On Collecting Books - Vol#3

As far as actual book collecting goes, my focus is on unusual or fine bindings; limited editions, preferably from small private presses; and hyper-moderns, especially signed first editions (when I can find them without having to mortgage the house). As you know, modern firsts have little value as a collectible without the slipcover.

I'm also accumulating small collections in the categories of pop-up books (especially for adults), general books on countries, baseball, golf, books about books, books about writing, biographies, nautical, books with fine illustrations, graphic novels (adult subjects - have you seen that one on Louis Riel? Very cool.), and books on business & investing.

I'm also collecting books that are just plain weird (Cats with E.S.P., a book about the history of being buried alive, A Con Man's How-to Handbook, etc...)

Just a little A.D.D., that's all. Anyway, 11 bookshelves so far and counting...

I've been able to collect a few interesting things so far:

- A leather bound copy of Other Voices, Other Rooms, signed by Truman Capote
- A leather bound copy of "Statecraft" signed by Margaret Thatcher
- A leather bound copy of "High Adventure" by Sir Edmund Hillary
- "The History of Poland", published in 1942 (! - the last chapter is titled "Distruction") and was rebound completely in tin and given as a gift to a professor (possibly a Polish refuge) at the University of Glasglow.
- A book bound in demin and another in bubble-wrap
- Several signed 1st's by Palahniuk, Hornby, Wharton (Tom, not Edith), Grafton, etc.
- 1st of "Shoeless Joe" which, interestingly enough, casts J.D. Salinger as the recluse that's forced at gunpoint to the Red Sox game, not the lamo "Terrance Mann" that James Earl Jones played in the movie. Evidently, J.D. didn't want to be portrayed that way on the big screen.

Of course, there's the reading. I'm trying to accumulate as thorough a library as possible of those novels considered to be classics. This has turned out to be a rather ominous undertaking, as nearly everybody has a different list of what books "must" be read and what books are a bore.

So far, my list of "wants" under this category has ballooned to a number well in excess of a thousand and I continually seem to find new ones everyday that I missed!

A good place to start for me has been to build my collection from books that were published by the Heritage Club, a monthly bookclub that put out decently printed copies, complete with slipcovers, of classic novels for a period of close to seventy years.

While these volumes were not numbered or signed like the Limited Edition Club of New York, you can generally find books in good condition with decent illustrations and large print for as little as $10.

While first editions and signed copies of these classics would be very nice, I couldn't ever really expect to afford more than just a few of these in that form...but that doesn't stop me from keeping a keen eye out...just in case!