Over at the Savas Beatie blog, Mark Wade reflects on his hobby of Civil War book collecting:
If you take the time, really take the time, to appreciate the physical books you discover each has its own personality. Like your kids, they look different, and speak to you differently. Getting shelves to organize and display them is a real pleasure. They are part of you and your home. You leave notes inside some, bookmark certain locations.
They become old friends. When I have a spare hour I often crack one open and reread an Introduction or Conclusion. It’s like picking up the phone and calling someone you haven’t spoken with in a long time. You know the saying “A home without books is like a person without a soul.” Truth.
After a while—and it doesn’t take long—you begin to have favorites. Mine are my first editions written by Maryland veterans. And I love seeing them out. While I enjoy hitting the battlefields with good friends, I really loved visiting a good used bookstore or going to a Civil War Book and Relic show to search for titles to build my collection. I traded books there for others, bought and sold some, and really got to know the market.
A lot of you folks would probably agree with those sentiments. We history buffs tend to be book lovers, since (to paraphrase Lincoln) the things we want to know are in books. One of the things I’m looking forward to doing when this pandemic is under control is visiting my favorite used bookstore in Knoxville.
Past in the Present 