Folio Society Sale

Do we have any information about the schedule of the next Folio society sale?

My fingers are itching to buy more books!

Third week of June apparently.

Mystery book is available until June 18th, I think it has to be after this offer ends

>3 DMulvee:

Not necessarily: there have been overlaps in the past. The £20 off £200 part won't overlap with the Summer Sale but the Mystery Book part certainly could by a few days to a week.

They have been pretty vague about the timing of the next sale when asked on social media, generally replying to say it will be in 'either June or July'.

Do we think there's any chance of A Clash of Kings being a part of the summer sale or is it too recent a release and/or too hot an item?

>6 PatsChoice: zero chance

>6 PatsChoice:

I doubt it will ever go on sale. Rather, it will pay for other books to go on sale.

>6 PatsChoice:

If Folio is going out of business, it will be included in the final sell off.

I am curious what the economics of putting Game of Thrones on sale look like. I think it's unlikely to happen soon. But at some point, the pool of people willing to buy at full price will be so depleted and the value of hooking people into a series (with half a dozen other books to buy) high enough that a discount might make sense. A generous discount might also attract a lot of people who put other unrelated books in their baskets.

Mostly, I guess I am just curious how sophisticated Folio Society are about monitoring cross-price elasticity, as economists call it: do they have good data on how price reductions on book X yield extra revenue on books Y, Z and is this a factor in their sale strategy?

If book 6 actually comes out, and comes out while Folio is still printing and selling its expensive versions, there will be a fresh onslaught of full price purchases of all Game of Thrones books currently available from Folio. I think the chances of this happening are actually above 50% and that the chances of a sale on any of them will be pretty slim.

>10 ubiquitousuk: I think they tried this with the latest Dickens series. If I recall correctly, they started with Great Expectations, certainly one of the most popular Dickens titles, and then quickly put it on sale. My guess is that they did so in the hope that a large group of purchasers would get invested in the series and then purchase subsequent releases. If that was their hope, it apparently didn't work as they quickly gave up on the new Dickens series (at least that appears to be the case).

As for Clash of Kings, I agree with the above posters that there is zero chance of it appearing in a sale any time soon. Whetherput it on sale in the future depends mostly on whether GOT enters the status of a "perennial" that is always in demand (think Lord of the Rings). That said, LOTR has appeared on sale at some points in time but not at all regularly. But I wouldn't expect to see either of the Martin books (or future titles in the series) on sale in the foreseeable future.

I agree, I think the chances of the GoT books going on sale are very small, and its probably even less likely that the Bond books will ever be reduced in price.

once they have a few in the series published they may do a discount if you buy the set, as they have done this before with other collections (if I remember correctly just before Christmas one year)

the advice I've taken from other contributors to this forum is if you want a book, buy it, as there is no guarantee that books will go on sale or be reprinted.

I agree with all ... no sale for Clash during the next two years for sure. GOT came out last year and has never had a reduced price offered. So I assume Clash will be the same (so for a year at least it will be full price only).

I also assume GOT will not go on sale until maybe the third book comes out. Then they might experiment with a slight discount on the 3 pack bundle ... cuz at that point they will be getting $600 per purchase ($200 per book). At that price point offering $30 off might sway some to pick up all three titles at once.

With only two books out ... most will opt for grabbing both anyway ... without a sale offer.

When you're talking $600 ... some might balk at that ... but a sale could push them over the edge.

Then again ... FS is kind of weird with their marketing and sales ... not a huge amount of consistency.

I think you are deluding yourselves if you think that series will be on sale within the next two decades.

I just got off the call with a good friend of mine, Sally Wilby, she mentioned that there will be no sale this year and all you lowly book grubbers will be detained at her majesty’s pleasure - and hanged by the feet!

>13 stumc: I think the chances of the GoT books going on sale are very small, and its probably even less likely that the Bond books will ever be reduced in price.

I can't agree about the Bond series. The books that don't reach sales, aside from one-offs which happily sell out but aren't reprinted, tend just to be those which become perennials in the Folio catalogue, and I doubt the long run of Ian Fleming issues has potential to be that. How well sustained demand for GoT will be over the next couple of decades or so I'll leave for others to guess.

FYI they posted this on facebook a few days ago. They're treating the last 650 copies of GoT as they usually would the last 100 or 50 copies of other titles, and it only refers to the first printing. Certainly no mention of a sale.

There are fewer than 650 copies remaining of our first printing of A Game of Thrones! The second printing is ready and waiting so this title will not sell out, but if you want a first printing for your collection then don’t delay.

>15 Twas_Brillig:

Is it until my head pops off? I feel like it should be until my head pops off. Getting a bit of extra life juice to la cabeza will help thoughts get heavier until the weight is no longer sustainable. I may even figure out the purpose of Algebra. It would be less painful than an hour or two in front of a news channel.

>17 Levin40: what is the reason for FS suggesting not to 'delay' on grabbing the 'first printing' of GOT ... is there any difference between first printing and second printing? And how would one even tell?

>19 thisGuy33:

The rear of the title page will state if a particular Folio volume is a second or later printing. Whether there's any material difference is up to the FS, different printings can come from different printers, be bound at different binderies, and could use different qualities of paper.

In book collecting generally, first editions can command a very large premium over later printings, just because they represent the first appearance of a particular work. There doesn't seem to be very much interest among Folio owners as to which impression of a book they have, except in the many cases where production quality has changed over time, often for the worse.

>19 thisGuy33: And how would one even tell?

Because the first printing clearly states "First Printing 2019" on the inside. That's it. No other differences. I am told that, for fantasy fans, this is a very Big Deal and will make their copy more valuable. I dare say if you believe in white walkers, dragons and whatever, swallowing that bit of marketing propaganda will come more easily.

>19 thisGuy33: Call me cynical but I think Folio are capitalizing on naive and casual collectors confusing "first printing" with first edition as if both terms are interchangeable. As >20 terebinth: points out first editions can command a premium for a subset of book collectors that specialize in first editions. "Printings" in Folio-speak I think is absolutely meaningless for those not dedicated to collecting FS editions.

After many a trouncing in the profit column, FS seems to have taken to producing LEs in batches, as they did with Gulliver's Travels, though it's possible they printed the sheets and held back on the binding. That is one of the few still produced in England, which may make such a process easier. In any case, I doubt that they would leave permanent evidence of second printing or binding to shellers-out of big bucks. My copy keeps mum.
For general publisher best-sellers you often see "second impression before publication" which is quite annoying if you've queued up for it on day one.

>22 wongie: that's what I was getting at ... 'first printing' who should really care. It's like if they had a title that they were only printing 8000 copies of ... and they did the printing in 4 runs of 2k ... does it really matter if you got a copy in the 1st or 4th run if there is nothing different.

I get 'limited' and 'special edition' and 1st/2nd 'editions' ... but 1st printing ... seems like nothing to have to rush for. Just my opinion.

>24 thisGuy33: 1st printing ... seems like nothing to have to rush for. Just my opinion.

It's a fine opinion with which I strongly agree.

>24 thisGuy33: Folio have been known to change design details between printings but, as others have noted, that's almost certainly not the case here. It's just a marketing ploy.

For books that do change sometimes the reason is obvious, for example cost savings on the downgrade from leather on History of Western Philosophy; but in other cases it's less so...examples which spring to mind being the cover colour change of Three Men in a Boat and the spine changes on the Gormenghast Trilogy.

The only time a first printing is important is for the true first edition. Usually not much if any differences in the book but it may be more valued by the market.

While it is always risky trying to predict the ways of the Folio Society, I think the upcoming sale has the potential to add a number of new titles to the list of sale books. Taking a guess, I think we are likely to see somewhere between 15-30 books make their first appearance in the sale and maybe more.

For those interested, here are the numbers behind the above thought. The January sale contained 124 titles (a little less than prior sales but in the same neighborhood). At the moment there are 118 titles available that have been in prior sales and they are sure to be the foundation of the sale. But 3-5 of those titles will likely sell out before the sale starts. Another 13 of those titles were “one-offs” from earlier sales and haven’t been in a sale since 2017. Further, FS tends to take some prior sale books out of every sale (as many as 10-20).

Another way to look at this is the success of the last sale. Looking back to the January 2019 sale, 48 titles sold out and then 40 new titles made their first appearance in the June 2019 sale. In the June 2019 sale, 30 titles sold out and then 22 titles first appeared at the outset of the January 2020 sale. By my count, 65 titles sold out in the January 2020 sale and another 9 titles sold out in the following weeks. In fact so many books sold out, that FS added 19 “first time” titles in the later days of the sale. Still, the success of the January sale also suggests a significant new influx of titles.

If you want to work up a wish list, recent sale patterns suggest that most of the new titles will come from books published in 2017 and 2018. So start your wish lists. If people are interested, I can post the names of the titles from 2015-2018 that haven’t sold out and have not yet been on sale.

I am! Good analysis

>28 Redshirt: If people are interested, I can post the names of the titles from 2015-2018 that haven’t sold out and have not yet been on sale.

Yes, indeed, I would be interested to see that. And I'll take the opportunity to say how very much I enjoy and appreciate your thoughtful, coherent Folio Sale analyses. Keep them coming!

>28 Redshirt: I can post the names of the titles from 2015-2018 that haven’t sold out and have not yet been on sale.

Thank you! If it's an easy feat it'd be greatly appreciated. Whatever the case I'll check my, rather long, wishlist for titles released between 2017-2018.

The following list excludes limited editions. Books are treated individually. Thus, for example, I’ve treated the Jane Austen books as never having been on sale even though Folio has offered them at a discounted price for the set. The following list covers 2015-2016 titles. 2017-2018 are longer so I will post them separately. Only one 2019 title has already been put on sale (Selfish Gene) so check out the wiki if you want the other titles. Based upon recent patterns, I’d expect most new titles to come from the 2016-2018 years with some from prior years and maybe a few 2019 titles. Start wishing and speculating. Of course, we could all wait and see but what fun is that.

2015
69 titles, 43 sold out, 20 previously on sale and 6 never yet on sale:

1. A Shilling for Candles.
2. Casino Royale.
3. Dune.
4. Emma
5. Folio Book of Ghost Stories, The
6. Sense and Sensibility

2016
59 titles, 22 sold out, 19 previously on sale and 18 never on sale:
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
2. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Collectable
3. Bayeux Tapestry, The: The Life Story of a Masterpiece
4. Folio Science Fiction Anthology, The.
5. From Russia with Love.
6. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Collectable
7. Greatest Benefit to Mankind, The: A Medical History of Humanity from Antiquity to the Present.
8. I, Robot.
9. Joseph Banks, A Life.
10. Love Lies Bleeding.
11. Mort.
12. Mostly Harmless.
13. Nursery Rhyme Book, The by Andrew Lang.
14. Persuasion.
15. Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic.
16. Selected Poems by Emily Dickinson. Introduced.
17. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.
18. Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall.

2017
65 titles, 21 sold out, 25 previously on sale, 19 never yet on sale:
1. American Gods.
2. Call of Cthulhu, The.
3. Defeat Into Victory - Field Marshal Viscount Slim.
4. Dr. No.
5. East of Eden.
6. Ghost Stories.
7. Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years.
8. Handmaid’s Tale, The.
9. Jeeves and Wooster Stories.
10. Little Prince, The.
11. Locked Room Mysteries, The.
12. Mansfield Park.
13. Moonraker.
14. One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The.
15. Revelations of Divine Love.
16. Rumi: Selected Poems.
17. She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth.
18. War of the Worlds, The.
19. Winnie-the-Pooh.

2018
63 titles, 2 sold out, 13 previously on sale, 48 never on sale:
1. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
2. Alchemist, The by Paolo Coelho.
3. Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The by Michael Chabon.
4. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell.
5. Bomber Command by Max Hastings.
6. Captain James Cook: The Journals 1768–1779 (3v.).
7. Daughter of Time, The by Josephine Tey
8. Diamonds Are Forever by Ian Fleming.
9. Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World by Niall Ferguson.
10. Fables of Aesop, The.
11. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy.
12. Folio Anthology of Horror Stories, The.
13. Folio Book of Children's Poetry, The.
14. Four Gospels, The illustrated by Eric Gill.
15. Golden Bough, The: A Study in Magic and Religion by Sir James George Frazer. (2v.).
16. Goldfinger by Ian Fleming.
17. Hangman's Holiday by Dorothy L. Sayers.
18. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. (3v.).
19. Hornblower Saga, The: Mr Midshipman Hornblower; Lieutenant Hornblower and Hornblower and the Hotspur by C. S. Forester. (3v.).
20. How to See Fairies. Illustrated and written by Charles van Sandwyk.
21. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson.
22. Japanese Tales. Introduced by Royall Tyler.
23. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy.
24. Left Hand of Darkness, The by Ursula K. Le Guin.
25. Letters of Vincent Van Gogh.
26. Maigret Set: Maigret and the Calame Report; Maigret and the Saturday Caller Maigret and the Wine Merchant by Georges Simenon. (3v.).
27. Mayor of Casterbridge, The by Thomas Hardy.
28. Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life by George Eliot.
29. Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey.
30. Night by Elie Wiesel.
31. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.
32. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.
33. Outlaws of the Marsh: The Water Margin by Shi Nai’an. (2v.).
34. Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West by Tom Holland.
35. Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám by Edward FitzGerald.
36. Selected Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The by Arthur Conan Doyle.
37. Snow Leopard, The by Peter Matthiessen.
38. South Polar Times. Introduced by Ann Savours.
39. S.P.Q.R. A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard.
40. Spy's Bedside Book, The by Graham Greene & Hugh Greene.
41. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein.
42. Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith.
43. Summer: A Folio Anthology.
44. Tales of the Greek Heroes: Retold from the Ancient Authors by Roger Lancelyn Green.
45. Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy.
46. Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England, The by Ian Mortimer.
47. Vikings, The by Gwyn Jones.
48. Yangtze Valley and Beyond, The by Isabella Bird.

>32 Redshirt: for what it's worth, I wouldn't expect many (if any) from the sci-fi/fantasy or the Bonds to go on sale. Interesting list though, will be interesting to see what turns up in the end. Thanks for your hard work!

>32 Redshirt:

Thanks for the comprehensive and very interesting lists. What they tell me is I can expect very little in the sale that I don't already have or definitely don't want but it's been like that for a few years now.

>32 Redshirt: Thanks for that list it is absolutely brilliant! I would just say that on the 2016 list number 10, Love Lies Bleeding was actually in the Dec 2019 sale - I bought it here -

Love Lies Bleeding LLB £8.70 Ordered1

>36 folio_books: After a few years of buying I'm starting to find myself in the same position. Still there are a handful of titles I'd love to see hit the sale.

>37 woollymasters: You are, of course, correct. I just missed it. Less wine for me today.

So based on a cursory read it appears that only certain titles go on sale, not the entire shop. How much of a discount is there on sale books? Is it 10%? 40%? Or does it vary? I'm new to this seller and I'm not sure what to expect.

>39 DubiouslyDarling:

It varies wildly. 10-80% sometimes. However, some of the most successful sales have been 50% off all of the titles involved and they've been involving quite a few in recent years. Short answer is; there is no definitive answer.

>40 Cubby.R.S.: Ah! So a total surprise! I suppose I shall wait until the sale then before making my next order, as long as nothing I want hits the last chance list.

>39 DubiouslyDarling: The Summer Sale these past few years has been a Half Price Sale if I recall correctly. The New Year's Sale can go anywhere and everywhere. As a measure of thumb, I like to think that older books are often discounted more during the NYS (50% in Summer, 60+% during NYS), whereas more recent books are a better deal during the Summer Sale (50% in summer, 20-30% during NYS).

>32 Redshirt: Redshirt; thank you so much, exceptionally kind of you.

Just confirmed, the Summer Sale will start on the 24th.

Confirmed? Where? I missed it.

I personally asked FS rep :)

Will the shipping cost be back to normal then?

Shipping costs aren't going up until July 1st, right? And that's if you use Royal Mail, so would express be affected if they are using DHL?

>46 folioaddict: Thanks! They’ve been hinting on social media. I like it when someone comes right out and gives a straight answer.

Thank you folioaddict!

👍

>51 folioaddict:
The express postage to Australia is $100, is it possible to ask your FS rep if they will go back to regular postage by the sale?

>52 Jobasha:
It is unlikely that regular postage will return until our international borders open and high frequency air travel (and therefore air freight) resumes between UK and Australia. At present it takes 11 weeks for a single book posted in the UK to reach Australia by standard mail, which is unacceptable for relatively valuable books such as those published by the FS.

Save up your orders, and order twice a year during the sales, to amortise your delivery costs across as many books as possible.

>53 wcarter:
Thanks! I thought as much.

My Summer Sale circular arrived in the mail today. Included in the sale, all at half off, are:

The House at Pooh Corner
The Complete Poems for Christopher Robin
Peter Pan and Wendy
Anne of Avonlea
The Little White Horse
Five Children and It
The Railway Children
The Mark of the Horse Lord
War Horse
Stig of the Dump
The King Must Die
The Bull From the Sea
Chinese Fairy Tales & Fantasies
A Story as Sharp as a Knife
African Folktales
The Fables of Aesop
The Selfish Giant and Other Stories
Love Lies Bleeding
The Locked Room Mysteries
The Red House Mystery
Strangers on a Train
Famous Trials
The Spy's Bedside Book
Jude the Obscure
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Great Expectations
Voyages to the Moon and the Sun
Candide
Three Men on the Bummel
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
The Exorcist
The Folio Book of Ghost Stories
Steppenwolf
Fahrenheit 451
Atlas Shrugged
A Farewell to Arms
Under Fire
Parade's End
Empire of the Sun
Every Man for Himself
The Blue Flower
The Comedians
A Kestrel for a Knave
Cleopatra
Nicholas and Alexandra
A Life in Letters and Diaries - Orwell
Joseph Banks
Period Piece
Shakespeare (by Burgess)
The Grasmere Journal
Richard III
The Last White Rose
The Bayeux Tapestry
Gods, Graves, and Scholars
The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England
Big Chief Elizabeth
The Prince in Splendour
The Pre-Raphaelite Tragedy
The World Turned Upside Down
The House of Borgia
Ten Days that Shook the World
The Age of Gold
Behind the Wall
Love and War in the Apennines
Tommy
The Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution
Berlin: The Downfall 1945
The Great Escape
The Dam Busters
Reach for the Sky
No Cloak, No Dagger
The Spanish Civil War
The Zimmerman Telegram
A Writer at War
The Golden Bough
The Qu'ran
In Praise of Folly
Revelations of Divine Love
Burns - Selected Poems & Sings
Twelfth Night
Akhmatova - Selected Poems
the Seasons Anthologies
An Omelette and a Glass of Wine
The Gastronomical Me
The Folio Book of Food and Drink
The Elegant Universe
Riddley Walker (LE)
Plants of the Americas (LE)
The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana (LE)

edited to add London & New York (LE), and to correct a misspelling

The circular says that the sale will end on August 6, and more titles will be made available on line.

Thank you so much for the heads up, which allows me (for one!) to plan my purchases and be quick out of the starting gate.

Hmm, interesting to see that The Time Traveller's Guide To Elizabethan England will NOT be going on sale, despite it being one of the mystery books. Perhaps it will be one of the "Online exclusives".

>55 coynedj: Nothing on my wishlist somehow. Oh well!

Ones I want the most:

The Golden Bough
The Qu'ran
Voyages to the Moon and the Sun
Candide
Stig of the Dump
The King Must Die
Steppenwolf
Fahrenheit 451
Chinese Fairy Tales & Fantasies
The Locked Room Mysteries
Gods, Graves, and Scholars
Richard III
The Last White Rose
The House of Borgia
Nicholas and Alexandra
Akhmatova - Selected Poems
Five Children and It

Thank you, this is awesome!

Thanks very much writing these all out. Must have taken a while!

Not a single title from my wish list went on sale, unfortunately.

Still, I suppose I'll be picking up at least Fahrenheit. I had wanted a pre-updated colophon copy but the price is too good to pass up.

>55 coynedj:

Thanks for the heads-up. Out of all those titles there is only one I don't already have and "kind of" want. They include the Golden Bough. which I received on April 16, panicking in case it sold out and never made it to a sale.

Thanks for the list. I am glad there are only few books from my wishlist so I can save money for now. Please ignore my ignorance, I would like to know why so many people are interested in The Golden Bough? I know the topic of the book and it seems interesting but what makes it special?

Not too many from my wish list, and none that were in the order I just placed, thankfully. Of the ones on the list, I will be picking up:

Berlin: The Downfall 1945
The Dam Busters
Reach for the Sky
The Gastronomical Me
Locked Room Mysteries
Strangers on a Train

Can somebody tell me where this printing of Ten Days that Shook the World was done? Many thanks in advance.

I will definitely be picking up Peter Pan and Wendy! Can't believe that made a sale

>55 coynedj: many thanks.. This is going to be an interesting sale, to say the least! There are at least 10 titles I'm interested in, though I'm pretty sure I will pick up a copy of Riddley Walker. I've been on the fence before and at this price I cannot resist any longer.

Is half off enough to finally move Plants of the Americas?

>55 coynedj: coynedj: Thank you very much!

Sale items I will purchase:

Anne of Avonlea
The Locked-Room Mysteries
The Red House Mystery
Love Lies Bleeding

Full price items:

I, Robot
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Five Little Pigs

Painful to see so many titles among these that I’ve paid full price for! There’s small handful of bargains here for me though. I’ve been waiting for Bayeux Tapestry to go on sale.

The lesson is: never buy outside of a sale unless it’s a title you simply must own now, or it appears on the low stock page.

Thank you so much!

>66 NYCFaddict: Can somebody tell me where this printing of Ten Days that Shook the World was done?

My copy (fourth printing, 2017, from an earlier sale) is from C & C Offset in China. No problems with printing, binding or scent.

Parade's End is probably my only serious temptation here.

Thank you.

I've actually been waiting patiently for Three Men on the Bummel since it came out. Might pick up The Bayeaux Tapestries as well.

I’ll pick up Berlin. I think I already have everything else that interests me.

>71 LondonLawyer: I’ve been waiting for Bayeux Tapestry as well.

I’ll probably take this opportunity of pick up all of the Thomas Hardy, Revelations of Divine Love, Bayeux, Age of Gold and Oliver Twist.

Heck of a deal on Atlas Shrugged. Just not sure I want it even if I love the sisters who illustrated it.

From my wish list of about 50 books only four turned up here and I’ll probably only buy two with a 50% discount. Interestingly a number of books also included in the New Year sale are significantly more expensive - Love Lies Bleeding was 75% off at £8.95, the same discount of 75% for An Omlette and a Glass of Wine which was £9.95, 80% off the Last White Rose £7.95 and 80% off Behind the Wall also for £7.95 and so on. There seem to be relatively few outstandingly good deals, for me at least.

Perhaps the online only sale will offer more.

I'm interested in only a couple, so I won't be buying until they resume normal postage -- I'd be paying full price essentially. I'm receiving books from other UK sources through Royal Mail - Canada Post with no noticeable delay.
I can see why FS would like to keep courier service; much fewer "lost" volumes that have to be replaced at their cost.

>55 coynedj: coynedj Thanks for the update. Any idea when the sale will start?

Wow! >55 coynedj: Thanks for the heads up... time to sort myself out and think before the sale...

There are a few from my wishlist, nothing from Beard or Holland though

The Golden Bough
Fahrenheit 451
Reach for the Sky (I lived in Tangmere as a boy and spent many afternoons larking around in the derelict airfield. DB came to the village in 82 just before his death for the opening of the Bader Arms. He hated his portrait on the pub sign and insisted it be changed - cantankerous to the end)
Bayeux Tapestry
The Exorcist

Plus a full price Cthulhu

>77 Sorion: agree with you about having severe reservations despite the Balbussos. I read the Fountainhead in my 20s without stopping but didn’t make it 5 pages into Atlas Shrugged. I was half expecting to see this on Gove’s notorious bookcase alongside his other books of more dubious repute...

What exactly does the online only sale mean? Surprise extra titles that wouldn't be mentioned in the circular with heads up?

I am still a bit confused about how FS works in terms of reprinting. Here, I've been told to watch out because during the sales many of the items that aren't discounted get sold out too and that's it. But while checking the wiki page and the catalogues, a lot of the more classic novels (fiction, children's lit. in particular) seem to have been released for the first time many years ago, in exactly the same design and with the same illustrations.
So my question is whether there is a way to tell if certain titles, despite possibly getting sold out without being discounted right now, could still make it back and be bought in the future with no stress.

For instance, it seems The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has been around for some time in this design (and was on sale a few times) but right now is only offered at full price. Is it that however many copies they originally printed, they still haven't run out and if I pass on it now that might be it? Or do they actually reprint the most notorious, well-loved stories periodically?

My other question is more to do with the popular but pricier editions, such as American Gods or His Dark Materials. Is there any point hoping they are ever gonna get discounted or no chance? Atlas Shrugged is clearly going to and is in the same price range but then I guess it hasn't been adapted into a popular TV show.

Wow, thankyou coynedj! From this list there are four I'd like:

The Golden Bough (of course)
In Praise Of Folly
Revelations of Divine Love
Age Of Gold

...which would be just right to fit my pocket except as it sounds like there are also going to be some online only additions I don't think it'll stay that way for long...

I've had the kicking myself moment over Bayeux Tapestry which I bought full price 18 months ago. Still on my TBR pile but a sumptuous volume and I'm surprised it's even got to a sale.

Welp. I just bought The Golden Bough at full price. But so it goes. It's a beautiful book in any case. Well worth the investment.

>82 santiamen: Online only sale titles aren't in the paper brochure that's mailed out, but are included in the sale as viewed on the website. Some will appear as soon as the sale gets underway, usually under a subheading, but in past sales additional titles were added to the sale later, which is annoying for those of us that have hefty shipping fees.

Regarding reprinting: There's really no way to know for sure if, and how often, FS will reprint a title. Sometimes people ask and get an answer, but depending on the CS agent it may or may not be accurate, in my experience. Popular titles, like some of the children's books and the Tolkein set, have been reprinted many times. On the other hand, most of us who have been buying for a while have books we regret missing out on that went out of print unexpectedly and have not been reprinted. Reprints can happen right away (The Hobbit) or with some years in between (The Vikings).

Popular editions are less likely to be in the sales, and if they are on sale are more likely to be only modestly discounted. According to the wiki, His Dark Materials was in a sale back in 2016, but hasn't been since. I would be surprised to see American Gods turn up in one. Like any retailer, FS presumably uses sales to move slow-moving inventory, so there's no reason to include anything selling well.

>82 santiamen:

Re Online Exclusives: There are usually quite a few titles from other publishers in the sales – perhaps some will appear there, and, Folio titles of such low quantities there is little point in including them in the printed catalogue.

There are indeed titles from other publishers offered in the circular, which I did not add to my list above. I did note that there was no mention of when the sale would start, so I must assume that the circular was expected to arrive in my mailbox after the start date. Due to a welcome display of speed on the part of the postal service it arrived ahead of schedule. I assume also that the June 24 start date mentioned by >44 folioaddict: above is accurate.

I will pick up The Golden Bough as well as Steppenwolf.
Would also appreciate anyone that owns the folio Golden Bough to the quality of the production and if the abridged version stilts the layout or flow of the book.

Sale titles on my wishlist which I plan to buy:

The Dam Busters
Reach for the Sky
Strangers on a Train
The Golden Bough
Mark of the Horse Lord
Period Piece

I'm also taking a second look at Locked Room Mysteries. If anyone has feedback about this set, I'd be hapy to hear it. I generally like golden age mysteries (Christie, Tey, etc). I don't always find short story mysteries satisfying.

>71 LondonLawyer: If its any consolation to you many of the books that I had bought at full price are in sale now. I also pay a 50% customs duty on the books. But I don't regret buying them early because I was able to read some of them and also I don't know when I'll be in the mood to read a particular book. So having lots of books helps. Also many times having a book two years earlier matters. Also overtime one cannot help buying books before they hit sales. So cheer up!! :-)

Brings home to me how occasional a Folio customer I've been for quite some time now: of 92 items on the sale list there are only eight I already have. Two LEs, two books bought at full price, two from previous sales and a couple of free gifts.

>85 wdripp: Thank you for clarifying things for me.

It's been mentioned here a few times that something some of you wanted was sold out and out of print. I am worried about one thing then - do titles ALWAYS appear in the "Last chance to buy" category before it's too late? I wouldn't mind only jumping on a title when it's obvious it might be gone forever (luckily I'm located in the UK so shipping wouldn't be too bad) but I'm still not sure whether I can 100% rely on knowing in advance the title might be gone soon.

>92 santiamen: they've reworked the Last Chance to Buy page quite often. Currently, it looks to be sort of up to date. There are no guarantees however that a title will appear there before selling out, even though that page annoyingly implies that it will.

As always: if you want a book, buy it. Books usually do not sell out in 2 years or less, so you're safe for the 2019 and 2020 titles.

I might grab the Hardys and the Dickens.
But otherwise, there's nothing that catches the eye. Thankfully, as I've bought quite a few books at full price recently, becayse they were selling out.

Sale is still not appearing on the US web site yet. I also still cannot log in so will need to create a new account. Any idea when the sale will launch? Pleasantly surprised to find no fewer than 5 titles from my wish list. In previous sales I've bemoaned when they included none from my then current wish list, so must recognize that this is a greater number for me than typical:

Berlin
Revelations of Divine Love
Exorcist
Three Men on the Bummel
Under Fire

Non-wish list titles I will consider:

The Golden Bough (resisted previously because have the LEC edition)
Ridley Walker (not a fan of the design but it gets so much praise on here might be worth trying at 50% off)

>95 UK_History_Fan: I have both Revelations and Under Fire, and recommend both, especially the former

At first nothing jumped out (I already own almost all of the fiction and some of the non fiction), but thinking of

The Golden Bough
Ahkmatova Poems (though have previously resisted out of hesitation of value of translation of poems...)
Orwell letters

Sucks to have to pay full price shipping. Hopefully the online exclusives will have some interesting additions.

>55 coynedj:

Thanks for the list!

Looks to be a reasonable sale, but moving on in Folio years makes sales less effective. I will begin to enact my new policy of buying books en bulk during sales, so I'll grab the full price titles I fancy and a couple of sale items for my little people.

Some titles you won't see in sales, because their existence is a valuable marketing tool for Folio. I suppose the Lovecraft might be one of those that I'll be paying full price for.

>36 folio_books: I can expect very little in the sale that I don't already have or definitely don't want but it's been like that for a few years now.

I've now had the chance to take a detailed look and I find that, of 92 titles listed, I own 86 of them. The reason I don't own any of the remaining six is they are of no interest. Conclusion: for the first time that I can recall I'll not be buying any books in a Folio sale. Perhaps some of the promised later additions might appeal to me but there'll not be the usual order on day one.

Newbies, fill your boots :)

>99 folio_books:

I don't own quite as many as you but, I must admit, most of what is on offer is not grabbing me. Maybe half a dozen of interest.

The last sale was much more exciting, personally speaking. Still, interesting times, we shouldn't be too harsh :-)

>55 coynedj: Thanks so much for taking the time to compile the list - I have spent part of my morning updating my Wish List - a few volumes that I would not have purchased at full price are appearing in the Sale, I would say most of what I'll purchase would be on my "second tier" set of "wants" - mainly books I would never pay full price for, but am quite happy to pay half-price for, so it should be a good haul! Still unsure about the New York/London LE - I am very interested, but passed when they were on sale a few months ago, they're still too expensive for me unless they'd be more than half-off which I just can't see happening.

>89 wdripp: I have the Locked Room Mystery set - I really like them - I think the three novels are classics of the genre and I really like the heft of the books and the way the book has been bound, they are very well made books and I paid full price for them, but wouldn't hesitate for a second to get them half-off. Good novels, well made books, and half the regular cost - they're worth it!

Very impressive 50%-off sale, with a wide variety of choices and some exceptional books. Clearly, the most popular titles did not appear, e.g., American Gods, The Call of Cthulhu, Howl's Moving Castle, etc., nor should they, as they are selling briskly without a sale.

The FS website continues to amaze, and not in a positive way. Looking through all sales titles is a chore with the current search functionality: I just entered Strangers on a Train, which had 0 results. Strangers on a, however, found the Patricia Highsmith novel without issue...

Edit to add: Anyone here have a strong opinion on Candide? I've been on the fence for that title for at least 3 sales now...

I can’t see the sale even if I log in. Is there a start date for it?

It's Wednesday DMulvee, the 24th.

> 55 Thanks for taking the time to provide the list. For those disappointed, the "on-line exclusives" may provide some nice additional choices. By way of comparison, in the recent January sale, the catalog included 82 Folio books and 42 more were only listed on line. If recent patterns hold, those "on-line" books will primarily be longtime sale books with low inventory but may well include a few more recent titles with a low inventory. Warning to newbies, you can't count on a "first time on sale" book lasting. Each of the last three sales included a number of books that sold out the first time they were put on sale: 3 in January 2019, 5 in June 2019, and 12 in January 2020. And, remember, FS added 19 books to the January sale in a second wave.

> 104 I think there was confirmation earlier in this chain that the sale will start on Wednesday. (Recent FS sales all started on a Wednesday.)

What I'm curious to know is does the sale start at Midnight in London of the day of? Or do you have to wait for an email to go out? And If it does start London at Midnight, would the US website have the sale start as well in their corresponding time zone?

>107 DubiouslyDarling: Folio stuff tends to come online between 10am and 12pm on the day of the event

>107 DubiouslyDarling: I’m also curious to know of the exact start time; I’m in Canada.

>105 Retronaut78: >106 Redshirt: Thanks!

I've whittled down my list to 5 editions I want to buy badly from this sale:

The Golden Bough

Stig of the Dump

Fahrenheit 451

Chinese Fairy Tales & Fantasies

The Locked Room Mysteries

>100 Cat_of_Ulthar: The last sale was much more exciting, personally speaking. Still, interesting times, we shouldn't be too harsh :-)

Oh, I don't blame Folio at all. Rather I'm berating myself for my impetuosity and profligacy which together have allowed me to spend many hundreds of pounds more than necessary. I've tried to cut back on my Folio budget over the last couple of years but I'm not seeing the dividend yet. Time to pull in the belt another notch and follow the good sense expressed thus:

>71 LondonLawyer: The lesson is: never buy outside of a sale unless it’s a title you simply must own now, or it appears on the low stock page.

Excellent. Until now the stumbling block has appeared at the words "must own now". This is where I need to rethink.

>112 folio_books: Let us know how that works out for you. We've all been there, and yet here we still are ;-)

>103 Fierylunar: I’m a big fan of Candide, both the work itself and the FS treatment..

It’s the perfect size to actually read, yet the weighty paper makes it feel dense and substantial. Blake seems to be quite a polarising figure, yet here his style complements the narrative perfectly even if you don’t like him, I feel (maybe like the way David Hughes succeeds imo in OFOTCN)

It was my first fine edition and so also has that extra sentimental value

>107 DubiouslyDarling: in my experience, it usually starts at 9 AM in London, so 3 AM in Chicago

>103 Fierylunar: I have a blog post and video about Candide that you can see here: https://ubiquitousbooks.wordpress.com/2020/05/22/candide/

I found the novel itself to be remarkably modern in its outlook, quite readable, and also quite amusing. So I'd gladly recommend it. It's just a shame they have that glossy Arctic Volume paper.

>115 jsg1976: Excellent! So I should be able to put my order in first thing in the morning! Two books in my wishlist are in the sale (Strangers on a Train and Nicholas and Alexandra), and I think I'll pick up Peter Pan and Wendy too, as I was interested, but not at full price LOL.

Can anyone provide any insight into the quality of the Bayeux Tapestry volume includes in the sale? I saw a very brief comparison in one of Warwick’s posts about the earlier, smaller, FS edition (https://www.librarything.com/topic/268635#6164424) but I haven’t been able to find much about the new version.

What do you think the odds are we'll see Sci-Fi/ Fantasy books in the sale? 2001 or Wizard of Earthsea for instance?

Should I just go ahead and buy full price?

>118 jsg1976: The Bayeux Tapestry book itself is very well made, but nonetheless I was disappointed when I first received it. I was expecting the balance of the book to have large reproductions of the tapestry with the narrative explained below. As it is, only 66 pages of nearly 400 have this material, and the images from the tapestry are relatively small on the page (less than a third of the page). The rest of the book tells the story of the making of the tapestry and it’s place in history. As time has passed, the book has grown on me as the text sections are interesting. But it would have helped to know what I was getting to avoid the initial disappointment.

>116 ubiquitousuk: Thanks for the link, I enjoyed your other entries in the series...!

>118 jsg1976:

It's a well-made book, as you would expect from FS, but I second >120 Chemren:'s remarks on the size of reproduction. I would always recommend the 1985 Thames & Hudson large-format slipcased edition of The Bayeux Tapestry : The Complete Tapestry in Colour. You can see the individual stitches in the "Tapestry" quite clearly in the much larger illustrations of the whole thing from end to end:

https://www.librarything.com/work/170312/details/51032080

I'm tempted by Three Men on the Bummel at half price, mainly because of Paul Cox's involvement. But one of the reviews says: ""Brilliant illustrations, but awful quality of printing as for The Folio Society..." I note that this was printed in China. (Before anyone leaps on that comment, please note that I have scores of well-printed-in-China books on my shelves.) Can anyone comment on how the printing compares with, say, one of the Cox Wodehouse? Any opinions on the general quality of the printing of Bummel? I am extremely short of shelf space right now, so have to be very picky about what I add.

Can someone tell me where The Complete Poems for Christopher Robin was printed? Also, Winnie-the-Pooh (yes, I know it won't be on sale)?

Thanks for the help!

>120 Chemren: >122 boldface: Thanks. Looks like I'm on the hunt for the slipcased T&H book instead

>120 Chemren: >122 boldface: >125 jsg1976:
The T&H edition is the best I know of, and is very reasonably priced on the secondary market.
My copy can be seen here.

>126 wcarter: Thanks!

>120 Chemren: Thank you! I have the older FS Bayeux tapestry and was weighing up whether I should go for the newer one, I think your description has helped make up my mind (there are already enough titles in my basket and I haven’t finished reading all my FS from my previous order!)

>120 Chemren: >122 boldface: and >126 wcarter: Thanks for sharing, as very useful.

>123 NYCFaddict: Any opinions on the general quality of the printing of Bummel?

When I received the 'Bummel', I was surprised by the size of it. Didn't expect it to be that big. And it feels very sturdy. Great binding in cloth.
Printing looks good to me, but the paper is the most ugly paper ever used for a FS book, compared to all the other books I have from FS. It looks like the sort of paper that would very quickly turn yellow at the sides.

Just received from Folio, via email:

The good news? We're going to bring the sale forward and get it up online early, so more chance to buy bargainous books. The sale prices should be available online later today.

Just been emailing Andrew in CS. I am , like many others, unable to log in to my account. So a Sale is going live that many of their customers will not be able to access. I foresee the FS will not be around very much longer if they cannot sort this out quickly.

>132 N11284: I just tried to log in and I got 502 Bad Gateway error. I just sent them an email about this issue. Let see if they will be able to fix it before the start of sale.

Oh well. I was able to login with my other account. Strange issue!

The sale is up on the site for me

No sign of it yet on the international website.

Edit: Found the link with the way dwursten described bellow.

>135 dwursten: Where exactly? When I to to foliosociety.com/uk/sale it only shows 2 titles and when refreshing the page they are always 2 different ones.

Edit: Nevermind, got it. It seems to be the titles announced beforehand. Do you think they will add anything else then or it is not a rule?

There's a tab next to limited editions that says sale, when I click on it, there are 119 titles

sale order placed! I love the children's fiction selection in this sale so I went for

Peter Pan and Wendy
Five Children and It
The Railway Children
The Little White Horse
Fables of Aesop
Mark of the Horse Lord

Do you think there is any chance The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, A Clockwork Orange or Lord of the Flies gets added to the sale at any point or it's better not to risk hoping?

Up and fully visible in Australia.
Click on Sale icon at top of home page, but you may need to refresh a couple of times to get full list.

Placed an order for 10 books. Very pleased in particular about The Golden Bough and Atlas Shrugged

>141 wcarter: Thanks for the heads-up Warwick,

I got straight on the order line but have now discovered the FS stopped doing split payments at the start of the year...

Gah! Payday’s on Wednesday - I need to make it worthwhile what with the additional shipping costs plus tax etc

Thank you all for the heads up!

Just placed an order:

Fahrenheit 451
Voyages to the Moon and the Sun
Steppenwolf
The Selfish Giant and Other Stories
Chinese Fairy Tales & Fantasies

This was a good sale for me—twelve books in all, including a few that I was seriously tempted to pay full price for when they came out but decided to wait for the sale instead. I’m particularly looking forward to The Golden Bough and Revelations of Divine Love. The greater challenge will be to see what goes in my library donation pile—my household has a strict one in, one out rule, so I’ll have to find 12 candidates!

I didn't notice any on-line exclusives, beyond what was in the circular. Am I missing something?

-edit. There it is. No banner though.

Can anyone recommend Strangers on a Train?

Thanks for letting us know! Btw my old account suddenly seems to be working again. I guess they made an effort to fix the issue, rather than risk a deluge of sale login complaints.

Just placed an order for:
- The Golden Bough (perhaps the bargin of the sale which, judging by the interest expresssed above, might not last long...)
- The Locked-Room Mysteries (seems intriguing and great value at half price)
- Joseph Banks
- Fahrenheit 451
- Aesop's Fables
- The Complete Poems of Christoper Robin
- Five Children and It
- The World at Night (non FS)

I was hoping for a new more newer titles (Gun's, Germs and Steel, where are you?), but overall very pleased with that haul.

>146 coynedj:

When the sale went live there was an Online Exclusives sub-heading with six or eight titles listed, but, it has since disappeared.

>148 Levin40: "Btw my old account suddenly seems to be working again."

I'm astonished! I've just checked and so is mine, for the first time in months.

I placed my sale order a short while ago on my new account but it's still nice to see the old one back in action, for the past order history if nothing else.

>148 Levin40:

Can I ask what region are you logging in to. I'm trying to log into ROW without success.

Quick and easy.

My order is in:

Nicholas and Alexandra
A Farewell to Arms
Behind the Wall
Berlin
The Exorcist
Great Expectations
The Qur'an

Express Delivery in order.....

Not happy with the sale tbh. Only 3 books in the cart so far. The book "Understanding Architecture" is listed at full price. Is that a mistake or a problem on my end? Can anyone confirm. Thanks.

Thanks for the heads up about the sale.
My order is in as well.

The Golden Bough
Steppenwolf
Fahrenheit 451
And The House at Pooh Corner for the better half.

The Cambridge History of the American Civil War looks interesting. Can anyone offer a view on this? I've not been able to find any online reviews.

So I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be placing an order, both because of the high cost of express shipping and because I have recently gotten into buying signed modern classics from EP. However, after perusing the sale quickly this morning I ended up ordering:

Chinese folktales and fantasies
A Story as Sharp as a Knife
The Golden Bough
Joseph Banks
Orwell Letters
A Farewell to Arms
Burns poems
Akhmatova poems

So fairly big haul. Admittedly not many must haves, but I will read and enjoy each and I like having a wide variety of literature in my library, both for myself and for my children (once they move on from Dr Seuss!).

>149 bookfair_e: Do you recall any of the titles? I don't want to place an order, and then find that I was too hasty and end up with multiple shipping charges.

Just ordered The Golden Bough as planned, and added Fahrenheit 451 as it’s a good price and I’ve never read it, plus Berlin as it sounds fascinating and I like the design.

Was very tempted by the Thomas Hardy set, The Bayeaux Tapestry, The Spanish Civil War... and a few others. But I resisted on the basis it’s only a bargain if you were going to buy it anyway (not true but a happy fiction for my wallet!).

>157 coynedj:

Only six titles and mostly other publishers - 1066 and all that is the only Folio I remember.

>156 RRCBS: That's interesting actually, I was wondering what people's approach here is to having their children around the expensive books. Do you let them near them?

I was critically checking the state of some (well-read) books from my own childhood (hardbacks, sewn) and it's a sorry sight, torn dustjackets, drawings in some, greasy stains because clearly they were enjoyed alongside with snacks. I was always told to put dustjackets away when reading, treat books nicely, not bend the corners etc. which I followed. I suppose I just never realised they can get destroyed in other ways. They cost about 4-6 quid though.

So it makes me mortified to imagine I pay over 40 quid for a children's book and my future imaginary kid unleashes its full personality on it. On the other hand, the whole point of the books is to be enjoyed, not locked away somewhere. It's just - can kids learn to enjoy them gently? :)

I placed my order:

The Golden Bough
Peter Pan and Wendy
Chinese Fairy Tales & Fantasies
Under Fire
The Planet of the Apes (non-sale)
The World According to Physics (non-Folio)

I would have loved to see The Princess Bride or Defeat Into Victory included in the sale, but my hopes were not realized.

I used standard shipping to the U.S. - the postal service was efficient in sending my circular, so we'll see how fast they can deliver the books.

>160 santiamen:

I'm a bit freer with my books than a lot of people here. If it's a standard-issue kid's book, my children have always had freedom to do with them mostly as they please. Little kids are clumsy and messy, but reading is essential, and I don't want them thinking of it as some chore where they have to be super careful or they'll get in trouble. Once a month, I take them to the local bookstore and let them pick out whatever title they want and that book is there's just as much as any toy they have.

That said, I do have some Folio children's books and those I ask to be treated more carefully. No food or drink around them and so on. But it generally works out because the books are gorgeous and the kids feel like they're getting a bit of a special privilege when they handle them. I bought my 10 yo her first Folio last Christmas (How to See Fairies), and it was a big hit. She's read through it probably a dozen times and it's still in perfect condition.

>160 santiamen: To be honest, I haven’t decided exactly how to approach this, as my kids are still quite young (3 and 1). I have all my books in our bedroom or the guest bedroom in bookcases with doors. So far the kids haven’t wanted to get at them and I’d be worried about the pulling books out since many of them are heavy. I’ll have to wait and see, but I agree with >162 Jason461: about not being too strict. I want them to feel the magic of reading, but also teach them to handle books gently.

Okay, the paper quality has put me off. Many thanks for taking the time to share your impressions.

As predicted, picked up:

Berlin: The Downfall 1945
The Dam Busters
Reach for the Sky
The Gastronomical Me
Locked Room Mysteries
Strangers on a Train

And added Life on Earth (non-FS)

Never had a sale go as smoothly as this one - had wish listed all I wanted from the sales list posted here a few days ago, moved across the titles into my basket when this thread told me the sale was live, and had the lot tied up and paid for within seconds.

Went for:

Golden Bough
Peter Pan and Wendy
Chinese Fairy Tales & Fantasies
The Fables of Aesop
The Selfish Giant and Other Stories
Strangers on a Train
The Mayor of Casterbridge
The Exorcist
Fahrenheit 451
The Qur’ân

Thanks to all the contributors to this thread for making my folio addiction dangerously efficient.

>147 adriano77: Great book, great binding and illustrations. I paid full price when I bought it and was very happy with my purchase.

An early collector's haul:

Candide
Dune
A Clockwork Orange
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
The Spy’s Bedside Book
The Lord of the Rings

>95 UK_History_Fan:
I find my previous intended order laughable given how many books I eventually bought. First of all, I am able to log into my account for the first time since Clash of Kings was released. I did nothing different so something must have been fixed on Folio's end. Second, I realized that while Under Fire was still in my Wish List, I actually purchased the book previously at a slight discount (should have waited for this much larger one!). It sits unread on my shelf, so there was nothing gained in paying more to get it here sooner. Embarrassingly, after placing my order, when entering the new titles into my database, I discovered that I re-ordered a book I already own (Red House Mystery). I called the generic customer service number and she was able to "correct" my order - we will see when the credit card charges actually hit, though I suspect it was successful, given the very short time between order placement on-line and when I called to adjust the order (less than 2 hours).

I am pleased to have cleared these long-standing titles off my wish list, if only I would have stopped there:

Berlin
Revelations of Divine Love
Exorcist
Three Men on the Bummel

To that I added many titles that were not on my wish list but I was willing to buy at 50% off (which just demonstrates how Folio can continue making money during these 50% off sales):

African Folktales
A Life in Letters and Diaries (George Orwell)
The Folio Book of Ghost Stories
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (my first, and maybe only, Folio Collectible)
A Kestrel for a Knave
Stig of the Dump
The Golden Bough
The Kremlin Letters (non-Folio)

As if that $421 was not enough to spend (and with no 4-part payment plan!), I elected for the first time to voluntarily pay the higher amount for Expedited Shipping ($51 vs $30). If there is any pattern I have discerned over my 20+ years as a Folio customer, it is that shipping damage is more likely to occur in a large order. In a previous sale I was gutted when several of my books arrived damaged and by the time they arrived the titles were out of print and there was no option of a replacement (though Folio quickly refunded the purchases). I decided I was ordering enough titles to justify the extra $20. Different carrier, hoping for no damage, but also hedging that if any are damaged, I can contact Folio for replacements before they sell out.

It seems that nearly everyone on here listing their order purchased The Golden Bough. Hopefully there is sufficient inventory to support this glut of orders.

As if I did not spend enough money, I also placed a separate order for Riddley Walker. I had no interest in this title when it was released (I find the design too akin to foxing as to be aesthetically pleasing, though I understand why Folio made this choice). Being a yank, I am not familiar with the story and given a design that I personally do not find attractive, it was an easy pass for me. But after a couple of years of that particular Folio LE receiving high praise on here I decided to bite the bullet at 50% off and am hoping I will not regret my decision. It is a rather expensive $285 experiment! But since I managed to pass up both the Tristram Shandy and Madame Bovary LEs, both titles I own in multiple other editions, I felt a little more justified in trying a title I do not own based on the high praise of this group. Then again, this group also offered high praise for Tristram and Bovary, so perhaps it is worth the reminder that "beauty is the in the eye of the beholder."

Very pleased with my haul, the Renaults were a surprise:

The Golden Bough
The King Must Die
The Bull From the Sea
Steppenwolf
The Selfish Giant and Other Stories
Fahrenheit 451
Gods, Graves and Scholars
A Writer at War
As You Like it (Oxford Shakespeare)

Thanks all for the expected enabling.

>169 UK_History_Fan: Shipping damage in a large order? Does this usually happen when shipping overseas or it's irrelevant how far the package has to travel? I've ordered 11 books and one of those is Atlas Shrugged so technically 13. Now I'm nervous.

>169 UK_History_Fan: I did nothing different so something must have been fixed on Folio's end.

I am informed they finally reverted to the ancient and venerable technical solution of, quote, switching it off then switching it on again.

ordered:
Locked Room Mysteries
Mark of the Horse Lord
Golden Bough
Dambusters
Peter Pan and Wendy
Five Children and It
House at Pooh Corner
Complete Poems for Christopher Robin

wont be ordering anything else for a while, as also purchased Studies From Nature yesterday, before it sells out!!

anyone sat on the fence for Riddley Walker needs to jump and buy it now, I think it's the bargain of the sale (again) and may sell out this time.

>167 RRCBS:

Yeah, the design/art definitely caught my eye. Will probably throw it into any order.

-

I see lots of takers for Golden Bough. I typically avoid abridged works. In this case, it seems a fairly hefty cut. Is anyone familiar with this particular one? Has anything important been left out?

Simple order: The golden bough and behind the wall.

I was hoping for Yangtze valley and Japanese tales

As a relatively new collector, I found quite a few books in this sale on my wish list.

Order placed:

A Farewell to Arms
Peter Pan and Wendy
Steppenwolf
The Elegant Universe
The Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution
Voyages to the Moon and the Sun
Great Expectations
Atlas Shrugged
A Life in Letters and Diaries
A Story as Sharp as a Knife
Behind the Wall
Berlin
Nicholas and Alexandra
The Age of Gold
The Folio Book of Ghost Stories
The Golden Bough
Under Fire
Chinese Fairy Tales & Fantasies
Gods, Graves and Scholars
Tommy
The Selfish Giant and Other Stories

Still thinking about Riddley Walker.

Regarding damage in large orders, my last order had a damaged slipcase. Mort was on the bottom of the box with about 8 smaller books stacked on top. CS replaced it no questions asked.

Ordered four titles this afternoon (Golden Bough, Chinese Fairy Tales, Fahrenheit 451 and Five Children & It) and just received the shipping confirmation. Think 4 hours is a record for Folio, from my experience!

Since I'm new to the Folio site there were several books in this sale that I don't own. I purchased 23 books! And if I include all the books in sets I have 27 books coming my way. They were shipped 1 hour and 20 minutes later! That's a BIG box being delivered 4700 miles. What is Folio's limit to split an order into multiple boxes?

>178 TTHLBL:

Being marked as shipped and being actually shipped are two different things :)

These will be split -- even their biggest boxes won't keep that many books so I would expect 3 or even 4 boxes to be coming your way (unless you have a lot of the thinner books - then 2 boxes may work.

>177 EuanM: I placed my order just under four hours ago and received my shipping notification two and a half hours later! Folio certainly seem to have all hands on deck today.

My shipping confirmation came 26 minutes after order confirmation which is definitely a record for me!

Normal orders they usually ship in the evening. Probably around 6 PM something. So whether I order at 10 AM or 5 PM, they ship it around that time. Priority orders are different story. At least that what I have noticed on normal days.

The Golden Bough was the clear-cut no-brainer for me. This is the FS at their formidable best. To justify the shipping costs I added in Neil Gaiman's 'American Gods' at full price. Remarkably, shipping confirmation e-mail was sent within 12 hours after I placed my order for standard shipping.

I placed a small order for a few kids books. Riddley Walker is still up for debate. As I was reading it previously, I found that; growing up in Pennsylvania I have talked to people as ignorant sounding as the characters in that book, I may be related to a few.

>174 adriano77:

The FS edition of The Golden Bough is one in which a rigorous and judicious abridgement makes great sense. For me, it also made sense in the recent FS edition of 'Essays of Montaigne'. It should certainly not dissuade you from purchase.

First sale for me..
Golden bough- hoping as nice as comments suggest
Atlas shrugged
Voyages to the Moon and Sun
The House at Pooh Corner
The Selfish Giant
Fahrenheit 451
African Folktales

And full price for the shipping
The Princess Bride (seems low in stock though not marked yet)
2001 (getting low)

Can’t believe I went for the 2 sets as Atlas is not a favorite but got it for the s/o mostly because of the illustrations and being in 3 volumes should be easier to read.

Looking forward to it!

Placed my order, decided to hold back on a couple that I originally intended, they weren't on the top of my list and, if they add more books later in the sale, as they have done in the past, then I'll have more justification to place another order, since I'll include them :)

I ordered:

Parade's End
The Dam Busters
Berlin
Peter Pan and Wendy
The Fables of Aesop (I think I received that one in my original membership free gift years ago, but I gave those books to some friends who had just had a child, so can't remember)
The Great Escape
Famous Trials
The Railway Children
Atlas Shrugged

I also decided to order the New York/London LE - I passed on it when it was half price a couple of months ago, and I know there are mixed feelings for it, but I really am drawn to it, so figured I would pick it up and not let the half-price sale go by again and regret it down the road. On the other hand, I still can't justify purchasing Riddley Walker, even with the rave reviews. I guess not every book, no matter how well made, etc., is for everybody. I was hoping Gargantua and Pantagruel would show up, but alas...

My shipment was marked shipped in less than two hours - it is also my birthday month, so I used my voucher which is just another bonus!

They must have ended the Mystery Book give away early since one wasn't added to my order, even though I think that, originally, was scheduled to go through the 24th.

Still too many books on my Wish List not on sale, but with the exception of one I am okay if I miss out on them. It's too bad there wasn't a "must have" like Ulysses from last year, though The Golden Bough does seem to be the 'hot' book of this go round.

>176 zachp: and >178 TTHLBL: You look to be the top buyers of the sale so far - it's going to be a lot of fun unpacking all of those books!

4 errors later, I'm throwing in the towel. I've seen the bad first byte 503 (fixed itself after switching to UK and back, Opera webbrowser) and several errors when selecting a shipping method (custom_attributes processing error, delivery method express_2_to_5 does not exist and something went wrong with your order, try again later). Mole, I'm trying to throw money at you. Your site just prevented a 300GBP order from going through.

Will try again later, hopefully with more success... If not, apparently Folio IT has had enough of me or vice versa.

>189 Fierylunar:

Do you have any add-ons and plugins installed and enabled on your browser? These sound like incompletely loaded JS or CSS -- and these often happen when a plugin decide to be too helpful...

>188 vmb443: It will be fun! >179 AnnieMod: Thanks for the info. I won't worry about them so much.

>186 adiouri: Where did you see 2001 is getting low? Am I going to have to place another order so soon?

From the sale I ordered:
Every Man for Himself
Empire of the Sun
Strangers on a Train
Fahrenheit 451

also not on sale:
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
The Dispossessed
East of Eden
True Grit

I meant to order Rendezvous with Rama but I forgot. I guess it will have to wait until fall/winter.

> you can create a new account. I also had the same issue and that’s how I ordered the books.

I bought 2001 with my order as it seems low stock and I don’t know if it will be reprinted. Wizard seems to have more copies available at the moment...hoping it will be added to sale later. Either way it will be in my next after sale purchase.

I wanted to wait until Folio had marked as shipped as I was a little concerned that everyone wanted the Golden Bough, and perhaps there wasn’t the inventory for this! However I went for:
The Golden Bough
Atlas Shrugged
Ten Days that Shook the World
Five Children and It
Stig of the Dump
Berlin
Strangers on a Train
The Pre-Raphaelite Tragedy
The Dam Busters
A Kestrel for a Knave

I hit the 503 (bad first byte) error a few times, but a refresh or two fixed it every time. May be related to a spike in load as a result of the sale.

>190 AnnieMod: Stock Opera, no add-ons. Will try on a different browser tomorrow, thanks for the tip.

You can also order by phone, if the website is not working properly for you.

From the sale, I ended up ordering:

Ridley Walker LE
Voyages to the Moon and the Sun
The Golden Bough
African Folktales
Chinese Fairy Tales & Fantasies
Strangers on a Train
Berlin

There are a few other titles that interest me, so we’ll see how long I can put off placing a second order.

>187 vmb443:

I have struggled with Riddley Walker and am too drawn to London & New York. The largest obstacle for me is, Riddley Walker looks so fantastic. But, Gargantua & Pantagruel is also the LE I am most drawn to, and my self-appointed max expense on one title was 250 before it was 420 and i just can't see myself allowing anything over 500, so it is unlikely to come to fruition. With two young children, I cannot justify the current price.

>151 N11284: I'm in ROW too. Sorry to hear you're still having difficulties. I thought the fix might have worked for everyone.

>169 UK_History_Fan: I also used express shipping for the first time, with reasoning identical to yours. Several large sale orders in previous years have received knocks in transit. The damage was so minor that I've usually not requested replacements but it's still annoying. No small order has ever arrived damaged.

>185 dlphcoracl: Completely agree on The Golden Bough abridgement. How many of us here have read or would read the full 12 volumes? I doubt there are many, and I couldn't imagine attempting such a feat personally unless I became a scholar of the work (which is unlikely :-)). For the time being, a decent abridgement - and I'm sure the FS version is that - is the only way I'm going to experience this work.

>191 TTHLBL: I was able to add 154 copies of 2001 to my cart just now. No counter yet, and I can't speak to either the possibility of a reprint or whether this method is an accurate one for judging what is left in stock. But assuming it is, it should get a counter when the quantity goes below 100.

>198 johnbean9: I have been unable to get through by phone for a couple of months. I just get a busy signal. I tried to call today to make a change to my sales order but no luck after multiple tries.

I always struggle to believe that Riddley Walker has not yet sold out, despite being in (I think) three sales now. It’s an exceptionally well done edition. If you’re on the fence, just go ahead and pull the trigger. I would be very surprised if you ever come to regret it.

PS - I went for:

- Bayeux Tapestry
- the Qu’ran
- Selfish Giant (future reading material for Baby Lawyer)
- Mark of the Horse Lord (ditto)
- Farewell to Arms

I remain seriously tempted by the Cambridge History of the American Civil War, but held back from ordering. I’m not sure an edited collection of academic essays is quite what I’m looking for on the subject.

>204 LondonLawyer:

I Second That Emotion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv9cWgkpIZ4

>191 TTHLBL: TTHLBL

I checked inventories on books i liked to see if i needed to add any full price by adding 200 copies to my basket and decreasing until I was able to buy....

2001 had 150 something and Princess Bride had 80ish. Not sure if this is accurate but it worked for me before. That said I went by the counter for A Handmaid’s Tale and got it only to find out it will be reprinted so I could have held off. *shrug*

Placed my order:

Chinese Fairy Tales & Fantasies

Gods, Graves and Scholars

A Farewell to Arms

Peter Pan and Wendy

The Selfish Giant and Other Stories

The Little White Horse

The Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution

The Locked-Room Mysteries

Fahrenheit 451

The Golden Bough
Steppenwolf

The Bayeux Tapestry

African Folktales

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Wuthering Heights

Jane Eyre

Planet of the Apes

>200 Cubby.R.S.: I agree with your assessment on Gargantua and Pantagruel, I have had my eye on it, but just can't go that high in cost, I was really hoping it would have been in the sale, I'm kind of surprised it's not, since it doesn't seem to be a fast mover. I just can't bring myself to purchase Ridley Walker, I'll keep my eye on the ticker and if it's gets low then maybe I'll pick it up, but I am trying to be more prudent and saving funds for what I REALLY want, rather than just what I think I may like - especially when it comes to LE's.

Another new Folio collector here (only purchased a couple of used copies in the past)!
My order:

On Sale:
The Elegant Universe
Peter Pan and Wendy
War Horse

Not on sale:
Diversity of Life
Chaos
Call of Cthulhu
Howl’s Moving Castle
I Am Legend

All in total $700 CAD including shipping and tax

>209 vmb443:

It took those dirty enablers a while to get me on A Door in the Wall, but Ratbag's photos kicked it over the edge and they weren't wrong. I actually trust they aren't wrong about Riddley Walker either, but as you are, I'm also very stubborn on LEs. I have made a conscious decision that they should be personal treasures by all facets... But that inkling is there, because I know the enablers aren't wrong.

>210 kvnchn:

A hearty welcome and congrats on your purchase. If you want to have money, sit back and wait for new releases. If you want to soak in the madness, dig through the wiki.

>201 Levin40: ...The Golden Bough abridgement. How many of us here have read or would read the full 12 volumes? I doubt there are many...

It's not something I've attempted or considered, and I bought the 13 volume set nearly 40 years ago. I doubt I would ever have read the abridgment from cover to cover either, and I'm fairly sure it would have been a much less rewarding book to own. The point for me has been to be able to read, very occasionally a whole section of the work, i.e. a volume or two: more often the pages relating to a particular topic, and the illustrative examples have rarely if ever seemed excessive.

>211 Cubby.R.S.: Agreed. I want the LEs for the long haul as a library treasure, but it sure is hard to pass on something (like Ridley Walker) which has such rave reviews but which I'm not really drawn to. I found myself watching the New York/London video numerous times and figured that was a sign it was time to purchase. The enabling is wonderful for the guilty conscience, but also can be a thorn in the side!

>171 santiamen:
I went through a very bad streak where nearly every large order arrived with some damage. That got better over the years as Folio upgraded the "gauge" of cardboard being used (sturdier boxes) and has played around with various packing materials. The larger the order, the more books get packed into one box, the heavier said box, the more likely to get dropped or throw when moving it about.

I have no statistics on this, just anecdotal observations, but my smaller orders (2 to 4 books) seem to arrive largely without issue.

Just ordered:

The Golden Bough
Steppenwolf
The Comedians
Five Little Pigs

May pick up Lovecraft if other things that interest me are added to the sale.

>172 folio_books:
Exactly! I spoke to Andrew this morning and he laughed about it but was pleased to hear it was working again for me.

>189 Fierylunar:
If it isn't too much trouble, tomorrow morning around 9 am EST give a call to the 1-866 number and press 2 which should ring the Folio London office (not their kindly, but systematically limited Cornwall phone service center). In all likelihood you will get Andrew himself, the Customer Service manager who is a joy to talk to and bends over backwards to ensure customer satisfaction. That was, in fact, how I resolved an ordering issue (not a web site issue) I had today.

>201 Levin40:
Great minds think alike! May it work out well for us both!

Deleted

Ordered yesterday. I was sitting on the fence with regards to Parade's end and finally decided to give it a pass. I bought 3 books at full price. Found Maigret Set One a tad expensive but still ordered it.

Atlas Shrugged
Jude the Obscure
The Mayor of Casterbridge
The Golden Bough
The Locked-Room Mysteries
In Praise of Folly
The Fables of Aesop
Cleopatra
A Life in Letters and Diaries
The House of Borgia
Period Piece
Peter Pan and Wendy
The Folio Book of Ghost Stories
Three Men on the Bummel
Love Lies Bleeding
Nicholas and Alexandra
The Diary of a Young Girl
I robot
Princess Bride
Maigret Set One

Just placed an order of the following items. I hope they add more titles.

Full price:

I, Robot
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Five Little Pigs

On sale:
Love Lies Bleeding
Strangers on a Train
The Red House Mystery
The Locked-Room Mysteries
Every Man for Himself

>205 LondonLawyer:

I like Cambridge's history sets but if you had never read (or at least used) one, it may not be what you expect. They are very academic and even if they do have all the information, they can be very hard going.

LOA's The Civil War: Told By Those Who Lived It may be of interest if you are looking for something about the time. Of course - these cover only the 4 years of the war so you still need some pre-war information and probably a proper history book as well (although who knows) :)

205 Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson is an excellent one volume work on the Civil War. I seem to recall that it was on a list of possible FS titles.

>205 LondonLawyer:

Add me to the chorus recommending Battle Cry of Freedom

For a longer treatment, I greatly enjoyed Shelby Foote's 3 volume history. He is clear that his allegiance is to the losing side, which many find off-putting, but the fellow could spin a story and the overall affect is wonderful and well told.

For a more granular view, the LOA copies of the memoirs of Grant and Sherman are excellent. I also enjoyed the LOA The Civil War: Told By Those Who Lived It series mentioned in 221 but they are detailed timelines, not histories.

I just placed my order. But I am hoping they may add some more books around the middle of July. I may pick up Rubicon and a few more low stock titles for the second order. Is the shipping price increasing for the USA?

The Golden Bough
The Mark of the Horse Lord
Five Children and It
The Railway Children
The Exorcist
Revelations of Divine Love
The Elegant Universe
A Life in Letters and Diaries

Other Publishers:
Silk Roads
Decorating with Plants

>218 Cubby.R.S.:

>222 Redshirt:

>223 kcshankd:

Thank you, all! That's very helpful, and I'm pleased I held back on this particular purchase.

The civil war is likely to be my history reading for 2021 (I have several volumes on the Russian Revolution, Ukrainian famine, Stalin etc that I'd like to get through first...). I may start with Battle Cry for Freedom, and then move on to some of the other books mentioned here. I have a copy of Chernow's Grant sitting on my shelves that's waiting to be read!

Ordered:

Chinese Fairy Tales & Fantasies
Big Chief Elizabeth
The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England
Great Expectations (for a friend)
The Oxford Shakespeare: Anthony and Cleopatra
The Oxford Shakespeare: Julius Caesar

So I guess decent for a summer sale, I understand the end of year ones are usually bigger, certainly enjoyed the last one.

I hesitated over Burgess’ Shakespeare for the second time, as well as over Atlas Shrugged and The Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England at full price (if anybody wants to sell/trade a mystery book copy...).

Thanks to all the enablers above!

Quick heads up: the following sale titles have been added to the Last Chance to Buy page:

- African Folktales (64)
- No cloak, no dagger (58)
- Shakespeare (Burgess) (68)
- The Bull from the Sea (unknown, as the website just timed out again)

>225 LondonLawyer: if I can prescribe an adjunct...

Should you find yourself out for a long walk or drive, may I recommend Gary Gallagher’s Great Courses on the Civil War (on audible) and David Blight on Open Yale (any podcast provider)?

>227 Fierylunar: The Bull from the Sea (unknown, as the website just timed out again)

71 left.

>228 plasticjock: Thanks!

I’ll get the Gary Gallagher once my next Audible credit lands.

I’ve just downloaded David Blight.

>230 LondonLawyer: Enjoy!

I found that the two courses complement each other perfectly. Blight spends significantly more time discussing the causes and the consequences of the war (his chapters on Bloody Kansas, Dred Scott, Harper’s Ferry, antebellum politics and the failures of Reconstruction were standouts), while Gallagher is strong on the campaigns, strategies and characters of the main protagonists.

I’ve seen Cthulhu sales described as brisk in previous posts and have just noted that there appear less than 300 copies left.

Based on FOMO, plus actually missing out on Lolita 2 years ago, I’m pulling the trigger on Lovecraft tomorrow...

Deleted

Here is my order:

Gentlemen prefer blondes
War Horse
Fahrenheit 451
The Mark of the Horse Lord
Stig of the Dump
Five Children and it
Anne of Avonlea
The selfish Giant

Thoughts? And yes, as most of you may think, I am far from rich.

>233 Cubby.R.S.: That is almost a dangerous opinion to express publicly nowadays. No one cares about facts, it's all about feelings. Recently, there was a heated discussion in the Czech forums prompted by a newspaper article with a Czech historian. She mentioned how, while we weren't an imperialist power nation directly involved in the slave trade, we did however have some fabrics woven and glass beads made in our lands that were part of the international trade and therefore could be linked all the way to slave owners. So while our poor intelligentsia of the times were discussing politics, they could enjoy their cheap coffee in cafes thanks to slave trade. Which is apparently why we can not pretend we had nothing to do with it. It is fair to say she doesn't actually agree with the current trend of blaming every historical figure for things of the past completely ignoring the context but she did use very unfortunate wording in the interview. It is like something out of an absurd drama. Czech artists were busy trying to fight the Habsburg influence and keep the language pure of germanisms and Slavs in general were hardly in the position of any decision making.

Sorry I am constantly OT.

I wonder - has anyone asked FS whether they were planning to publish anything by Thomas Sowell?

Shipping fees are not outrageous for 8 titles....

Placed my order, finally without problems. I had given up last night and went to bed!

Revelations of Divine Love
The Fables of Aesop
Five Children and It
The Golden Bough
Peter Pan and Wendy

I am equally excited over all of them!

You're right. I think that i bought 8 titles in order to make amends for the shipping fees. But if u want to buy a single book or a couple... RIP.

I guess that's what they are trying to achieve but it doesn't make it less painful. Specially now that people has tons of free shipping options available. I went for the cheap stuff to see the quality but I know I'll buy more from them sooner or later.

Hobbit + Lotr + Silmarillion are a must.

Someone talk to me about Parade's End. Ford Maddox Ford has been on my to-read list for a long time.

Just a shout-out to the Mole and Folio Customer Service, somehow I managed to order two copies of two books by accident and didn't notice it until the order confirmation came through - tried to call real quick and couldn't get through - sent an insane e-mail to Customer Service, which was barely coherent trying to describe what I did, didn't hear back and supposed it was lost in the Sale Day shuffle and then the books shipped and figured I had just made a mistake and would have to live with it - then, lo and behold, I get an e-mail from Customer Service this morning, they not only managed to decipher my bizarre e-mail, but interpreted it properly, corrected my mistake and credited my account already. Amazing! Can't say enough about their Customer Service, it's like the service from a small local business, but this one is a large business, across an ocean and in a different time zone. Hands down, the best Customer Service I have ever dealt with.

Long time fan of this forum, first time posting as you can see.

>218 Cubby.R.S.:
"Thomas Jefferson had slaves, but by law if he would have tried to free them they would have been rounded up and he would have been punished. It was illegal to free slaves."

Jefferson did free 7 slaves without any legal problems. He had ~600 slaves he sometimes used as collateral for loans. At least he freed his 2 sons Madison and Eston Hemmings at his death.
https://www.monticello.org/slavery/slavery-faqs/property/

Happy to change my mind if you have other credible sources or better facts.

Just ordered and very excited about:

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Howl’s Moving Castle
Italian Folktales
Lord of the Flies
Emma
Selected Poems
East of Eden
Jane Eyre
The Diversity of Life
Persian Fire
Rubicon
The Door in the Wall
Japanese Tales
Pride and Prejudice
A Farewell to Arms
Steppenwolf

>241 Harry_Seldon:

Could be an exciting conversation. I will present some info for you in the near future in another thread. I do not have idols for a reason and I will clarify some things.

Two books on my wish list, ordered both. Hardly mentioned in the thread so far, so either not popular or people bought them already?

Joseph Banks
The Dambusters

I think this is the first sale for the former, not sure about the latter, but again think so. I've been waiting for both to discount for a while. The latter will go nicely with my free mystery book, Reach for the Sky. Not sure I want to reread The Great Escape.

>243 Willoyd:

Bought them already; both highly recommended, especially The Dambusters, which I found a great read.

Didn't see a lot of things i was interested on sale but I still passed my first order from Folio, I'm looking forward to receiving the books.

African Folktales
Chinese Fairy Tales & Fantasies
American Gods
Dune
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Life, the Universe and Everything
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Mostly Harmless

I made my biggest purchase yet, although of the four sale titles on my wishlist I only got three - a few non-wishlist items tickled my fancy more and something (namely Age of Gold) had to give.

Golden Bough
Revelations Of Divine Love
In Praise Of Folly
Cleopatra
Ten Days That Shook The World
Richard III

I may well double dunk but it depends on what titles get added as the sale goes on...

Finally bit the bullet and went with Chinese Fairy Tales & Fantasies, a Kestrel for a Knave and Planet of the Apes.

>244 folio_books:
Thought you might have done (especially given your earlier post on numbers you already had)! I read the Brickhill many years ago as a teenager, and loved it (I read all three of these at around the same time, plus Colditz) - wanted a good copy of it. The Banks I haven't, but it's been a no-brainer ever since it came out. I've just been waiting to see if it ever reached the sales - almost gave up a few weeks ago and had it in the basket when I bought one of the last copies of Snow Leopard, but deleted at the last minute. You win some, you lose some.

All the Thomas Hardy books are on sale except Far from the Madding Crowd. I'll wait a few more days before I click my ORDER button to see if it gets added on the sale list.

Seriously why would folio think it's a good idea to release more titles on a later date? Express delivery is still the only available option in some regions. There is no way I'm making two separate orders and paying express delivery twice. Feel like I have to wait it out despite having 8 books in my basket.

>250 shipofstate:

They add titles when the sale goes well and a lot of books get sold out. Would you rather they do not add more books and just have an almost no options for late-comers?

Keep in mind that some of the titles may get sold out -- so waiting for new titles to get added may be counterproductive if you want these 8.

Also keep in mind that postage is not such a big factor for UK customers, so it is a "good idea" for FS insofar as they will not lose too many UK orders on account of reticence to return for a second batch.

>250 shipofstate: Because you might drop a few other full-price books into your basket on your second haul, in order to make the shipping feel worth it.

>252 NYCFaddict: Probably Europen customers in general, there are no custom fees or taxes added to any orders from the UK (yet) so can't be much of a deterrent to pay shipping twice.

I feel like whenever there is anything I discover that I want to buy it is only sold in the US so this is a nice change.

I received my Summer Sale mailing from the FS today, a day before the sale was supposed to start. Usually I receive my FS sale mailings after the sale has ended. Of course, I put my order in yesterday. Today I received an email from the FS noting that my sale order has shipped. The FS seems way more organized for this sale than they usually are.

What are the chances the The Door in the Wall gets added to the sale?

> 251 AnnieMod Would you rather they do not add more books and just have an almost no options for late-comers?

Well, yes. If books sell out, then... that's how sales happen sometimes.

Payday has come, order sent...!

Call of Cthulhu
The Golden Bough
The Bayeux Tapestry
The Exorcist
Fahrenheit 451

Reach for the Sky dropped off the list this time as I wanted to keep it under $600 including post and tax...

Just received the order that I placed yesterday - record time!
Happy days

$100 for shipping? First sale in years I'll be sitting out. And I appreciate the Covid impingement. Glad to see others so keen so that FS can keep the propellers turning.

>260 Bibliogasm:

Just actually noticed a sale was on!

Then excited to see some books I was awaiting.

Then I saw the $100 compulsory shipping fee.

Then I walked away.

Complete BS from FS.

Where do you guys live that it’s $100?

Australia, as I had to pay the 100 for postage on my last two orders which does quickly add up. At least it’s express though and takes just under a week compared to 3-5 weeks for normal postage.

>263 Charon49: $100 AUD? That is around £55, and I agree, it is not good. Even here in UK it is £12.99 (2+ books) for express, which all adds up each time, especially if more titles are being added throughout the sale.

>264 woollymasters: Last week I had a single A4 sheet of paper sent to me from Australia to the U.K. It was $38 for that!

> Wow, I hope for that price it had its own seat!

>264 woollymasters: Even here in UK it is £12.99 (2+ books) for express, which all adds up each time, especially if more titles are being added throughout the sale.

Indeed, but it you compare that to Royal Mail prices it's cheap. And if you manage your orders so that you're buying multiple books each time, it's extremely cheap. £12.99 for (say) six books, delivered the following day (assuming you order before noon, of course ...) is a pretty good bargain.

The UK express shipping is so cheap, relatively speaking. To ship express to Canada, it is $66 for one book or $79 for 2 +

Just ruthless for ROW

Made my first order but knowing more will be added to the sale keeps me excited. It's like a second sale, so I usually have two orders. Hope they will add more history, I have most of what was in the first round but still found some fiction, plus of course The Golden Bough!

For Portugal, standard is £20 for any amount of books.

Placed a FS order on Monday 6/22. Express delivery scheduled by end of day today (Wed. 6/24). Worth every penny on delivery charge.....(East Coast USA).

I personally don’t care about waiting longer for my books (have a long TBR list), so its sucks to pay so much more for shipping to Canada, but I don’t blame FS for it.

For Canadians who want just a couple of books, having bought most on offer at full price, buying at sale prices with express delivery makes no economic sense. In my area at least, there is no delay in standard shipping. I've already this month received, read and shelved two shipments from Slightly Foxed through Canada Post/ Royal Mail. It's becoming obvious that Folio's insistence on Express is self-serving.

$51 USD for express shipping 22 books to Seattle is not bad.

>273 Jayked: I'd assume that Folio aren't making a profit on shipping, and even if they did have a small margin it would surely be offset by the reduction in people ordering.

>273 Jayked:

Yup. There's absolutely no reason express should still be mandatory.

I must say, i am pretty peeved to see that it apparently takes under a week to ship books to the other side of the world, whereas I am located in Germany and just got a message that my express order needs another 7 days to be delivered (ordered on Monday). Especially since I order a lot from England in general and nobody else is that expensive and yet so slow. The only reason I even opt for express is because it is the only way to have a tracked order.

I ordered the Bayeux Tapestry and the three Dickens novels (A Tale of Two Cities at full price).

Glad to see another collector in Germany! I also can't understand why express shipments take so long to get here and cost so much. I buy a lot of used books from the UK and postage is much cheaper than with Folio.

>278 dwursten: what annoys me most is that getting books across the British Channel to the Netherlands costs the same as sending a box to an island in the middle of the Pacific. ROW is a weird category. At least we get to pay in GBP, it's something...

>271 camisnj: That’s great speed! I also placed my order on Monday but it’s not scheduled to come until next Monday which is the longest I’ve had to wait with Express. I’m in the Midwest but I’m glad to see it’s not an overall decline in speed.

I paid only standard shipping, and the difference ($21) was almost as much as I paid for Under Fire, for example. More books for a longer delivery time seems a worthy trade for me. Anticipation is the greatest joy, is it not?

The first book has sold out: African Folk Tales is now officially gone!

The following titles are showing up as low stock. Note that only 4 are included in the last chance to buy page:

Coriolanus: 845 (get 'em while they last)
As you like it: 530 ('low' indeed)
The Bull from the Sea: 24 (-47)
Grasmere Journal: 96
No Cloak, No Dagger: 40 (-18)
Selected Poems & Songs (Burns): 83
The Red House Mystery: 26
The Railway Children: 61
Shakespeare: 38 (-30)
Spanish Civil War: 84
The Comedians: 57
The Elegant Universe: 71

As one of the books I was planning was running low on stock, I bought the following:

- The Red House Mystery, now down to 25 copies. I do not like the slipcase matching the book cover (a reviewer described it as cheesy), but since I already have the Hundred and One Dalmatians it can't be much worse.
- The Locked Room Mysteries
- Strangers on a Train
and non sale:
- Get Shorty - this will surely be in a sale in a year or two but I like the design and have heard is a very fun book.

As I was waiting for the locked room set to go on sale, this was much better than my winter season sale haul.

Great minds think alike. I just posted an update in Last chance summary. :)

Any thoughts on how long this 50% off sale might last?

I got a catalog from FS in the mail today, which I was expecting to be a sale catalog, but instead it was just a catalog of LEs. In fact, it specifically excluded the 4 LEs included in the sale.

>285 St._Troy:
As at >56 coynedj: above, sale ends 6 August.

The Chinese Fairy tales and fantasies is the second book to sell out!

Mole, some of the children books are not showing up on the sale page.

Well, I wasn't going to check LT the past weekend as I was at a hospital with my wife - our second baby was born on Saturday, but at some point when my wife was sleeping and I should have been too but couldn't, I pulled up the FSD page and, thanks to >55 coynedj:, did my pickings and filled the cart.

Then again, I wasn't going to check LT, and was planning to just login to the FS website on Wednesday morning to checkout the pre-filled cart, but somehow I got this nagging feeling on Monday that the sale might start early - and it actually did, so I happily pulled the trigger.

From the sale:
The Grasmere Journal (should sell out during the sale)
The Elegant Universe (ditto)
The Blue Flower
In Praise of Folly
Chinese Fairy Tales & Fantasies (already sold out since)
The House of Borgia
Period Piece (recently read it in the Slightly Foxed garb, loved it, would like to also have the FS version; numerous drawings by the author, who was actually a celebrated wood engraver are a delight)
The Bayeux Tapestry (I've been waiting for this! I see it didn't get much love on this thread, but even before it was released by Folio, this is the format I was longing for - the tapestry reproduced on the top third of a page with text below rather than full-page illustrations)
The Locked-Room Mysteries (seems like an excellent price)
A Life In Letters and Diaries

Not on sale, but from the top of my wishlist and are likely to sell out within the next couple of months:
Rubicon (despite, or perhaps because of Putin's portrait on the cover)
Japanese Tales (can't miss out on this one, will be hard to acquire on the secondary market)

Like >169 UK_History_Fan: and >201 Levin40:, I also went with courier shipping for the first time for my regular orders. For a 12-book order, it's only $1.66 USD extra per book. Initially, I got a message from DHL with the estimated delivery of next Monday, which would be fine, but now I just got another message stating I will get my books today!

Some other random thoughts on the sale:

Lots of new members here! Welcome to all, and enjoy going down this most exciting and rewarding rabbit hole!

Is it just me, or is the number of titles offered lower than usual? While I already owned 35 of the Folios currently on sale, I had no problem picking the 10 above. But I expected more of the old-timers to complain there is nothing there for them. Well, glad most are pleased!

>290 elladan0891:
Congratulations!

A nice mix of books too - I am also confused by the lack of complainers this time around. I assumed the carrot of new books being added later on has placated them for now.

>290 elladan0891: Congratulations, what a nice reason to almost miss the sale! :)

I am curious about one thing - how do you know in advance which book might be hard to find second hand? Magic skill acquired over years of hunting down sold out copies?

Congratulations! Very happy for you!

Congratulations on the new addition to your family! Поздравляю!
I am glad I’m not the only one who noticed Putin's portrait... :))

Congrats! Both of my babies insisted on being held for naps so I actually got quite a bit of (exhausted) reading done during the newborn stage!

I'll add my congratulations to the rest - the days of newborns in the house are long in my past, but treasured. I'm glad to have done you and many others a service when I posted the list of sale books; I have long felt that I have taken much more away from this community than I have given, and it's nice to have redressed the balance somewhat.

I had been waiting and waiting for the Chinese Fairy Tales & Fantasies to show up in a sale, having previously picked up the African Folktales, Japanese Tales, and Native American Folktales. I'm glad I moved quickly once the sale went live, given it's sellout. Maybe some day I'll add the wonderful-looking Italian Folktales as well.

>290 elladan0891: Congratulations on the new entry into the family! I absolutely second your rating of the Folio Bayeux Tapestry edition. I ooze love for it. It's my single purchase of the sale. I tried to resist but gave in thinking its not an unreasonable way to celebrate surviving the first wave of the current pandemic of toxic nationalism and other viruses. Excuses are important to me.

If I didn't already have The Golden Bough I would certainly be ordering it now. It's exquisite, beautifully (and copiously) illustrated and presented in a magnificent binding. The same goes for Riddley Walker Esq., a gift at half price.

ok you guys convinced me to order two copies of the Golden Bough (one for a friend)
so this board is fully enabling me, as I've made my biggest order yet of $600
including the insane $83 shipping fee to canada

Wordsworth - The Grasmere Journal
Burns - Selected Poems & Songs
Greene- The Comedians
Beevor - Berlin
The Locked-Room Mysteries
Highsmith - Strangers on a Train
The Golden Bough x 2

Here is what I chose for my first order ever earlier this week:

• Fahrenheit 451


• A Farewell to Arms


• The Fables of Aesop


• Chinese Fairy Tales & Fantasies


• African Folktales

There were more I was interested in this time around than in previous sales so I ended up purchasing more than I was expecting and still didn't get everything I would have liked before the budget limit kicked in.

-Golden Bough
-In Praise of Folly
-Qu'ran
-Revelation of Divine Love
-Bayeux Tapestry
-Comedians
-Fahrenheit 451
-Locked room mysteries
-Five Children and It

I'm a professor of history of religion at a University so I already have other copies of the Qu'ran and The Golden Bough at my office but I couldn't resist having such beautiful editions to add to my home collection.

Can someone that owns Golden Bough tell me what sort of cloth it's bound in? Is it a coated buckram type material? Or just a regular black cloth? I'm a bit averse to black cloth since receiving Age of Gold and seeing every mote of dust attracted to it without fail.

>300 Avadanika: I'm a professor of history of religion at a University so I already have other copies of the Qu'ran

The Folio Society edition Qu'ran looks quite nice. May I ask you a question, would you suggest the Qu'ran to a newbie? I'm not familiar with Islamic teachings but trying to learn about all religions both monotheistic and polytheistic, would I need to get additional books to understand or can anyone start reading the Qu'ran and still understand the context?

I went slightly mad, after hesitating for several days. Really, all I wanted was the Complete Poems of Christopher Robin, to replace my battered copy of When We were Six, which is older than me and has pages missing.
I've also been wanting East of Eden but the price put me off; finally I reckon it will never go on sale.
Then some others caught my eye.
So final basket:

Kindred
Stig of the Dump
Period Piece
The Complete Poems of Christopher Robin
East of Eden

Telling myself that what I saved on the three sale books compensates for the others. And the postage is £20 whether I buy two or five.

>297 cronshaw: If I didn't already have The Golden Bough I would certainly be ordering it now. It's exquisite, beautifully (and copiously) illustrated and presented in a magnificent binding.

Hello Russell - it's lovely to have you with us once again. From your comments I see you haven't quite been able to shake off your addiction. I am very glad.

>301 adriano77:

The cloth is fine textured, with a smooth feel. The white areas of the cover design are printed on the cloth, the gold areas are blocked, and on my copy at least, the gold is totally secure. It's a very well done book.

ETA My copy attracts no dust, and I am a very long way from being a fanatic over dust control in the book room.

just made my first order for

Riddley Walker
Peter Pan and Wendy
The Exorcist
The House at Pooh Corner
Candide

Now I am just hoping that they will be able to despatch them today, fingers crossed!

>267 folio_books:

"Indeed, but it you compare that to Royal Mail prices it's cheap. And if you manage your orders so that you're buying multiple books each time, it's extremely cheap. £12.99 for (say) six books, delivered the following day (assuming you order before noon, of course ...) is a pretty good bargain."

But how many normal people can afford to do that, with families to feed and clothe and mortgages to pay. And especially since the removal of the hugely enabling 10 month payment plan. Whilst it is not the only reason, exorbitant postage costs (whether FS' fault or not) is one of a number of reasons I haven't purchased an FS book for over 5 years. My eyes pop when I see the size of some of the orders placed by members here. But in the real world outside of the FSD bubble, most people can't afford to do that. I was lucky that when I could pop into Eagle Street, I could afford to pick up titles one book at a time with no postage. The way most people buy books. I certainly can't afford to buy 4/6/8/10 books at a time, sale or no sale! And of course I know that was something not everyone could do. I am not making a comparison, or saying "woe is me", I am just stating my own economics, and therefore what has contributed to my change in buying behaviour.

I know the books are not as large, but I can by a Limited Edition beautifully crafted book from Slightly Foxed, made in the UK by the quality bindery Smith Settle, for £17, free second class postage. I am not suggesting that is a like for like comparison, but it is what I can afford, so that is where my money goes.

>305 affle:

Thanks for the assessment!

-

Put my order in. No further additions to the sale will convince me to place another, I think.

The Golden Bough
Fahrenheit 451
East of Eden
Dune
Lord of the Flies

If there are further additions at what point are they typically added? And how many? Realizing typically might not apply...but any educated guesses? Trying to decide when/if to double dip...

>169 UK_History_Fan:
So the Riddley Walker arrived yesterday. As I mentioned, I largely ordered due to the enablement of those on here, not being particularly attracted to the design. I must say, I am underwhelmed.

While the pictures make the book look like it has foxing all over, in person the design is much more attractive. The book is huge (which I had been warned about) and so will not fit on my bottom shelf for oversized books as it is about 1 inch too tall inside the slipcase. I am sure it is part of the apocalyptic design element, but I really do not like the paper used. It is very matte and dull and it makes the illustrations appear too muted. The illustrations were not nearly as impressive in person.

Hopefully I will enjoy the story. But overall, even at 50% off, I am having buyer's remorse. I recognize that interpretations of a great book production are very subjective, but to me, this book does not live up to the high praise it has received from LT members. Not worth $285 to me when I think about other books that have never been on sale I could have purchased for that. Likely to be re-sold (also likely to be at a loss) when I retire and get around to unloading my unneeded books.

>309 adiouri:

This past winter sale started around December 24 and new additions (20 of them) appeared on January 20 for what it's worth.

>311 adriano77: adriano77

Thanks. That’s helpful. July 20 seems far away! I guess i will just have do to daily stock/last chance checks.

So as usual, having FOMO over a few books I forgot about/put off (the two Brickhills I don’t have and Japanese Tales). But I’ve been buying quite a few books lately and also paying another $80 for shipping seems unjustifiable.

>310 UK_History_Fan: thanks for the feedback, always good to hear alternative opinions. I too have just purchased Riddley Walker (but second hand - yet to receive it). I‘ve bought it for the reading experience and may well unload it when finished (having so much tied up in a book that I may not reread may be too much of a luxury for me). I’m guessing it‘ll hold it’s value, perhaps increase after it sells out. I may love it though, so it remains to be seen...

Why are folk so certain there will be significant new additions? I know it happens now and then, but feels like the scale of anticipation for those additions in this thread is much higher than usual?

315>EuanM

I’m not at all certain just hopeful...With fingers crossed because if I’m going to do a second order I want to load up to make the postage worthwhile. First order was $50 shipping. If I do a second that’s another $50. So $100 that I’d rather spend on books...if not FS than at a local store!

Forgot to add in FOMO if something does go on sale and sells out and I miss it...GAH. That happens to me with the Asimov Foundation. Then The Man in the High Castle sold out. I Have serious FOMO because my wish list is too long being new here...

'Once There Was a War' and '1066 and All That' just added to the sale (+4 non-Folio titles).

>307 Conte_Mosca: Totally agree with you. I am on a limited budget and can order only a couple of books in the sale so postage costs are a factor for me.

>307 Conte_Mosca: But how many normal people can afford to do that, with families to feed and clothe and mortgages to pay.

For the vast bulk of my Folio Society membership I was as constrained in purchasing power as you are, in my case strictly limited to the four books a year required to maintain membership over a period of thirty years plus. In the last few years my kids have grown and left home, I've retired and my mortgage is paid off. It makes a difference. Add to that I don't smoke, don't drink alcohol and don't go away from home on holiday. All my free income goes on books, and that to me means it goes on Folio books. (I cannot contemplate collecting any other). I can, of course, still sympathise entirely with younger Devotees still walking that narrow path.

Even so, I'm not in the habit of making humungous orders every month. I'm trying very hard to get away from ordering every must-have from each catalogue because the effect of that, as I've found, is there is literally nothing for me to buy during sale times. If anyone is looking to save on shipping costs (which, I agree, can be savage, though less so in the UK then in Australia/NZ) surely the sales are the time to do it. I hear of many people saving their "normal" orders for sale time and doubtless making huge savings in shipping. Good. Folio will be very happy people are buying and people will be very happy cutting their costs. I've already cut back on ordering and the belt will be further tightened with future catalogues, all in the hope that, in the not-too-distant future, there'll actually be something in either of the sales that I actually want. It's now more than two years since that has happened.

I feel a bit sad losing my "normal" status, I must admit,

>319 folio_books:

I wish I were younger Devotee. I am an oldie who just started a family late!

As for "normal" status, normal is over-rated. The truth is that I don't think any of us that inhabit the FSD boards are entirely normal, and thank goodness for that :-)

A question for ROW customers: how long did it take for you to receive the shipment tracking number after the shipment confirmation from Folio?
My order was shipped yesterday but I still haven't received any tracking number, which usually comes from DHL when receiving my order express. Last time it took a couple of hours but so far I don't have anything to track.

>319 folio_books: Add to that I don't smoke, don't drink alcohol and don't go away from home on holiday. All my free income goes on books,...

Pretty similar here, aside from a weekly bottle or two of beer which isn't of much financial consequence, and engagement with music that depletes my funds a little. It's remarkable what the warped priorities of a bibliophile can make possible on a sub-average income, which my own has practically always been, usually by a wide margin. Lately though my book purchases are perhaps 10% Folio by number and 25% Folio by cost, because the FS only publishes around 10% of what I'm minded to read, which is the point of it all.

>321 dyhtstriyk:

I got my DHL text on Wed and I placed my order Monday. Apparently its on its way to my door right now *fingers crossed*

My folio shipment notice was Tuesday

My two (three technically) books arrived today. The golden bough is absolutely fantastic in every way, however the slipcase on behind the wall made me absolutely sick to the pit of my stomach. I flippantly ignored all the warning posts of which books to avoid based on inferior slipcases and derided the people who had the misfortune of purchasing one. Alas now the shoe is on the hand and I’ve got lace in my mouth - the “new” slipcases are an abhorrent thing and I would advise anyone on their detestable qualities who has yet to experience.

The lightweight slipcases are the worst I hope we've seen the last of them

>319 folio_books:
I've a pretty jaundiced view of the current "Walmart" sales model, which penalises regular customers. At one time, the "sale" on LEs consisted of a voucher on a future purchase given as a loyalty reward to those who had bought LEs in the past, at full price. The summer sale was on boxed sets only, which were difficult to move and too expensive even for some regular customers. Now with just about every publication potentially a sales item, regular-price buyers are subsidising sales-price buyers, who can build up a library in half the time. You can hardly blame them for taking advantage of it. If an item is listed at $100 and is discounted at $50 I suppose FS still makes a profit at an average 75, which would be a fair price. Last item I bought at full price was Hornblower 3, to complete the set. It'll be the last.

>326 Jayked:

Yes, I remember, all too well. It's what happens when you put a Readers Digest executive in charge of the Folio Society, Everything translates to money.

>320 Conte_Mosca: I wish I were younger Devotee. I am an oldie who just started a family late!

I was being kind :)

>320 Conte_Mosca: The truth is that I don't think any of us that inhabit the FSD boards are entirely normal, and thank goodness for that :-)

Perfectly true, of course. Feeling better already.

>324 Twas_Brillig: >325 pop24:

What are they made of? Paper rather than stiff card?

Hello Comatoes, I'm going to venture an answer to your question (I've a theology degree and read the Qur'an if that helps? :-) )

I would suggest finding a Qur'an with a decent amount of commentary / footnotes. While the Qur'an certainly isn't difficult to read and take plenty away from, in many places there are remarks that feel meant for a particular time and context, and you'll get far more from an edition that explains these. It's a bit unfortunate for a newcomer that the suras are traditionally arranged from longest to shortest when the shorter ones were generally the earlier - so reading from start to finish with no commentary to guide you would broadly mean going backwards.

The Folio edition does have a paragraph (or several for longer suras) of introduction to each sura as well as some very helpful footnotes, but I'm not sure how studious an pproach you had in mind?

>326 Jayked:

I must admit I prefer a simple transparent model where you know the price you pay is a reasonable one, and therefore won't be heavily discounted. Sadly, we are in an age of "opaque" pricing in so many areas, and it seems as though FS has joined the bandwagon where items are priced for sale, i.e. given high markup RRPs with the specific intent of making sale prices look attractive, yet still driving a profit. Perhaps I am being unfair, but if you go back even only a few years, just to, say, the 2013 Prospectus, the most expensive standard single-volume book was £44.95, but with an average much less than that. Fast forward to today, we see several standard single volume titles with £79.95 RRPs for no fathomable reason that I can see. And since 2013 we have only had c.2% per annum inflation.

And don't get me started on LEs!

I'm not sure you could say new people to FS are being subsidised. It is pretty discouraging to see the catalogues from a few years back with books for 20 quid (outside of sales) that can only be obtained now second hand and mostly for double the original price or more. I would have been fine paying the full price for the titles I'd like, collecting them bit by bit, year by year. Discovering only now how much of what I would like had been published already and is unlikely to get reprinted, the only option I am left with is to pour money into pockets of people who got the books at the right time and can make profit of them now. So doing both that and paying full price (suddenly much higher) for the current FS titles is financially impossible to pull off.

Maybe if FS reprinted popular titles regularly (or at least didn't jump from 10 per year to 100 per year) a lot of the newcomers' money wouldn't be going to re-sellers instead of the makers.

>302 Comatoes:

The Qur'an can be quite difficult to approach and understand, especially without much background in Islamic teachings, but there are a few books out there that I've found very useful for those who want to understand the text better.

I would recommend Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations by Michael Sells who not only offers a new translation of some of the most beautiful portions of the Qur'an but also gives a very accessible introduction to the background and context in which Muhammad lived that makes it much more approachable for a Western, non-Muslim audience. It isn't a complete translation, but instead focuses on the earliest revelations which also happen to be the shortest and most devotional portions of the Qur'an and play an important role in prayer and devotional practices.

For a complete translation and introduction I would recommend The Qur'an: A New Annotated Translation by AJ Droge. This is an academic translation, so it tends to avoid any sectarian bias or influence and has copious notes to explain intertextual and intratextual references and further elucidate the meaning of the text.

I'm by no means an Islamic specialist (I focus on early Buddhism in India, Central Asia, and China during the pre-Tang period) but I do teach a number of courses that interrelate with Islamic history and these are the two books I've found have been the most helpful for my students.

>310 UK_History_Fan: I am sorry to hear about your buyer's remorse for Ridley Walker, however, your thoughts are confirming my thoughts and deciding to not purchase it. I am sorry it had to come at the expense of your wallet, I am sure - given the price, you could easily resell at lower than the regular price and higher than the sale price and get the money back. I have gone back and forth and just can't do it.

On the other hand, I DID purchase the New York/London LE (Copy #189) - it arrived yesterday and I was finally able to spend some time with them this afternoon. I can't sum up how pleased I am - I don't know if they would be worth it at the full cost, but at half price, definitely so. I find them magical books - the prints are like snapshots from a hazy dream you can barely remember when you wake up - of wandering around London or New York a century ago and all you're left with in the morning is an image that evokes impressions and feelings more than specific details. I hesitated to get them the last time they went half off, and I am grateful they were on sale again and that I purchased them. The books themselves are large (taller than The Door in the Wall), and handsomely made, very elegant. If you're on the fence and the subject matter or the photogravure prints appeal at all to you, you won't be disappointed.

>304 folio_books:

Glenn, I've come to realise FAD is actually psychiatric herpes. You think you're in the clear, but just when you're least paying attention and perhaps a little run down, up out of nowhere pops that little itch followed by a week or so of feeling sheepish.

>319 folio_books: I'm trying very hard to get away from ordering every must-have from each catalogue because the effect of that, as I've found, is there is literally nothing for me to buy during sale times.

Forgive me for chortling on observing the medical marvel of your permanent cold sore the size of several Folio colophons.

>334 cronshaw: "psychiatric herpes"

Lovely!

>310 UK_History_Fan: Just hold onto it until it sells out then sell it for 4 times original cost on eBay. Seems the thing to do nowadays.

I just received my mystery book order (finally, I thought it was lost, received Pooh's Corner not pictured) and summer sale order today, DHL said Monday, but it came faster. I love all the books but I'm so happy to receive Italian Folktales, Snow Leopard, and Golden Bough, the highlights of my orders.

>337 Comatoes: Very nice haul! Looking at your new books made me realize I have no place to put my order when it arrives.

>329 Retronaut78:
>332 Avadanika:

Hi to both of you, thank you for the advice. It's so nice that there are so many scholars and people here on this board with a wide range of knowledge about many topics.


>329 Retronaut78: The Folio edition does have a paragraph (or several for longer suras) of introduction to each sura as well as some very helpful footnotes, but I'm not sure how studious an pproach you had in mind?

More studious for the purpose of applying it to my understanding of the greater world at large through a multi-discipline approach. I have an interest in religion, paganism, myths, legends, fairytales, folktales, metaphysics, psychology, spirituality, science, the natural world, and how all this impacted the history and cultures of the world and humanity as a whole. Of all these interests, religion is my weakest link, so I'm trying to get up to speed in this area. If I have a good understanding of religious concepts etc. it can help me frame history better, since religion/belief is an underbelly to history. In addition, there is too much misinformation found online and I rather have some structure to the information I'm trying to learn via scholarly text, those who specialize in certain disciplines and books. I'm not devoted to any one way of viewing the world, I like to keep my options and viewpoints open :) But I am also looking for personal uplifting passages from all the readings I engage in, it helps me to think and contemplate on a deeper level. I've invested quite a bit of time in learning all these things so I'm in it for the end of my days :)

>332 Avadanika: The Qur'an can be quite difficult to approach and understand, especially without much background in Islamic teachings, but there are a few books out there that I've found very useful for those who want to understand the text better.

...I'm by no means an Islamic specialist (I focus on early Buddhism in India, Central Asia, and China during the pre-Tang period) but I do teach a number of courses that interrelate with Islamic history and these are the two books I've found have been the most helpful for my students.

Thank you so much for the book recommendations and advice, I have both in my Amazon Wishlist. I just ordered and received a book from Folio Society called the Silk Roads, so maybe this can be a small primer to what you specialize in...

I put Qu'ran in my basket, I will pull the trigger mid-July. Thanks to both of you!

>338 eatanygoodbooks:

I know how you feel, I just stuff my books anywhere I can find a safe place until I can get more storage in place. With these prices, it's a steal to get a nice library going.

I was wondering what the likelihood of the following books going on sale was (during this sale):

- Ubik
- Outlaws of the Marsh
- South Polar Times
- Call of Cthulu
- His Dark Materials
- Montaigne Essays
- Anansi Boys
- Dune
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Thanks!

>337 Comatoes: congrats on your haul!!! Where are you located and how long did it take to receive. My order is over 5 weeks ... in California. Contacted customer service and they suggested waiting a few more weeks. Which is fine with me ... i just hope they are not lost.

I placed a second order ... but this time bit the bullet and selected express shipping.

6/7 weeks is a long wait for a semi-impatient person. lol

oh well ... I have faith in FS customer service ... they always handle situations with great class.

The worst is when something happens to your order lost or damage and they have sold out of one of the books in your order so you can no longer get a replacement sent. It happened to me with Ulysses ... they had an amazing 1/2 price sale on it ... when i got it ... the box was pretty poorly packed especially due to the size of that book and that there were three other books in the box. My Ulysses was heavily damaged. By the time I called CS ... it had already sold out.

Can't win them all i suppose.

>340 Jobasha: I would take some pretty steep odds saying …

- Call of Cthulu
- Dune
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

… will not go on sale anytime soon

On the other hand …

- Anansi Boys

… is one that I would assume might be a possibility

>342 thisGuy33:

That is rotten luck with Ulysses. Thanks for your thoughts.

I'm in Australia so postage is currently AUD$100, which means that more than one dip is out of the question. I was particularly interested in Outlaws of the Marsh, what are your thoughts on that one?

>342 thisGuy33: ... the only reason I say Anansi Boys might be a small discount book in the future is because I picked up American Gods for $115 and I see it's currently $135 (I assume this was the same price when I bought it ... so it must have been discounted ... unless the price has just gone up). I assume if they are willing to discount one Neil Gaiman title ... they are likely to discount another down the line.

I just assume Kav & Clay won't be on discount anytime soon ... cuz I have been watching that for a few years now (I have an EP copy but I think I'll like the illustrated FS version better ... hence why I ordered it in my order I'm currently waiting for).

And Dune and (slightly less) Cthulu are such popular titles ... I can't see them going on sale anytime soon.

Outlaws of the Marsh ... I am not familiar with at all so I couldn't even guess.

>339 Comatoes: I'd like your impressions of the Silk Roads book, I was tempted to purchase it but it became a casualty to my budget limits and had to be dropped from my final order. If it is really good I might have to rethink my decision.

I was also really tempted to buy the book on Buddhism as well but it was difficult to justify when my library is already so full of similar books on the topic. I'd be curious if any one purchased it and is willing to give an impression; I really don't need much to push me over the edge and a little help would be appreciated.

>343 Jobasha: Outlaws of the Marsh is a beautiful edition (though I do wish they hadn't used silk for the cover since you have to be extra careful about dust and fading) but I think it less likely to go on sale. My impression has been that with more obscure titles like this one they tend to do a smaller print run with higher quality and price and rarely go on sale. If I remember right they did Romance of the Three Kingdoms a few years ago and I kept waiting for it to go on sale until it was too late and I'm still looking for a good copy on the used market. I jumped on the Outlaws of the Marsh as soon as it came out so the same thing didn't happen to me again. Now I am just waiting to see if they do the other great Chinese novels like Journey to the West and Dream of Red Mansions.

I am also interested to know more about the Silk Road book.

Yeah I think the best bet for a Dune sale would be when the movie comes out at the end of this year.

>326 Jayked: That’s the sound of the nail being hit squarely on the head.

I’m done with buying their books at full price (except in very limited circumstances). They aren’t worth their list price at all. You’re essentially paying 200% of their actual value in order to get them during the first couple of years following release.

They’re successfully pushing all their regular customers into “sales only” buyers.

It would be sensible if they’d drop their standard prices down to about 75% of where they currently are, and do away with the deep-discounting model of recent years. It’s trashing their premium brand and, ultimately, depriving them of revenue.

>348 LondonLawyer: It can be a tough a gamble wait for a sale, and run the risk of the book selling out. Then paying double or more of the books price from the FS to a book dealer to rectify your mistake.
I agree with others that the steep rise in the cost of FS books has caused me to hold off purchasing non-sale books unless I feel there is a very strong chance I will miss out (The Malay Archipelago, 2001, A wizard of Earthensea).
The one bit I find frustrating is that even in the sale they will announce more titles as the sale goes on. If your business model relies on consumers buying what they want at a premium as soon as they can, how does holding books back in a sale aid them? I realise that this can lead to purchasers placing second orders that are larger (due to postage costs and so including other works) but it does seem that this is taking the advantage of the customers a little.
A type of point system would be the fairest way to remedy this. At the end of the year classify customers into one of three tiers. When a LE is released tier one has two days to purchase one (and only one) LE, two days later tier two can purchase one, two days later tier three, before another two days then the floodgates open to everyone. This could also help to generate sales as non-purchasers of LE books might consider it if they feel they have a better chance of getting a lower limitation number

After much deliberation, I bought the following:

- I Robot (Not on sale, but sooner or later I'd have bought it to complete my Asimov collection)
- Writer at War (Tried to persuade myself into not buying it, but the first pages were already so good)
- Mayor of Casterbridge (Initially intended to buy the 3 Hardys, but I had to make a choice. I found that more praises are lavished on this 1 particular book)
- Diary of Anne Frank (On my wishlist; no brainer)
- Empire of the Sun (On my wishlist; couldn't let it go, after learning it was shortlisted for the Booker)
- Candide (At this price, it seems like such a bargain. The illustrations look lovely)

I think I'm done with the sale. I managed to reduce my wish list by quite a few books.
I intend on working more through that wish list in the future, particularly in regards to the Fiction books. This way, my spending will be quite sparse, directed mostly then to books from new collections.

>334 cronshaw: I've come to realise FAD is actually psychiatric herpes.

Ahh, the cronshaw humour has not been diminished in your absence. Classic.

>334 cronshaw: Forgive me for chortling on observing the medical marvel of your permanent cold sore the size of several Folio colophons.

I'm taking the medicine now so maybe in time it'll shrink to one - or two - Folio colophons.

>341 thisGuy33: Thank you, I'm in Texas and the mystery order took about 5 weeks to get to me with standard shipping. Like you, I contacted customer service 2 days ago and they told me to wait for a fortnight. I'm embarrassed to say but I didn't know how long a fortnight was (and no I don't play the game), LOL. But found out it meant 2 weeks. But I received it the next day, I bet yours is making its way to you from Royal Mail soon.

I know it's difficult when you have the impatient book gene, I have it too. You keep going to the door looking for your packages, almost stalking the postal worker. I also chose express shipping for the sale order because I didn't want to wait forever and the extra $21 works itself out security-wise. I'm sorry to hear your Ulysses got tortured in shipping. If I remember that was another sold-out book that was a big seller in the previous sale.

>345 Avadanika:
>346 Mujaddadi:

Sorry for the glare and darkness of photos, I took the images at night. I think it's a beautiful book with a clear layout. But it's not an overly text-heavy book, it has many images with block text elements. If you already own many books of this sort it may be redundant. It's a heavy book, no dustcover, it has a half obi paper wrapper, the cover has gold foil specks. Inside there are many chapters, each chapter is about 5-6 pages. The book has many images of maps, historic photos, artifacts, manuscripts, etc. (this is where it shines). The book talks about economies, print & printing, silk, pottery, temples, coins, lutes/musical instruments, etc. A few chapters on religion, Buddhism, Islam, Arabia, Cairo, and other regions. It would make a good primer companion to other books which lack the visuals but have more information. Since I'm a newbie in this area, I would have to get more books but this does get me started.

Avadanika, you probably already seen a lot of images in your studies, if so I wouldn't worry about it. But I don't think you would regret it if you do decide to purchase it. I personally think it's intriguing :)

Three Kingdoms did go on sale, but only once.

>352 Comatoes: Thank you. It looks good and I am considering it.

>352 Comatoes: Yeah … ‘stalking the ‘postal worker’ doesn’t do it descriptive justice … it’s like I have ‘door ADHD’ … like i keep forgetting i just checked the front door or something … every 10 minutes I walk to and open the door and look around like a giraffe with his head sticking out a car window, twisting from side to side.

And the ‘fortnight’ thing got me too … though I’ve read it in many a book before (Dickens uses it obsessively) and I knew it’s meaning … i still initially thought … ‘wait, what? Why is he emailing me about a video game’. Ah … modern culture seeps into everything.

Yeah … so here I wait. Hope my results are close to yours … although it’s already been past the 2 days after CS contact that you were lucky with (see there’s that impatience creeping in again).

Alright … Stay safe and well … Texas like Cali are having their fun little dance with this bat bug!

>355 thisGuy33:

Well, to be fair, those delivery folks can be quite crafty and sneak up for a delivery undetected when they want to. Best to keep checking like you are.

* Parade’s End
* Berlin
* Strangers on a Train
* The Bayeux Tapestry
* Peter Pan and Wendy
* War Horse
* The Golden Bough

The Golden Bough isn't normally my type of reading material, but I'm curious if it would be worthwhile reading as a fan of writers like Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, and Jorge Luis Borges?

Golden Bough is down to 47 copies left!

>352 Comatoes: I still have symptoms of the stalky postman syndrome waiting for Christmas order...

It’s a chronic and incurable condition...!

My order placed Tuesday arrived today (yesterday in fact, but at my workplace and Murphy's Law being what it is, I don't work Fridays). I've had a very pleasant evening leafing through my six new treasures, although I'll have to get on to CS about Richard III (and sharpish, it's running low). A nasty binding fault has led to a crumpled few pages where it meets the spine at the bottom, and the pages won't open comfortably or lie open.

>291 Twas_Brillig: >292 santiamen: >293 NYCFaddict: >294 folioaddict: >295 RRCBS: >296 coynedj: >297 cronshaw:
Thank you, I really appreciate it, it's a very special time.

>292 santiamen: how do you know in advance which book might be hard to find second hand? Magic skill acquired over years...?

Pretty much :) Some of the most important factors to consider are the number of copies printed, when a book was available, when it sold out, and if it has been available for a while - secondary market performance. I had no problem letting something like Redcoats and Rebels go OOP, even though I did want the book - it was available for over a decade, went through multiple printings, so is easily found on ebay/abe, and often for a good price. However, Japanese Tales is a Fine edition from 2018, about to sell out. So here are my thoughts:
- It's a very recent edition, printed well after FS moved from publishing low number of editions of high print runs to high number of editions with low print runs. So the print run is relatively low to start with.
- It's a more expensive Fine edition, so the print run was probably even lower
- I think there was only one printing, as is the case with most Fine editions. So the total number of copies available is relatively low
- It's a very recent edition, just about to sell out, so the already limited supply hasn't really started hitting the secondary market. It will take some time before some of the current owners will move on to the dMR in the sky.

Generally speaking, if you really want a Fine edition, it's a good idea to acquire it while it's still in stock. If you missed out on Beowulf, the David Roberts set, The Tale of Genji, Ulysses, Finnegan's Wake, etc., chances are you won't see them very often on the secondary market, and when you do, you're not very likely to acquire them at a bargain. Even older Fine editions such as Walden or the Divine Comedy trio are neither common nor cheap.

I ordered myself a few books as a "self-birthday present" last month, and I so enjoyed some of them that I just had to place another, smaller order.

* The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England
* Orwell Life in Letters and Diaries
* Mark of the Horse Lord

After reading 1984, I wanted to learn more about George Orwell. I got the Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England as my mystery book, and that, so far, has had the unique distinction of being one of the few history books that doesn't put me to sleep. It's actually really interesting!

And I love British historical fiction, so Mark of the Horse Lord was an easy pick.

>344 thisGuy33: the only reason I say Anansi Boys might be a small discount book in the future is because I picked up American Gods for $115 and I see it's currently $135 (I assume this was the same price when I bought it ... so it must have been discounted ... unless the price has just gone up)

It is the latter, the price has gone up.

>347 Charon49: Yeah I think the best bet for a Dune sale would be when the movie comes out at the end of this year.

When the movie comes out, I think the chances of Dune going on sale will go from nearly zero to zero. It's been selling like hotcakes without any discounts already, it will sell even better after the movie - no need for FS to discount it.

So realizing that Japanese Tales is a must have for me and that it may or may not be sold out by the next time I order (September), I decided I needed to make another order, adding a few sale books. I will now not be buying books for a long time!

>365 RRCBS: “I will now not be buying books for a long time!“

AHAHAHAHAHAHA! I say exactly the same thing to my wife every six months whenever she sees my biannual Folio bill on our joint statement...!

The Golden Bough down to nine copies. It was at 42 twelve hours ago.

If anyone has an extra pair of Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies, or got it and it's just not their cup of team, kindly let me know. The shipping fees makes it quite prohibitive to just grab a book or two, and my budget doesn't allow me to just grab a few extra books to make it worthwhile.

This sale have brought me out of the hive after not purchasing any FS books for quite some time. However now I ordered three:

- Nicholas and Alexandra
- Orwell letters
- Diary of Anne Frank

Sorry for resurrecting the older sale thread, but I'm still catching up on messages.

>160 santiamen: That's interesting actually, I was wondering what people's approach here is to having their children around the expensive books. Do you let them near them?
.
.
.
On the other hand, the whole point of the books is to be enjoyed, not locked away somewhere. It's just - can kids learn to enjoy them gently? :)

I think the best way is to expose kids to books right away, but show how to handle books and be strict about it. Then it will become their nature. Before I was even born, my grandfather helped my father to set up 10 barrister-like bookcases in my nursery and filled them with a curated collection to last me a childhood into my teens - a shelf with nursery rhymes etc., a shelf with fairy tales and other children books, a shelf with myths and legends, shelves with swashbuckling adventure books, books on exploration, biographies, etc. Food and drinks were for consumption in the dining room or the kitchen only, so no issues with spills and food smears. I did manage to mangle a few pages of some early children books in my tenderest years because fine motor skills were still developing, but no serious damage as far as I can remember. The only real damage I did cause during certain period was through thumbing, but that was purely because I picked up my father's bad habit.

When my son was born, I approached it in a similar vein. He always had majority of his books in his room, although when it came to Folios (except the Beatrix Potter set) and some other nicer books, I did shelve them with my books to add a degree of supervision. But he was still allowed to peruse those books even when he was only 2, and I specifically shelved them low to the ground - second row from the bottom in the middle stack in the pic below - so he could access them personally. I did ask him up to about the age of 4 to make sure an adult was with him if he wanted to flip through those nicer books - they don't have good control over those little fingers and need help flipping (unless you're fine with them mangling and folding pages). When he turned 6, I decided that moving children books to his room was long overdue (particularly because I badly needed shelf space - bwa-haha), so now even the nicest children Folios are at his full disposal.

>371 elladan0891: lovely story, and lovely bookcase!

>371 elladan0891:

Thank you for taking time to reply. My parents weren't strict when it came to us reading books, they obviously wanted us to read a lot so we got basic instructions to treat books nicely, not to leave them with open spines upside down, not to bend corners or stuff thick things in to serve as bookmarks, to take off the dustjacket before reading etc. But for instance, weirdly enough, they didn't tell us not to eat or drink over them. So snacks while completely immersed in the magical adventures were common, as were crumbs. Which I now discover squashed inside those books feeling mad at myself for destroying them.

I wouldn't even ask about this when it comes to normally priced books because kids are kids. I hold zero hope for the longevity of cardboard books for the smallest children. The FS children's books are so beautiful - I would have been in awe of such stuff as a kid so I couldn't possibly keep them away from children to enjoy. As an adult though, the price tag made me wonder whether kids could even distinguish between cheaper and pricier books.

So thanks for your story, it's good to hear you managed fine. :)

>371 elladan0891:
OMG I love those bookshelves! Was that a custom build? What kind of wood? It has such a classic and elegant look to it.

>374 UK_History_Fan:
Thank you! Not custom - I was actually able to find a bookcase that fits that wall perfectly. Solid oak.

>375 elladan0891:
Amazing. Jealous. No, green with envy!

>371 elladan0891: The four pillars of wisdom in the elladan family

>377 Pellias:
Haha, good one!

I just received the sale brochure today!

The natural question now is...when is the next sale?

I bought the The Golden Bough at the summer sale, but to my dismay, i have gotten the first book twice. Could it be that someone has gotten two of the second volume instead of both?

Hi Fellow Folio lovers,
Are the Folio sales only every summer?
I am a new collector and just wondered when I can expect the next!

There are usually two sales a year - the Summer Sale and the New Year Sale!

Thank you. That’s good to hear- not for my wallet.

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>387 timspalding:

Thank you, Tim.

Anyone have War Horse? Thoughts on the production? I quite like the illustrations. Sad it has a thin slipcase but at least they tell you in the site that it’s thin.