Welcome to Booking Through Thursday, a weekly bookish meme about books and reading for everyone who loves both. Booking Through Thursday was first hosted by Deb. With permission, I’ve restarted it in 2026.
This week’s prompt:
Are you a collector? Do you love those special editions with the fancy sprayed edges and ribbon bookmarks? Do you collect first editions or autographed books from your favorite author(s)? Let us know!
Do you collect physical books?
Sorry for this week’s oblique 1980s reference, especially those of a certain age who may have an earworm of an Olivia Newton-John song.
How to play:
- On your blog: Copy the question/image for your blog, answer it there, and post a quick comment here with a link or trackback to your post so we can read it.
- On social media: Copy the image, answer the prompt, and post a quick comment here with a link.
- Right here: Answer in the comments and start the discussion here. No need to have a blog to play.
Note: If it’s your first time here, your comment may end up in moderation. (My spam filter is aggressive.) I’ll be in after my writing sprints to set it free.
P.S. The prompt is always open, and you don’t have to play on Thursday. Comment whenever you like!
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I do have a collection of physical books. At first, I was going to say that it’s completely haphazard. I don’t collect with an eye to future value or criteria of that sort. But I do have a sizable collection of signed copies, which are currently scattered throughout the house on various bookshelves.
What I realized as my daughter and I were sorting through all the books in the basement (during our basement renovation project) is that most of the books in my collection come with stories of their own.
There’s the copy of Paper Towns, signed by John Green from when my son and I attended the book launch and signing. There’s the copy of Rickshaw Girl, signed by Mitali Perkins from when my daughter and I attended the Betsy-Tacy convention.
So, maybe I do collect for future value. I just have my own set of criteria.
Such a lovely way to save memories! I especially liked that you didn’t set out to create a collection like this, but only noticed it after the fact.
Like you, I have an enormous collection of physical books, and some of them fall into certain themes — essays, cooking, cookbooks, poetry, etc., — but nothing that reflects a curated collection, or love of specific editions. These days, the only reason I buy a hard copy version of a book is because I want it for future reference, to be able to flip through it at will, make notes in it, accidentally spill coffee on it, etc. These are not pristine editions, carefully preserved, but workhorses, used and loved until they’re practically falling apart, held together sometimes by rubberbands.