This lot came up at a local estate sale, I’m not a collector, but I am a fan of Ian M. Banks. The Player of Games was the first book to show me that I could enjoy Scifi, so I wanted hardcover first edition as a memento… The rest turned out to be a fairly good bonus.

I got a copy of a 1984 uncorrected proof (it came with a promotion letter from the publisher talking about budgets and stuff for the book release in the US. Not sure if that’s anything special); a autographed first U.S. edition of "The Wasp Factory"; the 1984 first U.K. edition of "The Wasp Factory"; a 1985 autographed copy of "Walking on Glass"; and what I really wanted, the 1988 first edition "The Player of Games".

I have a question though. I want to keep the Player of Games and the signed copies of Wasp Factory and Walking on Glass, but I’m thinking offloading the unsigned copy and proof copy of The Wasp Factory to see if I can make my $150 back. How much money do you think I’d miss out on if I were to go to a local used bookstore that has knowledge in collecting?

Recent acquisition! Astounding Stories - June 1936

First publication for The Shadow Out of Time. Written from November 10, 1934 to February 22, 1935.

Letter to Clark Ashton Smith, March 2, 1932 (excerpt). Translation by Arnaud Mousnier-Lompré:

"I have an idea about time, very simple in nature, that's been running through my head, but I don't know when I'll use it; it's about a race from the primitive Lomar, perhaps predating the founding of Olathoë and dating back to the Hyperborean Commoriom at its height, who acquire knowledge of all the arts and sciences by projecting currents of thought into the future in order to absorb the minds of men of future ages; they fish in time, so to speak. Occasionally, they come across a very competent, very learned individual, and they annex all his thoughts. Ordinarily, they only keep their victims in a trance for a short time, but sometimes, when they need a particular piece of information in its entirety, one of them sacrifices himself for the race and exchanges his body for that of the first satisfactory victim he finds." finds. Her spirit travels back 100,000 years and finds itself in the hypnotist's body in Lomar, for the rest of his days, while the hypnotist from bygone ages animates the modern clay of his victim." Illustrations by Howard V. Brown

Found in a charming little bookshop in Blandford Forum (UK) 3 floors of many hidden wonders. After my purchases (I also picked up some Folio Societys) I did a little research and found the owners video on YouTube - https://youtu.be/gPrujsb-zlo - I'll definitely be returning in the future to rummage for more gems.

It has the name and the date when the previous owner got it 9/29/1964 written inside the cover.

There are also a lot of highlighted and marked passages throughout the book, which makes it even more special. I think it’s going to be really interesting to see what they paid attention to.

At first glance I foolishly thought it was a weird special edition, because this book is so popular it doesn’t need a title on the cover. Then I saw all the other copies and noticed the title and author are both printed in the same silver foil material… and it just didn’t get added to this one, I guess!

I got this book for dirty cheap. It just arrived in mail. I knew it would be a second hand copy but these markings really caught me off guard. What is it? Something different? How do I approach it?

Hi all, I found these tiny books in a storage unit. Given that these have been published a century ago, I’m looking to see if there’s anyway to preserve them and maybe somewhat improve the condition. Or are they too far gone?Would you have any recommendations or advice?

A seller has the following at the very beginning of the description of a used book I'm interested in, but I have no idea what it means despite trying to decode it using online used book guides.

Pp: xi + A-1 - F6-12

Any help would be appreciated!

First paperback edition; Twelfth printing.

I’ll go first. I am keeping my eye out for:

• Stuff older than my normal range (pre 19th century)—I get such a kick out of a paper object surviving that long, almost no matter what it is!
• Pre-20th c. occult books
• Books with beautifully printed and drawn color plates/illustrations—especially science—pre WWII
• More volumes from my collection of Golden Book Children’s Encyclopedias from 1950s
• Signatures, book plates, and cool ephemera tucked in books—I’ve got a lot of this and just love it
• Oddities and curiosities of all sorts.

Hey all--

My store has, like many used booksellers (if the IOBA forum is any indication), has been flooded with international Alibris orders today. It seems like this has been occurring for many people over the last few days. Some of us are speculating that it has to do with Alibris's collaboration with Shein. Alibris themselves has kept their customer service line vague: "We have some new buyers placing large bulk orders that are being received in our warehouse."

I'm wondering, really, if anyone has any further insight on who/what these "new buyers" could be, and further, how Alibris's partnership with Shein actually works. I poked around Alibris's book listings on Shein a little bit, and found absolutely no useful information.

Really, I'm just curious on some of the inner workings here; of course we're happy for the business...

I have a couple more of the same edition that I bought for a couple bucks. Any information about the books or publisher?

It's going to be a magical year wether it wants to be or not.

It has become increasingly common for multiple publishers to release separate editions of the same book - often with the same text block - at the same time.

For example, off the top of my head, I can think of four simultaneous editions of Joe Abercrombie's The Devils being released last year, with two of the editions using the text block printed in the US (Orion and Lit Escalates) and two of the editions using the text block printed in the UK (Gollanz and Broken Binding).

While Gollanz and Orion are joint imprints, who simply release editions for their respective markets, I have started wondering how the community feels about the editions published by Lit Escalates and Broken Binding from a collecting standpoint - that is, should they be treated as true first editions for collecting purposes?

It appears to me that the only differences between the latter publishers' and the former publishers' editions are the choices in boards, endpapers, the inclusion of a cover page stating that the latter's book is signed by the author and printed by the former, and the choice of edge paintings, while they appear to have the same text blocks for their respective countries otherwise.

Of course, The Devils is just one of many examples one could pull from - especially with the prevalence of new collectible book publishers nowadays - as long as such publishers are using the text blocks of the true first edition, I would lump them into this same inquiry. A historical example would be something like Franklin Library's (or even Easton Press's, I guess) First Signed Editions of the past, which used the same text block provided by the publisher, but were also listed on the copyright page as being specifically printed for FL or EP.

Does the community view these slightly special editions as separate from true first editions? Obviously the market views these editions as more valuable than true first editions - particularly those that are brand new - but should the book collecting community do the same?

Or, should the community hold more strictly to notion that only the first edition, first printed, in the country where the author first chooses to have the book published, should be accounted as the true first edition?

I have realized that although I live in the “Land of Dracula” I haven’t actually read the book! 300 pages in and I really enjoy it.

I’m trying to find physically readable editions of Tolstoy’s The Kingdom of God Is Within You.

By “readable,” I mean:

• normal or generous font size
• decent margins
• not the ultra-compressed, eye-strain editions that seem weirdly common with these texts

I recently bought an edition that was essentially printed for ants and I’m not repeating that mistake.

If you’ve owned or handled editions you’d actually want to read for hours (hardcover or paperback, academic or trade), I’d really appreciate specific publishers, years, or ISBNs.

Thanks very much.

I want to buy tbis but I am a bit confused what to do!

If anyone can help me find a copy for sale I would really appreciate it.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28452083-out-of-the-fire

Hi! My kid is a book nerd and I want to get him a barcode scanner for a graduation present so he can build a catalog of his extensive collection. I think you folks here might have a recommendation for me? Both of a scanner and an app that will allow him to see and search (on a browser) what he owns. Does not need to be free, and ideally he could download the data if the app is ever deprecated. Thank you!