Start Collecting Classic Literature with Penguin Deluxe Classics
Get your book collection started right
Over the past few years, I have written several times about the joys of book collecting, as well as why and how you should start out in the world’s greatest hobby if you haven’t yet. The response to those articles has always been positive, which is encouraging, as is a recent report showing that print books outsell e-books four to one, that there were 788.7 million physical books sold in 2022, and (best of all) 68% of 18 to 29-year-old readers in the United States say they prefer print books to e-books. People who read print books are far more likely to collect them.
Not every reader is a collector, however, something I want to change as much as I want everyone to agree that “Born to Run” is The Greatest Song Ever. I believe that part of the reason more people don’t intentionally collect books (as opposed to simply having a random number stacked on a shelf) is the word itself: when most think of book “collectors,” they see an English gentleman from the 19th century surrounded by leather-bound volumes in a home library larger than most houses. This misconception has only been reinforced by the way book collectors are typically portrayed in films.
