What do you collect as a hobby?

[Richardg8092]

I collect books!

I many books also.

OK. I'll confess. Before my current Tarot Deck obsession, I too used   to collect books.
I fully intended to read every one of them - but never quite seemed to find the time.
That didn't stop me from collecting more books, of course.  
I had two large piles of books on my bedside table - the first pile being the "Must Read - Essential" pile.
The second pile was the "After the Must Read's, these are next".  
Then I had a pile in the first drawer of the bedside table.
This was my "One day I'd like to read these, maybe during the holidays" pile. 
In the bottom drawer of the bedside table was a very thick pile of scientific papers, reviews, meta-analyses and monographs.
This was my "I really should know all this stuff" pile.

Then I had the Epiphany. My SO's side of the bedroom was calm and serene, whilst mine was chaotic.
I collected all the books and papers and moved them onto bookshelves in the computer room.
99.5% of them have remained there unread; but now calm and piece pervade the entire bedroom.
Occasionally I will take a single book into the bedroom, but it gets escorted straight back to the computer room the next morning.
In my case at least, I fear my 'collecting' gene might be a close cousin to my 'addictive personality' gene. 

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A question for Woodhouse and maeve.  Do you ever smell your books, per chance?
At the height of my collecting, I'd scour Abebooks until I could find a Hard Cover First Edition.
I know alot of people don't like the smell, but for me there is something deeply satisfying about the aroma of an old book.
A couple of my 1968 tarot decks have still somehow managed to maintained a bizarrely attractive inky smell.
Perhaps it's the L$D that they mixed into the pigments back in those heady days....