Favorite Example of FSD Enablement

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Favorite Example of FSD Enablement

1Redshirt
Feb 5, 2021, 11:56 am

Thanks to this site, many of us have been induced into buying books that had never before been on our radar. I’d be interested to hear from others about a Folio book that you learned of through this site and now consider a favorite part of your collection. Try to keep yourself to one book.

I’ll go first. Among many options, the book I pick is the limited edition of Riddley Walker. I had never heard of the book but various postings about it led me to purchase the book in a sale. The “Riddley-Speak” is a bit of trick to master but a little patience and time made it come into focus. The book is an excellent example of design, where all the elements, including illustrations, the cover and the paper all work to enhance the author’s words and story and make it a proud part of my collection. Though I wouldn’t have minded if it was a little smaller.

2folio_books
Feb 5, 2021, 1:23 pm

>1 Redshirt:

A nice, original thread. Thank you!

Like you, many options but I think the one that stands out the most is Liber Bestiarum, a wonderful LE from 2008. FSD member huxleythecat posted a magnificent set of photos, so good I could smell the leather, and I was immediately smitten. It has been one of the joys of my collection ever since.

Thanks, huxley. We miss you!

3TabbyTom
Feb 5, 2021, 2:55 pm

As a long-time admirer of Max Beerbohm, I was delighted to learn on this site (from terebinth, I believe) that Folio had published the Yale edition of his "Zuleika Dobson" with all his illustrations. Before that I only possessed it in paperback.

4affle
Feb 5, 2021, 3:07 pm

I have to point the finger at Michael (Conte_Mosca) and his thread on the special bindings in his collection (find it through the wiki). His focus was the specially bound sets, and my enablement runs to six of those, but also, as a kind of second wave enablement, one of the famous five special bindings from the 1950s, and three of the nine from the mid-1990s. It's not yet clear whether this enablement has quite run its course.

5dar.lynk
Editado: Feb 5, 2021, 3:19 pm

I've never heard about Zamyatin and "We" and I am Russian. On the other hand, maybe that's why I've never heard about him - he was first published in Russia after I left. So I got myself a copy, nice design!
Stands now by Orwell and Huxley since apparently he inspired them both.

6ubiquitousuk
Editado: Feb 8, 2021, 2:59 am

Warwick Carter's Folio Archives post on A Journal of the Terror (https://www.librarything.com/topic/319395) persuaded me to spend about £7 on the book and it proved to be every bit as fascinating as he made it sound. It'll never be a stand-out example of book design, but it was one of the most interesting books I read last year and I was very glad to have it brought to my attention by this community.

I also covered the book (I have a slightly revised later printing) on my blog here: https://ubiquitousbooks.wordpress.com/2020/05/16/a-journal-of-the-terror/

7U_238
Feb 5, 2021, 5:55 pm

This forum talked me into purchasing The Door in the Wall LE, which I did last summer when it was in double digits. It is a very beautiful book.

As an aside, I’m quite envious of Michael’s collection of limited edition bindings, and his patience and luck in gradually acquiring them.

8RRCBS
Feb 5, 2021, 5:59 pm

Great thread idea! So many for me! I’ve been buying way too many books this past couple of years and a lot of the enabling/discovery is due to this group! They have also helped me discover other great publishers like LEC, Subterranean Press, Tartarus Press and Slightly Foxed! The book that most comes to mind is News from Nowhere. Beautiful book and I love pre 20th century works. I hadn’t known it existed until I saw a post here and there happened to be one for sale (only one!). Had it not been for this group, I likely wouldn’t have ordered it, since at the time it was expensive for me. My book collection has definitely changed from the “specific books I have already read and treasure” to a more broad, diverse but still deeply personal collection.

9SimB
Feb 6, 2021, 6:04 am

The book I open most often is The Book of Common Prayer, and I'm not religious! It was enabled here. By whom, I can't remember. It has intricate wood cut motifs surrounding each page, hand marbled covers by Jemma Lewis and a gilded top edge, quarter bound in leather. AUD 112 in a sale. Its such a gorgeous book.

10Redshirt
Feb 7, 2021, 11:25 am

The problem with this thread is that I knew it would only put other books in my sights. Oh well, at least I have one these covered already (I found Door in the Wall under the Christmas tree this year).

11abysswalker
Feb 7, 2021, 11:49 am

One acquisition that I clearly remember as being a direct result of discussion here is wcarter's post about the collection of Donne's prose, No Man is an Island:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/311574

Striking but restrained binding design, and enjoyable read, though the selection of texts feels a bit fragmentary.

12kcshankd
Feb 7, 2021, 1:20 pm

The Folio Fine Press edition of Emily Dickinson, Woman in White.

13laotzu225
Feb 7, 2021, 1:55 pm

>3 TabbyTom: I got that (Zuleika Dobson) second-hand and have always found it to be a delight.

14Retronaut78
Feb 7, 2021, 3:21 pm

My copy of The Golden Bough, which I bought in last summer's sale. I hadn't been especially interested at the time as my Penguin edition bought in the early 2000s hadn't been down from the shelf for years, and even a 50% discount wasn't changing that. Then on a sale thread a couple of people mentioned getting it and loving it, and I wavered...publicly. Someone told me firmly to just get it because I wouldn't regret it, the money burned a hole and I took the plunge, only a week or so as I recall before it sold out. And it's an absolute gem, one of my most treasured. To think I seriously took convincing at £62.50, what could I have been thinking?!

15Charon49
Feb 7, 2021, 6:13 pm

The enablement from reading through old threads has seen my collection rapidly expand in the last year and couldn’t be happier for it. The biggest surprise besides a much stronger interest in all of the non fiction titles was one from a genre I thought myself well versed In. A Fantasy title I had never heard of Gormenghast floored me with Peake’s beautiful prose and bizarre cast of Dickensian characters all entwined in the labyrinth setting of the castle that felt like reading a history of events more than fiction seeing as the world and the characters machinations were so brilliantly realised. I loved the bindings of the books and the copious amounts of illustrations depicting the many environments but never showing a character leaving them for your own imagination.

16stopsurfing
Feb 8, 2021, 2:33 am

The South Polar Times standard edition as recommended by >6 ubiquitousuk: a book I never thought I’d be interested in but now, having it in my hands, am delighted to have. It’s certainly a tome but one you can dip into anywhere without any ‘obligation’. Often large books/short story collections/diaries (looking at you Pepys) turn into the burden of an unfinished reading project, but with this tome I feel completely free. And it’s interesting, quirky, and beautiful to look at, so thanks ubiquitousuk!

17InVitrio
Feb 8, 2021, 7:16 am

>14 Retronaut78:
I didn't go for the Golden Bough, even at £62 - because I found a full set of the 3rd edition for £100...

18assemblyman
Feb 8, 2021, 3:44 pm

A common enabler here is Warwick Carter’s folio archive posts and for me (which there has been a few) my most enjoyable was The Third Policeman. Had gone through the wiki but didn’t know there was a Folio edition of this book but when I saw the post I had to have it. When I did eventually get a copy it was just such a really pleasant reading experience. One of my favourite Folios.

19olepuppy
Feb 8, 2021, 11:01 pm

While every FS edition I got enabled me to acquire more in the early years of membership, Folio 60 provided the door to numerous lovely finds, particularly the Folio Fine Editions series discovered at item 592 where the description included the title "The bird paintings of Henry Jones", well, my toes curled, my nose n ears wiggled, having recently been thrilled by Axel Amuchastegui's Birds and Mammals of Africa and being constantly excited by Folio Society editions, so I quickly searched for a copy, willing my fingers to fly across the keyboard but they still hunted and pecked slowly and even more inaccurately than usual, hoping against hope that one would reside stateside, finally cheering some strange-sounding original articulation so that the dog woke up and the cat ran when I located a copy in middle of nowhere southern Texas of all places and no offense at all intended. Folio 60# 398.5 The bird paintings of Henry Jones, just pulled it out again, enjoyed the man's talent and the make of the book.

20cronshaw
Feb 9, 2021, 9:44 am

There are more enablers generally on this forum than there are pub signs in England waving at wavering alcoholics. The pub sign that has most caught my eye over the years has probably been The Count Mosca. Any resistance I confess to having affected rather than effected, even when knowing that afterwards I'd have to face the Nag's Head. As the years and barrels trundle by, I live in Hope & Anchor that I'll one day be strong enough to always say No, but that's probably a load of Cock & Bull.

21Jayked
Feb 9, 2021, 10:51 am

>20 cronshaw:
My favourite sign, somewhere near Redditch, was The Why Not. Resistance was futile.

22cronshaw
Feb 9, 2021, 10:54 am

P.S. For anyone seeking a tipple, there's a copy of the Folio LE Letterpress Shakespeare, As You Like It, going for £50 in the Oxfam on-line shop. No slipcase, but apparently in fine condition and a bargain nevertheless.

23cronshaw
Feb 9, 2021, 10:55 am

>21 Jayked: That's a great sign! I wish there were a pub or two called The Library. I could sound so studious.

24agitationalporcelain
Feb 9, 2021, 11:15 am

>23 cronshaw: Fairly certain I recall passing a pub called the Library, around the corner from Highbury & Islington station! :)

25Redshirt
Feb 9, 2021, 11:31 am

>20 cronshaw: Great, so now I'm not only coveting some FS books, I'm craving a pint of ale.

26AlexBMcLeod
Feb 9, 2021, 11:57 am

>20 cronshaw: For me, it was your post about The Door in The Wall! It was much easier to cave in to pressure when there was those payment plans especially being the university student I was at the time. It still remains my only LE nearly 5 years later. Incidentally, this is also my first post in my 5 years of 'lurking'..

https://www.librarything.com/topic/222469

27cronshaw
Editado: Feb 9, 2021, 2:15 pm

>24 agitationalporcelain: Noted! (for happier, messier times post-Covid)

>25 Redshirt: My most profuse and sober apologies

>26 AlexBMcLeod: My most profuse and sober apologies to you too, Alex, unless you're delighted with it :) I'd quite forgotten I'd written a review after purring over a copy in the old dismembered room at 33 Eagle Street, having pedalled there specially to do so following a firm nudge from a feline sort here. On re-reading now what I wrote then, it was all I could do not to try and re-order.

28Son.of.York
Feb 10, 2021, 7:47 am

Great thread, thank-you.

That’s easy, definitely Queen Victoria's Journal of Our Life in the Highlands, LE, 2002, enabled by the wonderful Folio Archives series, http://www.librarything.com/topic/265801

29EdmundRodriguez
Feb 10, 2021, 8:56 am

I bought my first LE (Mort) after following the (very active) thread on release day, which convinced me to order it. I had never spent that much on a single book before, but I was so glad that I had!
The real "benefit" of the being enabled on Mort was indirect, as if I had not been convinced to take the plunge on that purchase, I'm not sure if I would have bought a lot of the rest of my LE collection. The purchase essentially kick-started that aspect of my book collecting (starting with FS but then expanding to some LECs and private press editions), shooting me off down that slippery slope (a heavy cost, I pay it gladly...).

30coynedj
Feb 10, 2021, 10:08 am

>23 cronshaw: There's a Library pub/bar here in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I've never gone there and am quite unlikely to do so, but I know it's there and that's enough for me.

31terebinth
Feb 10, 2021, 10:23 am

>30 coynedj:

And one in Durham (UK), near where we lived until a couple of years ago. So disappointing to spot the signage from a distance then see what the building actually held - Durham isn't, or at least until very recently wasn't, at all short of watering holes.

32sdg_e
Editado: Feb 10, 2021, 11:00 am

>30 coynedj:
Assuming you're talking about Books 'n' Brewz, they have pretty good drinks and pizza, but their book selection is awful. Plus, a lot of the books haven't been treated very well sadly. I've gone a handful of times with some friends at uncrowded times, and the atmosphere is cozy and good for conversation.

If you're talking about The Liebrary though, I've never been, but I don't think they have any books at all. They are a "lie" in the sense you can say you're going to the "lie-brary" and go there.

Edit: Read back up to cronshaw's comment and you definitely mean the second. I haven't gone there either and am unlikely to do so, but I do enjoy the name.

33Retronaut78
Feb 10, 2021, 1:46 pm

I've got to confess to a habit when I'm in a bar that has shelves of old books bought in bulk to evoke a certain vibe, of getting the books down for a shufty when I'm probably not meant to. On the theme of inventively named venues, here in Manchester we have bars called The Office and Bed. I'll let you imagine the fun you can have with those, especially when you invite someone to the latter.

34Joshbooks1
Feb 10, 2021, 1:56 pm

>23 cronshaw: Haha only if!

I wish the US had more clever bar names. I also wish people here knew how to pour a pint and not charge $8 for 3/4 beer and 1/4 head. You may have passed Brexit but at the end of the day you have the finest pubs in the world. I'd say life could be worse.

35mnmcdwl
Editado: Feb 10, 2021, 8:35 pm

This is a great thread idea. While I have been enabled far more times than I care to admit—I’m looking at you dlphcoracl, wcarter, and kdweber—my favorite Folios that I bought based purely on enablement are David Jones’ In Parentheses and Alfred Russel Wallace’s The Malay Archipelago. Both are prizes that make me thankful I follow the discussions in this group.

36xrayman
Feb 14, 2021, 10:31 am

>12 kcshankd: Congratulations on stopping at one of the series. I was happy with the two I owned until I fell victim to a thread by Conte Mosca - one of the Grand Enablers. I then spent several years tracking down the rest. I then convinced myself that 'Perfect and Imperfect Enjoyments' was needed to complete the series, I thus became a self enabler!

37kcshankd
Feb 19, 2021, 7:48 pm

>36 xrayman:

There is always time, I suppose. My 'completistism' kicks in for single-author sets, certainly.