I started packing my books this weekend. I love having them, but they’re a pain in the butt to move. You never know how many you have until you put them in boxes and haul them out.

And, wow. Do I have a lot.

I have books I haven’t even gotten around to reading yet, books of all genres—history, classic literature, math, language theory, how-to—books I bought with every intention of reading. Vonnegut. Faulkner. Djuna Barnes? I even have Le Petit Prince and Les Liaisons Dangereux in the original French. I’ll get around to them one day!

Great tip for packing books: use boxes 12″ on all sides, have many of those boxes handy, and haul three or four of them at a time with a dolly. Bigger boxes are harder to lift and move, and when you have bookshelves and beds to worry about, you’ll wish all the book boxes were lighter.

I have 20 or so 12″ boxes, and I can only hope I have enough. Even though I’ve kept my book-buying to an absolute minimum since my last move, I somehow managed to acquire a few more books.

Minnie and Mark (you guys so rock) have gotten me a few. Cousin Zee got me an Amazon gift certificate, which is definitely going towards a few books I want. Author Carole Bellacera, for whom I did an e-book cover, sent me an autographed copy of one of her books, which was kind of neat. Dee S. Knight sent me an autographed print copy of Resolutions, which was even neater because I did the cover. And Monette Michaels sent me two autographed books—two!—which thrilled me to no end.

Having those last four, along with my signed Terry Brooks, Harry Turtledove, and Raymond E. Feist books, I’m convinced now that I should start collecting autographed books in earnest. Then at least my books might be worth something to the outside world, and I wouldn’t have such throw-the-book-out-cidal tendencies during a move.

Not a bad idea, really.

One of H.E.’s friends collects first editions, many of them signed—by Hemingway, Fitzgerald … you know, obscure names like that. Each book is probably worth about 20 grand.

Who knows? Maybe my signed paperback copy of The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump will be worth as much. Or half as much. Or, I don’t know. $200?

Heck, I could buy a ton of books with that kind of money.

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