Collecting books.

i consider myself a book collector. im a scavenger who doesnt pay retail for anything valuable. i have a signed copy of homeboy i paid eight bucks for, and a first edition of fight club i paid ten for.

second hand is awesome, but you have to know what it's worth, or it has to at least be worth something to you. a signed homeboy was worthless to the person i bought it from, but you better believe i was tripping over myself for it. same with my first edition of fight club.

I have 5 first edition Isaac Asimov books:

The Robots of Dawn
Foundation and Earth
Life and Energy
Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery
Asimov's Chronology of The World

I very much consider myself a book collector. I also have Advance Reading Copies of Beat The Reaper(Josh Bazell) and Richter 10(Arthur C. Clarke and Mike Mcquay).

I don't know if any of those are actually great, but I treasure them.

my collection is huge
but some highlights:
-first edition/fifth print of slaughterhouse five
-two signed first editions of geek love
-signed copies of all of chucks books (except maybe fight club)
-a signed press copy of kiss me judas
-uniquely personalized copies of all of stephen graham jones up to LONG TRIAL
-an unopened press copy of the man who fell in love with the moon
-signed first editions of dermaphoria and the handbook
-some signed stuff from sherman alexie including a poster from the reading.

I have a first edition The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. It's the only first edition I have, but it's a pretty damn good one.

I have nothing signed because authors rarely come upstate.

I definitely collect books. I buy most of my books used and I have a collection of leatherbound, first editions, and signed books. My prize is a signed copy of Slaughterhouse-Five. I have too many leathers to list, but some of the other signed ones are

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
Penny Dreadful and Kiss Me Judas by WCB
Nocturnes by John Connolly
Anarchy Evolution by Greg Graffin
Lamb by Christopher Moore

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

I'd call myself a collector. I'm not much of one for bothering with first prints or editions or anything, closest thing is when I did re-buy Henry Miller's Under the Roofs of Paris when I found a hardback of it with it's original title Opus Pistorum.

I definitely prefer to have all my books in hardback. I've had a bunch that I've gotten in paperback and then really liked so I went out and got them in hardback.

I can't see paying extra for autographs but I do have a few.
Chuck sent out copies of Fight Club autographed during one of his mailing windows, (that was the first autographed book I ever got!)
Derek sent me a copy of The Book of Lost Things autographed.
Frank and the kids sent me a copy of Haunted they got signed during the Austin meet-up from back in the day.
And I got one for Dermaphoria that Clevenger sent out to the first few people when it came out in paperback.
Probably the biggest though is, I talked myself into dropping a hundred bucks for when the From Hell hardback came out. It's autographed by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell and numbered 181/1000. But the reason I paid so much for that was more because it was in hardback and had all the annotation pages with it.

I can't call myself a collector because I'm not serious about it. But if I had the money to burn, I'd definitely buy every first printing hardcover of the books I love. Even if they're not worth much -I buy what I can when I can, for exmaple I have a first edition first printing hardcover of Rubicon Beach by Steve Erickson. I have 2 First Printing Hardcovers Dermaphoria by Clevenger -I ordered those in October. Some people charge high, but these I got deals on and mine are in excellent condition. Someone mentioned WCB -I have the Macadam/Cage Hardcovers 1st printings of those -I know they're not the first publhsing company to put those books out, but the Macadam/Cage hardcovers are beautiful if anyone's ever seen 'em or knows what I'm talking about. I have all 3. So yeah, i'm into this shit and Would collect if I could, but I don't put my time or money toward it, really -I only pick up when I can here and there when opportunities present themselves.

I was looking at mine the other day and realized my copies of Kiss Me, Judas, Contortionist's Handbook and Dermaphoria are all first print/first editions. That was kinda cool to find out.

That is cool, especially with Contortionist -mine's a second printing. Yours might fetch you a pretty penny in the near future with it being made into a movie and all. Who knows? Nice, though.

Heaven will be when I have no more room anywhere in my house for books.

Of course that still won't stop me from bringing in more.

Hello again. Thank you all for replying.

Some very nice jewels in your collections I see,

I have 5 first edition Isaac Asimov books:

The Robots of Dawn
Foundation and Earth
Life and Energy
Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery
Asimov's Chronology of The World

-uniquely personalized copies of all of stephen graham jones up to LONG TRIAL
-signed first editions of dermaphoria and the handbook

Chuck sent out copies of Fight Club autographed during one of his mailing windows, (that was the first autographed book I ever got!)

All very cool.

Something I was wondering, do you mind buying signed books? Or do you only care if you actually got the book signed in person, or directly from the author or something more personal like that? nathaniel parkers and Caitlinstalks' posts suggest the latter, I am just curious as to how many people take that approach.

I bought all the signed books I own, owing to a combination of living in a different country to alot of my favorite authors, two of the signed books being by authors that are sadly dead, and the fact that book signings in the cities around me just being generally rare.

For you guys in the US, www.abebooks.com is a good site to check out for buying rare books, although for all I know it might be old news for you guys. It's kind of a hub for booksellers, some of the books that sell there go for crazy prices (signed Tolkiens and the like) but they have stuff by almost all the authors people have mentioned in this thread.

Keep it coming guys.

abebooks is where i got all my Chuck hardbacks and Contortionists Handbook and Kiss Me Judas. I don't think it was more than 12 bucks for any of them. But this was, like, 8 years ago.

also, the only person I'd ever pay to get their autograph is Pete Rose.

Once I moved a few times, I realized that a book collection is evil and have been trimming mine down ever since. I'm down to less than 1 bookcase full and I would like to cut that in half.

If I read an 'actual' book these days, I immediately try to pawn it off on someone else. I much prefer to buy my books electronically and read on my Kindle.

I don't really think it's just books though. I have kind of grown against most of my collections. It all just seems like pointless clutter to me now.

Sometimes I imagine that Kirk lives in a pristine, white, minimalist house with only the barest essentials in terms of furniture and decoration.

I'm not that minimal, but I am getting close! It's a personal goal.

I also buy very little traditional media anymore. I prefer everything in a digital format. Not only is the space-saving a benefit, but it doesn't put more trash in landfills as well as numerous other environmental benefits.

I don't love the environment enough to start reading books in electronic format. I love the smell of old books, and while I don't suppose you could call me a collector in the traditional sense (I don't care about editions or signatures, just gimme words on pages), I know every book that I own, and I would not part with any of them. If someone borrows a book from me and neglects to return it, I go out and buy another copy to replace it. I love my books so much, and they're part of my home decor. I add to my "collection" whenever the mood strikes me.

I'm completely the opposite. I love watching my collection grow; I revel in the act of putting a finished book on my shelf. I would never consider giving mine away. I want my room to have shelves on every wall.

In my two bedroom UK apartment I have 12 bookshelves, and those can only contain about 2/3 of my books over there.

Then in my place in Portugal I have another 10 big bookshelves, all full.

The rest of the books I keep in boxes in the basement.

I'll be moving out of my UK apartment in about a year — what the hell am I going to do with all those books?

Take them with you. Or send them to me, duh.

Alecia said what I was thinking. haha

throw a big party and then burn every single one of them in front of everyone and watch their eyes boggle!

Penis!

hahaha, new ways of torture

I just got in the mail a signed first edition of So Long and Thanks For All the Fish by Douglas Adams. I found it on Half.com for about $5. I'm very excited about this.

Really? Nobody cares about that?

thats the kind of find i live for, up there with my ten dollar signed HOMEBOY, and the press proof of it i got for a buck.
oh, and the five dollar first edition of FARAWAY PLACES.

I have 4 book cases for. So I guess I'm obsessive about collecting.

I try to collect sets. So if I start a series - I'm very likely to buy them all eventually even if I don't read them all.

I'm even more obsessive about collecting graphic novels. If I read one book from a series, I have to buy every book by that author from the series. Case in point - I bought all the Criminal books at once. I sometimes fear if I don't buy them quick enough - they will go out of print... I'm weird like that.

Yep - the second I read a book by a new author and I really like the book, every one of his books ends up on my wishlist. lol. It's ridiculous!

Yep - the second I read a book by a new author and I really like the book, every one of his books ends up on my wishlist. lol. It's ridiculous!

Yeah this happens to me too.

Also so far this year I have bought or been given some awesome books.

A signed 1st ed. Kiss me, Judas. (Fucking sweet Xmas present even if it did come a month late thanks to royal mail)
A signed proof copy of Ecstasy by Irvine Welsh.
The Manifold trilogy by Stephen Baxter in 1st ed. hardbacks, one of which is signed.

and I'm still waiting for my signed Out Of Touch to get here, hopefully later today or tomorrow.

Got some signed books over the weekend:

But they're SO expensive! This is why I still haven't finished the Sandman.

hey, that happened to me. finally, wife was just fed up. we moved to a 1200 sq ft house and it was depressing, borderline hoarder. three hug bookshelves, two large ones. all of the shelving in the living room--three 40" shelves on either side of the fireplace mantel. and i still had several boxes of of the bound fuckers. i got rid of about eighty percent of all that. i managed to pluck out the books that i wouldnt read or likely reference again and began to shed myself of them. craigslist, amazon, eBay, the workplace, donations. ive trimmed to just two of the shelves on either side of the chimney mantel and a three-tier bookshelf that i keep my favorites. im not a collector, not even close. i had a kiss me, judas i bought from the amazon used selection for cheap and it was signed. i sent it to a cultist or velveteer. the only reason i have any signed chuck books is because he sent them to me and i dont have any interest in selling something someone sent to me as a gift. i dont particularly care about a book's value and i prefer reading soft covers. i also tend to mangle them so i gravitate toward the used selections unless the book was just released and i love the author. for example: i would buy mark richard's "charity" used but i'll be swooping stephen graham jone's "the ones that got away" and chuck's "damned" sparkling new.

I don't think I have any signed copies, also I don't buy too many old books so first editions aren't that important to me. Used to buy too many books. So I cut myself off and am now back tracking. However, this thread may have started my addiction.

It can be a problem at times. I have a slight spending addiction. At least I'm spending it on books though? But yeah - I spend way more money than I should.

But I don't get obsessed very often. Every few months or so I'll go on a "bender."

Got a couple of nice books for the collection this week. One was very unexpected.

Got my signed Out of Touch which is very cool. Also I ordered a copy of Miranda July's collection, No One Belongs Here More Than You. It cost me £5.00 delivered (so what about $10 tops) and wasn't advertised as being a collectible copy, so imagine my surprise when I find it to be a 1st edition hardcover (with the neon pink jacket) and find an autograph scribbled on the title page. It's a pretty ambiguous squiggle so I was supsicious at first but I checked pictures of other signed books and promo photo's of her and it looks genuine.