A weird thread: post a pic of your most precious book!!

[discord]

I had good times back in the day with this book. I have the original edition which was from the 6th century B.C. and written in latin.

 

[elmoe]

Mine is common, I wont post a picture:

The world according to Garp - John Irving.

Hesitated between this and The Dead Heart, first book of Douglas Kennedy.

 

[MintGreenGoblin]

Mine is in super crappy condition but its 1001 Answers to Questions about Aquarium Fishes published in the 1920s. Its neat to see how far we have progressed, but also a very funny read in regards to some things people used to think about fish in general, and care of fish, ect.

Others would be the first editions of both "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (by the original press house) and "Maggie-Now" two of my favorite books.

 

[volks4ever]

I am Jacks raging bile duct.

 

[headchange4u]

I don't have a picture of it, but I have a 1st edtion signed copy od Harlan Ellison's "Beast That Shouted Love At The Heart Of The World". I also have some really old occult books that I love. I just love books.

 

[GuffMorgan]

[enter picture of Ham on Rye hardcover by Charles Bukowski]

I don't have it at the moment, loned it out to a friend, but I love that book/author.

 

[ATAT]

Art of electronics

 

[Jahn]

A Princess of Mars, first edition, that I found in a thrift shop for 10 cents.

And if you want to read it plus many of his other amazing works, go here!

http://burroughs.thefreelibrary.com/

 

[MuZI]

rsaavedra, is that Dante's Inferno? That's what I read it as..

My favorite book would be my Anatomy & Physiology book.

 

[grawk]

No pictures handy, but it's a tossup between my signed numbered printings of

Last Call
The Stress of Her Regard
Drawing of the Dark

All by Tim Powers.

 

[rsaavedra]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MuZI rsaavedra, is that Dante's Inferno? That's what I read it as..

Yes it certainly is.

 

[AdamWill]

They're all back in England, but I have many pretty valuable SF books, I collect them. The rarest is a 1985 hardback 1st / 1st of Ender's Game (only about 500 were in the first print run, and they mostly went to the book graves otherwise known as libraries), which would be $2,000 or so in mint condition but it's only a low VG so it's maybe $400-$500. I also have an NM signed copy of the first printing illustrated hardback of Terry Pratchett's Eric, which had a tiny print run for obscure reasons, a 1991 Ender's Game 1st (it had a revised edition in 1991...), an absolutely complete set of Peter F. Hamilton signed hardback 1sts (including the hideous US Mandel trilogy hardbacks, but The Reality Dysfunction is the rarest), the true first edition of Neuromancer (an Ace mass market paperback which is going up in value ridiculously lately, gotta be a bubble), some nice Iain (M.) Banks including Use of Weapons and The Bridge, a complete set of Lois Bujold...ahhh, books are shiny. I had my whole collection insured for about UK£3,000 when I was in college.

oh, yeah, and the two requisite stories of any book collector - the hard luck story and the good luck story. hard luck story first - I used to work in a small independent book shop in the UK, and I remember very clearly we got one of the (I think 300) hardback first editions of the first Harry Potter. When it came in I read the back and thought it looked kinda fun (I still sometimes read kid's books) but didn't buy it because I didn't quite have the money to spare. Last time I checked it was worth £10,000, I'm too depressed to check how much it goes for now. My good luck story isn't that great, but I found the first combined edition of The Lord Of The Rings in a second hand bookshop for £2 and sold it for more than £100 on eBay, that was nice.

 

[aaroncort]

I don't have a digital camera but I own a signed copy of cathedral by raymond carver.

 

[scrypt]

 

[scrypt]

Here is the verso of the title page from the Beddoes two-volume set shown earlier. A second two-volume set, which is more inclusive and almost as rare, appears below it.