Where Do Your Books Come From?

By Christine Thackeray

Last year my mother passed away, and I inherited many of her books. It has been a wonderful gift. The funny thing I found is that my mother always read with a purpose. For example, she was going to England on a trip with my father, and she must have bought twenty books (most historical fiction or quasi-non-fiction) on the Victorian Era. Most are beefy hardbacks with ornate covers. She also grew interested in the Northeast and has another huge collection of stories about Cape Cod and Nantucket. There are a few other things that caught her eye. She bought a book by an author named "Thomas Tryon" which happens to be the same name as my sister's little boy. Add to that a handful of each of the big production writers of the 80's and 90's and then an unexpected treasure here and there and that's about it.

Looking at my Mother's books made me think about my own books. Many are volumes I purchased for research purposes. I have every one of C.S. Lewis's works and almost twenty books on King Herod. I'm also a post-temple trip bargain shopper and own quite a lot of LDS fiction. Whatever is on sale, I pick up. I also go wild in the back of CFI every time I go back to Utah. Also, I think I own every Jodi Picoult and Janet Evanovich.

So I'm curious... where do you buy your books, what are your favorites and what draws you to them?