So do I! It makes it a little more relaxed somehow - less formal.Originally Posted by Patrick
It was actually The Curious Bookshop. What were you doing in Lansing?
Just wait - there's more!
I've pondered this question a lot, Bill, and I can't put my finger on when I actually started collecting for real. I've been reading SK almost as long as he's been writing! If I'm not mistaken, the first book I read was The Shining after it came out in paperback. Then, of course, I had to go back and read Carrie and 'Salem's Lot since they were listed in the bibliography in the front. Still paperbacks, of course. I loved them all so much I decided I needed to get hardbacks, so I joined (yikes!) a book club to get up through then (which by now also included Night Shift and The Stand) in a more 'permanent' form. That worked for a while, but when Cujo came out I was so hooked on SK that I couldn't wait for the friggin' book club version so I bought my very first SK first edition. Cancelled the book club subscription because the quality of that first edition was sooo much better. Then when I bought my copy of Pet Sematary, I noticed a novel called The Dark Tower showing up in the bibliography between Cujo and Christine. Huh? I started calling bookstores to find out more about it but everyone told me it was already out of print. I finally found a store that said they could get me one, but went into shock when they told me the price tag would be over $100!! For a BOOK!?! No way I could swing THAT!! A little later I found an oversided paperback that I scooped up. Needless to say, I've kicked myself a few times since then for not finding a way to scrape together that $100. But I'm getting ahead of myself . . .
Around 1990, my mom found a copy of Prime Evil at a garage sale that was signed by Douglas E. Winter and bought it for me. How cool! A book with a Stephen King story signed by the editor! We laughed about how much more fun it'd be if SK had signed it, but hey - the guy lived in Maine of all places. Long way from Moline, IL. Oh, to dream! That thought must've stayed in my mind subconsciously for years!
I continued to be a faithful Constant Reader, buying and devouring the new books as they came out. Then in late 1997, my boss introduced me to this new thing called eBay. I tried to think of something interesting to search for and decided to look for Stephen King books. Wow! Signed stuff, too, at prices I could kind of afford! I still don't remember what that first eBay book was, but I got hooked. "Met up" with this seller named Hutch who seemed to know what he was talking about. I bought a bunch of stuff off eBay that first year or two then decided I needed to take a break from this new addiction for a while. I was still on the lookout for signed and rare SK in bookstores, though, and continued to pick up some things once in a while. I also started to learn a lot more about books in general and became friends with many of other collectors and booksellers. I got back into eBay a few years later and still remember a note I got from Hutch that was something like "Yeah, I noticed you were buying again."
The rest, as they say, is history. I blame it all on my mom!!
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