I was reminded the other day of a collection of Granta issues that we have on a shelf. It made me start thinking about collections. What things we save and what things we don’t. Generally, I am not a saver. When my parents were moving to their new house, I sorted through all my old high school stuff and threw most of it out-old boyfriend love letters and all. I have archived all of the emails my husband and I sent each other before we were married, and I have a big book that chronicles my tennis playing.

As a librarian, I am attracted to buying and keeping books, but I try not to do that too much. The library is a wonderful place for getting and sharing books. There are a few exceptions, the Grantas being one of those. Granta is like a little treasure of reading. You can pick it up and find something new to read every time. The stories and essays transport you to other places.

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Another collection I have been unwilling to part with is my old Martha Stewart Baby and Kid magazines. They are no longer publishing these, and I have hung on to the old ones for the wealth of fun projects, recipes, and ideas that are contained within them. It is true that some of her projects are insanely complex, but I can usually think of a way to make them simpler for our purposes. We once made my son a lovely, bald eagle Halloween costume inspired by one of her designs. We melted crayon bits into heart shapes to give as favors. And cookie cutter sandwich shapes are still a crowd pleaser with the kids.

I seem to be amassing a pretty good collection of crafty books as well. Those are a weakness, I seem unable to resist.

Books and crafting, crafting and books.