What is your opinion of deluxe publishers like Folio Society, Easton Press, etc. Just found out about this today. Do people actually buy these? I mean they look really nice but god damn they are expensive.
>>7838233
If I could, I would, but probably regret it right away...
I own a bunch of Easton Press and love them. Great aesthetic, almost always great font size, useful footnotes a lot of the time, and they hold up. I've got a lot of Franklin Library books too which are nice but not quite the same quality. If you shop around on ebay you can get either for pretty good prices, as opposed to the $65-500 Easton wants on their site.
>>7838233
>$295 AUD
Holy fuck, why does it cost so much? It's only two fucking books.
>Let's release a sweet expensive version of Paradise Lost.
>Should we give them the complete package? Throw in a Regained too?
>Nah fuck that have a commentary.
WHY.pdf
Lord of the Rings suffers from the same thing. I just wanted a nice hardback collection or boxed set of Hobbit and LOTR together. No one does it.
On topic for thread, I just go for Barnes and Nobles leatherbound classics. Anything more expensive then those is a rip off no matter how much money you have.
Too pretty to read. Reading is a humble activity. Probably the most authentic readers are the ones who buy their books used, or borrow them. Or find them. I myself am one step less authentic because I buy all my books brand spankin' new from Amazon. But nobody's perfect. Folio? Maybe I'd pick one up if they did one of my favorite books. Easton is just too much. Too fetishized. The leather-bound style announces a belief so strong in the seriousness of literary culture that it's disgusting. No need to dress up the books. Let the books speak for themselves.
They're 100% kitch.
>>7838938
I would buy used but I'm sick of retards marking the text and most online sellers don't check for highlighting.
I like them, but then, that's obvious since I collect various small press editions. Mostly signed stuff, but there are some exceptions like the "Masterpieces of Science Fiction" line Easton had going for a long time.
>>7838259
Is right, though. Buy Easton and Folio used. Not all of them decrease in value, but most do.
I got six Easton Press book and love them to bits.
Then again, I only got them because they were 20 bucks all together at the local farmers market.
So I concur with the general consensus here: get them but only if they're cheap.
>>7838259
>>7838995
yup. the mainstream Folio Society books don't hold their value very well. it's pretty easy to pick up almost-like-new copies for £3-£4 here (books that would have cost £20-£30 new). my local antiquarian bookshop frequently has them on its bargain shelf.
the limited editions are a different matter entirely. i have a couple of them, plus a couple of the Letterpress Shakespeare (which are also made by FS). they are things of beauty. recently i've been thinking about the FS edition of William Morris' The Odes of Horace (see pic related). it's beautiful, but i'm not sure if i can really justify it.
as well as FS, i occasionally pick up books by Taschen, Assouline, Rizzoli (the publishers of the Codex Seraphinianus), TeNeues etc, mainly big arty books. i love the massive Taschen "sumo" sized books (they usually come with their own little table to put them on) but i wonder how people find the space for them.
>>7839131
That looks dank
>>7838938
Folio has some cool covers but Easton's leather bindings are tacky as shit. A tasteless call back to vintage leather bound texts which in reality look far more humble than what Easton offers.
>>7838951
Can't stand used anymore. Too many retards writing garbage margin notes. But I'll gladly buy used if I'm in a book shop and can check the pages myself before buying.
>>7839131
I have to admit those pages are beautiful. Never managed to get past the awful bindings and actually open an Easton, myself.
All these jealous poorfags sour graping ITT.
Not surprising I guess. /lit/ is filled with community college dropouts after all.
>>7838233
I've bought a couple of FS as gifts. Don't own any, personally.;_;
Really want Dune but too expensive :(
Easton's bindings are almost B&N leather tier of shit. Terrible and tacky. The contents inside are usually very nice though, but there is no point whatsoever buying one new.
Folio tends to be more respectable looking, but still expensive and not worth it new.
Also when it comes to translations, both usually suck. It's hard to justify spending $250 on an edition of the Odyssey, which has beautiful illustrations by NC Wyeth, when it uses the fucking William Cullen Bryant translation. It would literally just sit there for show, since I would prefer my Fitzgerald or Lattimore copy for actual reading. The Odyssey is just an example. You'd expect these publishers to make sort of the 'perfect' edition of various works, especially for the price, but sadly this is rarely the case.
>>7838882
There ARE boxed sets with Hobbit and LOTR. Leather bound, too, they're really cute.
>Tfw you'll never be rich enough to purchase rare books.
£325,000 or 462,003 USD for this 1664 Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies by Shakespeare.
http://www.peterharrington.co.uk/rare-books/english-literature-pre-1900/comedies-histories-and-tragedies-6/
>>7840762
Next best thing: Go to library that holds rare books and set up an appointment. I read my favorite chapters out of a 1st edition Moby-Dick not too long ago.
Prototip-1. They are moneysink. You will never get the cash back on them. Even if you get authors signature with date, and he drops dead the next morning, you will be better-off finding old copies of the same book.
Prototip-2. Paperbacks from important collections often have better, or same translations, and same goes for annotations. Penguins Classics, for example, can afford the best of the best in the field when it comes to brainpower, while Oxford and Cambridge have the best of the best. Expensive collections just take what's on market and repack it.
That said. I'm jealous of everyone owning them, and would lick shoes to get to them, but I'll be satiated with a quick photo of one page if anon is willing to share. If I can't smell the ink, I may at least see it and the typeface it is in.
>>7840789
>Even if you get authors signature with date, and he drops dead the next morning, you will be better-off finding old copies of the same book.
k anon if you say so
but i think you should read the signed books page on AbeBooks to see how wrong you are.
signed copies of books even by popular living authors can be multiples of the price for unsigned copies. especially for first editions. of course it helps if they are an author who is in demand. even something like the Goldfinch by Donna Tartt is £50 and up for signed copies and it was only published a couple of years ago. not bad considering she probably signed a million copies on a book tour.
have a browse here
http://www.abebooks.co.uk/books/inscribed-autographed-signature-collectible/signed-books.shtml?cm_sp=rbr-_-list_5_6_R_-_-browse_1
>>7838233
Im not familiar with Easton Press but as far as the Folio society be wary as they often use questionable (cheap and old) translations which is something you dont want if you are spending big
>>7841721
Just checked out their site, the fact they dont list translators is a pretty big red flag
>>7841721
>>7841744
you either didn't look, or you're a bit short sighted
pic related is the first four translated works i found in their current catalogue. the translation is listed for all of them.
i have that Art of War edition and it looks great. the Tale of Genji looks nice, i might look out for that too.
>>7841665
>AbeBooks
Dude. That's like going to MLB store and buying signed balls and bats from them.
They are wholesale sellers with direct ties to expensive book publishers and resellers. Just think of them as ebay. They have huge singed portion, and since they make majority of their profits elsewhere, they don't care when or if they get sold, so they allow overvalued price tags and wait for suckers. I guarantee you that you'll never get the values even close to those listed if you personally try to sell books of same quality as they are.
>>7840778
LOL.
Mfw I was studying, and joined the British Library and learned you have to 'apply', bring ID and proof of address, and they interview you before you join, and you get searched like it's an airport and have to check any baggage or coats to a cloakroom.
Also, the membership card has a two year expiry date.
Worth it though, keeps the plebs and homeless out.
>revisit regular local library recently
>no security and staff way too nice to actually keep order
>thieving toerags, vandals, and kids everywhere
>CDs, DVDs, newspapers, magazines, Internet because the masses need incentives like that
>sketchy bitch sitting slouched in a chair loudly masticating on crisps (potato chips) not reading shit, just chilling
>poor people reading free newspapers
>homeless guy sleeping at a table in reading room
>some crazy old black woman arguing loudly with staff because her internet time ran out
>two angry nigger guys backing her uo
>threatening to have the library burned down, have staff stabbed, etc
>i intervene and offer to remove all 3 outside if they don't leave
>they do
>remember why I stopped visiting regular local libraries
>>7842435
It's true. With all of the online second hand markets (Abebooks, Biblio, eBay, Amazon) you have to keep in mind that even if a book is listed at some price, it doesn't mean it's selling at that same price.
That said, there are always exceptions, and I've gotten some very good deals from all of the above sites (well, not Biblio; I don't use it) even from actual booksellers, that definitely would've gone higher in an eBay bidding war.
eBay will still be your best bet, since most of the private sellers with the most motivation (i.e., are more likely to list it at a lower price, or go lower later) to sell are there.
I read The Count of Montecristo in a Bibliothèque de la Pléiade edition, and felt like a 18th century Patrician throughout.
