Signed Books

Paul_S

Paul_S

I'll be whatever I wanna do!
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So it may be cheesy, but I like to try to find signed copies of books I really enjoyed. I'm sure I'm not the only one, so for others like me, what books do you have signed by the author?

My personal favorite is a hardcover copy of Ready Player One signed by both Ernest Cline and John Scalzi. As far as I can tell, it was signed at a book signing in Cincinnatti, OH, since that's the only one I can find where both Scalzi and Cline were present. Cline has a blog post about the event here:

[Oops.. apparently I can't post links yet. But it's on his blog dated 9/8/2011, he's got a story about his DeLorean breaking down on the way to the signing and getting rescued by a fan.]

The backstory was a nice bonus. =)
 
Let's see. I have the novel Time Storm by Gordon R. Dickson, from an autograph session at some convention or other; the collection Approaching Oblivion by Harlan Ellison, from one of his appearances at the late, lamented Change of Hobbit bookstore in Los Angeles; and, oddest of all, a signed paperback of Edward Bryant's collection Particle Theory, which I just bought at a used book store without having any idea it was signed.
 
I used to have a fabulous bunch of signed Easton Press edition SF books, including the spectacular Apollo Astronauts series, signed by them, but life has required me to sell them off at various junctures. I see the astronauts series is going for $4500 now. :mad:

However, I do still have 12 autographed Spider Robinson books, including his hilarious double-i signing of the Time Travelers Strictly Cash first edition that had a typo on the cover (Tiime Travelers Strictly Cash) -- he signed it "Spiider Robiinson" along with some other appropriate doublings. :D

Oh, and I do have Teresa's The Queen's Necklace, as well as a few other assorted ones.
 
I have lots of signed stuff. 20+ Roger Zelazny items. Arthur C. Clarke's personal copy of Against the Fall of Night (US). Complete set of Patrick Rothfuss books plus an advance reading copy of Name of the Wind.

Lots of collectors only collect signed editions.

The best collection I have seen is a complete E.R. Burroughs 1st edition hardcover signed set. The same collector was trying to assemble a complete run of Astounding pulps (1930-1960) with every issue signed by at least one contributor. He had more than 70% of them as of 2005.
 
I have quite a lot - I do like signed books. Most aren't sff though, but those that are include Joe Abercrombie, Pat Rothfuss, Chris Hadfield. I do have a nice limited signed of the Peacock Cloak by Chris Beckett. Oh, and an Isabelle Allende limited picked up for a pound in a remaindered bin....

Non sff I have loads, especially Irish. Brian Friel, Ciaran Carson, Paul Durcan, Fiacc. I also have some very, very nice Michael Longley (I have a kind husband who used to work in a very nice bookstore specialising in Irish books) - most notably a signed, limited boxed Snow Water, bound in kidskin.
 
I've got a signed copy of Ship of Magic, by Robin Hobb, in Dublin, while visiting the Forbidden Planet shop, a day or so after a signing by the author.
I've go another one, 'the Future is Wild', which was a book made after a TV program about animal's evolution after mankind has been wiped out. It is signed by the two authors and I picked it up for a few pounds in a charity shop.
 
i lucked out with a Mark Charan Newton hardback & a Joe Abercrombie paperback, both signed - in The Works, of all places....

also Pterry's Wyrd Sisters, Peter F Hamilton's Pandora's Star (dog-eared as it is), & a couple by Robert Rankin too. there are definitely others, but i cannot remember which...
 
I spent a lot of time at conventions in the days I could afford such and I still go to the local SF group meetings most of the time (I'm on the committee) so I've go a fair few signed books. The ones that probably mean most are the ones you wouldn't normally find in a signed copy. Offhand there's a couple of oddities from Moorcock (Great Rock & Roll Swindle, Deep Fix), Angela Carter's "Passion of the New Eve" in a Pan edition that the feminists decided was degrading or something like that. The other ones worth having are the ones where it's more than a signature. Tanith Lee used to add in her own extra illustrations.
 
I am starting to like getting a few signed books. I have a Brandon Sanderson signed copy of The Rithmatist and Mistborn hardcovers. Joe Abercrombie's Half a King (thanks Jo!!!), Francis Knight's Before the Fall, Susan Boulton's Oracle, and Jo Zebedee's Abendau's Heir.

I really want to get a personally signed Robin Hobb Assassin's Apprentice. :)
 
Ruth Pitter, winner of the Queen's gold medal for poetry and other honors -- I have signed copies of a couple of her books, Urania and End of Drought.

Hint: get hold of her collected poems and give Pitter's poetry a serious try, and then see if you don't want to pick up one of her signed editions, etc. They are not very hard to come by and not very expensive, so far. However, there is a revival of attention to her work going on, in America at least, with the publication of a biography and a thick selection of her letters from university presses. You might have to pay more for her books before long.

You can hear her read "If You Came" here:

http://www.poetryarchive.org/poem/if-you-came

The first voice you hear is not hers but John Wain's. He was Professor of Poetry at Oxford at one point. His biography of Samuel Johnson is very good.

There's a thread elsewhere on favorite book covers. The dust wrapper for Urania has one of the most beautiful designs of any of my books.
17156767.jpg

The picture is by Joan Hassall.
 
I only have two signed books. The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks and The Soldier by Neal Asher.

Most of my purchases are ebooks these days so the opportunity for an autographed book is rare.

Forbidden Planet in London have quite a few signing sessions and I’m thinking of picking up two Adrain Tchaikovsky books and the Cixin Lu.
 
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Rodders said:
I only have two signed books. The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks and The Soldier by Neal Asher.

Most of my purchases are ebooks these days so the opportunity for an autographed book is rare.

Forbidden Planet in London have quite a few signing sessions and I’m thinking of picking up two Adrain Tchaikovsky books and the Cixin Lu.
Click to expand...
A lot of the smaller shops do get signed books in - we’ve got Joe Abercrombie and Peter F Hamilton at the moment in the sff section - so worth asking your local bookseller to keep an eye out for you too :)
 
I've bought a few signed copies online recently at launch, but (unless I could get hold of something like a Tolkien) the only times it feels very meaningful is when they've been signed in my presence. The closest I've come to that with a "big name" was when a friend got Susan Cooper to sign me a copy of The Grey King, at a convention I didn't have a ticket for. I treasure it, and wish it were a first-edition hardback rather than the latest cheapo paperback.
 
I’ve got a rare unsigned Pratchett, :D I remember queuing up to buy a signed copy of The Hogfather,
Pratchett was meant to be there an hour signing books, he was there at least four and didn’t leave until everyone in the queue had seen him. We were queuing that long the bookshop manager bought us all coffee to keep us warm. Douglas Adams was once in Milton Keynes signing copies of the H2G2 scripts in book form, when it was my turn I asked him if he would sign something else for me, he said of course, and I rather cheekily produced a carrier bag full of all the books of his I owned. He laughed and signed the lot for me.
 
Back in 2009 I went to a book signing George R.R. Martin was doing in Belfast. Ostensibly it was to promote his Jack Vance tribute anthology but he was also visiting the set of the (original never-aired) pilot for A Game of Thrones. He brought a few of the actors from the pilot along to the signing, at the time nobody really knew who most of them were but they were happy to be asked to sign some copies of A Game of Thrones. In retrospect I wish I'd had some nice hardback edition but I'm still quite happy with my paperback signed by GRRM, Richard Madden, Kit Harrington, Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, Alfie Allen and Ron Donnachie.

I do have quite a few other signed books from various conventions and events in bookshops. One of my favourites is Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell which I got signed at an event for various SF/Fantasy authors in a Cambridge bookshop, it felt quite fortunate because she got added to the line-up at the last minute.
 
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