Back To the Books

I know many, if not all, Devoted Readers are curious as to what's going on with my book collecting. So as to allay your curiosity (and allow me to use the word allay in a sentence), here is the lowdown:

It's all well and good to collect antiquarian books, and there's certainly nothing I like better than opening up a book published nearly one hundred years ago, but one should not neglect the collectible books of contemporary authors. A large part of collecting is spotting a collectible before anyone else latches onto it and drives the prices through the roof. Just think ... you could have bought that special edition of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood for substantially less than the $400 its going for now!

With this idea in mind, I've begun collecting hardcover first editions by Nick Hornby (and Murakami, but that's for another post):

A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornby, published by Riverhead Books, 2005. This edition was signed by Nick Hornby, too!

High Fidelity, by Nick Hornby, published by Riverhead Books, 1995. I credit this novel with sparking my re-interest in Elvis Costello, aside from being a really, really good book.