I grew up in a family of nine – my siblings and I account for more than half of it. Still, we grew up as our own individual, owning items that are each to our own use. We have our own belongings, collections, taste; although some of the rooms in our house were shared, some of the appliances were shared, some of the games were shared and enjoyed collectively but at the end of the day we still have our belongings as our own, placed in its own designated places
We rarely have a uniformed anything, besides tableware sets. We don’t share clothes, even two of my brothers were twins but they dress nothing alike. We wear hand-me-downs from one another, yes, but we never really share items – we just borrow whatever we needed from one another instead and then return it to the sole owners. I have a separate bookcase from my siblings, parents, and grandparents. I have my own shelf for my collection of toys, albums, and trinkets (albeit everything was all over the place). I also realize that we too buy our own books.
One day, I decided to redesign my little home gym space into my working room in the midst of the pandemic to have a space that is wholly mine. I then began to reorganize my books and found multiple titles with more than one copy. Some of them were books that are owned by more than one member of the house, such as:
- A World Without Islam by Graham E. Fuller – I have a copy of the pocket-sized book, while my brother has a larger, paperback version of it.
- Bumi Manusia tetralogy by Pramoedya Ananta Toer – my brother has it for his Bahasa Indonesia course during his high school years in Singapore, meanwhile I have it for my Bahasa Indonesia class during my middle school years in Jakarta.
- Multiple volumes of Japanese mangas bought by different brothers at different times whom until today still prefer to read print comics.
- #BukanBukuDiet by Alvin Hartanto – I have a copy of the book, sealed. My mother then bought the same book for me and have then tried to read several pages of it.
- Juz Amma – my house has more than 10 of the same version of Juz Amma for different members of the family. We each have our own favorite Qur’an, but the Juz Amma is simply a public property in our house.
The above is actually quite expected, considering how we were growing up.
Until I notice that I have a couple of titles in multiple as well. Some of the titles I knowingly/unknowingly bought twice … and some, coincidentally gifted to me:
- The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – My friend gave me a hardcopy of the book for my 17th birthday. I already have a paperback cover of the book but lent I to my brother’s ex (and she hasn’t returned it to me until today).
- Tasty Every Day: An Official Tasty Cookbook – I bought the book during an online sale; a week later my brother’s e-ex-girlfriend bought it for me in an offline sale of the same bookstore.
- I Had A Nice Time and Other Lies by The Betches – I bought the same book twice. Both on sale. Both were still unopened.
- How to Survive Anything: A Visual Guide to Laughing in the Face of Adversity by Lonely Planet – I bought two copies with the price of one on a book sale. I plan to give one copy to a friend as a gift.
- Lonely Planet’s Instant Expert by Lonely Planet – I bought a book during an online sale; the day after I realize it was my friend’s birthday. So I decided to give her the copy I’ve bought and just buy another copy for myself while the sale still lasts.
- The Teen Vogue Handbook by Teen Vogue – I had a copy since I was in high school and half of the book was ruined during a flood, so I bought another copy while I was a university sophomore, and the new, updated book is still unopened until today.
It’s funny, making a short recap of doubles that I have over the years. I think that even better when gifted because it means the giver knows about the type of books, I read which in a way means that they know my taste and personality in books hehe. I might not be a bookish, nerdy, well-read person, but having accrued books over the years has made me thought of it as more than a mere collection, but a friend that I enjoy sweet memories with.
Hence my story with my books. I’ll finish sorting it out in the next couple of weeks and might try to get rid of some of them that no longer… sparks joy. Regardless, I’m excited to rebuild my library!
Collection. 