Do you ever wonder if you're nuts?I do...a lot.
The other day, I was flipping through channels, and Conspiracy Theory was on TV. It's that movie with Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts, where Mel Gibson plays an oddball named Jerry Fletcher who's obsessed with conspiracy theories.
One of Jerry Fletcher's eccentricities is that he is compelled to buy copies of J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. He can't help himself...anytime he sees a copy of the book, he must buy it. He's got a shelf full of various copies of the book, yet he's never even read it.
Anyway, I flipped past the channel just at the scene where Julia Roberts is asking Jerry about his extensive collection of Catcher in the Rye.
I suppose most people would react the same way Julia Roberts' character does...why in the world would anyone have more than one copy of the same book? It's one of the cues that the script writers inserted to tip you off to the fact that Jerry Fletcher is off his rocker.
I, however, watched that scene and thought, "Hey! I do that, too!"
Uh oh.
Not that I collect multiple copies of Catcher in the Rye. I have just one. Personally, I was sort of underwhelmed by that particular book.
I do, on the other hand, own three copies of J.D. Salinger's lesser known Franny and Zooey, which, if you ask me, is far superior to Catcher.
I also own multiple copies of A Wrinkle in Time, Walden, Writing Down the Bones, Letters to a Young Poet, Notes to Myself, Leaves of Grass, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Elements of Style, and many, many more. These are just the ones I can see from my computer right now.
In my defense, I do sometimes have good reasons for owning multiple copies of a book. Occasionally, I'll buy a book in paperback, and then I like it so much that I want to have a nice hardback copy. I still can't throw out the original paperback, though.
And sometimes, books like Walden or Leaves of Grass are re-issued in beautiful collector's editions with photographs and biographical notes. So it's not like it's the exact same book, really.
Some books, like Letters to a Young Poet or Tao Te Ching, weren't originally written in English, so I have different translations, each significantly different from the others.
I have duplicate copies of Island of the Blue Dolphins because one is an autographed first edition, and another is for reading. I also have a third copy because I may have grandchildren someday, and I'll have a copy for them to read.
Other times, I have multiple copies of a book because it's a book I like to lend out...and anyone who lends books knows that loaned books have a way of never coming back. So I keep spare paperbacks on hand for that purpose.
I also have a habit of marking in books. A lot. I don't feel that I'm really reading unless I have a pen in hand to make notes, underline, and circle page numbers that I really like. So sometimes, I'll have a cheap marked up copy of a book, a nice hardback copy in case I want to look at clean unmarked text, and another paperback copy or two for lending.
But, I'll admit, sometimes I have multiple copies of a book for no reason other than that I just really, really like the book. It's stupid. Senseless. And a bit selfish, too, I guess, since I could be magnanimous and donate the extra copies to people who might love them as much as I do.
But I simply can't part with them. I love them too much.
And what if the people I gave them to didn't love them or take care of them? I shudder to think of it.
I don't think that means that I'm nuts.
After all, does anyone expect a mother of triplets to give two of her children away, simply because she has three identical versions of the same kid?
I rest my case.
