I’m a little obsessed with owning books in hardback … my feeling is that if the book is worth keeping and re-reading, it needs to under hardcover. Paperbacks are too cheaply made to last very long. The only problem with my theory, and it’s a BIG problem, is that some of the books that I love are far too old to find reasonably priced in hardback. As much as I love to read, I just can’t justify dropping a hundred some odd dollars on one book, and I’m not big enough of a bibliophile to care whether or not my books are first editions.

I have to say that I’m rather impressed with myself. Somehow I have managed to acquire all of the Discworld books to date in hardback. (Except for the off-shoot books, like “The Science of Discworld” and “The Streets of Ankh-Morpork” … that kind of thing.) A rather difficult feat to achieve. About half of them were Christmas and birthday gifts between 1997 to 2000.

Yes, I always ask for books and surprisingly people actually buy them for me. The easiest way to get in my good graces or to be my friend for life is just to buy me a good book.

“Moving Pictures” and “Pyramids” are U.K. editions bought for me by my doting brother. I managed to find “Small Gods” in a tiny used bookstore about 5 years ago. Whoever owned it previously had never bothered to read it and for some amazing reason went to the trouble of covering the dust jacket in a clear thin plastic sheet … like libraries do. Two more I picked up brand new in a clearance bookstore for under $4 apiece. The others that I purchased I managed to buy at about half the cover price, but that mostly has to do with luck and frugality.

I even have “Nanny Ogg’s Cookbook” in hardback.

I’m tempted to purchase “The Last Hero” in its paperback version because it has illustrations that were added after the hardback edition was printed. I’m such a nerd.

The only exception to all of this is “A Hatful of Sky.” I don’t have it yet and I haven’t read it either. This is something I plan to remedy very soon … especially since “Going Postal” is scheduled to be released at the end of September.