Here's today's Booking Through Thursday question:Do signed copies excite you? Tempt you? Delight you? Or does it not matter to you?
Signed copies don't really excite me or tempt me, but I guess they occasionally delight me. I don't spend any time chasing signatures, but every once in awhile I'll attend a book-signing, and the combination of hearing the author read, meeting the author, and having the author sign my book makes the signature in my copy of a book special.
My husband also mentioned something I hadn't ever thought of--he appreciates the historical significance of some signed copies of books. I guess it would be pretty great to see a signed copy of a favorite book by a long-dead author, or see a book signed by someone famous TO someone famous. The only way I'll ever see anything like that is in a museum, but I would go out of my way to see certain signatures! There was a Jane Austen exhibit at the Morgan Library in New York that I really wish I had seen...
How about you? Do you value signed books higher than unsigned? Who would you really go out of your way to have sign a book?
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7 comments:
I agree with your husband on the historical significance of some signed books. I have dreams of having some of my books signed by our living legend authors, and treasure the ones I have. Do I seek out authors for signatures? Not really. If I fall in love with a book, and the author so happens to be in my area, I will attend the reading/signing. Not much beyond that, though.
This week's question made me realize I would like more signed books, but I wonder if I'd like standing in line waiting for them...I only did that once when Madeleine L'Engle came to town.
Seeing the Jane Austen exhibit would have been awesome, though.
Do I seek out signed books? Nope! Do I love them? Yup!!! My favourites in my collection are both personalized- one from Emma Bowd, the author of "The Shoe Princess's Guide to the Galaxy" and one (which I just received this week) from Julie Buxbaum, author of "The Opposite of Love" and "After You".
I would definitely go to an author signing for an author that I greatly admire, but since I live in the sticks, I doubt that any will come here :( They come to places 1-2 hours away from me, but no one so far that I'm itching to meet!
Alison--it would be great to get signatures from some of our living legend authors, but I don't think I have the persistence to actually do it!
Bellezza--I wish I had seen the Austen exhibit, too. And I have no patience for lines, so I'll never have many authors signatures!
Jonita--lots of authors come here, but I rarely get to their readings/signings. For one thing, I don't like fighting the crowds, and for another, I always seem to find out about them too late!
Like you the signed copies don't really excite me much. Would be cool to see some signed by Jane Austen, though!
I do like signed books but won't go out of the way unless the author is one of my favorites. I stopped by to tell you that I chose you for a Blogging AWARD. Come and pick it up at http://www.booksnob-booksnob.blogspot.com
Congrats!
A few years ago a reader reported online that every time he went to a book signing, he asked the author to sign, "To my best friend Jerry," and a few of them actually do it. Cracked me up.
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