At Oxfam Wilmslow we have a wonderful collection of books that have been signed by the authors. They will be on sale in the shop during Oxfam’s Bookfest fortnight, from 2nd to 15th July 2012. Here is a small selection. I’ll be showing more over the next few days.
I don’t know why people buy signed books but when I hold ‘The Governance of Britain’ I feel a thrill of connection to the Prime Minister who founded the Open University and kept Britain out of the Vietnam war.
Oxfam Wilmslow 
You ask why people buy signed books. Most of the signed books I own were signed for me when I met the authors at a signing. And the inscriptions in the books help to remind me later of the experience of meeting them. I try to make a connection however briefly — a clipping or recipe that might interest them, even just a compliment. One author I met at a signing made me a character in his next book. So, yes, of course I collect signed books!