Do you need fancy books?
My mom likes to go by yardsales and she also knows that I like Harry Potter. She recently picked up a few books for me and in passing them off to me she knowingly said that one was a first edition. She was excited about this even though she hasn’t read or watched Harry Potter.
Cool. Nice. Uh-huh.
I have a handful of signed copies by favorite authors, but other than that I am pretty easy about books – first edition or not, hardback or paperback, fancy jacket or not, used library edition or brand spanking new. I even have some paperbacks from highschool and college which have lost their covers. At least with a beatup paperback, you know the story has been read and loved. Isn’t that a sign of a good story? There are a few ARCs that roam my shelves freely, not fenced into a special shelf location.
Do you populate your shelves with special editions, shiny jackets, and never-opened books? Or do you have a mix on your shelves?
What makes a book special? My beatup paperback Storm Front signed by Jim Butcher, my first Guy Gavriel Kay novel A Song for Arbonne, worn out used paperback Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey that I have had for over a decade is still kicking around, and my History of Quidditch that My Main Man got me for a birthday several years ago – all good stuff.
Generally for me it’s the used (I’ll be coll and call them vintage) mass market paperbacks of sci-fi and fantasy novels because they fit in my purse way better than a hardcover. However, after my recent trip to NYC I have a giant pile of signed arcs and hardcovers which are rather pretty.
Vintage mass paperbacks also populate my shelves. Lots of Andre Norton and Frank Herbert in that mix.
I first fell in love with my dad’s yellow old sci-fi paperbacks, and my mom’s illegal unsold coverless Ray Bradbury collections (beside the Shakespeare, no covers there, either). Old yellow books have a special place in my heart.
But I have a few precious books, too – my brother somehow acquired a signed copy of the English version of the His Dark Materials trilogy (bound in one volume) for my birthday, one year. I have read from it, but it’s hard. I love it so I don’t want to hurt it. I have ‘reading copies’ that are better suited to travel damage, etc.
I have this problem with flutes and recorders, too. My father’s pearwood recorder is one of my favorite objects on the planet, and I play it, but gently and rarely. I’m happier with that one in the box and the plastic one from second grade in my hands.*
(* Ok, I am cheating; that plastic one has a better sound than two other wooden ones I own, so it’s one of those rare objects that improves over time and with a good backpack battering. I’ve yet to find a book that actually improves that way, but you never know. If I were to become someone of note, my favorite novel with inline notes might be precious to someone, too.)
Ah yes, I also had some coverless scifi/fantasy books picked up at yardsales for 10 cents. Those cheap books introduced me to many treasured authors.
I do like to collect first editions…but overall, I prefer a beat up used editions since I will throw it in my bag and it will get even more beat up. I’m hard on books. I bend pages, underline, and crack the spines. And I like the feel of a book that has seen some wear and tear. Gives it character.
I also love the feel of my favorite books in my hands. Some get read so often that I remember the little chocolate stains and kitty claw marks they occasionally acquire.
Mostly paperbacks for me too (with lots of eye-tracks, as a friend says) , and a collection of older hardbacks that I’ve picked up at library sales and used book stores. They give the book room that wonderful old-book smell. I always feel just a trifle better when I’m there.
There are long-treasured books: my dad’s Omar Khayyam, other family books, childhood favorites, lots of Shakespeare, school lit collections that I can’t part with. Only a few early editions and signed copies, just lots of much-read books or ‘really wanna/gotta read that book someday’ books, or reference books on various subjects.
Needless to say, the sf and fantasy dominate: LeGuin, Zelazny, Swanwick, Patricia Anthony, Greg Bear, Octavia Butler, a host of others, and now Butcher, Rothfuss, Czerneda, and stacks of new friends waiting to be read.
Old books DO smell good, don’t they? That’s a lovely list at the end, with several authors I am unfamiliar with. Can you hear my TBR mountain pile crashing from over there?
This is boring, but I really enjoy libraries. I’ve always loved making a special trip there and just walking endless shelves of books looking for something that stands out after picking up what I was there for. Now I love taking my daughter there with me. Granted she likes to play with the puzzles, but she’s starting to have the attention span for storybooks and that will only make the experience more fun.
I used to try to collect books, but now whenever I get them I like to pass them on and encourage the recipient to do the same for someone they think will like it. It means my bookshelf only has my very favorites and going to the library almost always ends with me finding something totally unexpected.
That’s *not* boring.
Love my library. I meet my students there and we have our special books that we use for lessons.
And of all things, I get all affronted and uppity when my library doesn’t have some book or other that I’m currently in love with there in their stacks. “wha-aat?” but this particular library has been responsive to my acquisition suggestions, making *those* books especially special.
I love my library too. I am in there 3 out of 4 weeks, even tho my shelves are brimming with books.
I have a gold-embossed color-illustrated (by Alan Lee) box set of Lord of the Rings and my grandmother’s leather-bound Shakespeare. And my Calvin and Hobbs collection. I use these carefully and don’t generally loan them out. The rest are for reading and sharing.
Very nice. We have a few nice books that are favorites that are simply for us and don’t get loaned out.