Musing Monday...and Why I Have Lust in My Heart.

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post, from Rebecca at Just one more page, is about a random book.

Go to your bookshelf and pick a random book. No cheating now, just reach out and pick one. Now tell us about it – where did you get it? Why? Was it a gift? Does it hold any special memories? Did someone recommend it to you? etc.

Go...let's see...and the winner is...The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.
The Hobbit is a favorite book, certainly one of Tolkien's that I love. It is a wonderful introduction to the Shire and the world of hobbits, and, let's face it, a lot more accessible than the much more complex Lord of The Rings. LoTR Lite perhaps.

Now this particular edition is not the first that I owned. In fact, my original copy, that I read in high school, was a paperback and I still have it. I also still have my original three book paperback edition of LoTR. But I always wanted a better copy, a really nice copy. So for years I used to look at the lovely editions put out by the Easton Press. Acid free paper, sewn pages, leather covers, gold edging, moire endsheets, lovely illustrations. Then one day, a few years ago, I sprung for it and bought the 5 volume set, with The Hobbit, the three volumes of the Lord of The Rings and The Silmarillion. Since then I have gone on to buy a few more Easton books, usually on eBay, just because they are so very nice.

See, this is why for people like me, people that 'suffer' from the book sickness, the e-book will never fulfill our book lust. And that is what it is...book lust. A book that I really love, I need to own. For the best of the best, I want to own a really nice edition. A nice hard cover, maybe with some beautiful illustrations, a book that will exist long after you and I have given up the ghost, "when we have shuffled off this mortal coil", as my buddy Hamlet said.
For those everyday, ordinary books that past through our lives and, while entertaining, will soon be forgotten, a paperback, a book borrowed from the library, is fine.
But special books, loved books, deserve special editions.

"O yes my precious, very nice."

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