Are y'all OCD about the books you acquire?
Let me elaborate....I really love Agatha Christie's Miss Marple series. I have a few of them all in the same style. So, I bookmooched Mirror Crack'd in the same edition, but it turned out to be different: bright yellow, hardcover, much bigger. At first, I was quite firm-I didn't want it. (the bookmoocher was really sweet)
But now, I just don't know. I mean, part of me really likes matchy-matchy. But, the yellow is pretty awesome. And it's cool to have a first edition (even though it's financially worthless sans dust jacket). On the other hand, if I put it with the rest of the Miss Marples, it'll stand out a lot.
All of this got me thinking about book collecting. Most of you are much more into collecting than me (due to more space!), so I thought I'd ask how everyone approaches it. When you have multiple books by the same author, do you make sure they're matching? To the extent you'd buy another copy of a book you already own if they don't? Or is a book a book, regardless?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
I'm a little OCD, in the way you're talking about. I either like to have all hardbacks or all paperbacks of a book series, and I'd prefer it if they were all the same size. But stocking up via BookMooch has gotten me to let go of that, a little. Not entirely.
I guess I'm not OCD about books at all (unlike in other areas of my life), a book's a book, generally, and I don't care if they match. I do like nicer-looking books, however, so I only mooch stuff from BookMooch when I don't care what it's going to look like :)
Most of my books are purchased used so I get what I can get, but when I buy new I try to stay within a set if I can. Like the Penguin Classics or Everyman's Library clothbound. For now my shelves are quite the mish mosh.
I don't mind if books by an author match, but I do like collecting certain versions (i.e. nice leather-bound editions, etc). But most of my collection is rather a hodge-podge.
I'm pretty OCD. The most important thing to me is not mixing paperbacks with hardcovers, so if I start buying a series in hardcover, I won't go back. I won't pay money for a book if the cover is too awful. I prefer all my books to match, but I'm trying to be less anal about it.
Annie, bookmooch has gotten me to let go of it a little. I'm working on it.
Gentle Reader, that's a nice attitude! I don't mind if the Bookmooch books have some creases, but I'd be upset if like half the cover was missing!
Petunia, that's cool that you mainly buy used books. Helps the environment. :) I don't worry about buying in sets for the classics, since I have a lot of Penguin and a lot of B&N.
Sarah, most of my collection is hodgepodge too. However, in general, I love trade pbs and hate mass market, so there's a certain uniformity for most authors.
Poodlerat, that's how I feel as well! Good to know I'm not the only one. :)
Post a Comment