The one(s) that got away

Every serious book collector has a few stories about books that slipped out of their hands while they dithered.  In many respects it is even worse with the rise of the internet, as now you are competing with hundreds, potentially thousands, of others.  In my case, it is not so bad, as I am not looking for signed first editions or anything like that.  I only made a special effort to get a signed copy of am Adrienne Rich collection to make up for one that had been stolen from me.  I am really only interested in the content of the book and getting a good to very good reading copy.  The rest is extraneous to me.

That said, there are still times I didn't pull the trigger and then I regretted it later.  One reason is that I am making a real effort not to buy as many books as I used to, but there are still those books I just want in the house.  Second, Canadian shipping prices are high enough that I do take them into consideration (and I virtually never buy anything from Amazon.com and have it shipped to Canada).  So then it becomes a question of how do the Amazon.ca prices compare to the trouble (and imposition on others) of shipping to a friend in the States.

I heard very recently about the passing of Carolyn Kizer on October 9.  She was a feminist poet whom I had sort of heard of but hadn't read.  It seems that she had a really great collection called Yin, but then virtually all of her work (including Yin) was in Cool, Calm and Collected.  I had two decent options: a quite inexpensive copy of Yin (on Amazon.ca) or a cheap copy of the Collected Poems that I would have to ship to my father.  Then I decided I really ought to at least read a bit of her work, but that added some delay, since the Toronto Library didn't have circulating copies and I had to wait to get to Robarts to check one out.  I find that I enjoy her work, but am not completely in love with it.  Still, I probably would have gotten the Collected Poems at the low price.  But others were reading the same news that I did, and all the cheap copies have gone.  So now I might as well read the entire volume (which I did check out) and see if I really do need it (it's not that expensive on Amazon.ca).  Maybe the answer will be no.  (I'm about 1/4 through it and still not sure, but I often find poets improve considerably as they mature.)  That's certainly the responsible answer (not buying another book), but I will probably be "haunted" at least for a while by not jumping sooner, especially as the copy of Yin was so cheap...

I'm sure there are many other cases of this, but I am blanking on them at the moment.  Oh wait, there is one painful memory.  I was at a Sarah Sze exhibit at MCA in Chicago and they had a special book (for not too much) based on her site-specific artwork.  I was never able to track down a copy after leaving the museum (and of course it was sold out on my next trip there).

There are other cases as well, but in many of those, the book was just a bit more than I wanted to pay, and I kept thinking the price would come down, but it never did.  Normally, I just hold out and see if other copies pop up (this happened for several books) but sometimes it doesn't.  I usually just try to live without the book if the price just keeps going up, and eventually my attention wanes and I move onto something else I think I need.  As I mostly am just going after reading copies, the library is often an effective substitute as well, though not as good for art books where I really do like looking at them in the moment (or when I am seeking inspiration).

Edit: In the spirit of full disclosure, I should note that at the end of October, I saw an autographed copy of Yin for not too much, and I ordered it, though it took a while to get into my hands, as I had I shipped to the States.  So sometimes if one is patient (and willing to shell out a bit), you can get a second chance.  Actually, it is good to let some time pass to make sure that you really wanted that book that got away or if it was more of an impulse purchase.  In this case, it was worth going after the book.