Like many of you I love to have beautiful books.  Given a choice between two editions of the same book, I will always choose the one I think prettiest (unless it is ridiculously expensive!).

This can cause me a dilemma though.  Sometimes one of my very favourite books will be reissued with a stunningly beautiful cover and I have to decide whether I can justify purchasing another copy of the same book.

In some cases it is easy – I bought all of the hardcover reissues of the original Swallows and Amazons covers to replace my battered paperbacks which were just not so pretty.  When my sister found a box of vintage Famous Five books – mostly with dustjackets – going for a song at our village fête I didn’t hesitate to get rid of those paperbacks either.  Although, I did keep my 3-in-1 copy of the first three books because it brought back such wonderful memories.

Sometimes it is harder though.  There are some beautiful editions of Anne of Green Gables available now and I would so love to have them on my shelf.  My copy is not all that pretty but I am quite attached to it and it is stuffed full of pressed flowers and other memorabilia so I am loathe to part with it.

I know many people have multiple copies of the same book and that would solve a lot of problems but also create a whole new one – where would I keep them all?  I barely have room for the books I have now so having many different editions of a book is a slippery slope I have so far avoided.  It can be hard to resist though!