Book Hauls!

[j. d. worthington]

Thank you all. Yes, I love old books, and over the years I've managed to find a fair number of things from the nineteenth century, but so far I've only landed two from earlier than that: a two-volume edition of Johnson's The Idler, from 1795, and now this; and in both cases it was sheer serendipity my finding them -- and certainly a wonderful thing to find them in such good condition.

Hoops: I, too, love old books... as noted, not only is there the physical aspect of the books, which often has peculiar quirks and strengths of its own, but there's the spur to the imagination at holding -- let alone actually owning -- something which has seen so much history, been held by so many hands and entered so many minds... it really gets my imagination going, and gives me an odd feeling of connection with the past, a sense of continuities and being a part of this long journey....

Mr. G: I don't have the equipment to take that kind of care; but I do the best I can and, considering that even paperbacks I've had since I was a child seldom show much wear and tear, there's a good chance these will do fairly well, too. Besides... I don't just buy them to collect them; but to use -- to read, and to enjoy the very sensory experience of contact with them (the musty smell, the delightful feel of the leather or marbled paper and the stiff, almost parchment-like feel of the interior pages; the sight of that wonderful old typography -- I have a completely absurd love of the "long s", for example -- and so on....)

Dask: I love those old doubles, too. I only have a small handful of them (though one of those is the Ellison double The Man With Nine Lives/A Touch of Infinity); but I'd love to have more. I congratulate you on that one, as I haven't seen a copy of it in years (not since I was a tiny tyke, to be honest!). Congratulations!

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

Mr. G: I don't have the equipment to take that kind of care; but I do the best I can and, considering that even paperbacks I've had since I was a child seldom show much wear and tear, there's a good chance these will do fairly well, too. Besides... I don't just buy them to collect them; but to use -- to read, and to enjoy the very sensory experience of contact with them (the musty smell, the delightful feel of the leather or marbled paper and the stiff, almost parchment-like feel of the interior pages; the sight of that wonderful old typography -- I have a completely absurd love of the "long s", for example -- and so on....)

Yes I had rather gathered you didn't "collect" for the sake of just having but to enjoy the tactile and visual experience old books in particular can bring not to mention a physical link with history. I was thinking more from the point of view of wishing to preserve these books for future generations to enjoy and the responsibility that comes with that. Having said that, you do actually make a very good indirect point in that sometimes these old books may be discarded or left to rot in some warehouse somewhere and therefore it's patently better to have someone who actually respects books to keep company with them as best they can than have them be thoughtlessly abused as I'm sure can happen with some folk.....

HMMMM....You may have succeeded in causing me to reassess my viewpoint on this particular issue Sir...

Cheers.....

[AE35Unit]

Time's Eye,Time's Odyssey Book One by Stephen Baxter and Arthur C.Clarke
Two giants in one book!

[HoopyFrood]

Originally Posted by J.d.Worthington

...I have a completely absurd love of the "long s", for example -- and so on....)

I'm starting to get rather partial to that now, after having read quite a few texts with such lately. There's something wonderful about reading things with the old spellings and syntax.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by HoopyFrood

I'm starting to get rather partial to that now, after having read quite a few texts with such lately. There's something wonderful about reading things with the old spellings and syntax.

Indeed. That's one of the reasons I prefer getting editions which are either: a) facsimiles; or b) at least use the original orthography (such as my copies of Spencer, Chaucer, etc. -- I refuse to read either in modernised spellings! It just seems a perversion....)

[GOLLUM]

You purist you....

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by GOLLUM

You purist you....

LOL!

By the way... as I brought it up in the March reading thread... you might want to check out the volume of Hanns Heinz Ewers' tales which Side Real Press has put out. Ewers' has been long out of print (save for "The Spider") most places, and quite unjustly neglected due to his political connection to the Nazis (though such was an uneasy connection, as the hard-liners even tried to have him executed, apparently, in part because of his philosemitism -- he even aided several people to leave Germany and avoid internment in the camps). His work is disturbing, but thought-provoking, and very well written; often quite complex in what he is accomplishing. I heartily recommend giving him a try.

Side Real Press

[GOLLUM]

Noted..and I posted in the other thread Vampire is up for grabs on ebay.

Cheers....

[j. d. worthington]

Yes, I saw that. A bit too much for my pocketbook as well for the present. Damn. I wish someone would finally go ahead and get the rights to reprint these. I know it probably wouldn't be cheap, what with the H.H.E. estate, the rights to the particular translation (Guy Endore, in this case, iirc), and Mahlon Blaine's artwork for that edition, but -- blast it! -- even so it shouldn't be that outrageous, and there's certainly a market for Ewers' work at this point....

In the meantime... received in the mail today a copy of George Santayana's Scepticism and Animal Faith: Introduction to a System of Philosophy....

[Lobolover]

You know what pissed me off? The newest local colection of Ewers has only three stories in it. That wouldnt be so bad, but one of them is The Spider, the only thing availible on the internet till recently, and I read that one a long time back. The other two tales are "Mamaloi" and......"Voodoo", which is just a sketch for "Mamaloi" having the exact same data, similar wording and phrases and even some of the descriptives parts, so you can imagine my sentiment then. On the other hand, I found a marvelous 1914 colection of his, called "The hearts of kings" and barring a few things, it was one of the best books I ever read .

[dask]

Originally Posted by AE35Unit

Time's Eye,Time's Odyssey Book One by Stephen Baxter and Arthur C.Clarke
Two giants in one book!

Good choice. I really liked this book.

[dask]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

Besides... I don't just buy them to collect them; but to use -- to read, and to enjoy the very sensory experience of contact with them (the musty smell, the delightful feel of the leather or marbled paper and the stiff, almost parchment-like feel of the interior pages; the sight of that wonderful old typography...

Same here. Whenever I find an old sf mag from the 20s, 30s, or 40s, I read the WHOLE thing --- not just the stories, but the letters, editorial, science article, even the ads!

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by dask

Same here. Whenever I find an old sf mag from the 20s, 30s, or 40s, I read the WHOLE thing --- not just the stories, but the letters, editorial, science article, even the ads!

LOL! Yep; same here. I had (don't ask about why I don't any longer -- I still get depressed about that) a set of close to 30 issues of Weird Tales, plus several other pulps from the 30s onward and yes, I'd read it cover to cover. Quite entertaining... some of the ads were real eye-openers to what was allowed then. (Incidentally, the Hawkwind album, Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music, had a cover and inner sleeve designed to imitate the pulps -- the cover was, of course, the cover; the inner sleeve was designed as a copy of the ads pages in such magazines, with very slight changes in some of the ads....)

Lobo... yes, I can understand the frustration. My sympathies. And I'll be darned glad when Ewers emerges from this decades-long cloud and we see more of his work in print... I'd like to read a considerable amount of it....

[AE35Unit]

This mornin i got Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm,part of the SF Masterworks and free from Bookhopper!

[GOLLUM]

Picked up on the cheap....

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - *Not a big fan but I wanted to have something by Rowling in my library.
The Stainless Steel Rat - Harry Harrison For $2.50 on the "throw-aways" table c'mon that's a bargain for a little classic like this!...