Elvira Guylott from Waipawa is an avid reader and book collector who has passed her passion onto her children and husband.
A Waipawa mother who filled her family home with “mountains” of books has managed to persuade her husband Gagau Stanley to join her obsession, overturning the two-year ban on op shopping that she said he’d placed on her.
Elvira Guylott boasts an impressive collection of an especially nostalgic set of titles - 638 Little Golden Books dating back to the first printing in 1942.
“My husband banned me from the op shops for two years because I would come home with mountains of books,” Guylott said.
“Children’s books, they just hold a special place, it’s an obsession - a bad obsession.”
Little Golden Book collector Elvira Guylott has 638 of the gold-spined titles dating back to the first printing in 1942. Photo / Paul Taylor
The mother-of-three’s love of collecting them was inspired by her own mother, who would read to her as a child.
The 28-year-old said she was attracted to the older editions - to Guylott there is nothing more special than a pre-loved book.
“I enjoy a book that is loved and has that smell where it is old and it had many people around it, it carries a lot of memories all in one little book.”
Despite the pages and pages of illustrations, and bookshelves that sag under the weight of the words, she has one stand-out favourite - Oscar’s Book, celebrating the world‘s most famous grouch from Sesame Street.
“I used to hide it under the bed so it didn’t go back on the bookshelf.”
She felt happy to have passed on the book-collecting “bug” to her children, 9-year-old Genesis, Layah aged 6 and Piper who is 2.
Little bookworm: 2-year-old Piper, pictured with just some of the 638 Little Golden Books collected by her mother Elvira Guylott. Photo / Paul Taylor
However said the sheer amount of titles meant they were hard to move.
“We have already discussed if there was a house fire how we are going to get the books out - and which ones to choose first.”
Her impressive library - all up she has an estimated 5000 books - also includes a number of the Lady Bird Books, Dr Seuss books, and of course Roald Dahl.
She said that the books not only had sentimental value but also monetary as one book in her collection is currently selling for $400.
Guylott put her collection up for sale recently, but then decided to hang on to them and get them valued.
Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and has a love for sharing stories about farming and rural communities.
