Make that about 400 books. All picture books for young children, from simple board books to one about caves. Start with a Mother Goose Board book and end with 2 large book collections of Beatrix Potter. Include one that rhymes about "The Horse That Takes The Milk Around" and one about a family that builds their own stone house.
One or two of Maurice Sendak, several of Harold and his Purple Crayon Adventures, fancy books of The Spider And The Fly and There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. Some have no words at all, John Goodall for example, with his little half pages hiding the next part of the story. Others have lots of words, like The Greedy Man In The Moon, a chinese story.
Many of these books are very well-loved, taped together, rubbed, crinkled, some have scribblings and markings on them from previous owners. Very few have markings of my own children in them. It didn't bother me that there were pen, crayon and pencil scribbles. I erased the pencil, but I felt that as long as the markings didn't hide the story I was reading then they didn't matter.
The children have enjoyed the growth of this book collection. The two youngest (girls) have had the benefit of all the books, while the two oldest (girl and boy) will only remember about half the books. The three in the middle (girl, boy, boy) helped pick out many of the Berenstain Bear books, although I did have to tell them we were NOT buying ALL of the books, just the ones that seemed to fit our lifestyle.
More to come....