Why Collect?

picture credit: WSJ, Anne Isabelle

I liked Laura Kreutzer article in the Wall Street Journal titled, “Treasure or Trash? It Depends Who You Ask.”

Kreutzer writes:

Take, for example, my husband's extensive collection of Stephen King books. I'm fairly certain that if Mr. King decided to aggregate and publish all of his old grocery receipts, Clay would be standing in line at the bookstore to purchase a first edition.

Although a part of me can appreciate the creativity of demon-possessed automobiles or pets suddenly coming back to life as bloodthirsty zombies, I question whether they need to occupy so much critical real estate, especially when they don't really get used.

"It's a collection," Clay said, defending his right to the complete works. "They're coming."

Kreutzer’s full article is at wsj.com

It  brings  up the  question: Why do we collect?  Why do first edition hard cover books matter so much?  I mean, we could  read  almost everything King has written right off Kindle, right?  Or,  we could read paperbacks.  So why collections that take so much space?

My thoughts only:
1. Men like to collect  stuff.  Stephen King is cool.
2. As  Kreutzer points out, a lot of King readers wish they could write like King!  He writes what we would write if we had  his super-powers.
3. For some reason,having an actual  hard cover first edition is cool.  I don't know why.  I like older firsts better than more  recent  stuff.  In fact, I  really stopped buying first editions and opted instead to buy limited editions (Cemetery Dance, etc) when they come out.

But, alas, it all still begs the question. . . WHY