Is there any point to collecting books?

My 1899 Rudyard Kipling collection smells fine. Actually really no scent. Eleven volumes and the knowledgeable will know why it doesn't have some of his famous stories.
 
I have a very old edition of Procopius's Secret History and it is in mint condition. Smells wonderful. Not so my copy of Herodotus.

Space is the big consideration for me now when I purchase books. I now only purchase HB copies of my favourite authors. For everything else it is Kindle and it has opened up a world of books and new authors to me. Some you may argue should go back to the drawing board and try again, however there are gems to be found amongst the rubbish.
 
Hmm. You can collect genre science fiction and run out of money fast. In dustjacket? Forget it.
Once you have a bunch of this stuff around, it gets ridiculous. These are not reading copies they are antiques. Got a vintage Gnome Press in dustjacket? Don't even bother opening it.
I had a great paperback collection, really a lot of early ones - but there were more and more and the price goes up and up. It's worth collecting quality printings of anything at all. If you are sharp you may spot the next Steve King. His books came out and the booktrade dealers sneered, but my little sis was smart enough to know a hot trend when she saw one, bought all his HCs and dint open them, and waited till they peaked, and sold for more than much rarer, better, older stuff. She made a pile off Steve without ever being subject to his writing. So it can be worth it, sure.
Ebay made a mess of rare Sf book collecting. Every rare one-off fantasy or pre-SF book came out of the attic all at once. Prices dropped.
Now let's collect rare eBooks and see what happens. )
 
ebook all the way. My arthritic painful hands love how light it is, my ageing eyes like the fact I can increase the font and don't need glasses as a result and I rather like the fact that if I forget the Kindle I can access it on my phone, tablet or laptop. It's rare I forget all four.

I'm reducing us to two long shelves of books (rather than five).

The only exception is things like Jane Yeadon's Cloven Hill which has an animated spider. (I so want an animated bird on my print books)
 
I found my self to be the type of person who wanted to own any book of interest and early on I started my private library.

For a short time I was married to a woman who thought that the best place for books was the public library and after a number of trips with her to the libraries I ran out of things of interest and almost quit reading. Then when I found out I had to act the criminal when I bought something at the bookstore I did quit for a while.

Aside from that though, I love e-books and still collect the paper kind. I love the idea of being able to, at a whim, go grab an old friend off the shelf and spend some time with them.
 
Ray McCarthy said:
I do collect a few kinds of things just to collect them. But not books, they are for reading or they are pointless?
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Couldn't you pretty much say this about ANY kind of collecting though? Art, stamps, coins... if you're not looking, licking, or spending it what's the point?
 
I see my collection as my "real" retirement fund. My wife/family knows who to take the collection too to sell for them. A local book dealer has thinned out my parents 15,000+ collection at very good prices.

I got into this discussion on another site. We (crazy collectors all) believe that the value of the "famous" titles will stay at current levels or increase and the remaining back-list by a given author will diminish in value over time. We are betting that books have a value like art that can be maintained.

I own around 20 E.R.Burroughs first editions. The value has dropped by about 20-30% for most titles as the people who bought them to remember their childhood are dying off and the collections are coming onto the market. Current collectors are looking for titles from their own childhood and collecting P.K.Dick, Heinlein, Le Guin, etc.... The exception to this trend is my Princess of Mars. It has increased in value X4.

I love books, I look at my shelves and see countless worlds available for me to enter and lose myself.
Plus how can you not love the artwork!
20150108_092716.jpeg
 
soulsinging said:
Couldn't you pretty much say this about ANY kind of collecting though? Art, stamps, coins.
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Art is largely visual rather than functional. Collected stamps aren't used to post letters, collected coins are not used as cash. Collected books can be read.
Various other kinds of collected items can be just admired or occasionally used to.
That's what I was trying to say.
 
When I think back to the books I 'borrowed' from my grandparents as a kid and I look at my kindle I often wonder will future generations have the joy of discovering older authors like I did? I probably wouldn't have developed a taste for pulp if it hadn't been for my grandad's collection.
 
Vladd67 said:
When I think back to the books I 'borrowed' from my grandparents as a kid and I look at my kindle I often wonder will future generations have the joy of discovering older authors like I did? I probably wouldn't have developed a taste for pulp if it hadn't been for my grandad's collection.
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I didn't read The Last Of The Mohicans until I picked it up for my kindle (one of the many free classics). If anything, providing the likes free of charge is more likely to encourage people to read older authors.
 
Stephen Palmer said:
some entrepreneur bottled that "second hand book smell"
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Probably Yankee Candles.

Personally I dislike the hydrocarbon vapour from modern paraffin wax candles and adding scent makes them worse (Candle vapour may be very harmful). Air fresheners too are evil for bad sinuses or respiratory issues.
 
I have always been a book "collector" although I buy them mainly to read - although I rarely get around to reading a lot I have bought. I have about 1,000 and I recently purged a lot of books I know I am never likely to read.

As far as "rare" books go: I do own a 1981 1st/1st God Emperor of Dune which is one of the rarest books I own.
 
Ray McCarthy said:
Art is largely visual rather than functional. Collected stamps aren't used to post letters, collected coins are not used as cash. Collected books can be read.
Various other kinds of collected items can be just admired or occasionally used to.
That's what I was trying to say.
Click to expand...
Isn't the function of art to be visually observed? Stamps and coins are functional, and even if collected ones aren't in many cases they COULD be used if desired. They are only held/kept because a number of collectors have determined that certain rare or notable ones should be preserved from an aesthetic or historical perspective and are thus valued highly. I get what you're saying, I just think that books fit this category just as well. Some old ones ARE rare and noteworthy and ought to be preserved. The text may be the primary function of the book, as the primary function of a stamp is for posting, but certain specific versions may have "transcended" their function to be noteworthy all on their own as collectible art. And despite the famous examples of coins worth millions of dollars, most coin collections aren't bringing THAT much of a return. I don't see how books are much different.

An obvious example would be the Book of Kells. It's a book, but almost nobody reads that actual text. It's all about the volume itself being a work of art, not just in the illustrations, but also in the binding, cover, handwriting, etc. That's an extreme example, but where does the line between art and book lie?

I don't have a collection anymore, I think I own 5-6 books. I moved so much in my twenties (I think there was a period where I had 16 addresses in a dozen years) that it simply became too much too move them all the time. Plus, since I was a poor student at the time, I had a habit of trading books in to get new ones at the used shops. Now I only own a few favorites. Honestly, I don't NEED most of those books I read (I just don't see myself yearning for another go at some of those minor, serialized Dragonlance novels) as they're nothing special, in text OR format. However, even as I consider going digital (as I've already done with music and most of my movie collection), I think that now I'm settled maybe I should start rebuilding the old library. In that event, I probably WOULD try to track down particular versions of books I have no intention of reading, and I'd likely do it from collectors over just grabbing a new copy at Barnes & Noble. I'm even likely to do that with authors I want to delve further into, like PKD. For him, I'd just as soon get a cool old copy or Kindle version as pick up an overpriced premium paperback new. So I guess at least I'm glad these people exist and are doing their thing?

As to whether or not family would appreciate it, I guess I wouldn't care much one way or the other. Maybe my kids or grandkids would read some of them, maybe not. Even if they sell a $500 collection of 50 books to a trade shop for $50, at least they'd get a little extra cash out of it and the books would probably help a rare independent/used shop stay in business while potentially making some other collector very happy down the line. I just think that history has value... even if not read, the book can maybe be a nice bump in someone's life on a crappy day somewhere down the line. You just don't get that with unplugging grandpa's kindle and wiping it to sell on the amazon marketplace so you can get yourself a newer model of the same machine.
 
Right on SS. Those pulps in K's collection there - are fragile. Wartime paper, y'know? They have rough edges, they are brittle, they need protection. They are worthwhile collectibles.
Collectible electric guitars, on the other hand - did get out of hand. Really out of hand. I sold a 54 Les Paul, refinished and a few hardware changes - for 1100.00 bux. I bought a new Squire and an amp and paid the rent. Five years later, the exact same instrument - hanging in a store - priced at (wait for it) - THIRTY GRAND. That's artificial value, and it has come down since.
Books, though... Still hunting for Tesla's missing notebook here.
 
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