Literary Leanings – The Committed Collector

It’s already November, and many of us in Western New York are wondering what’s happened to autumn and all its beautiful colors. Some trees are finally turning, and the drive across town includes a radiant scene or two, but the usual bright yellows and deep scarlets have been slow to appear—or quick to disappear with the gusting winds.

Indeed, we’ve had quite a bit of clouds and rain lately, which makes the seasonal fun of raking leaves and other outdoor activities a challenge. Of course, that means indoor activities—like antiquing and surfing the web—are calling to us committed collectors.

A day like today, which is rainy and chilly and altogether dreary, is, in fact, the perfect day for collecting —and particularly for indulging in a certain genre of collecting, and I’m one of many who have literary leanings.

In other words, I love books. I buy books, and I borrow them from our esteemed Monroe County Library System. I buy new books, and I buy used ones. I buy books to read, books to look through, ones to have on hand as a reference, and a few simply to have.

Accordingly, I have a large collection of books, or at least an extensive accumulation of them:

My personal library includes two bookcases full of cookbooks that serve as fonts of inspiration and sources for an occasional recipe or two.
I have another two bookcases full of tomes on architecture, interior design, and decorating, and I’ve learned quite a lot from them.
I have a full bookcase of gardening books, including several shelves dedicated to growing roses, which have provided helpful information, ongoing motivation, and constant envy.
Then there’s the bookcase with romance novels and the one with real literature, including the works of Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and Mark Twain.
Another bookcase holds my favorites from the realm of popular fiction, like the Outlander series and the Father Tim stories.
Yet another two bookcases house my library of non-fiction, including a variety of writing guides, self-help books, and works on popular culture, including The Phantom of the Opera and other musicals.
Of course, as someone who is opening a museum dedicated to displaying large collections, I’m also putting together a library of books about collecting and collections, museums and galleries, which provide great information and much inspiration.
Finally, there’s the shrine dedicated to my collection of books about tea and teatime. These books are probably the only ones that I primarily collect. The others I actually use.

I buy teatime books because I collect teapots and other tea-related items.

My teatime books, therefore, are part of my larger teatime collection. They fill all four shelves of a short-yet-wide bookcase and are beginning to get stacked on top. That means it’s either time to cull my collection or get a taller bookcase—time for a new bookcase, of course.

My teatime library includes quite a few books about the Camellia sinensis plant and its origin in Asia, dozens about the English custom of afternoon tea, and even some teatime fiction, like the Laura Childs’ tea shop mystery series.

I’ve looked through all of these books. I’ve learned a lot about growing tea and processing it. I’ve often referred to the ones on afternoon tea for inspiration and recipes, and I’ve even read the tea-themed novels.

Nonetheless, I buy these books not to use them, but to have them, to organize and to preserve them, for they represent the knowledge and scope of the plant, the product, and the meal. In short, my library of tea-related books is another sub-collection of mine that I enjoy almost as much as my teapot collection.

And a day like today is one designed for a pot of hot tea, a comfy throw, and a stack of books. Maybe I’ll start with my Thanksgiving cookbooks and then move on to an anthology of Thanksgiving romances.

Patti
The Committed Collector

What are you doing on a dreary Saturday? Giving in to the shopping temptations on the Internet? Binge watching a collection of DVDs? Rereading a classic work of literature or revisiting a childhood favorite? Why not leave a comment and let us know how you enjoy your collections on a day off? We’d love to hear from you.