I’m from a family of collectors so, having nothing to collect myself, I set out in search of something to collect.
I found it by way of my aunt and uncle giving me a book that they found in the wall of their house. Yes, you read that right. They were renovating the kitchen in their old farmhouse and they found a 1909 copy of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles in the wall.
Knowing I like to read, they gave it to me.
And so my collection began.
To be specific, I collection books printed before 1925 at the very latest.
There’s something romantic about reading a book that is older than the majority of people alive today. There’s also something urgent about it in this age of e-readers.
Then, of course, there’s the added bonus of secondhand stores selling these books for as little as $1. You really can’t beat that.
The translation of all that is that I don’t collect mint condition, first edition books. I collect books that have been well-read and well-loved over the decades, and occasionally century, of their existence. I wouldn’t want to collect something I didn’t want to touch. I read the books I collect and, more often than not, I think they’re far better than some of the books being published today.
All in all, my collection probably isn’t the most valuable in the world, but I love it.
