In less than a month, I will be living in a different home. That thought struck me as I waiting to get tired. I was just sitting on my stool, staring at the screen of the laptop, when that terrifying realization hit me.

Questions like how will the first night go? Will we have time to set up the bed? What boxes should I unpack first? Will Tara & I be happy with everything?

I’m a realist: of course, we won’t be happy with EVERYTHING.

Life does not work that way.

But I did decide to celebrate the enormous, life-stinging slap of enlightenment by making a few purchases online.

In some of my recent columns, I have mentioned my love RARE & FIRST EDITION books.

Now, I know I should probably be setting my focus on spending my money on things more conventional & required for a new home. But we already have a blender, I would not know the first thing about buying a couch & loveseat set… bookshelves are something that can be handcrafted on the compound… books, on the other hand – THOSE are essential in defining anywhere I would possibly call home.

So that is what I did: I bought some REMARKABLE books. And they are so much better than furniture! Truly, they are. In my mind, at least. Since I will be making this place my home – a REAL home, hopefully, for years to come – I might as well start rebuilding the collection I abandoned & lost five-or-so years ago.

In a way I have already been doing it: starting the collecting again. It has to be some powerful, subconscious thing that has driven me these past two months of carefully selecting/purchasing books I KNOW I would not want to leave behind.

Not that I wanted to leave the others behind. Let’s just say life happened. The books were collateral damage.

Tonight, though, I was VERY well aware of what I was doing: I was hunting – I was scavaging & searching for some Treasures, some TITLES to fill the bookshelves up with.

And, oh, I found some real gems. Some real KEEPERS. And, of course, the first Authors I sought out were the real Heavy Weight hitters, with some of their best work.

I will not bore anyone with a list of titles & authors. Nor will I be braggadocious on the bargains I found in purchasing these books.

I have to keep reminding myself, I’m a Book Dork. I’m finding it harder & harder to find someone to associate with having an appreciation for these authors & their books. Some people restore & drool over old cars, compare baseball card collections, travel miles for miniature, porcelain figurine displays for sale… I collect First & Rare Edition books, written by the Greats.

I’m very excited to have in my collection a 1st EDITION, Black Sparrow Press copy of Triumph of the Spider Monkey, with Signed Bookplate. SIGNED! By one Joyce Carol Oates, herself. Just as excited, I imagine, as someone given the opportunity to have a SIGNED 1915 TY COBB Cracker Jack #30 Baseball Card. And I know about as much about baseball cards as I do about… I don’t know… a whole bunch of things I can’t think of right now. But I know enough about Ty Cobb, through a book, to know that someone would be very happy to have such an exquisite piece of memorabilia as their own.

Here are two titles I’m MOST pleased to have on the shelf: