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Collectibles edited by Lawrence Block is a short story collection dealing with collectors, sometimes strange, sometimes run of the mill. Mr. Block is a published writer of many books.

I’m not a fan of short stories, but at least I have been a collector for most of my life, so Collectibles edited by Lawrence Block called my name. Additionally, I totally missed the part where this is a collection of short stories, and not a novel.

I don’t collect any of the items featured in the book, generally though, the collector’s mentality is the same. Sometimes we’ll go to great lengths to acquire an item which we perceive as valuable (despite that we are the only ones with that perception). Similarly we’ll bend over backwards, physically, mentally, or financially, to acquire a “must have” item to make the collection complete.
Nevertheless to realize that it was the chase that made it exciting.

Undeniably, the stories have the common theme of a collector’s passion. Some of the stories are a bit disturbing, but of course there is only so much one can read about the way to organize a stamp collection. I enjoyed two stories especially Devil Sent the Rain Blues by David Rachel and The Skull Collector by Joe R. Lansdale. In Devil Sent the Rain Blues a collector attempts to acquire a rare 78 rpm record. The Skull Collector is a noir yarn featuring a gang of armed female grave robbers. Between the fiction there are entries from Otto Penzler‘s memoir to give real-life perspective on the passion of collecting.

The book runs the gamut, from a collector of old Hollywood TV shows, to a Marilyn Monroe artificial intelligence doll/replica for the “real” fans. Much like other anthologies I read, some are fascinating, some less so. However, this is a solid collection featuring talented authors. As expected, many of the stories focus on what makes a collector tick, not necessarily their weird and unusual collections. ( )