In a post for Entertainment Weekly’s website, books editor Tina Jordan discusses the generally poor quality of unofficial literary sequels, a topic that Quillblog has discussed as well (click here for the link). But what caught our attention was Jordan’s mention of her copy of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind. Jordan, who calls the book a staple of her “southern girlhood,” has a 1939 hardcover edition that was once owned by her grandmother.

Keeping a “battered” copy of a well-loved book for sentimental reasons helps to create a reading heritage. These books become stories within stories when the original owners pass down a love of books and their libraries. Quillblog has a copy of the novel Touch Not the Cat by Mary Stewart, where her name was taken from, and the copy of King Lear that her mother read in high school, complete with handwritten notes in the margins (very handy when writing an essay).

Does anyone else have a book previously owned by a friend or family member that has a place of honour on your shelves? What books have you recently bought that you would pass down to others?