I can't believe I missed this thread! YES! I actually saved a bunch of the strips from my local paper when I heard that Watterson was going to stop making comics! I bought most of the collections when they came out, including the 10 year anniversary book. I think I'm only missing two.
Now that I think about it, maybe I liked Calvin & Hobbes because so much even when I was younger because I found it so validating. It's a nerdy and highly relatable journey but with a TON of heart. I might have found a little bit of myself in Calvin and Hobbes themselves, too, heh.
I have most of the various books and I think I have the whole archive between them..it was the first comic I read every day when it ran. I had a newspaper route at one point and I loved being able to read the Sunday strip a few days before it 'officially' came out.
I went through some of the books about a year ago and the stuff from the 90s hits really hard today; Watterson foresaw a lot of what we're dealing with now.