Not too long ago the Boston Book Bums sat down to watch Conspiracy Theory, a late 1990s Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts vehicle. Lingering in cultural memory it is not, but the Richard Donner film was a moderate hit back in the day. It was one of those background films, something to put on while doing bills or doing dishes, but a pretty good B-movie.
Anyway, in watching the film about a NYC cab driver with not so crazy delusions, there was a talisman that kept popping up over and over, The Catcher in the Rye. You see his obsessed with that book. Not sure if he’s ever read it, but he rushes to buy a copy, or hold one close, in moments of mania.
His obsession with The Catcher in the Rye was inexplicable, and Hollywood illogical as a method of tracking a subconscious assassin. However, it got us thinking, are you a zealous book lover and collector? Are you a fanatic of a series, of an author, so you collect anything and everything related to a single title or writer?
Do you scour bookstores for obscure editions or foreign language runs of a book you already own?
Has there ever been a book, or series of books, you’ve read and had multiple copies of? Would you call it obsession? Or prudent, methodical collecting? Or simply, a fan?
Is there a single title that you collect each and every edition or version of? Do you read them all upon procurement or do they go to the shelf, joining their clones and cousins?
Let’s here your book obsessions (minus the deranged Hollywood stuff.)
Tags: #bookmeme, #meme, book collecting, book meme, book obsession, book question
