I started my love affair with books as a reader. Readers are just that — folks who love to read, but once the publication is read they can and do happily move onto the next one with no need to keep it. Readers, often frequent users of libraries, do purchase books, however once a book is purchased they will either pass it along to a friend (who likely is passing books along to them too) or they will sell it. Readers have no attachment to the book itself.

In the beginning libraries were where I found all my friends (as I called my books). But once I got my first job and I went to the mall to spend my first check and I discovered the book store, things changed. Suddenly here was a new idea: I could live with my dear friends instead of just having them over for visits. I became a book owner.

Book owners are the next level of bibliophiles. Sure, book owners are readers, but they feel more than the need to read — they must keep (at least some of) the books. While these folks certainly have more than three objects (my official definition of a collection) and are usually dedicated to specific authors, genres &/or subject matter, they usually do not consider themselves collectors.

Of course I still used the library but owning books was exciting. So exciting that I soon realized my wages as a 16 year old part-time employee wasn’t going to be enough. This is when I re-discovered the joy of rummage sales. Here my paltry pay check went further. Oh the days of 50 cent hardcovers and 25 cent paperbacks, I miss you so…

At rummage sales I discovered another kind of book: the out of print book. Here were books that one couldn’t get in the mall book stores. I couldn’t understand why not — these books were equally fascinating. Many had much more wonderful boards, bindings, illustrations, typefaces and, even if they were often tanning, had a better page quality.

Once I discovered out of print works visits to thrift stores and used book shops weren’t far behind. I even dabbled in those book exchanges — you know, where you can trade your used books for other used books — but after doing that twice and finding myself wishing I had still had the books I traded, well, I gave that up in a jiffy. But I continued to buy books.

One of the neatest things about books is that they so often come with a list of other books you must have. Even if they didn’t have a bibliography or a list of resources, if you loved the author you suddenly had a new list of works to look for. Book buying literally can never end. And I have the sagging shelves, with books double and triple-rowed, to prove it.

Amazingly, I still didn’t think I was a book collector.

Book collectors were those who sought first editions, or antique tomes which should be in museums; I was just a reader who preferred to have books near at hand. I didn’t seek a first edition of Moby-Dick or any other great whale of a prize; I just want books to read.

I don’t think it was until I moved in with Derek that I realized I could be considered a book collector. He called my books a ‘book collection’ — and as I was unable to let my books remain in boxes as he could, I decided my books must be at least as much of a collection as his were.

Derek and I joke that we many never read all the books we own (well, at least not until the kids move out!), but like most book owners we believe that book ownership provides a sort of learning or enjoyment via osmosis. Just having them around us means the knowledge and stories must seep into our beings somehow… Or maybe we are just rationalizing buying books faster than we can read them. Then again, maybe we are rationalizing by calling our huge number of books, old and new, ‘a collection’.

But I don’t think that anyone, no matter how they define a book collector or a book collection, would hesitate to call either of us bibliophiles.

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 4:33 am and is filed under collecting fyi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.