Cool Books

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I thought it's be kind of neat for us to share some of the coolest books we have--fancy books with leather covers are neat designs, or old editions. That sort of thing. Books that you value because of it's physicality. I'm sure we have some fancy-book collectors on here. They don't even have to be "fancy." If there's a book that holds a lot of sentimental value to you for some reason, or just a book that you think has a really cool cover. Anything you like, basically. And, personally, I'd love to see some pictures.

The coolest books I have are a copy of The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury from the 60s that was my dad's. It's a paperback and really beat up. A corner is missing from the cover, and the pages are the yellowest I've ever seen. But that's all why it's so great. I also have an autographed copy of Bradbury's (I'm a fan of Bradbury, but not a huge fan--that my two coolest books are by him is kind of coincidental) The Martian Chronicles. I have that one in a frame. I doubt it's worth much of anything monetarily, but that's not really the point.

[Calidore]

Hey, that's another disadvantage of Kindle/Nook/et al. Who's going to have an e-book signing?

My coolest books are probably the autographed ones. I've only ever been to two book signings (and they were just a few days apart): Ray Bradbury, who signed my Martian Chronicles and his newest at the time, and Andrew Vachss, who signed my HC first edition of Flood.

My other autographed books are limited editions of The Wizard of Oz, illustrated and signed by Greg Hildebrandt, and a complete set of The Ray Bradbury Chronicles, graphic adaptations of Bradbury's stories collected in seven(?) hardcovers and signed by Bradbury and nearly all the artists. (Like Mutatis, I'm more a casual than a diehard fan, but how do you pass that up?)

[Desolation]

An old, beat up, dog-eared, coffee-stained copy of On the Road that my dad gave me for my 18th birthday...It essentially started me on my literary path.

I'm not as fond of Jack Kerouac as I was back then, but that book will always hold a special place for me.

[Dark Muse]

I have two editions of Dracula, one which features a really awesome cover image, and the other is a nice leather bond copy.

I also have really cool leather bond copies of "The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll, and The Complete Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Anderson.

I also have another edition of the Complete works of Edgar Allan Poe that I really like because whenever I open it up, it gives a faint whiff of cigarette smoke, which I think gives it a certain character.

I also think that my Vampire Encyclopedia is pretty cool

I also have an old Dictionary, in which the front cover by now has fallen off, that I am very found of. It used to be my grandfathers.

Maybe when I have the time I will take some pictures and post them.

[Charles Darnay]

An old tattered copy of Julius Caesar. But other than that, I'm not much of a collector. I collect books but a prefer a clean edition and good notes to how it looks.

[irinmisfit92]

I love my Philip K. DIck's "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch". It just has an amazing cover book that is very Dick-ish; trippy and awesome.

I'm not much of a collector either, but I love the covers of my Narnia and The Dark is Rising collection.