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#1
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Making books your own
It occurs to me that some of the disagreement which
arises in this newsgroup crops up because a number of posters write from the standpoint of the dealer and/or investor, rather than from the collector with a love of books. While in many cases the resulting viewpoints do not need to conflict at all, sometimes they create certain mindsets that do on occasion clash. For the most part I buy my books off-line and at far below the going price on the net. I buy books because I like them. I get the low prices because I spend time checking out thrift shops, library sales, garage sales, etc. -- and I know which used book stores have the bargain finds and which are so well-organized that you will rarely find a great bargain on anything they have. Most people do something in their spare time, and while some folks are out on the golf course, I am poking around at that library sale. Whee... Yesterday I bought six books for .25 cents each...and I would not trade the feeling I got for all the birdys and bogies in the world, either. For instance, one of those six books I got for ..25 cents each was a children's book on American Indians. Sounds ho-hum, maybe, but I happened to notice it was illustrated by Jack Davis, of EC horror comic, MAD, and Time Magazine cover fame. Most collectors make buying decisions controlled by their special interests, and one of my special interests is illustration. Getting a children's book for a quarter at a thrift store is not exactly anything special. Finding a Jack Davis- illustrated book in excellent condition for a quarter is. Anyway, as a book lover, one thing which is important to me is making my books my own. After all, I have to live with them. Dirty books I can't stand. If there exists any way to wash a grimey book without hurting it, I will find that way. Price stickers are an affront to any civilized collector -- they go, and when they can't be peeled right off, they go usually with the help of a few drops of lighter fluid, or, with other types of stickers, sometimes after a bit of soaking in a few drops of water and dish detergent. Inscriptions (by anyone except the author, that is) are immediately removed with white-out. In some cases, I later cover the white-out area with appropriate pitures or graphics removed from damaged but profusely-illustrated books of the same vintage. As far as discards, with any of those I acquire, all the library stuff goes. Ink lettering on the pages is immediately whited out (and you have already heard about my experiment getting the lettering off the page edges). Any of those pasted-in pockets for cards are immediately removed, and any resulting damage to the endpaper is covered by carefully pasting a new "endpaper" over the old one or by gluing in an appropriate illustration to cover the rough area. One execption to this is with very old books having a neatly-written ink inscription. Those can lend a quaint charm to the book. Another exception is a book trader's stamp inside a paperback. I let those alone, although I have in fact toyed with idea of printing a miniature "book plate" and pasting it over traders' stamps in my paperbacks. Now, I don't CARE one bit if a dealer or an investor type tells me some of those practices of mine will keep down the price of the book in some hypothetical future sale. If I were sticking those books in some climate-controlled outbuilding with the idea of letting them appreciate for a few years and them re-selling them, that would be one thing. That is hardly the case, though. Those procedures I outlined above are things I do because they make me feel better about my books. For instance, I personally don't care if a book on my shelf has "Property of Ed Smith," "San Franciso Public Library" or "Joe's Bar and Grill" stamped in black ink on the page edges. Seeing something like that detracts from the pleasure of owning the book. It further detracts, in a very small way, from the atmosphere of my home. I am, you will remember, a book lover. Mr. Palmer --writing from the upstairs office above rec.arts.prose |
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#2
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Don't you ever tire of destroying books Mr. Troll?
Back under your bridge now. -- Bob Finnan The Hardy Boys Unofficial Home Page http://users.arczip.com/fwdixon New & Out Of Print Books, Books-On-Tape, Videos, DVDs, CD-ROMs For Sale http://users.arczip.com/fwdixon/hbsale.htm .................................................. .................... "Bill Palmer" wrote in message om... It occurs to me that some of the disagreement which arises in this newsgroup crops up because a number of posters write from the standpoint of the dealer and/or investor, rather than from the collector with a love of books. While in many cases the resulting viewpoints do not need to conflict at all, sometimes they create certain mindsets that do on occasion clash. For the most part I buy my books off-line and at far below the going price on the net. I buy books because I like them. I get the low prices because I spend time checking out thrift shops, library sales, garage sales, etc. -- and I know which used book stores have the bargain finds and which are so well-organized that you will rarely find a great bargain on anything they have. Most people do something in their spare time, and while some folks are out on the golf course, I am poking around at that library sale. Whee... Yesterday I bought six books for .25 cents each...and I would not trade the feeling I got for all the birdys and bogies in the world, either. For instance, one of those six books I got for .25 cents each was a children's book on American Indians. Sounds ho-hum, maybe, but I happened to notice it was illustrated by Jack Davis, of EC horror comic, MAD, and Time Magazine cover fame. Most collectors make buying decisions controlled by their special interests, and one of my special interests is illustration. Getting a children's book for a quarter at a thrift store is not exactly anything special. Finding a Jack Davis- illustrated book in excellent condition for a quarter is. Anyway, as a book lover, one thing which is important to me is making my books my own. After all, I have to live with them. Dirty books I can't stand. If there exists any way to wash a grimey book without hurting it, I will find that way. Price stickers are an affront to any civilized collector -- they go, and when they can't be peeled right off, they go usually with the help of a few drops of lighter fluid, or, with other types of stickers, sometimes after a bit of soaking in a few drops of water and dish detergent. Inscriptions (by anyone except the author, that is) are immediately removed with white-out. In some cases, I later cover the white-out area with appropriate pitures or graphics removed from damaged but profusely-illustrated books of the same vintage. As far as discards, with any of those I acquire, all the library stuff goes. Ink lettering on the pages is immediately whited out (and you have already heard about my experiment getting the lettering off the page edges). Any of those pasted-in pockets for cards are immediately removed, and any resulting damage to the endpaper is covered by carefully pasting a new "endpaper" over the old one or by gluing in an appropriate illustration to cover the rough area. One execption to this is with very old books having a neatly-written ink inscription. Those can lend a quaint charm to the book. Another exception is a book trader's stamp inside a paperback. I let those alone, although I have in fact toyed with idea of printing a miniature "book plate" and pasting it over traders' stamps in my paperbacks. Now, I don't CARE one bit if a dealer or an investor type tells me some of those practices of mine will keep down the price of the book in some hypothetical future sale. If I were sticking those books in some climate-controlled outbuilding with the idea of letting them appreciate for a few years and them re-selling them, that would be one thing. That is hardly the case, though. Those procedures I outlined above are things I do because they make me feel better about my books. For instance, I personally don't care if a book on my shelf has "Property of Ed Smith," "San Franciso Public Library" or "Joe's Bar and Grill" stamped in black ink on the page edges. Seeing something like that detracts from the pleasure of owning the book. It further detracts, in a very small way, from the atmosphere of my home. I am, you will remember, a book lover. Mr. Palmer --writing from the upstairs office above rec.arts.prose |
#3
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"Bad Weather" wrote
if you love your worthless books so much, go jack off on them Which may make the edges nice and white! |
#4
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a number of posters write from the standpoint of the dealer and/or
investor, rather than from the collector with a love of books. if you love your worthless books so much, go jack off on them |
#5
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Which may make the edges nice and white!
The pages on all of Palmer's books probably stick together, because he loves them. |
#6
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"RWF" wrote in message ...
Don't you ever tire of destroying books Mr. Troll? Back under your bridge now. Probably most readers understand who the real troll is here. In case Troll Finnan has hoodwinked anyone, I will be happy to remark on his obnoxious behavior. Many groups have "local trolls" who are really no different than trolls who make their mischief net-wide, except that local trolls like "RWF" Bob Finnan generally confine their trolling activities to one or two groups. Lacking genuine ideas and interesting experiences or unique views to share, they pester others for attention. Often, like Bob Finnan, they stoop to defamatory behavior to get their shabby existence noticed by their target, who will often be a famous Usenet writer, because misfits like Finnan realize that the better-known the person they pester, the more readers their trolling posts are likely to get. Like most trolls, Finnan is a Google near non-entity. A little research indicates there is little or substance to him at all, as far as Usenet is concerned. I have meet pests like Bob all too regularly: an woefully anemic GEM count and a desperate wail for attention characterizes them all too well. There are no stand-alone posts by people like Finnan, nothing at all that they can point Usenet readers to with pride. And how many trolls have you met, by the way, who could pridefully rap off the titles of a couple of dozen (or a couple of hundred) stand-alone postings they have made? That is one sure sign of a troll: No substantial Usenet track record of stand-alone postings (essays, short stories, poems, whatever). The Bob Finnans of the net don't contribute, they beg for attention. Now you know what Bob Finnan is: A Usenet non-entity whose lust for attention takes him down a mean, low-down path through these electronic woods. That being pointed out regarding Bob, I will say a few words in defense of the post he so venomously maligned. My shared thoughts were completely sincere. Everthing in that post is true, though of course part of it is only my opinion and is presented as such. If some readers think I am a bit unorthodox as a book collector, fine. In fact, posts such as mine need to be written more often for rec.collecting books. Read with an open mind, they should be help readers understand that other people may have a different approach to book collecting, including book restoration, etc., than they the readers do. Of course, what Local Troll Finnan tries to do -- in his insufferably fatuous attempt to impugn my sincerity by ironically calling me a troll -- is create a situation where as few readers as possible lend credence to my sincere words. I certainly hope that all rec.collecting.books readers see Bob Finnan for the obnoxious, trolling pest he is and ignore his future remarks. Mr. Palmer Room 314 (in the upstairs office) [...] -- Bob Finnan The Hardy Boys Unofficial Home Page |
#7
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"Bad Weather" wrote in message ...
[...] Gee. Sort of like, "Perverted individual slithers out of woodwork under a phony name and pesters writer for fifteen seconds of attention with a perverted slur." News at eleven and all that I guess. Sad. Mr. Palmer Room 314 |
#8
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#9
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"Bill Palmer" wrote in message om... "RWF" wrote in message ... Don't you ever tire of destroying books Mr. Troll? Back under your bridge now. Probably most readers understand who the real troll is here. Yes, they know it is you, your fatuous ass. Since you've showed up here, you've done nother but advocate the detruction of books in a series of trollish posts designed to look serious. Now you make a pathetic attempt to take the heat off your trollish tactics by accusing ME of being a troll. Nice try. Didn't work though. But you DID make it to my kill file, where you will reside with such other notable assholes as adumbs and Barker. Now get back under your bridge Mr. Troll! -- Bob Finnan The Hardy Boys Unofficial Home Page http://users.arczip.com/fwdixon New & Out Of Print Books, Books-On-Tape, Videos, DVDs, CD-ROMs For Sale http://users.arczip.com/fwdixon/hbsale.htm .................................................. .................... |
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