Barb, Thanks for the Memories! I had a great time during our mini bookfest. I've already started in on my borrowed bag of goodies. Thank you for understanding my obsession with starting with the first book in a series!

My 1904 copy of Freckles by Gene Stratton-Porter. I think I've read it twenty times or more since my mother gave it to me when I was about ten or twelve, and she had read it for years. It's such a sweet story, but I still treasure it. And no, this one is the first book unpacked when I move and I will NEVER lend it!

I have many, many, many copies of "I Capture The Castle" by Dodie Smith. Sometimes I give them away (you have to be worthy) or loan them out but I make sure I always have a copy of my own.

I have several books that I would be devastated to lose: "The Satanic Verses" by Salman Rushdie(I have a 1st/1st of this since my senior year in high school, my original set of "The Lord Of The Rings"(which I received in 7th grade), and my copy of "Sophie's World" by Jostein Gaarder(loved this book so much I named my new baby girl Sophie)

My copy of "I capture the castle" is wrinkled and bent, faded and water-stained, but to replace with a shiny new edition would be sacreligious. I would also deeply feel the loss of my copy of "The BFG" by Roald Dahl.

I've learned the hard way never to loan books that I love. (And by the hard way, I mean I must have replaced my copy of Tami Hoag's Guilty As Sin two or three times because I'd loan out my hardcover and never get it back. lol.) Faye

How delightful! Sherwood Smith (sartorias) was just blogging about something similar--how even worn out copies of books are alive and well on her shelves--in her livejournal yesterday. I actually began buying books so I could loan them to friends, because the public library I grew up with had a marvelous collection that, sadly, wasn't repeated in the community where I went to college. I love the idea of your mobile library! The book I'd be saddest to lose is a copy of Number the Stars I received as a reward for the summer reading program when I was between third and fourth grade. The children's librarian inscribed a note in the front, hoping that I'd like it despite its not being fantasy. That's always meant a lot to me--and probably opened my brain to read outside my chosen genre!

I had many beautiful books as a kid, including a boxed set of Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass; as well as one with Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights with very eerie woodcut illustrations. Also all the collections of New Yorker Cartoons. My mother made us get rid of everything that wouldn't fit into a VW Bus when we moved to California....As an adult, I've been sorry to lose much of my collection of Colette's works during my many moves.

I too learned the hard way about loaning books out. For some reason I had a compulsion to share the joy I received from books. The book that stopped that was The River is Wide by Pat Conroy. After that, I would give the books I loved as gifts hoping they would bring the same joy to others.

Tough question. There have been so many books over the years that I’ve read and loved, but none that I actually lost and/or loaned out. I generally get my books back when I loan them out. Probably because I’d hunt it down after x amount of time has gone by. Some of my favorites I won’t loan out. "Down to a Sunless Sea" by David Graham is one of my favorites and one that I’ve read and re-read numerous times over the years. That, and "Swan Song" by Robert McCammon. www.lizkreger.com

As a rule I don't lend out my favorite books. I would rather give a copy to some one. That way I don't have to worry about getting it back. A favorite of mine is The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare. I still have it. I was in my teens when I first read it.

One of my first favorites - I have many -was "Catcher in the Rye". I read it in high school and have that torn, fadded yellow copy! I will not part with it. It was a liberating read at the time. I remember doing a part of it for a dramatic speech in forensics. The judge at the time - a nun - scolded me for using such rubbish! I had even taken out the swears! Books are indeed like friends holding memories. At times just seeing them on my shelf is enough to make me smile or cry!

Forty-some years ago my dad brought home a box of old books in which was a copy of Pollyanna by Eleanor H Porter. I can't be certain, but I'm believe it was a 1st edition, copyrighted 1913. It had a pink textured satin (silk?) cover and wonderful plates(?) with tissue paper protecting the art. I must have read it a dozen times. Years later, my mother, unable to judge that it was any more valuable than any other old book laying around, got rid of it after I left home. I think of that often and still feel its loss like that of an old friend. I guess that indicates one difference between a reader and a non-reader – the ability to recognize a book as greater than an object that requires dusting.

The book that’s a touchstone for me is “The Patchwork Girl of Oz”. Every summer when I stayed with her, my grandmother would read it to me. Eventually, when I could read it to her, she gave it to me. I still have it.

My sister Jean gave me the 4-volume set of A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh for my 7th birthday (she inscribed them). She died from breast cancer so I would be devastated to ever lose them.

IWISH I could find my copy of Freckles!!!

Good evening Barbara! This blog was very enlightening--thanks--you make my day!

Thanks Barbara for this memory--I gave my beloved collection of Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys books (small hardcover) books to some of my grandchildren to read & I think their parents (my children & in-laws) gave them away! Those were treasures to me, but I guess not to them. I had asked for them back, but they were passed on to other siblings in the families. No hard feelings just lost memories!