I have a want list of books. I haven’t really written them down but in the back of my mind I know what I want in my collection. I also know what I can afford at a particular time. If a book on my mental want list shows up and I have the opportunity to purchase it, I end up buying it. Those books on my want list become targets of opportunity. It is rare that I set out a list of books that I really want and set goals to purchase them by a specified time.

I do have goals for my collection. They just aren’t really tied to my want list.

And my want list changes, constantly.

I also have a wish list. That is slightly different from my want list. My wish list consists of books that I probably can never afford but I wish they could be in my collection.

That is the inherent difference in those two lists. One being attainable books and the other almost unattainable books.

Recently I have decided to write down my short term want list in order to focus on actually buying those Want Listed books. I’m rather fickle when it comes to things like book buying. Mush like a kid distracted with a shiny object I tend to gravitate towards items of distraction and opportunity. I hope that I can decrease my wanderings and actually focus on buying excellent additions to my collection without getting too distracted.

I really have two types of want list. Long Term Wants and Short Term Wants. My Long Term Want List usually doesn’t change. Maybe a small addition here and there. It contains those books I know I can afford with a bit of saving. Hence the Long Term title. Really talking about the Long Term List is quite boring. It never changes.

So we will discuss the Short Term List.

My Short Term List now contains books from MR James and EF Benson. I received Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by James absolutely loved it. My current edition is a fine edition from Easton Press but I want to have the first editions of James’s works so I went out and started looking. So most of my list are early editions of his work.

I added a few books by EF Benson mostly because he is James’s contemporary and partly because one of the books on my want list is a presentation copy from Benson to James. I hope I can scrounge the money before some one else finds it. Presentation copies are neat little packets of history and make the author seem that much more real.

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