My Book Collection

Up to now, the first seven posts to this blog have been about my passion for baseball card collecting. Now it's time to shift gears and share a little about another obsession--uh, passion--and that's book collecting.

A book I still have from childhood

I've loved reading for as long as I've been able to read, I suppose. The earliest books I remember were a set of six books published by the Standard Educational Corporation in 1972, with titles such as The Story Hour, Words to Know, Parade of Stories, and The Bible Story Hour. These books still sit on my bookshelf 40 years later. As you can see by the front cover, I also practiced my handwriting and drawing on them! The pages are torn from a few of them, but I still remembering reading them all and would never get rid of them.

My favorite books to read and collect are biographies, American and Tennessee history, and baseball books, especially ones on the St. Louis Cardinals and the minor leagues. I'm fortunate to have my own space in the house to keep four bookshelves, although the shelves are becoming very crowded! 

Like most bibliophiles, I haven't read every book I own. I do a lot of research and writing--baseball history, the Civil War, Tennessee history--so a lot of them are used for reference purposes more than sitting down and reading them. I don't own an electronic book reader (and don't intend on buying one anytime soon). I suppose I'm getting older and set in my ways, but I enjoy holding a book in my hands and turning the pages. I like the look of a well-stocked bookshelf--to me, it adds sophistication to a home.

Just like my card collection, I'll share stories about particular books I own and comment on recent acquisitions to my library. If you'd like to browse through my collection online, I have them cataloged on my LibraryThing page.