How Many Books Does It Take to Make a Book Collector?

Just having a lot of books does not mean that you are a book collector.  Book collecting involves much more than simply acquiring books.  Being a true collector means that you actually are active in searching out and buying certain volumes that add to your collection.  A true collector will also know how to organize their collections, catalog them properly, display and store them to best effect and to protect their value.  Whether you collect books simply for investment purposes or because you are an avid bibliophile (someone who has a passion for books), the same activities will be required for book collecting.

Book collecting has its roots way back in the 15th century, when books were still made, illustrated and colored by hand.  Illuminated manuscripts were collected by the French nobles of this period and were valued as much for being works of art as they were for being books.  Later, in England and other parts of Europe, book collecting became common when the Reformation resulted in many of the monastery and later university libraries being destroyed.  Some far sighted people began to gather as many volumes as they could in order to save them from destruction.  Many of the world’s rarest volumes were saved during this period.

As you can see, book collecting can often be tied to a passion for history as well as a love for great literature.  Not all book collecting is done for those reasons, however.  Some collect books because they have a love for a certain author or a certain genre.  Still others collect books that are all made the same way – for instance, some may only want hand illustrated volumes.  A few collect books simply as an investment vehicle but that is fairly rare.  While book collecting can be a wonderful investment, few people would bother with the work needed unless they truly loved books.