Hi All,
Some of us love to collect books as much as read them! So what's the rarest book you have in your collection.
The rarest I have is probably signed first/first copies of The Sword of Shannara, The Elfstones of Shannara and The Wishsong of Shannara. Sword only had a print run of 3500 when it was originally released in 1977, and the sequels only had print runs of 5000 each. By today's standards those are super low and super hard to find in pristine condition. I think they are my babies.
I have all of the Dark Tower series signed and limited by Stephen King and the individual artist who worked on each book. Those are pretty special to me. I also have signed copies of all three Philip Pullman His Dark Materials US hardcover first/firsts.
What do you have? Knock my socks off! Make me jealous!
Shawn
They aren't worth much at the moment, but it could change. Or not, I don't really care. My most cherished are my Dark Tower books. I have a first edition hard cover of each volume. Now, I can't say that they're all first run books, but I love them just the same.
Mmmmmm...my pride and joy.
@Shawn - that His Dark Materials first/first makes me jealous.
I have an advance reading copy of Sword of Shannara, and one of Game of thrones, both signed. I'm not sure which I love more. But my favorite collectable book is my Quiet Vision hardcover of Daniel Key Moran's 'The Long Run'. Still my favorite book all these years later.
Would have to be my signed first/first of Magician by Raymond Feist.
hey Shawn,
The two most cherished books in my collection are the 1968 edition of "Conan: the Wanderer" by Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter. It was published by Prestige Books and distributed by Ace Books.
The other book I have are the "Clans of Darkness: Scottish Stories of Fantasy and Horror" edited by Peter Haining. Published in 1971. It's a series of short stories some of which go back to the 1920's and 1930's. One story by Thomas the Rhymer was written back in the 13th century and others in the collection were written in the 16th and 17th centuries. This is a collectors item. Pity when I got it, it had been down cellar in the damp.
Nothing near the level of rarity that the previous books are. But all the same I have a copy of Life on the Border edited and signed by Terri Windling (the book that got me into urban fantasy)and a copy of Survivor by Octavia Butler which was hard to come across. Other than that just a dozen or so signed horror novels from authors like Brian Keene and Tim Waggoner. My favorite is a signed copy of Night in the Lonesome October by Richard Laymon (my favorite horror author) Oh and a signed ARC of Eldest by Paolini that I found at a used bookstore.
Probably my ARC collection of all the Ice & Fire books by Martin.
Or possibly my set of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Suzanna Clarke. I have the ARC, the black cover & the white cover all signed by Clarke on her first US signing date.
But overall this is hard, because my most treasured collection in general is my Neil Gaiman collection. By no means is it complete, but it's close.