Darlene F. of Beaverton, OR sent in her collecting story. Thanks for sharing,   
   Darlene!   
      
   "Almost all my life I've collected books as being on a farm "out in the middle   
   of nowhere" and my library card didn't quite cover my depth and bredth of my   
   reading skills nor my love of books.  When I met my boyfriend I explained to   
   him I had amassed a rather large collection of books as I really wanted "an   
   Eliza Doolittle Library" some day.  This puzzled my boyfriend as I had only 20   
   or so books in my apartment.  What he didn't realize (or perhaps it's due to   
   my lack of full disclosure) I had a garage and a storage unit filled with over   
   13,000 books.   
      
   Before I moved in with him I told him "love me, love my books". He replied   
   fine, but not too many books please.  In fact, he wanted me to be realistic   
   over the whole situation.  I said these books traveled from my childhood home   
   near Portland, OR to the Salem, OR area, to Seattle, WA before coming back to   
   the Portland-Metro area. The last major move took two trips, using a 24-ft   
   truck, and four guy friends with me as the driver and director of these moves.   
      
   I'd like to say I still have all those books, but sadly, I had to trim my   
   collection down from hundreds of cardboard file boxes to just 15 (and would   
   you believe my husband STILL grumbles about the 15 boxes being too much?!!!).    
   I had less than 50 repeat copies (most were deliberately kept as they had   
   author sigs.  or were from friends/family) of my books, and yes, I had read   
   all of them at least once.  Currently, I'm trying to quietly amass another   
   collection of books.  We'll see how I do.  lol"   
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