I’ve had a good dose of Covid this last week, so apologies if this post is a little more incoherent than usual.
For the first time in over 15 years I’m starting to get all of my books on shelves rather than in boxes in the attic.
But this story doesn’t begin here, it starts back about 35 or more years ago. Some of the first modern adult novels (no not those sort!) I read were by authors Alistair Maclean and Dick Francis - crime and thriller writers, I’d already been reading a lot of Arthur Conan Doyle, mostly Sherlock Holmes and these three authors became my “go to” writers when I wanted something new to read. Maclean and Francis were both still alive at this point, so new books were coming about once a year from both.
I started to collect books by these authors and in particular with Maclean and Francis look for First Editions and start a proper collection.
As you’ll be able to see from the photograph I also added Stephen King to the shelves too. However he got a bit weird at one point and I stopped collecting him for a while.
None of them are worth particularly much, but I am pleased to own some of my favourites as First Editions. At the time secondhand bookshops got to learn that I was collecting and would hold copies for me. Ringing to see if I had a particular title or that perhaps the one that they had was in better condition that the one that I had and perhaps I might like to ‘trade-up’.
I enjoyed reading these books, and many I’ve not read for a long time and would probably enjoy rereading today. Indeed I have been doing that with some of the Alistair Maclean’s over the last couple of years.
The last time we moved house many of these went into storage in boxes in our loft. The plan was for them to be there temporarily but ultimately it ended up being a lot longer. Now we’re on the move again and I am determined that they will have shelf space in our new home and not be consigned to the loft as before.
I might even start to fill in some of the gaps, although I doubt it. These are a pleasure to me, and I enjoy reading them, but I have no one to leave them to, so there doesn’t seem much point in spending the money on ‘new’ First Editions. At least not at the moment anyways, other priorities like heating and eating seem like they should rightly take precedence. I am pleased that they will have shelf space though and that I’ll be able to look at them, and perhaps share them as a Zoom or Teams background when I’m on a call.
I’m also pleased to be able to have the space to commit to my Tsundoku and not feel guilty about it or keep tripping over them.
Thanks for reading.