Last year, our fantasy Holiday wishes were, for Steve, the Penguin Classics Library Complete Collection, and for me, a Kindle. We didn't get either one for Christmas, although I later acquired a Kindle by other means.

 Kathryn Gursky's Penguin Collection

This year, Steve is still hoping for the Penguin Classics Library Collection. A 2005 article from The New York Times tells how a family in New Mexico, who had lost their own library in a fire, ordered the set: 1,082 paperback volumes, for “nearly $8,000.” (The price has got up a little in four years -- the price is now $8,047.98.)

As tempting as this gargantuan collection is, weighing 763 pounds, shipped in 25 cartons, who, besides the folks in the NY Times article, has bought it? Amazon won't tell, but New York Magazine has an interview in its March 2008 issue with Bette Midler, which mentions that her husband bought her the collection when they moved to Las Vegas. I love the idea of Bette Midler, in her Showgirl getup, reading Stendahl or Ovid between acts of her The Showgirl Must Go On.

I have my eye on a smaller collection – The New York Review of Books Classics 10^th Anniversary Collection. There are 250 paperbacks in this NYRB set, weighing 197 pounds and costing $2,366.04. This is a 40% discount off the $3,943.40 that the publisher Random House is selling it for. The Random House site has a complete list of the books in the set.

Another attractive set by NYRB is the Children's Collection Set. It's child-sized at 40 volumes, 35 pounds, $412.80.

So, what's on your list?