I’m posting this because it is the first anniversary of her death today, and would have been her birthday on the 4th Oct, but there’s a post for that, so let’s talk about her books.
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.
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.
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. How’s the old Sunday Simmons and pink Lady Boss covers?)
JC BOOKS EBAY LOT5 – 16 BOOKS
(There’s a couple of old ones in this lot, UK Chances hardcover and Lovehead pb)
ABE BOOKS LOT1 – 17 BOOKS
(some weren’t the covers I bought and that’s kinda pissing me off lately. Sellers sending the wrong books. Or, sending worse versions that what they state on the sale page, like the hardcover of Chances, the dust jacket is falling apart even though it was stated as very good.)
ABE BOOKS LOT2 10 BOOKS
(three books so far and one was the wrong cover. I’m waiting on 7 more. They’re quite slow in coming)
EBAY BOOK LOT6 8 BOOKS
(Original UK Hollywood Wives hardcover with it’s silver foil print. Hard cover Power Trip to replace the soft cover, wrong cover of pb Wives so it’s a freebie, and Pan Mac’s The Bitch in the Diamond print. I love these covers for the diamond above the i in Jackie, and they’re awesome pictures too)
Loving the pictures on the backs of the 70s/80s hardcovers.
Because my old bookcase is bowing in the middle I had to move my hard covers to the bedroom and leave the paperbacks in the office, on the top two shelves. This is the back layer of books. UK on the left shelf, US on the right.
Here’s the shelf with its front layer on, as well as the picture montage I did of Jackie in an animal print frame I found.
Here’s a closer look at the montage I made using Picmonkey, then I just printed it out and framed it. I used inspirational quotes and leopard/tiger print.
Here’s the top two shelves of my bookcase. I had to boot Nancy Drew from the top shelves for Jackie. My two collections sharing space.
My desk in my bedroom, Jackie hardcovers, UK left, US right, sharing space with my style and jewellery books. I’ve added a couple since but couldn’t be bothered taking another photo.
So far it’s about 165 books or so, some free from refunds, and around $1600 give or take since May, so about $10 a book. Not bad considering some were more expensive than others and some were just a few cents depending on where I bought them from, like the op shop.
Some books are hard to get, so the first 10 or so hardcovers are very rare, in fact, I haven’t even seen most of them in my searches, just the paperback versions of which there are many. The search will continue but it will probably only be a couple a month now as I finish up paperback collections. I’ll also be getting her self-published versions this month as they’re easy to get, and will continue to update you all on my purchases.
Have you ever had a sudden addiction and need to collect things that have been available for years, all because of a death or incident?
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