or more bookcases full. Then there is my bookcase full of quilting books and patterns in my sewing room.
Mary, the Cherry Ames and Nancy Drew books are what started my love of mysteries. You are lucky to have them.
June 16th, 2010 at 10:11 pm
Thanks, Carol, don’t I know it!
June 17th, 2010 at 7:55 am
I have to say, I’m not familiar with Cherry Ames. Now I’m curious.