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Pit Book/Discussion Thread

thinking about trying Halldór Laxness out for my next pleasure read
 
Hell of a Book by Jason Mott, 2021 National Book Award winner is probably my fav book I’ve read this year. I’ll be thinking about this one for a while, wow.
 
anybody own any first editions or other collectible books?

pretty sure OGB is into that, but don't know if he posts here much any more
 
Think phan might have some contributions there

I’m really digging The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

It’s sort of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close meets Calvino
 
anybody own any first editions or other collectible books?

pretty sure OGB is into that, but don't know if he posts here much any more

Yes!

NDsZMT8.jpg


I would consider these all collectible, although none are FE's or autographed. While I love to flip through the books, especially the illustrated ones, and wouldn't rule out reading them some day, they spend 99.9% of their time on the shelf, so appearance for display is by far my main concern. I'd love to have some autographed editions, but they don't (necessarily) look any better or even different than unsigned editions, so I don't find them worth the mark-up. FE's have never been of too much interest to me, although I can't speak to them from an investment perspective.
 
Looks like a lawyer's office, OGB. How many of those are law books? The second shelf from the bottom right looks the most miscellaneous

Whatcha wanna know, juice? I've got a few early editions here and there, some artist books, some autographed copies, some fine press and indie press stuff, some association copies. I'm not really a collector, and the books I do collect wouldn't be of interest to many people here. But I'm lucky to mess around every day with priceless stuff, and that definitely colors my thoughts on collecting. I don't really feel the need to possess it.
 
Looks like a lawyer's office, OGB. How many of those are law books? The second shelf from the bottom right looks the most miscellaneous

Whatcha wanna know, juice? I've got a few early editions here and there, some artist books, some autographed copies, some fine press and indie press stuff, some association copies. I'm not really a collector, and the books I do collect wouldn't be of interest to many people here. But I'm lucky to mess around every day with priceless stuff, and that definitely colors my thoughts on collecting. I don't really feel the need to possess it.

No law books, fortunately. I doubt the boards are going to like this formatting, but from top left...



XX ||| Ante-Nicene Fath ||| ers... Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Set I... Nicene ||| and Post-Nicene Fathers, Set II ||| XX

Works of Tennyson... Works of Thomas Moore... Works of ||| William Cowper... Ancient Classics ||| Alison's History of Europe... Works of George Eliot... Works of ||| Isaac Disraeli... Ancient Classics (Supplementary Set)... Works of Anna Jameson... Bowell's Life of ||| Johnson... Works of George Crabbe... Works of Henry Fielding

Works of Wordsworth... Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley... Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning... Works of Ben ||| Disraeli... Works of Dickens (incomplete)... Works ||| of Washington ||| Irving ||| Works of Jane Austen... Works of ||| Dickens (complete, different printing)... Works of William Prescott

Works of Bronte(s)... Works of Robert Browning... Works of Anne ||| Thackeray Ritchie... Works of Laurence Sterne... Poetical Works of W. Scott ||| History of England (Hume, Smollett, Hughes)... Works ||| of Samuel Johnson... Works of Robert Louis ||| Stevenson... Memoirs of the Life of W. Scott... Works of E.A. Poe

Book of Gems... Works of Oliver Goldsmith... Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire... Works of ||| John Milton... History of the United States (Bancroft) ||| Don Quixote... Prose Works of W. Scott ||| Works of Shakespeare... 1,001 Nights... History ||| of Greece (Grote)... Works of Byron... Plutarch's Lives

Works of Bunyan... Froissart/Monstrelet Chronicles... Works of W.M. Thackeray ||| XX ||| XX ||| XX ||| Works of William Paley... History of Our Lord (Jameson)... Language of Flowers... Pensees (Pascal)... Imitation of Christ (Kempis)... Christian Year (Keble)

Works of Longfellow... Works of W.M. Thackeray ||| XX ||| XX ||| XX ||| Holy Bible (Cassell, illustrated by Dore)... Lives of the Apostles (Cave, 1677)... Synodi Nicenai (1540)... Works of Goethe... Life of Christ (Farrar)... Animated Nature (Goldsmith)
 
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Great list (and sorry for the law books comparison, though I suspect you've been in a lot of lawyers' chambers and know what I mean. Those stylized bindings are everywhere).

So you're primarily collecting C19 "great books" series? From what I can tell from the picture they're beautiful sets and the bindings look like they're in great condition. Which are the miscellaneous volumes in the bottom right? (The Vitae, Goethe, etc.?)
 
Yes, I know exactly what you mean. I deal with enough cases at work, though.

I think that's a fair characterization of the collection, although it's informed in part by the bindings. My preference is for 3/4 leather over marbled boards, spines divided into compartments with gilt devices, labels/cards for title and author, and all edges marbled. Based on my searches, the sweet spot for that style appears to be roughly 1840-1880. Before then, it's harder to find anything very decorative, as a lot of the bindings are plain brown calf. After that, there seems to have been a move towards solid morocco leather with gilt titles inscribed on the spine (i.e. no title cards) and all edges gilt or, worst of them all, uncut edges with top edge gilt.

The two bottom right cabinets are: Works of William Paley... History of Our Lord (Jameson)... Language of Flowers... Pensees (Pascal)... Imitation of Christ (Kempis)... Christian Year (Keble)

Holy Bible (Cassell, illustrated by Dore)... Lives of the Apostles (Cave, 1677)... Synodi Nicenai (1540)... Works of Goethe... Life of Christ (Farrar)... Animated Nature (Goldsmith)
 
I'll let ogb answer your questions too, but rarity is not always the right category, ironically, for discussing rare books. Like Shakespeare's first folio is not really rare at all (230 something survive from a run of like 750) but when they come on the market they routinely go for multiple millions -- a sale in 2020 went to a private seller for $10 Million. On the other hand, I have books that survive in fewer copies than that that I bought for like $100.

For collectors, personal taste is often as important as rarity, though it certainly plays a part
 
lol telling me what I actually should be wanting to know instead of what I asked
ok, I'll answer your question as you asked it: my rarest is an original illumination attributed to the Austin Master, who happens to be my three-year old second cousin. It's even signed by the artist!
 
i own a decent number of books (~500 or so) but my wife basically just instagram organizes them by color and uses them as decor around the house which is a compromise because otherwise she wouldn't let me keep so many books

apart from vanity, i can't say why i like having books around, i'm constantly reading new ones and almost never re-reading old ones, and i mostly just have the trade paperback and not some nice edition built to last that i can pass down or sell or wahtever
 
ok, I'll answer your question as you asked it: my rarest is an original illumination attributed to the Austin Master, who happens to be my three-year old second cousin. It's even signed by the artist!

how did it end up on OGB's bookcase?
 
i own a decent number of books (~500 or so) but my wife basically just instagram organizes them by color and uses them as decor around the house which is a compromise because otherwise she wouldn't let me keep so many books

apart from vanity, i can't say why i like having books around, i'm constantly reading new ones and almost never re-reading old ones, and i mostly just have the trade paperback and not some nice edition built to last that i can pass down or sell or wahtever

re: part 2, I'm the same, just at like 35% of your collection size -- I think they give a home a nice feel

re: part 1, I actually thing the hodgepodge color of non-IG organizing is a more interesting look
 
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