6 Oct, 2010
2010-10-6 12:17:33 AM UTC
I think it would be interesting to hear what everyone has decided to focus on with their collecting.
I'll go first:
Early on I realized I can't collect everything so I decided to focus on US published tolkien editions. I'll never get there but Im aiming for every US edition of everything tolkien has done.
I also like to collect the older poems like Goblin Feet and scholarly works like Beowulf, Green Knight and Ancrene Wisse.
Lastly I liked getting books about tolkien himself and about the various movies made. I'm very casual about this category.
I probablly should have narrowed my focus a bit but these areas called to me.
6 Oct, 2010
2010-10-6 5:20:07 PM UTC
Like most collectors, I mainly collect 1st, 1sts.
However, for research purposes, I also collect unpublished and uncollected images of Tolkien's letters. I have also acquired copies of most of Tolkien's published interviews, but there are still a few I still need. His interviews are fascinating.
6 Oct, 2010
2010-10-6 5:54:28 PM UTC
For me it's about slipcased and boxed editions. As I am early in my collection, I am going for limited editions and 'fancy looking' books first.
7 Oct, 2010
2010-10-7 9:11:33 AM UTC
For me its a real mixed bag - mainly UK firsts but if something comes along I fancy and have the money! then I try and buy it. I do like some of his older pieces Beowulf and his piece in Essays to Charles Williams is a good read as well.
The interviews sound good and maybe I need to take a look at some of these as well.
10 Oct, 2010
2010-10-10 5:37:14 PM UTC
I guess I'm more of a hunter than a collector. I have the resources to track down and purchase items available online (within reason), and have done so on occassion. My real joy comes in perusing used bookstores and second hand shops looking for unexpected finds. True, I do come up empty handed more times than not - and many times will come across editions I already have - I usually pick these up anyway as the price is usually very good and I pass them on to several friends who are casual collectors as well. It's all good, and a wonderful hobby no matter what the focus one may have.
10 Oct, 2010
2010-10-10 9:32:33 PM UTC
>>>I guess I'm more of a hunter than a collector. I have the resources to track down and purchase items available online (within reason), and have done so on occassion. My real joy comes in perusing used bookstores and second hand shops looking for unexpected finds.
This raises an interesting point. I think it was a bit more of a rush for me before I realized how much was up on ABE. I too love the thrill of the hunt. One challange I have living in the USA is that I'm higly unlikely to find the older and more obscure stuff at bookstores like I could if I was in the UK.
11 Oct, 2010
2010-10-11 1:15:35 PM UTC
My main focus is The Silmarillion; mainly UK editions. The focus within this is (other than all the various editions out there) UK 1977 copies --variant bindings, variant jackets, review copies, dated copies, copies with marginalia, signed copies, 'pirate' copies, rebound copies, library copies etc etc. Since HoME is closely related textually, I also collect these. Still don't have WotJs or PoME yet!
Other than that I do collect other Tolkien 1rsts (1rst 1rsts as Jlong says): Hobbit, LotRs etc. That besides, I also collect H. P. Lovecraft and a few other pulp & Weird Tales writers; inc. letters (although, sadly, no HPL ones). And, like many others I assume, I have quite a few "books about books": bibliographies, checklists etc.
BH
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