Tell me what you are collecting...

Of course, finances are a huge barrier to collecting the more rare and older titles. I have tried to find books that are still easy to locate - yet may have future potential. I have collected almost all the Evelyn Waugh books, several Wodehouse, Walter de La Mare, and Rudyard Kipling.

Authors such as Dickens are more difficult to collect as they were published in serial form - the values of these collections needs more experience.

Tell me what you have found and hoarded!!!

I collect Modern Library books ... you can still find them at used book sales, yet it also still "feels" like you're finding some rare old books.

I collect Halloween books written for children. Pop ups, board books, chapter books, movie tie-ins. Any book written for children related to Halloween, I'll buy it.

Wow - that's interesting. Halloween books. How may do you have and do you keep them in a display case.

Do you collect the older editions - and how old is your oldest book?? I'm not sure how 'old' the tradition of Halloween is?

A Halloween book collection sounds like great fun. I have a few of my kids' Halloween books that I can't bring myself to give away :)

I collect editions of The Night Before Christmas (the older ones are usually too expensive for me, though!) Also, I collect old elementary school level music textbooks, most of which cost only $1-5. I remember some of the songs from my school days in the 60s, and many of these books have great illustrations.

And there are a lot of other books I just accumulate, such as older poetry anthologies and books that have nice bindings and look handsome on the shelf. Library book sales are a great place to look for things like that.

Karen - I could never afford to collect valuable Dickens books. Instead, I enjoy finding small, decorative editions that aren't worth much money, though of course the words inside are priceless. Sounds like you chose some great writers to collect (especially Wodehouse!)

KromesTomes - My favorite Modern Library books are those old ones with the flexible covers :)

I collect anything about history. I recently aquired a copy of a short history of the english people by John Richard Green that has a bookplate of a former Canadian Prime Minister :)

For self I tend to collect on the Truecrime and Forensic subject. I also like to collect series. It makes for nice arrangments on the shelves.

I`m one of life`s collectors - my father grew up in poverty and will never throw away anything that might be useful, so I think that`s where it comes from.

At the moment, I`m working long hours and find I cannot get on with `proper` books at all. I`m re-reading my collection of Sexton Blake titles and entering them on LT with an accompanying review as I go along. Sadly, I`ve not got very far, but I`m persevering !

Pop-ups, abecedaria, books on books, books with excellent illustrations or interesting bindings.

Also Dorothy L. Sayers, books on Venice, etiquette books.

Sayers is under-rated I think. The Lord Peter W stories tend to be better than people imagine, but also I suspect most people think she was a `one trick pony`, which is far from the truth.

Books on etiquette are great. I like the ones that advise you on the correct procol to follow if the Prime Minister, two peers and a bishop all drop round for lunch simultaneously, or what position the Archbishop of Canterbury should be in if he participates in a parade also attended by a minor Royal. These are hot topics round our way, I can tell you.

#1

"Finances are a huge barrier...."

I wouldn`t necesarily assume that all old and rare titles need to be prohibitively expensive. Very few books actually increase in value, that`s a myth.

Within six feet of where I`m sitting are two books I can think of that are very rare indeed. Neither commands a high price on the market. Even in the field of `name` writers, I have first editions by H G Wells and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that didn`t cost me much at all.

You have to recall that it`s difficult to quantify anthing as particularly rare now in any case, given the effect of online buying/selling. At one time, if there were under 50 copies of a book dotted around the world, that was rare. Now, that would qualify as being quite common.

There`s also the question of genre. The antiquarian bookshops and antique shops of the UK are full of antiquarian poetry (Tennyson etc) and novels by writers like Sir walter scott whose works are now sadly neglected by book buyers.

One of my friends from the book trade commented to me that he`d grown to hate "grown to hate the 3 P`s" (paperbacks, poetry and politics) . I wouldn`t myself make such a sweeping statement, but I know what he means.

Anyway, my main point was, don`t give up, that special volume you`ve always wanted might be available more cheaply than you think !

Couldn't say I "collect" books, exactly; they just tend to accumulate somehow. I reckon they breed (when they're not being watched); I'm fairly serious about this, but resigned. Bishop Berkeley would understand.

Anyhow I never-ever buy first editions (as such) signed copies, collector's items, anything like that. The sort of works 'investors' go for. Jeanette Winterson defends them in her otherwise wise Art Objects but I totally disagree with her (on that subject). And I religiously avoid all new books, especially best-sellers, publisher's remainders, bargain stock. Glossy paperback guides to any subject under the sun. (Most telephone directories are more entertaining.)

Lately I've found myself gravitating towards rather 'stylised' stuff, from They're a Weird Mob to The Fan Man. Dictionaries of Slang; the kind of thing a fellow LT-er compiles Jonathan Green. Modern poetry, also (esp. East-European).

Sorry folks, my touchstones are taking forever to load; since that is too long even for me, I'll have to Submit without them.

Excusez-moi
R.

> 10
I suspect most people think she was a `one trick pony`, which is far from the truth.

Fact is, my first introduction to DLS was her translation of the Inferno, which we read in my high school English class. It wasn't until a number of years later that I discovered Lord Peter! My real collecting of her started with her study of Wilkie Collins (pretty clearly the basis for Harriet's work on Sheridan LeFanu in Gaudy Night.

Not to mention all her theological writings.

#12

You may be wise. People who buy books as an investment are almost certainly being very foolish indeed. I realise, I`m not helping my own cause here, but factually,it`s true.

As I mentioned above, very few books actually increase in value over their existence.

A quick skim round E-Bay etc will show that the majority of anitquarian books actually retail at less than the price of a modern paperback.

#13

It`s that old conundrum again. On the one hand, it`s a shame that Ms Sayers has been pigeon-holed. On the other, the alternative might be that she`s forgotten altogether !

Assuming you`re in the US, possibly her `other stuff` is more widely known there.

>14 nickhoonaloon: I am not, alas, but it was kind of you to consider the possibility (even fleetingly).

Pardon me for agreeing with the rest of your post (who wants an idiot concurring?)

I've noticed other postings from you, and they seem pretty sensible to me (Sorry)

R.

#15

It took me a minute or two there, but you`ve just made me laugh out loud, so good luck to you.

I can do sensible sometimes, but not everybody would recognise that adjective as applying to me.

And thank you for not pointing out my mistyping of the word `antiquarian`.

#13, #14

Dorothy L Sayers

This is a bit of an `old mates act` but anyone with an interest in Dorothy L sayers might like to visit the Sexton Blake website Blakiana ( IIRC, it`s www.sextonblake.co.uk ), where, if you search about a bit, you can read an excellent essay,Sexton Blake Meets Lord Peter Wimsey (not a story as you might imagine from the title) by Guy Lawley. I notice it`s recently been joined by Dorothy L Sayers, Sexton Blake and Leon Kestrel by Derek Hinrich, which I`ve not had time to read yet.

A number of Sayer`s books and stories contain Sexton Blake references - like me, she was something of a fan, I gather.

I tend to collect books on whatever topic I'm most interested in at the moment. Right now it's Newbery medal winners and honors, and I'm thinking about starting on Terry Pratchett, I've heard so many great things about his books...

I'm in between. I "collect" books I like - beautiful editions, stories or verses I'm compelled to read again or other things that simply delight. I also acquire books as investments and actually that's gone very well, but I'm very lucky. "Collectability" is in the eye of the coveter and I say god bless the collectors!

I don't know. I could have answered this affirmitively in 1990. Then I was a collector of presidential biographies, mark twain and ernest hemingway firsts, harry crews firsts signed, and the oz books (those are tricky to determine first). now i am just a bibliophile. my presidential collection is fairly intact but I don't care about it anymore, and all my twain, crews, and hemingway firsts were sold in a $8,000 deal in 1995 so i could pursue this little skirt from independence, missouri, who i still am and will always pursue.

The Night Before Chrstmas, huh? I gave away to a family I love a first edition (1925) with delectable drawings. I believe now that people who want the books I have should have them, unless i want them more (lol).

I collect the exlibrices or the bookplates. Usually they made of paper and they are mean to be clued to books. now it is very rear hobby .. but i have even myself exlibris.

I collect books about religion, including holy texts, although I generally don't bother with the stuff written by televangelists. I also collect books by my two favorite authors, Jim Butcher and Brandon Sanderson

i tend to collect what i've enjoyed reading. i have some nice vladimir Nabokov firsts and a few nice antony Burgess british firsts including a tatty copy of a clockwork Orange. the books i bought cheep that turned out to be worth a few bob were things like The Pornographer by John Mcgahern and By Night Unstarred by patrick kavanagh. general things i like to collect include Left Book Club 1st Editions and i like Proof/Advance Reading Copys for some reason but i doubt they'll ever be worth anything

I collect books written about the U.S. Space Program, specifically the Apollo era. I also include memoirs of the astronauts.

I've recently started collecting Library of America books. What can I say, I'm a sucker for a well made book, and I do actually want to read a lot of the stuff they publish.