How I Got Started, Where I Want to Go

First of all, a well earned plug - if you haven't read Chris Lowenstein's blog, the Book Hunter's Holiday, you have no idea what you have been missing!! Fortunately, due to the wonders of technology, you can read that blog's archives and get up to speed!! The Book Hunter's Holiday is one of my three or four favorite bookseller blogs. Chris writes in a clear and entertaining way about her adventures (the best of times, the worst of times, and everything in between!) as a bookseller. Check it out!

Now, how I got started into the world of books. I have always been a voracious reader. From grade school until now, my favorite subjects have always been English and Literature. When I was about 11 or 12, I was bitten by the collecting bug. I collected baseball cards, I collected postage stamps, I collected rocks, I collected newspaper clippings of my beloved Boston Celtics....I just loved collecting (Today, they refer to this as my pack-rat tendencies, but I have been much better in recent years.). One day, my father presented me with a gift of "some old books" that were left over from an estate he helped settle (he was a bank Trust Officer). The prize of these books was a three volume set of the Works of Shakespeare (more on those in a future post). To my young eyes, they were beautiful! I was hooked - that's all it took. Without any proper knowledge of the book trade, and having no idea what an antiquarian book was, I started to collect any book that "looked" beautiful.
Over the years I have sold and donated and acquired books informally, and gave a lot away when I moved out of my parent's home. But all of those original books from Dad remain with me today. More recently in my life, I was bitten by another bug - the entrepreneurial bug. Wanting to self employed, and still having a love of books, I have taken a new path in my life. Together with my VERY-soon-to-be-wife Andrea (March 14!!!), and our children, our family business has begun. For now, Literary Musings is operating without a specific focus, just trying to sell whatever we can acquire (new, old, children's books, non-fiction, fiction....) but as we gain more experience and perspective our business plan will evolve as well. I would like to see more antiquarian books in our inventory, but this will take time and patience. Once we have moved out West, I would like to attend the Rare Book School that is offerred in Colorado every year. I would like to eventually have a brick-and-mortar store as well.
I would love to hear from other readers how they got started in their love of books - whether you are a bookdealer, a book collector, or a reader.