It's over forty years since I read of bibliophiles who would buy both remaining copies of a rare book, only to burn the lesser copy to increase the rarity and value of the greater copy.
To me this appeared to distinguish the said bibliophiles as mere collectors and it made me wary of becoming one myself. But I love reading and country life, a combination which makes a home library almost inevitable. Thus I find myself subject to almost all the foibles of the fetishization books that you describe.
I have a few that are now too rare and valuable to consider lending or even reading.
Ironically, one of the prime examples is a first edition , in dustjacket, of "Fahrenheit 451"
I still haven't read it, in any edition, and yet I don't part with it, and am unsure if that's just a reflection of its ever rising value.
I bought another 25 books at last weeks local second-hand book-fair. Some gems amongst them but, happily, none are valuable.
It's over forty years since I read of bibliophiles who would buy both remaining copies of a rare book, only to burn the lesser copy to increase the rarity and value of the greater copy.
To me this appeared to distinguish the said bibliophiles as mere collectors and it made me wary of becoming one myself. But I love reading and country life, a combination which makes a home library almost inevitable. Thus I find myself subject to almost all the foibles of the fetishization books that you describe.
I have a few that are now too rare and valuable to consider lending or even reading.
Ironically, one of the prime examples is a first edition , in dustjacket, of "Fahrenheit 451"
I still haven't read it, in any edition, and yet I don't part with it, and am unsure if that's just a reflection of its ever rising value.
I bought another 25 books at last weeks local second-hand book-fair. Some gems amongst them but, happily, none are valuable.
Oh I have no issues with genuine love of books and reading, being a book lover and reader myself.
It's only the fetishization and the posturing and the snobbery that some readers indulge in, that puts me off. As I'm sure it does you too.