Check it out. Two Weekly Geeks in a row, but I’ll be honest, this one is more of a WTF post than anything. This weeks topic seems a little strange to me.
So, Weekly Geeksters, tell us, do you have a collection, (or are you starting a collection,) of one particular book title? If so, what’s your story? Why that book, and how many do you have, and what editions are they? Share pictures and give us all the details.
Or perhaps you dream about starting such a collection. What title would it be and what would it take for you to get motivated to start collecting?
Or maybe it’s the works of a particular author you collect (or want to collect) instead a certain book title?
Am I the only one who thinks its strange to be collecting multiple books of the same novel? Again with the honestly, I don’t get the reason behind wanting to own multiple copies of the same book. Now, I will say that I have owned two copies of the same novel before, but never more than that. I used to have two sets of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series simply because I’m not really a fan of reading hardcovers, but I prefer that style when I want to keep something. Mass market paperbacks are easier to read, but they don’t hold up as well. So I’ll admit, I have owned two copies of a series of books before, but we’re not talking about just a couple of books. The reason this topic came up was because…let me just copy it:
Last year, I saw a movie, I think it was called Definitely, Maybe, that got me to thinking. In this movie, one of the girls was on a quest to find a particular copy of Jane Eyre, I forget now the specific reason why. But in the process of her search, she ended up with this massive collection of Jane Eyre books, from all sorts of places and years and styles. She had a shelf that went all the way around her room, filled with these wonderful Jane Eyre books.
I guess the thing I can’t wrap my head around is, if you’re going to have a personal library that massive, why have it all of one book? I would have loved to have that many books, if they were all different. Personally, you can only read the same story over and over so many times before it loses its appeal. If the chick in the movie was looking for a certain book, wouldn’t she have noticed it wasn’t the right copy when she bought it? Now granted, I haven’t seen the movie, so I don’t know if internet sales were an issue or what, but if it had been me, as soon as I realized I had the wrong copy, I would have been selling it and looking again.
To have a massive collection of novels, that would be awesome as long as they weren’t all the same book. That is my dream – to have a library like the one Belle finds at the Beast’s castle. I would be in heaven. However, this idea didn’t spring up out of the blue. So what am I missing? What’s the lure of having various copies of the same novel? Does anyone else have a collection of one title?
I guess the third question does pertain to me a little (someone got me seriously annoyed and the first part of the question took the brunt of it). I used to have multiple copies of the Gabaldon series, but I don’t anymore. My collection of books is growing and I don’t have room to keep more than one copy of any book.
I guess I really need to think about that third question some more considering my library is growing because I do keep the novels by authors I enjoy. While I wouldn’t say I collect everything ever written by each one, I do go out and get all of the books in the same series of novels. For instance, I have all of the Anita Blake books by Laurell K Hamilton as well as her Meredith Gentry novels. I’m also collecting all of the Riley Jensen series by Keri Arthur, but since I haven’t tried her other series yet, I haven’t bought those books. I keep books that I love and want to go back to again (or are signed). It’s just as simple as that.
You raise some really interesting points here. I think that people amass single title collections not because they wish to (necessarily) read the same book over and over again, but that they have an attachment to the book as an object. Or as a physical manifestation of a feeling or attraction that keeps them coming back to that same title. But I could be wrong. I often am.
Wishing the book library you speak of here! Happy reading!
I don’t have multiples of the same, but I do have tons of titles. I too would love the giant library, but I just don’t have room for it. Most of my titles are stacked in my closet. I need to start being choosy, am I really going to reread this? There are always so many new titles, I don’t know how many I will actually get back to.
My husband has been saying the same thing. You have too many books and why are you keeping them if you’re never going to read them again? I’ve been slowly getting rid of books that I haven’t read in years, but I’m still keeping the great ones – Shakespeare, Tolkein, Rice, Hamilton. Granted, my husband still thinks I have too many books, but whatever. :P
No, your not the only one who thinks it’s strange. Well, it’s not my thing anyway.
Some people forget that they have a copy and end up buying another. If I ever end up with two copies, I simply give one away.
Weekly Geeks: I collect books not titles!
As the other commenter said, yes, it’s about the book as object, a treasure, not about reading the same story many times over. It’s like collecting any object really. If someone thought that Jane Eyre was magnificent, it might be an interesting hobby to find different editions of it.
I don’t do it myself because I’m not the collecting type, and there’s only so much space for books! :) But P&P is a fave and when I saw a tiny leather bound edition, I liked the idea of having this other one.
Well, I must admit to having different versions of J.R. Ward’s BDB series. I’ve got the British paperbacks and US hardbacks, audiobooks and a friend bought me German copies for a laugh (although I can’t read a word of German). Why? It’s my favorite series and I love having different covers – and I’m a bit sad, obviously. LOL It’s the only series I do that for though.
I had the EXACT SAME REACTION in Beauty and the Beast! I mean, screw the West Wing, and what not, I don’t even need a bedroom, just give me a nice blanket for one of those old chaise lounges, I’ll just live in the library! :D Of course, since it was a long time ago, I wonder if Belle spoke Latin, Greek, etc., or if all those books would just be incomprehensible to her… maybe I’m thinking too hard about this. I mean in a library THAT big, there has to be a Latin grammar…
BTW, my wife (zenleaf.blogspot.com) has collected the entire Harry Potter series in hardback and softback, but (I’m not kidding) it’s because she wants to compare the two versions, to see what was changed in editing between the releases. She wants the british editions too, for the same reason…
Gautami – I’m the same way. One copy is enough for me (and my husband who has had to move all of my books).
Mon – I guess when I think about collecting something, its something more for the grandparents to get you than anything else. I mean, when you think of comic book/stamp/doll collecting, while each item is still a comic book/stamp/doll, they are still a different and unique in their own way, I guess when I look at a book,I don’t think of the cover, but instead focus on the story.
DarkHeart/Jason – I guess I can see the idea of owning multiple copies if they are in different languages. I didn’t think of it in that way. I had actually forgotten that I have 2 copies of the first 4 Harry Potter books, but one in English and the other is in Spanish.
LOL I’m one of those people who collects lots and lots of books. I collect both different books by the same author and also different editions of the same book. Like some of the people have said in the comments, there is something about the object itself. Especially with older books, there is something about the fancy bindings, the lush paper, the fonts, the indentations of the letters into the paper, even the endpapers. Different editions sometimes have different illustrations and cover art. Like you, I’ll often read something in softcover and if I really love it I’ll buy a hardcover copy to keep.
My Weekly Geeks is about various illustrated Alice in Wonderland book editions. Happy Weekly Geeks!
I feel the same way and was scratching my head at this topic too. I would much prefer to spend my money on as many different books as possible rather than on the same book over and over and over again. I’m not a collector of anything and try to avoid clutter, so I personally limit my personal library to those books that I will re-read someday. To have multiple copies of the same book just takes up additional space that could be used for other purposes.
That being said, I can see how some people might be interested in starting collections of this sort, especially if the book is one that changed your life or had a huge impact on you at the time of first reading it. Book lovers tend to get very emotionally attached to books, so if the attachment is strong…
Wow, as a collector, I can understand multiples of anything, and your reaction puzzles me :p
I tend not to reread books at all — because another one is always waiting…
(Along with the link in my name to Collectors’ Quest, I also have a second and different post at Kitsch Slapped.)
Deanna – multiples of a type of something doesn’t puzzle me. I have a collection of unique dolls sitting in storage from when I was small (unique as in a doll made from coal another one is paper mache). It’s the idea of collecting the same book over and over again that confuses me. Like you, I really only read a book once, and while there are some I do keep so I can reread later, I don’t keep multiples of the same book.