stupid things i covet: matchy book sets

When I was a kid, my father had a subscription that delivered leather-bound editions of classic books with gilded edges and satin ribbon page markers (kinda like these).  Those books stood proudly together on a shelf in the living room.

Those books were precious, given pride of place.

I also loved the encyclopedias at the library, their matchy-matchy spines lined up just-so.  I always wished we had our own at home, so I could pull down a letter and read at random.  But since the fabled door-to-door encyclopedia salesman never made it to our stoop on Liberty Street, I never had a chance to beg and plead for them, the way I did with the Scholastic book club, always lobbying for everything I had checked off or circled, wanting it all.

So it's probably no wonder that I am crazy for books that come in sets.  My latest crush -- besides wanting all of the Penguin Deluxe Edition Vintage Classics, that is, or all of the blue and white Oxford World Classics -- is this Penguin Drop Cap series, "twenty-six collectible hardcover editions of fine works of literature, each featuring on its cover a specially commissioned illustrated letter of the alphabet by type designer Jessica Hisch."  So pretty! 

And then I remember that other tantalizing possibility, of an ENTIRE library of Penguin Classics, more than 1,000 titles, for just over $13K!

I remind me that the good thing about not having any of these matchy-matchy sets (for now) is that my shelving system remains purely alphabetical within broad categories like Literature, Poetry, Natural History, etc.  I imagine if I possessed these sets of dream, then I'd really and truly want to house all of the matchies together, tossing out the alphabet and going for a more visual display.  Oh, the potential for hours of moving tomes around!

While I know that probably I should just go to the public library, I readily admit to my covetousness where books are concerned.  I don't want to borrow them, love them and give them back. I want to keep them, look at them,write in them (sometimes),  share them, re-read them. Which means I want my private library.

Which means I continue to covet these pretty sets.  Some day, I tell me.  Some day. 

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