My husband and I have been collecting antique books for about 5 years now, we have always wanted to have a traditional library filled with old books and not modern ones.

Although most of our books are dated 1920 or older with a handful of exceptions, these are books we have collected from various antique shops over the years. Most have no to little value except to us. Only in the last couple of years have we delved into some more serious collecting.

We don’t really care about whether a book is the first edition or not but we do care about the subjects we are adding to the library and also the age of the book. The oldest book we have in the library is from the 18th century and the oldest document we have is from the 16th century.

We also have our wish list of books we would love to have in the library, some are possible, while others may be harder to find, and others may be way out of our price range.

One of these items on our wish list is The Egyptian Book of the Dead by Budge, E.A. Wallis. This book has so many editions that it is very easy to find but for our library, we needed an edition that was at least 1920 or older, it is our own self-imposed rule.

After we attended the antiquarian book fair we found a vendor who was selling a set of the books, the first book is the translation by Budge, E.A. Wallis, and the second book is the facsimile of the Papyrus of Ani in the British Museum.

Both books are absolutely beautiful and stunning, one is the first edition while the other is a second edition, and both are dated late 19th century. The facsimile of the papyrus is even in color. What also made us happy is that we received such a good deal on them, we see them as an investment.

Of course, it has not escaped me that I know have antique Egyptian books while I’m building a Stargate.

So that is now one book off of our wish list, the next big one that I probably will not be able to obtain any time soon is an illuminated Book of Hours. Those books cost as much as a car and maybe be out of my reach for now.