Folium Librorum Vitae Deditum. Jaargang 1

On book collecting I

Uit een vlugschrift, uitgegeven door de Amerikaanse Vereniging van Antiquaren, nemen wij de volgende alinea over:

First of all, select your subject. The most important thing is to choose one that is interesting to you and likely to become increasingly so as you learn more and more about it. Most collectors choose subjects suggested by their occupations or hobbies. For example, book collections of merit have been formed on hunting, fishing, dancing, labor unions, old glass, utopian societies, furniture, silver, ghosts, paintings, philately, baseball, tobacco, automobiles, economics, medicine, and most other sports, hobbies, sciences and industries. Two of the most popular subjects are literature and history, but they are both very broad. This leads to the question of specialization. It is advisable for the beginner to be a specialist in a narrow field at first; he may expand later as new avenues of interest open up. If you decide to collect literature, start with your favorite author; with some special form, such as novels, plays or poems; or with a particular decade, age or century. If you want to collect history, pick out the country that interests you most, then concentrate on a certain locality or period.