h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I just "clicked" to buy a first edition of Chuck Palahniuk - Fight Club.

It was less than $40 with shipping. I bought it mainly because I cannot remember to whom I lent my original copy. Since watching and reading Fight Club, I've bought every book by Palahniuk, mostly first editions.

About two years ago I bought all the early Douglas Adams first editions (I had the later ones in first edition by default because I bought them as soon as I could).

It's a bit of a cheat to buy a first edition later, but in this case I feel just a bit justified because I think the copy I lost was close to a first edition, not quite a first edition but an early enough one. I know I bought it before the film came out, but let it sit on my shelf until after I watched the movie.

Why do I care?...

That's the one legacy I have from my grandmother.

She collected first editions of books, many of which I don't even think she read. However the one book I know she had a first edition of was Gone With The Wind... sadly my mother doesn't know where it is now, and I'm more upset about that than she is.

I truly care about the books on my shelves. Heinlein once said something about learning about a person quickly by seeing the books the person has on their bookshelves.



I take pride in my bookshelves and filling them with first editions makes me feel a bit of pride.

I'm with you there, mostly. I'm always a bit wary of statements along the lines of 'You can tell a person's character/learn about a person/know their temperament by the books on their shelves/record collection/way they hold their knife and fork/pictures on their wall. As those statements go though, books has to be better than most, although you will be using your own standards, and generalisations, to reach a conclusion about the owner of the library. Are they mostly trashy airport novels (person is shallow), sci-fi novels (person is a geek/nerd - I share my bus to work in the morning with a bloke who not only is always reading a sci-fi paperback or graphic novel, but actually looks a lot like Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons ), mostly hardbacks (person is vain), mostly books about art (person is either an aesthete or an art historian/critic/professor), and it falls down in homes where there are few or no books, like my parental home. No books doesn't necessarily mean unread - that's what libraries are for.

I like first editions too. I don't know exactly what it is about them - the content is usually the same as the first, second, third reprinting/edition. I often come across them at Half Price Books and I'll buy that one over another edition, even if it's a bit more expensive. When the Silmarillion was published I was hoping to get a first edition, and although I bought it within the first week I'm not sure if I did. According to several websites including this http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/reviews/silmarillion.htm I have one because my book looks the same as that.

However, I have a friend in London who's got one of those... signed and edicated to her by Christopher Tolkien

Have you seen this btw? A2903744

I love old books, but don't really care about which edition - I suppose if it were something truly special I'd find it interesting, but otherwise, I feel the content is more important than the date.

Signatures and dedications make it cooler, of course, but with these too, I find the date written on the title page kinda irrelevant.

[The reason I love old books is not because of any 'real' value, but because I am fascinated by old, pre-owned things; they feel more... alive, somehow. There are more stories behind them. Sometimes you can guess parts of the story by some residue left behind - scribbled notes, dedications, etc. (I once bought a book just because tucked inside was a picture of some anonymous person at a birthday party) - but often, you just _know_ they are there, without being able to know what they are. I love that.]

Here's something you might find interesting: http://www.bookcrossing.com/

I love the idea, but I haven't actually gotten around to officially doing yet. I've inadvertently passed several books along in such a manner, the aforementioned Fight Club for instance and, when I was young and impressionable, many copies of Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah.

I really need to get some labels as I'd much prefer to do this than get hosed by taking a box of books to the used bookstore and getting only enough cash back for maybe one book in return.

You could donate some of them to your local library if they're hardback and in good shape. Can't think of a better home than that

Oh, yea... Hardbacks to the library. Good idea...
But I keep most of my hardbacks.

Half Price is such a good resource and a good deal that I can't remember the last time I bought a paperback, and I hardly ever buy a book from anywhere else so I've got a bunch of hardbacks that I don't need any more. Like any second hand shop you're unlikely to ever find the popular books unless you happen to be there at the moment they're put up on the shelves. I've never seen a Harry Potter for instance, but I'm gradually building my Dune and Tolkien collections. When something like the Dune prequels or the new Tolkien stuff like Children of Hurin come out, Half Price seems to get job lots of the hardbacks, all brand new, all first editions.

Been waiting about five years for a hardback Gormenghast to show up... no sign of one yet. I might have to cave in and get one from alibris.com

My Gormenghast is a large paper back... I should keep my eye out for a hardcover to replace it (not expecting to find that in first editions).


I have an almost complete collection of nearly every story Heinlein published. It's nearly entirely from paper backs I bought at Half Price when I was in High School and just after. Sadly, the humidity got to them as they sat in my headboard book case and they're in pretty poor shape now, but I still have them all.

The first Heinlein book I read is still my favorite (it's an early printing if not first edition... need to check that when I get home). Job: A Comedy of Justice.

The oddest thing I bought at Half Price is a slip cased double volume complete collection of Panic comics. Panic was EC Comics own rip off of their Mad Magazine (they call it a companion).

I think one of the unlikeliest books I ever found there was a biography of Spike Milligan. Despite being one of the most well-known comics and comic writers in the UK and a massive influence on so many British comics and comedy shows, Spike's almost unheard of in the US, apart from, I would imagine, a handful of American 'Goons' fans and the expat community.

Oh, and he was the Headmaster in the BBC production of Gormenghast

I recorded that but can't find it now.

I've got .avi files of the episodes and extras if there's some way to get them to you.

Thanks, but there's no need. I've got it somewhere, but even if I don't find it, it will eventually be on Netflix.

Which through a circuitous route, reminds me that the next time I order anything from Amazon I've got to remember to order Terry Gilliam's Tideland.

I really wish it would come out on BluRay soon.

Never seen it, but I've added it to my queue. It looks... interesting

Maybe you can help me find the name of a film I once saw the last 30 minutes or so of and would love to see all of. There was a big house in a rural area of America with a bunch of kids and a hugely overweight mother who, I guess, was not known for leaving the house. I think one of the kids was not quite the full shilling and at one point was put in jail, at which point the mother did the unthinkable - got dressed and drove into town. At the end of the film she dies upstairs in bed, and since she's so heavy that no-one can get her down the stairs they simply set fire to the house and go their own way.

Ring any bells?

What's Eating Gilbert Grape? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108550/
Depp, Decaprio?

I gotta warn you (as will Terry Gilliam at the beginning of Tideland)

This film is NOT for everyone. You absolutely MUST put your preconceptions aside.

If you watch it with as open and nonjudgmental a mind as you can, it's an absolutely wonderful film and one of Gilliam's best.

Parents of young children have a very hard time not being overly disturbed by Tideland.

A coworker, who's a young father, watched it after my recommendation and he said it took at least two viewings (uncomfortable viewings) before he really began to see the film as it is. After that, he said it was worth it.

I reckon that's it. Flicked and moved to the top of the queue

Just checked. My Job: A Comedy of Justice is indeed a first edition.

Heh...

The list price on my copy is $16.95. Amazon is selling "collectible" copies, like new for $10.00 + $3.99 shipping.

I'm just happy that the first time I bought a Heinlein book it was a first edition.

Now if I was much older, maybe the first Heinlein I would have bought could have been Stranger in a Strange Land... in which case my first Heinlein would be worth around $6000.00.