Thursday, November 2, 2017

Confessions of a Book Collector

by Janis Susan May/Janis Patterson

Somehow - no one is quite sure how - I learned to read before turning three. My parents found out by accident, for no one taught me. I wrote my first 'book' when I was four. It was a deathless tale of some children playing in a park who captured an escaped lion - yes, I had a melodramatic turn of mind even then - before going home for supper. There were about a dozen copies as I remember, each hand-printed and illustrated on white typing paper taken from my father's desk and lovingly signature sewn - Daddy had told me that was the best kind of binding - with white cotton thread begged from my mother. I think there may still be a copy or two extant buried somewhere in my mother's papers.

I was very fortunate. I was raised by parents who loved books and revered the English language. We played word games as much as board games in those antique, pre-TV times. I was rewarded when I mastered some esoteric form of wordcraft, such as tracing a Greek root word through several English incarnations. I could hardly wait to begin school where I could indulge in such linguistic and literate pleasures all day long instead of having to wait until my parents had the time.

School was an incredible disappointment. Somehow being stuck in a room with a bunch of children who could not even read Dick and Jane (no advanced classes in those days!) was on a par with a death sentence. I hated school with a passion from the second day on. Books became my only friends.

And I have amassed a LOT of friends. Three libraries full, with the possibility of a fourth looming on the horizon. My parents inherited my grandfather's extensive library and added to it liberally. Instead of fashionable shoes or make-up or other girly teen-age things, I bought books. When I married and moved out of my 1,000 sq ft flat, I had 19 floor to ceiling bookcases. (And my husband had half a room devoted to books... we're pretty evenly matched in the book-ish department.) What we have spent on books over the decade would, if totaled, probably be equal to the purchase price of a small private island. When my mother passed away and we had to clean out her house, I stopped counting when the total of books passed 12,000, but we only ended up keeping about half that number. I remember bursting into tears when, while packing up the house, I thought I had found and properly packed all the books - then found BOXES of books under the double bed in the guest room. I was so upset I had to quit for the day.

We have sold books, donated books, given away books... and bought more. They accumulate under the furniture and form drifts in the corners. Lucky people have cobwebs; we have books.

But I wouldn't change it. We still head for one bookstore or another every few weeks, sternly telling ourselves we're just going to look and not buy anything. I'll bet you know how that turns out! (And I'm not going to say a word about my bulging e-reader. If we had hard copies of all the books on that lovely device the house would be so full we'd have to move into a tent in the back yard!)


They say addiction is an ugly thing; in many cases it is. In the case of books... not so much. As the FB meme says, "It's not hoarding if it's books!"

13 comments:

  1. Like you, I had a mother who loved to read and encouraged me by example. It's the best of addictions!

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  2. Truly inspiring, Janis. When I was 10, I was bedridden for 7 months with an unusual type of surgery for scoliosis, and books were my lifeline. Your parents' house sounds like heaven.

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  3. You were fortunate to have been raised in a family who recognized the importance of books. I had a wonderful family but books were not part of it. School taught me how wonderful books could be and when I was old enough I'd ride the city bus to the public library where I'd lose myself for hours. Luckily I was able to continue that love into adulthood and to fulfill a dream of being an author. I agree collecting books is not hoarding!

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  5. I enjoyed your confession, Susan. It's a wonderful addiction.

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  6. I have a grandson who was a self-taught reader at three. Fortunately my daughter is a qualified teacher and is home-schooling him since he'd be bored to tears by regular kindergarten. He's already read a lot of middle-grade books and could read even older, but at six, he's not really emotionally ready for the content of books for older kids.

    Anyway, I grew up in a family of readers as well, and have a collection of books that occupies much of my office space and two guest bedrooms upstairs. I'm struggling to down-size, though. I don't want my kids to have to deal with that enormous job.

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    1. Karen--I was in that same boat as a child, able to read from age 3. I read all the Bobbsey Twins, Hardy Boys, and so forth--they have no advanced emotional content and might work for your grandson! You find the books at used bookstores, or the Bobbsey Twins are on Kindle e-reader as bundle for not much money. My mother sneaked and gave my Bobbsey Twins collection to some ungrateful cousins while I was at junior high, and they used them for baseball plates. Sigh!! Lots of them were signed by those who had gifted them to me. Some people are silly.

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  7. A comment from an avid reader once said an ideal home should have books in every room. Checking I discovered ours was one of those with the exception of bathrooms. As parents, Bill and I discouraged reading in the bathrooms. Of course, there were six of us (four children) and only two bathrooms. Forgivable, right?

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  8. I've been a book collector for ever. I only buy first edition, first printing and then make a hobby of getting them signed by the author. I've got well over a thousand first, firsts, but you got me beat by a long ways.

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  9. I share your and your husband's passion for books. I can't remember a time when I couldn't read or make up stories. My house has books in every room and if I buy a new book I should consider getting rid of one. Instead I am about to get rid of some of the small book cases and buy some floor to ceiling ones.

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  10. Love this piece! I too love books and have many. I'm at the stage where I've got to get rid of some of them and that's, as I'm sure you know, very difficult. And yet, like you, I still buy more. Kindles are great, but as far as I'm concerned there's nothing like a book to sink into so that's what I mostly read.

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  11. I know I'm coming in late to this discussion but I haven't been on the computer except for a few minutes. I enjoyed the sharing of stories. I've had a love affair with books all my life and can't part with them. Yet once inches into the 70's, I've become a little more vulnerable about my mortality and what will happen to all my lovely books (plus about a dozen boxes full from my mom). I cannot bear to toss them into the recycling bin. I have a six-shelf bookcase devoted strictly to historical research and writing advice. None of my boys will want them. If the library won't take them, I have thought of perhaps creating a contest at some future time and posting it on my FB page and offering it to an enthusiastic writer just beginning her writing career. One place I've also thought of for the "novels" is a senior retirement place whom I'm sure would appreciate dozens of Readers Digest books and other novels to pass away the time. Any suggestions from the readers here?

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  12. I also grew up in a house of books, but I was not much of a reader...I made up stories as soon as I had an audience, some time around the age I could talk in sentences!

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