Saturday, December 19, 2009

Hymnals

I am a little bit nuts about books. I've had to employ a points system of rewards in order to prevent myself from going on random book-buying binges. Hymn books are a particular weakness for me. These are the hymnals I have so far, in order from top to bottom:

1. Reproduction of the original LDS pocket-sized hymnal.

2. Pocket-sized French LDS hymnal. I bought this while at the MTC because it was marked down: someone had returned it, and they'd had to un-engrave it (if you look closely you can see the gold plate they glued over the engraving area).

3. 1950's edition hymnal, pocket-sized. I found this at DI for $2, still in its box, in pristine condition.

4. Pocket-sized German LDS hymnal. I plan to someday learn German.

5. Pocket-sized Spanish LDS hymnal.

6. Pocket-sized English LDS hymnal. I covered it in the hopes that the cover would stop crumbling apart.

7. Special edition leather-bound LDS hymnal.

8. 1950's edition LDS hymnal.

9. Unity Song Selections from the University School of Christianity. I have wanted to purchase other church's hymnals at many times while visiting foreign countries (particularly England), but have restrained myself from spending too much money (I usually had multiple other items I already planned to purchase). This hymnal is not foreign. I found it at DI. Good old DI. I can afford a book from DI.

10. Spanish LDS hymnal.

11. Regular old English LDS hymnal. Mother and Father Edit bought a hymnal for each of us kids when the books were first published in 1985. They even had our names debossed and foiled on the front.

Three of these hymnals were bought from the MTC, three were bought from DI, three were given to me, and two I bought from other sources.

Eleven is not an excessive number when you consider the total number of available hymnals in the world. :o)

2 comments:

elegyrl said...

I got myself a pocket size hymnal when I joined the church and it too is starting to come apart. I have been thinking I need to invest in another one. But I have yet to do it... eventually I suppose! I do say though that a collection of hymnals is a lot better than some book collections you could have!

ol' Bob said...

It's interesting to see how the words of some hymns have changed as we've become a more sensitive church.