Some of the things I collect have been mentioned by others already.
I collect coins, stamps, books, DVDs and anything to do with lighthouses.
My coin collection is not all that valuable but I started it when I was eleven or so. I'm really into the State Quarters and the silver American Eagle coins.
My stamp collection is fairly big and I love it for the history and art which is in every stamp. I especially love collecting commemoration stamps. My favorite is a stamp which commemorated New Mexico's fiftieth anniversary of statehood. It has a depiction of the famous Shiprock formation on it.
While I don't read books all that much I
do have quite a collection of them. I especially like reference-type books such as atlases, old encyclopedias, almanacs and history books. I also have a wonderful collection of books about my passion, which is architecture. Those i can read all day!
DVDs: Oh my Gawd! There is nothing better in this world to me than my DVD collection!:biggrin1: I have over four-hundred now and it keeps growing. I've been fortunate enough to get most all of my favorite movies on DVD, as well as many of my favorite TV shows. I have more DVDs than I can even watch. In fact, I have a few which I bought online recently that I haven't even taken out of their plastic wrap.:redface: The one I'm eternally looking for is
Bugsy Malone. That is my all-time favorite movie and all that's out there of it is some version from Hong Kong, which I don't want to waste my money on, in case it ever is released in America.
Now for the lighthouses.. This collection is my newest and it came about purely by chance. My mom gave me a Thomas Kinkade miniature ceramic lighthouse from Avon, a few years back. I told her I loved it and that I loved lighthouses in general. And voila! I've been receiving as gifts, and also collecting on my own, lighthouse-themed stuff ever since.
I recently read about happenstance collections such as these in one of the national newspaper magazines. It said that many times people mention that they like something and all of a sudden they are swamped with items people give them simply because they thought it meant that person was a collector of such things. Now, I don't mind people giving me lighthouse gifts, but I hope it never gets so out of hand that I have lighthouse chachki all over the place!

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