[Jahn]

Oh, I also have a signed copy of a first edition Jurassic Park, but oh well, I don't hold that one in high regard. To be honest, most of my books are destroyed through abuses incurred through multiple readings by a foolhardy youth (me!).

 

[Jahn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Wong I have many books near and dear to my heart that I could take pics of and post, but I'm afraid I'd bore people to death. Any requests/themes/guidelines to narrow the scope?

As Spoon would say, "Gimme Fiction"

 

[rsaavedra]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scrypt After all, this isn't my own personal book gallery and b-b-b-blog for stuttering self-aggrandizement.

Oh don't worry Scrypt, please feel free to make it your blog and book gallery if the place and opportunity feels inviting. The Headfi forums and threads are for participation after all.


Quote:

Originally Posted by Scrypt Strange -- I don't consider Leopardi to be more "depressing" or "miserable" than Dante himself. I suppose I'd use the word saturnine to describe L's perfect sonnets.

Ah yes, Dante does have some of the most deeply sad verses indeed, but I see them just as reflections on life's miseries. Doesn't feel like he is writing out of his own personal mysery and dissapointment with life, which is how Leopardi from what I remember sometimes felt like to me.


Quote:

Originally Posted by Scrypt It takes a poet of Beddoes's caliber to unearth and perfect a cemetery's-worth of gruesome jewels.

Your writing hailing Beddoes seems poetically influenced by his own morbid style

, nice nice.


Quote:

Originally Posted by Scrypt for the most familiar description of dejection, I'd defer to Paradiso: "There is no greater pain than, in misery, to remember happy times."

Ah is that in Paradiso also? I know for sure that appears at the end of Inferno's Chant V, one of the pages I posted a pic of from my Divina Comedia book:

"Nessun major dolore que ricordarsi del tempo felice nella miseria"...

It's amazingly close to Spanish:

"No hay mayor dolor que recordarse del tiempo feliz en la miseria"...

Knowing Spanish you don't really need to know any Italian to understand those specific verses (other parts of the text is another matter though). That ending of that Chant V -the account of Galeotto's reading- is one of my favorites parts of all the Comedia. (Sorry maybe I've said that a few times already

)

 

[rsaavedra]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Wong Sorry to hear you spent the weekend kneeling before the porcelain deity.

Goodness the muses are having a ball with everyone here

 

[wakeride74]

King James and NIV versions

 

[rogue]

 

[AdamWill]

scrypt: well, if it's hiding in your apartment you obviously don't need it, so feel free to send it to me.

One more of my favourites I forgot to mention is my copy of Mostly Harmless, the final Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy book. Probably couldn't sell it for much as I got it when I was young and didn't treat it very well, but it was signed by Mr. Adams at the first book reading / signing I ever went to, at Waterstone's in Manchester the year it came out, I must have been 8 or 9. I still remember the queue went all the way around the block from the store entrance, and he was a wonderful reader, though he seemed very nervous.

I can't come close to rivalling scrypt's tales, but I did spend a couple of hours in a pub with Doug Naylor (one of the authors of the Red Dwarf TV show and the unfairly overlooked novels) once. That was a lot of fun.

 

[skiingemt]

My oldest copy of Phantastes so far, by my favorite author, George MacDonald (with size reference). It's from 1884, and is two volumes of a six volume set. I don't have the rest of the set, though... I'm still hunting for a first edition, and a first edition of Lilith as well.

G

 

[Jeff Wong]

Hi Guys - I meant to post some pics of some books from my collection awhile ago, but some real life complications occurred that prevented me from doing less important forum amusements. Then, I took a trip to get some relief from all the nuttiness.

Anyway, Jahn asked for some fiction. I'm posting a couple of manuscript facsimiles that I have of some classic 20th Century fiction. One is for F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and the other for Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. These were done in fairly limited quantities and aren't super easy to track down these days. I love being able to read handwritten manuscripts... it gives you some insight into the author's process, something that we will see less and less of as authors use word processors or computers to write novels. To this day, I regret not buying some other manuscript facsimiles (Orwell and Hardy.)

The other pic is of the 1st US and UK editions of A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. One of my dreams was to take my US 1st and reread it in New Orleans (the novel takes place there.) I guess that ain't gonna happen, at least anytime soon.

 

[aaroncort]

^^^ I actually have a similar faximily of the manuscript of Djuna Barnes' Night Wood. I also have a number of first edition but saddy many of the ones that I want are far too expensive for my income. Some firsts I have that are notable;

Raise High The Roof Beams Carpenter-J.D. Salinger
Franny and Zooey-" "
The Unbearable Lightness of Being-Milan Kundera (this is a first american edition)

 

[rsaavedra]

I have forgotten that this old book was also in my bookshelves: Gone with the wind, Motion Picture Edition (New York The Macmillan Company, 1940).

 

[rsaavedra]

Book restoration has been some sort of a hobby for me for some time now. I thought some of you might be interested in pictures of several stages in a specific case of a book restoration process.

In this case the subject of the restoration was a 1951 Spanish edition of some of the tales in "Las Mil y Una Noches" (One Thousand and One Nights). Belongs to my sister-in-law. It was a gift to her from the original owner, her grandmother. The book was in pretty bad shape, the backbone was missing. I offered to restore it, and my sister-in-law asked me if the covers could be preserved. Not sure if the right word is restoration, since what I did was a reconstruction of the backbone, plus several reinforcements. Here the pictures:

 

[dvallere]

Well, I'll never get rid of my Pogo collection, but these others are precious to me - the complete dramatic works of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, published in 1883 (I tried to take a pic of the limited edition page, but it came out blurry), and the 1982 edition of the Statutes of the SED (the East German "Constitution," as it were). I studied in West Germany in 1983 and the government sponsored the exchange students on a 1-week tour of Berlin, including East Berlin, where we got to purchase this little slice of propaganda heaven for a pittance. It's about 3" x 5" and about 30 pages thick.

Donna

 

[Jeff Wong]

aaroncort - Yep, it's painful what some books cost these days. The Barnes facsimile sounds neat. I have a 1962 review copy of a collection of hers that contains Nightwood that I've been meaning to read.

rsaavedra - Thanks for posting that. It was really cool to see. I've got a bookbinding book or two and some archival materials. I've been meaning to make some clamshell boxes for several of my books, but, I've been lazy about getting all the right materials. It's stupid not to, because there is a great archival supply place in the city and a bookbinding school that offers classes right near it... one of these days. Anyway, your post was inspirational.

Donna - My friend, Bob Fingerman, is a huge Kelly fan. Years ago, for one of his birthdays, I tracked down a signed copy of the Jack Acid Society Black Book for him. I also gave him the Pogo LP and corresponding hardcover book.

 

[smeggy]

No picture but my fave book is my pocket guide to Physics. Second fave is my Oxford Reference Dictionary.