Books you bought later VS books you bought when they first came out.....

[bsaenz24]

Ok, so I expect this will sound odd, but do you find a difference in how much you like some books or what some books are worth to you based on how/when you acquired them?

After thinking about the new CD editions coming out of IT, I recalled how I had walked or had ridden a bike, can't recall which, several miles as a teenager to pickup the trade hardback edition of IT on the day it came out. I was trying to decide if I would give up that trade edition, which I read and have had "since the book was first released", for one of the new CD editions....This is obviously NOT a reflection on CD or their books, which everyone knows I LOVE!!! It's more a question of whether or not a copy of a book you have means more to you because maybe you got it before an author was popular....or it was a title that became your favorite title of an author and you had to save those pennies to get it or "suffer" in some way to get it.

So, to answer my own question...no, I don't think I would give up that true orginal edition of IT for a limited edition. Fortunately, I didn't have to make that choice!!!

Related......do you find limited editions more impotant to you that you acquired when they first came out vs picking them up later via ebay or some other source. I tend to have more of an appreciation for the ones I got "way back when" when they first came out then others I just tracked down later. In a weird way, the ones I got when they were first released feel more like I "earned" them rather than those hunted down long after they were originally released.

Thoughts???

[srboone]

In college, I collected more than 200 Michael Moorcock paperbacks. Then, in 1995, he released a 15 omnibus vol. set of his "core" works (similar to King's DT series). A lot of the paperbacks were reprinted in the set, but I've kept them over the years (and even added to them).

I have most of Kings works in Trade HCs. My copy of IT is actually a BCE. When CD's IT comes out, I will still try to replace my BCE with a 1st trade HC.

A limited edition is not really more important to me than a trade HC--I don't really consider myself a collector, though I will hunt a book down and pay more than cover price for it; of course, my LE's are not things I have other copies of other than a paperback. Exception is The Passage, but I plan on keeping the Trade HC.

[bsaenz24]

I actually have those 15 Moorcock hardbacks, but have only read the first two. I liked them...just haven't gotten to the rest yet. I've been thinking of skipping to the 2 Elric volumes. Any reason I need to read them in order? I figured different characters were safe to skip.

[srboone]

No need to read the 15 volumes in order, but with Elric vols, he puts the stories in something of a chronoligical order and has rewritten some sections to conform with the eternal champion mythology. But since that series he has written 3 more Elric novel and has since released the elric saga in a 6-volume paperback set.

My favorite volume is no. 10--The Dancers at the End of Time. He even makes an appearance in the final volume, much like King makes an appearance in DT7 (though I like Moorcock's appearance in TDATEOT better). My favorite Moorcock book is The Warhound and the World's Pain, which is in the Von Bek vol., #2.

Count Brass, vol. 15, contains the ending of the Eternal Champion cycle (volume 15 is actually the second Hawkmoon sequence, a coninuation of vol 3.--crazy, yes, but when you get into Moorcock's cyclic time megaflow theories, it makes a bit of sense).

[jester05jk]

The only book I'm actually attached to is my pb of "Dragon Tears" by Dean Koontz. For some reason I absolutely love that book, without a doubt my favorite book. I went so far as to get the American and UK first editions in hardback and the Dark Harvest limited.

I don't mind getting books on the 2nd hand market because there is constantly going to be an author I have just discovered and want to fill in the back catalog. Perfect example is of Laymon right now, I think the only hardback I have is "Traveling Vampire Show" but have everything else in pb. There's also the problem of not always having the finances when a limited is first announced or not being fast enough to order before it's sold out. In that aspect, I like that CD limits King books to a 1 of each edition per person. Otherwise you'd have one tool buying 100 copies just so they can turn around and sell them at a huge markup.

[Dave1442397]

I think what I really hate is when I miss a limited edition, such as the Centipede Press edition of 'Salem's Lot. I have no idea how I missed it when it was released, and it took a while to find a good copy.

I like my limited editions, but there are also times when I'm just ecstatic to find books by certain authors. One example is Harlan Ellison. I read one of his books in Ireland in the early '80s, but there was nothing in print over there at the time. One of my friends traveled to NY in 1984 and brought back all twelve of the Ellison ACE paperbacks that had been released in 1983. That was like a treasure trove to me, as they were impossible to find in Ireland.

I've always bought a lot of books, so I have a few Koontz books that were previously published under pseudonyms, which is nice, although they're probably not worth anything. One that got away was my original UK edition of Richard Bachman's The Long Walk. Someone borrowed that and never returned it.

[jester05jk]

The Koontz pseudonyms are worth a little. I think Dragonfly hb under Dwyer is the highest I've seen. I have 2 myself and his earlier sci-fi ones.

[pixie]

I think I enjoy a book more when I find it on the seconary market. I enjoy "hunting" for a book over the net.
I wanted "The Stephen King Uinverse" and "From a Buick 8" and I saw on the CD website that they were out of print. I had to find them on the secondary market and they were a lot more expensive. I saved to get these books and I was very happy when I got them. These two book are still my favorite purchases.
I am prouder of these purchases than I am of the the books I buy off a website when they are new. I feel I "worked" harder to get books of the secondary market.

[Nik Houser]

The editions I'm proudest of owning are the scarce hardcovers I find in used bookstores. I try not to order hardcovers of older books I online if I have any hope of finding them in person because it can't compare to that joy of "Oh man, I finally found it!" when you finally discover that long-sought-after book on the shelf and pull it down. Having said that, I knew I'd never find a lettered edition of Joe Hill's "Pop Art" in a book store, so I scoured the net for more than a year till I found one I could afford. And pre-ordering great specialty books and having them come in the mail after waiting months for them to be printed is quite a thrill too, like when my Cemetery Dance edition of The Passage finally arrived. Twas a fine day!