Mum’s love of books lit-erary an obsession
A Waipawa mother who filled her family home with “mountains” of books has managed to persuade her husband to join her obsession, overturning the two-year ban on op shopping that he had placed on her.
Elvira Guylott boasts an impressive collection of an especially nostalgic set of titles — 638 Little Golden Books dating back to the first printing in 1942.
“My husband banned me from the op shops for two years because I would come home with mountains of books,” Guylott said. “Children’s books, they just hold a special place, it’s an obsession — a bad obsession.”
The mother-of-three’s love of collecting them was inspired by her own mother who would read to her as a child.
The 28-year-old said she was attracted to the older editions — to her there is nothing more special than a pre-loved book.
“I enjoy a book that is loved and has that smell where it is old and it had many people around it, it carries a lot of memories all in one little book.”
Despite the pages and pages of illustrations, and bookshelves that sag under the weight of the words, she has one stand-out favourite — Oscar’s Book, celebrating the world’s most famous grouch for Sesame Street.
“I used to hide it under the bed so it didn’t go back on the bookshelf.”
She felt happy to have passed on the book collecting “bug” to her children, 9-year-old Genesis, Layah aged 6 and Piper who is 2.
However, she said the sheer amount of titles meant they were hard to move.
“We have already discussed if there was a house fire how we are going to get the books out — and which ones to choose first.”
Her impressive library — she has an estimated 5000 books — also includes a number of the Ladybird Books, Dr Suess books, and of course Roald Dahl’s books.
She said that the books not only had sentimental value but also monetary as one book in her collection is currently selling for $400.
Guylott put her collection up for sale recently, but then decided to hang onto them and get them valued.