To Read or Not To Read

While I am not a serious collector of books, in the past couple of years I would say that I’ve graduated to amateur status. I’ve got a handful of nice limited and special editions, a few first editions, and quite a few autographed books around the house. In the past I’ve generally paid the lowest price for a book, then I started to prefer hardbacks as I’ve seen my paperbacks start to fall apart and my income increase, now I see limited or special editions and my mouth waters a bit and I will even consider a purchase if it’s not too high in cost.

But, I still believe books are for reading. I don’t have the space or income to support buying two copies of books – 1 for reading and 1 for keeping nice, shiny, and new (not to mention the reaction that might provoke from my wife). So, I do read these nice books that no serious self-respecting collector would. Am I alone out there?

Of course I’m gentler with these books than I might be with others and I’m certainly not going to travel with one. But neither will I have books on my shelf that are untouchable and unreadable. My books are my trophies, and I have to read that book to earn the trophy.


Yeah, I know that this post was a bit pointless, and bit about me showing off a couple of the books I’ve got (I know that many reading this have much more impressive stuff), but the main point was to address comments that may come in light of some of the reviews I’ll be posting in the near future from limited or special editions.