book collections

My library is not a single beast but a composite of many others, a fantastic animal made up of the several libraries built and then abandoned, over and over again, throughout my life…a sort of multilayered autobiography, each book holding the moment in which I opened it for the first time.

30,000 volumes worth of moments…think about it.

One of the largest private collections in Canada of material related to science fiction, fantasy and psychic phenomena has been donated to the University of Alberta by its ninety-five year old owner. Chester Cuthbert has been collecting since the 1920s and has amassed more than 60,000 books and magazines, many of which are rare. Wow.

I found this post in my wanderings and had to share it because some of the comments were pretty funny. I do wish I had the problem of too many bookshelves, though. Never mind aesthetics; just finding space on the shelves is a challenge. What does your bookshelf look like?