Comments on: J’s Take on The Man Who Loved Books Too Much

By: J

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 14:48:07 +0000

I just picture those Dr. Who/Torchwood books and it makes me smile and WANT. Though I usually resist the temptation to buy because of the price and the content.

Yesterday I ran across a page of awesome bookends. And I thought.. yea, yea, I could totally collect bookends! Because they’re A) functional, as long as you have bookshelves with open ends or like.. open space. And B) nice to look at. And then C) amusing or mind-tricking.

Plus I do want that library one day, and it will need bookends and things in glass domes, and probably a globe of the moon, and a cat.

By: jun

jun — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 19:10:09 +0000

I am definitely with you on the content side of the book-loving spectrum. I liked your example of the Doctor Who/Torchwood books, too, because those are some of the few that I like to gaze upon despite their probably being very lame. Although that one Eleven book I read wasn’t too bad…

By: K

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 19:33:00 +0000

Well, as far as Dewey goes, I think that one got caught up in the hype around Marley and Me. People really like pet stories. Even if the pet always dies at the end.

By: J

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 16:43:13 +0000

One thing I could maybe see myself collecting is a copy of every Harry Potter book in every language. But.. then I think.. naw, it'd be better if I could do that with my own books. I want a bookcase filled with my own books. Unsigned! Mwuhahaha!

By: J

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 16:40:57 +0000

I think you’re right about Booked to Die. It’s the same reason that books about books and books about libraries tend to do really well sales-wise. Librarians are booklovers, so they buy them. Booksellers are booklovers, so they buy them. And they get read. And then they get nominated for awards, or put on reading lists.

I mean, Dewey the library cat. It was about libraries! And cats!

By: K

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 18:40:51 +0000

I actually do have the collecting bug to some extent. It wars with my distaste for dust and grime (I hate the way old books make my hands feel, as if they’ve sucked all the moisture out of them). It’s easier to justify buying an old book that hasn’t been reprinted in its original form than one where there’s a new copy of the same content.

But for me it really is about the /content/. I buy books to assure myself of always being able to read them if I want to do so and not have to worry if the library has lost its copy or if I can find one in the store. But once I’ve started collecting a series, I do feel a compulsion to get all of it, however obscure or tangentially related some of the volumes might be.

By: K

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 18:35:49 +0000

One thing that I was horrified to learn in this book is that apparently 1st editions of Booked to Die are worth $500?! For that?! It’s clear that quality of content has absolutely nothing to do with the price a book brings, but I have to assume the only reason that book has the value it does is because it’s peripherally about the rare book trade itself.