Maybe you find yourself surrounded by books and aren’t sure whether it all constitutes a genuine collection. Maybe you suspect that some of your books are worth a lot more than you paid for them -- or that they’re not as valuable as you’d hoped. Maybe, simply, you’re fascinated by the book-collecting hobby and don’t know where to begin. Whatever the reasons that draw you to pick up this small volume, it can help.

The object of collecting should be to surround yourself with books that make you happy -- and proud. If they happen to be worth a lot, that’s a bonus.

This doesn’t mean, of course, that getting ripped off is OK. It’s not -- which is why "Collecting Books" discusses why those John Grisham first editions aren’t such a great investment, how to make sure that the book you’re paying for is the one you get, and how there’s money to be made selling books -- but that making that money may drain the hobby of the fun that you got into it for.

You’ll also learn things about the hobby that have nothing to do with monetary value: why bookstores offer buying opportunities and experiences that the Internet can’t duplicate, places to find used books that you may not even know about, why different copies of the same title can look nothing alike, the supreme importance of condition, the best ways to sell or donate the books you don’t want in order to make room for the books you do, and the trickiest bit of all -- how to tell if a book is a first edition.

All in all, enough to get you started.