I saw this fascinating question on Facebook yesterday, and I knew I had to ask it here. What book have you owned the longest? As in, which physical book has been in your collection the longest time?
For me, it’s this one:
That’s Once Upon A Galaxy by Alan Arnold, a diary of the making of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. I got this in 1980. In fact, I think I even know where I got it: the tiny bookstore at one end of the Beaverton Mall in Beaverton, OR. At least, that’s where I think I got it. I may be completely wrong on that score.
So, what’s yours? Remember: this is what physical book has been in your collection the longest. Not which book is oldest!
Did you ask this of me for Ask Roger Anything? Anyway, I wrote last year: Play the Game: the Book of Sport, edited by Mitchell V. Charnley (1931). This was an anthology of sports stories from American Boy magazine from 1923 to 1931, stories which I read over and over. STILL have the book.
I don't know this book, but I need to read it.
My parents bought me a lot of books when I was a kid, and I still have some of them, so for me it's Little Golden Books like the Pokey Little Puppy or the Saggy Baggy Elephant.
I think it's probably Asimov's I, Robot, but I'm not sure if I still have that (some of my books are in boxes). If not it could be Clarke's Childhood's End or The Lord Of The Rings.
I still have a copy of The Giving Tree that my aunt gave me when I was maybe 4.
I can't remember which I acquired first but they came into my life at about the same time: Rumer Godden's In This House of Brede, and Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Forbidden Tower. They are still my favorite books.