The Winner of the Book Give-Away is Kari Wainwright.
Kari - send me (barleykw at appstate dot edu) your address and I'll put your copy of
Susan Isaacs' AS HUSBANDS GO
in the mail
Congratulations! and thanks very much for playing - it was fun!
I'm a lover of books.
But, to me - there are books and then there are books.
Some are special simply because of what they are. Books which have, in some way, touched me. Touched me deeply enough that's it's important to me to have them close by. A couple of books falling into this category are "Five Smooth Stones" by Ann Fairbairn, and "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows to name just two. Two of the books that will, as my friend Nan says, go to the old folks' home with me.
A few weeks ago, I heard from BookPage that I had won 10 books for responding to one of their questions. That was a bunch of fun. The books arrived - brand new. Most of them nice hardcover books. Some of them are books I've already read, some of them I already own. All of them what I would call very good books. But - "just books." They'll make wonderful gifts for friends and family. And, I love that. I love books and I love giving books to people I care about. And sometimes I have give-aways here. Come to think of it, I haven't done that in a long time - it may be time to do that. Like now!
Just leave a comment and I'll toss it into my virtual hat. I'll draw a name on Sunday and I'll come back and post that name at the top of this blog entry. If you see your name, send me an email with your snail mail address and I'll send you a first edition hardcover copy of Susan Isaacs "As Husbands Go," which received a starred review from Publisher's Weekly.
There I went off on one of my tangents . . .
Back to the subject at hand . . .
On the other hand - -
some books are quite special (to me) for yet another reason.
A couple weeks ago, I dropped my name in someone else's virtual hat to win a prize in a contest an author was having. It was one of my favorite authors - and I already have all her books. But the prize was one of her books personalized and autographed. And I won! And I was over the moon! Yes, it's a book I already have, but that one doesn't have a nice note written in it from her to me. The one she sent me is a book that will stay right here. Always. The other one that I'd already bought and read can now move along to a friend's house, but not the personalized one. No siree. That one joins a group of much treasured books that I will cherish forever. Because instead of "just a book," each of those autographed books move into the realm of "quite special." They're books with a personal sentiment, memory, and/or story to go along with being "just a book."
I was surprised during a recent discussion at the blog where this contest was taking place when someone said they didn't understand why some people felt the urge, or the need, to have a book autographed. They just wanted the book. The author's signature didn't matter to them in the least. And I've heard this sentiment expressed in discussions at DorothyL.
It floors me.
Now, I know I'm not the only person who loves having books around that have been signed by the author. That notion can be easily validated by simply going to a book-signing event at a bookstore or a library. People are there to see, and perhaps meet, an author whose work they admire. They're there to have a book signed.
Laws, go to a book convention and witness how many people are willing to stand in long lines to have their books signed by their favorite literary heroes.
But, obviously - there are a lot of folks who are just as happy with "just the book."
So now I'm curious and I'm hoping some of you will drop by to tell me how you feel about this.
If you're a book lover, do your signed books mean more to you than "just the book," or does it just not matter a whit one way or the other?
