Revisiting Old Books

I've been re-cataloging my comic collection off and on for the past few months, using the online database ComicBookDB.com. It does an excellent job, I think, of allowing me to include all the information about my collection as I deem fit. Plus, it's online so I can access that information from just about anywhere. (For those who might be wondering why it's taking so long, I've recorded around 5,500 individual issues so far, and I know there's plenty I haven't touched yet.)

But the reason why I'm writing about it today is that I've found it interesting to recollect the stories as I'm tagging them in the database...

"Yeah, I remember I got Marvel Team-Up #126 on my birthday. It had that cool Hulk vinette."

"Heh. I remember finding that copy of Bring on the Bad Guys in that used bookstore just off campus."

"Hey, that was one of those Superman issues I found in the back of a file cabinet when I was working at Kenner."

What struck me as particularly odd is that The Wife has told me that this is much the same type of feeling many women get about shopping in general. The whole buying experience is one that not only includes the obtaining of an object, but also the circumstances and feelings associated with it. Each issue in my collection has a memory attached to it -- maybe when I got the issue, maybe where I first read it, maybe who gave it to me -- and those memories can sometimes override the actual content of the book itself.

Just an unusual observation.

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