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A book thread, with a twist. Not just your favorite stories, but you favorite actual, physical books.
The wife and I are moving at the end of the year, and we are going through our possessions and eliminating things we don't want or need. Our book collection is very large - in the attached picture, the books on the floor represent our discarded material, and I still have 30-40 boxes and crates of books stored downstairs - and we plan on donating the volumes that are in good condition to libraries and shelters, particularly areas down south stricken by the recent storms.
Anyhoo, while pruning my collection I came across some volumes that I cherish for reasons other than the words and thoughts contained therein, so I thought I'd share with y'all.
1) The Divine Comedy by Dante Aligheri, (c) 1948. An oversize hardcover, replete with illustrations by Gustav Dore. Now, the Divine Comedy is my favorite work of classical literature, and I just f*cking love the Dore illustrations. I have a few copies of the Comedy, various translations (Ciardi, Mendelbaum), and my college roomie had a book of the Dore illustrations, but this is the first copy I've owned with both text and illustrations combined. Although the translator is unknown to me (Lawrence Grant White) and not my favorite (Ciardi rocks), having both text and graphics at my fingertips makes me a hapy camper. Plus, I got it for free! I was doing some computer work for a woman who sells antique art books online (I work in the Hamptons), and I started gushing about Dante & Dore, and she presented me with this volume as a gift after I had helped her out. If only it was annotated, it would be *perfect*, but it's not. But that's okay, I'm happy with what I have.
2) Paradise Lost by John Milton, annotated by Isaac Asimov. First, Paradise Lost is damn cool (I once wanted a dozen cats named after the devils in PL), Asimov's annotations are awesome (his fiction was flat, but his erudition was staggering), and it was a big, thick book I stole from my high school library one fine autumn day. Thievery brings back fond memories, like...
3) The Dark Descent, edited by David Hartwell. One of the best anthologies of horror and weird fiction ever, encompassing the old and the new. I purloined this volume from a Hamptons bookstore while I was in college - it's a big book, and there were few patrons, making the theft somewhat tricky, but I accomplished it. The most expensive single book ($35.00) I've ever stolen. I have since rewarded that bookstore with my patronage many times over, going there instead of Borders (where I could get a 20 - 30% discount), so I don't feel bad about it at all.
4) Animal Farm by George Orwell. One of my top-ten books. The last day of tenth grade I found a box of paperback copies of this book, about 20 of them, in a supply closet, so I stole it and handed out copies as end-of-term gifts to my friends. Kept the last copy for myself.
5) Hunting Humans by Michael Newton. My first, and still the best, encyclopedia of serial killers. I've always been a warped kid, but didn't really get into crime and criminology until 1990, when I bought this book from Loompanics (the best book company in ther world). Years later, this book is in shabby condition, but is one of my most requested items to borrow by friends. Stuffed with articles from magazines and newspapers, with penciled-in annotations and comments from me and my friends. A wonderful, scary book.
(Before the comments roll in, SKs should be hunted down and imprisoned and/or executed without mercy, but they are still absolutely fascinating.)
6) Disasters Illustrated by Woody Gelman and Barbara Jackson, (c) 1976. When I was young, I would always ask my parents (& Santa) for books as gifts; they obliged. I don't remember exactly when I got this, but it was Christmas '76, '77, or '78. I was born in 1968, so I was between 8 and 10 years old. This book is a wonderful compendium of catastrophes - floods, earthquakes, fires, plagues, tornadoes, mysterious mass disappearances. the covers have long since departed (it was a softcover book, and it's been transported a lot), and the last chapter (disappearences) is almost gone, but I still use it as an important reference. My parents helped me become the warped person I am today, not through beatings and abuse (though I recall a few good wallopings), but be letting me stay up 'til 1 in the morning to watch horror films, taking me to see Jaws when I was 7, and buying me books about train wrecks, medical oddities, crime, Poe, Lovecraft, etc. I *love* my parents - thanks, M&P!!
There are others I no longer have - a HUGE Bible, illustrated with plates of Rembrandt paintings, that I purloined from college during a book sale, and that I had to sell in my 20s when I was short on cash - that I remember fondly, but these 6 are on my shelves instead of on the floor in the den. Good books, good memories.
Anybody else have any tales to tell?
The wife and I are moving at the end of the year, and we are going through our possessions and eliminating things we don't want or need. Our book collection is very large - in the attached picture, the books on the floor represent our discarded material, and I still have 30-40 boxes and crates of books stored downstairs - and we plan on donating the volumes that are in good condition to libraries and shelters, particularly areas down south stricken by the recent storms.
Anyhoo, while pruning my collection I came across some volumes that I cherish for reasons other than the words and thoughts contained therein, so I thought I'd share with y'all.
1) The Divine Comedy by Dante Aligheri, (c) 1948. An oversize hardcover, replete with illustrations by Gustav Dore. Now, the Divine Comedy is my favorite work of classical literature, and I just f*cking love the Dore illustrations. I have a few copies of the Comedy, various translations (Ciardi, Mendelbaum), and my college roomie had a book of the Dore illustrations, but this is the first copy I've owned with both text and illustrations combined. Although the translator is unknown to me (Lawrence Grant White) and not my favorite (Ciardi rocks), having both text and graphics at my fingertips makes me a hapy camper. Plus, I got it for free! I was doing some computer work for a woman who sells antique art books online (I work in the Hamptons), and I started gushing about Dante & Dore, and she presented me with this volume as a gift after I had helped her out. If only it was annotated, it would be *perfect*, but it's not. But that's okay, I'm happy with what I have.
2) Paradise Lost by John Milton, annotated by Isaac Asimov. First, Paradise Lost is damn cool (I once wanted a dozen cats named after the devils in PL), Asimov's annotations are awesome (his fiction was flat, but his erudition was staggering), and it was a big, thick book I stole from my high school library one fine autumn day. Thievery brings back fond memories, like...
3) The Dark Descent, edited by David Hartwell. One of the best anthologies of horror and weird fiction ever, encompassing the old and the new. I purloined this volume from a Hamptons bookstore while I was in college - it's a big book, and there were few patrons, making the theft somewhat tricky, but I accomplished it. The most expensive single book ($35.00) I've ever stolen. I have since rewarded that bookstore with my patronage many times over, going there instead of Borders (where I could get a 20 - 30% discount), so I don't feel bad about it at all.
4) Animal Farm by George Orwell. One of my top-ten books. The last day of tenth grade I found a box of paperback copies of this book, about 20 of them, in a supply closet, so I stole it and handed out copies as end-of-term gifts to my friends. Kept the last copy for myself.
5) Hunting Humans by Michael Newton. My first, and still the best, encyclopedia of serial killers. I've always been a warped kid, but didn't really get into crime and criminology until 1990, when I bought this book from Loompanics (the best book company in ther world). Years later, this book is in shabby condition, but is one of my most requested items to borrow by friends. Stuffed with articles from magazines and newspapers, with penciled-in annotations and comments from me and my friends. A wonderful, scary book.
(Before the comments roll in, SKs should be hunted down and imprisoned and/or executed without mercy, but they are still absolutely fascinating.)
6) Disasters Illustrated by Woody Gelman and Barbara Jackson, (c) 1976. When I was young, I would always ask my parents (& Santa) for books as gifts; they obliged. I don't remember exactly when I got this, but it was Christmas '76, '77, or '78. I was born in 1968, so I was between 8 and 10 years old. This book is a wonderful compendium of catastrophes - floods, earthquakes, fires, plagues, tornadoes, mysterious mass disappearances. the covers have long since departed (it was a softcover book, and it's been transported a lot), and the last chapter (disappearences) is almost gone, but I still use it as an important reference. My parents helped me become the warped person I am today, not through beatings and abuse (though I recall a few good wallopings), but be letting me stay up 'til 1 in the morning to watch horror films, taking me to see Jaws when I was 7, and buying me books about train wrecks, medical oddities, crime, Poe, Lovecraft, etc. I *love* my parents - thanks, M&P!!
There are others I no longer have - a HUGE Bible, illustrated with plates of Rembrandt paintings, that I purloined from college during a book sale, and that I had to sell in my 20s when I was short on cash - that I remember fondly, but these 6 are on my shelves instead of on the floor in the den. Good books, good memories.
Anybody else have any tales to tell?
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