I’ve always been addicted, I’ve read them, followed her on social media, and took her advice when it came to writing. Hell, I want to be her when it comes to my writing, and her rollicking ballsy attitude was a breath of fresh air. I even wished I owned her house, it was awesome! But all of a sudden this year, back in May, I had the urge to start collecting her books. Some weird deep down, desperate need of Jackie because I still miss her. And that quickly turned into an addiction.
I’m posting this because it is the first anniversary of her death today, and would have been her birthday on the 4th Oct.
It started mainly on May 25th, the day mum went in for her endoscope for her ulcers and I hit the op shops and second hand book stores. I scored 25 books that would have cost me a fortune to buy online. However that’s what I’ve spent, a small fortune, that ended up with doubles from online sellers not selling or sending the correct versions. I got my money back on most, but I’m out a few bucks.
Ebay, Book Depository and Abe Books, somewhere I’ve only recently started buying from, helped me get older versions that you can’t find any more. And the more current versions were easy. Of course I googled the covers and had to decide on which versions to get, as there are so many reprints. I’ve ended with with 3-10 editions of each book, depending on how many have been released.
Pan Macmillan in the UK are notorious for constantly releasing different covers and I have many. But my main goal was the hard covers in both the UK and US editions. A hard find for many. And I’m still collecting, not sure if it will ever be complete, but just like with my Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Dana Girls and Trixie Belden collections, it will (hopefully, fingers crossed), be completed one day.
Below are each batch of books and where I got them from. It’s definitely growing. I even had to boot Nancy off two shelves to accommodate JC.
OP SHOP LOT1 – 25 BOOKS
EBAY LOT1 – 5 BOOKS
EBAY LOT2 – 7 BOOKS
AWESOME BOOKS LOT1 – 12 BOOKS
AWESOME BOOKS LOT2 – 18 BOOKS (some weren’t the correct covers and one was a freebie. They refunded but it got sent anyway! I’ve also had to update Lovers and Players because I don’t like the name being worn off.)
BOOK DEPOSITORY LOT1 – 4 BOOKS
EBAY LOT3 – 20 BOOKS
EBAY LOT4 – 17 BOOKS (two are replacements as I wanted the larger ones to make them all even when standing on the shelf. I hate having a series of books all different sizes. I like them even, which is why two more will need replacing. And check out the old Sunday Simmons hc.)
EBAY LOT 5 – 16 BOOKS (A couple are replacements, again I wanted the larger versions, or the hardback versions. I managed to score Chances in UK Hardback and Lovehead the original paperback.)
ABE BOOKS LOT1 – 17 BOOKS (Some of them aren’t the right covers, which is pissing me off lately. Book sellers posting the wrong book to what they listed and then blaming the isbn. And the hardcover of Chances was stated as very good condition yet the dust jacket falls apart in my hand. Abe has since given me a refund.)
ABE BOOKS LOT2 ( I do have more of these coming but it will take a while, meanwhile, the middle book was not the cover I had bought but it will stay in the collection)
EBAY BOOKS LOT6 (Original UK Wives in silver metallic, updated power trip, wrong cover wives and finally managed to get my hands on the PanMac Bitch. I have four more books coming from ebay as we speak.)
The bookcase shelf belongs to just the paperbacks now, as you can see how much it bows. this is the back layer of books.
This is the shelf full, double layered books and an awesome Jackie picture montage I made, and managed to find an animal print frame for.
Close up of montage. 🙁 I still miss you Jackie!
Paperback Jackie is sharing with some paperback Nancys as I had to remove a bunch of Nancys to accommodate Jackie.
Since my old cupboard is wearing, and everything is sagging, I’ve had to move the hardbacks into my bedroom to share some space with my style books on my desk. So here are the two piles, UK versions on the left, US on the right. There’s a big difference between the UK and US original versions, and that is the US versions were edited and had parts cut out. So if you want to read the originals, get the UK versions (I’ve since added a couple of books here but couldn’t be bothered taking another pic, lol).
And I’m loving the pictures on the back covers of the old hardbacks.
All in all it’s about 165 books (some still coming and some free) for roughly $10 each.
I will definitely be having her self-published books this month, and I know that trying to find the old versions is hard, so that will be slowing down to probably only one or two books a month. But the collection will continue, and then maybe I can get back to Nancy!
Have you ever had a sudden addiction and need to collect things that have been available for years?