HOW many Oz books???

I've had enough down time the past few weeks that I've finally gotten around to opening some of my Oz boxes for the first time since we moved here, and started sorting things out and figuring out where to put them. My major focus has been on the books, and while I was at it, I updated and revised my inventory.

I now have over 1,000 — yes, that's one thousand — Oz and Oz-related books. They range from Abducted to Oz to The Zen of Oz, from 2 1/2 inches tall (the miniature version of The Musical Fantasies of L. Frank Baum) to 22 inches tall (a Wizard of Oz poster coloring book), from two pages (Wizard of Oz Tattoos) to 760 (a compilation of all fifteen Baum Oz books, including The Little Wizard Stories of Oz, in one volume). The oldest books I believe I own are the bound editions of St. Nicholas magazine in which Queen Zixi of Ix were first published, and the most recent is one I just got from the publisher yesterday that I will review later. It's official publication date isn't for two more weeks! Most are in English, but I also have books in French, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Spanish, and Welsh. I also have books originally published in French, Japanese, Russian, and Korean that have been translated into English. Most have been professionally published in some form, either for the general public or for a smaller niche audience, but some of my books have been privately printed, and some are (officially, at least) unpublished. Quite a few have been autographed, some have been given to me, and some I have paid more for than I probably should have. They are fiction, non-fiction, metafictional, or something in between, and some are just pictures. Three of the books I put in my inventory have now gone missing or otherwise unaccounted for (one just this week, after dealing with the inventory, so it couldn't have gone far). And on the shelves alone, I have out eighty-nine different editions of The Wizard of Oz.

I am truly surprised and impressed with my collection. Not bad for thirty-five years worth of work!

Pictures soon, I hope.