Collector

Sometimes I get the idea to collect things.  Problem is, I don't want to be a collector as much as I want to have a collection.  Don't get me wrong, the trill of the hunt and the victory of the find are both great, but we all know it takes at least three of something to qualify a collection, and I don't have the stamina to wait it out.  I want the entire collection the minute I think about starting it. I have no delay of gratification (thank you M. Scott Peck).  Like this one for example.  I decided I wanted to collect girly books that I read growing up.  Ones that really imapcted me and that I'll want to someday share with my girls.  And not the paperbacks from Borders- I wanted old hardbacks.  So I compiled a list:

Anne of Green Gables

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Pippi Longstocking

Little Women

Little House in the Big Woods

The Secret Garden

A Little Princess

Charlotte's Web

Heidi

Ramona books

Of course the best way to go about it would be to keep an eye open at thrift stores and used book stores (which was where I actually got Little Women and Mary Poppins) and to collect as the years go by.  But what do I do?  Immediately start shopping ebay.  I had to rein myself in from buying a first edition copy of Charlotte's Web for way more than this beginning collector should ever spend. That one I will delay gratification on.