The Private Library

The Private Library: Collecting Numismatic Books (Part II)

Numismatic books perform a variety of functions: they authenticate; they differentiate; they historicize.  Which is to say, they help determine whether or not a particular numismatic item is genuine or fake (counterfeit); they help determine in what way(s) a particular numismatic item is different from a similar numismatic item; and they place the production of particular numismatic items within a specific historical context. When such books are well illustrated and attractively printed and bound, they also stimulate one's aesthetic sensibilities.

Just as numismatic books perform a variety of functions, so do people collect numismatic books for a variety of reasons.  At the risk of painting with an overly broad brush, numismatic books usually are collected for personal, professional or academic reasons (and sometimes for all three).

Example: you need a book to help you determine whether or not a numismatic item is real or fake.  If you are a collector of this numismatic item, the appropriate book will help keep you from wasting your hard-earned currency. If a professional, this book will help keep you from sullying your reputation by selling something that is not genuine. If an academic, this book will help you explore the historical context in which counterfeits of the genuine item arose.

Among the numismatic books you may find in a private library are: bibliographies; dictionaries & encyclopedias; price guides; die studies; country-specific or denomination-specific studies; auction catalogs; numismatic journals. 

Price guides are the part of numismatic literature with which the general public probably is most familiar:

                        

As seen above, price guides are published for all three major numismatic specialties (coins, paper money, exonumia). For the most part, price guides assume that the numismatic item you have in hand is real.  They merely provide some bare-bones information about it: who minted or printed the item; how many of this item were minted or printed over what time span; who did the art work (modeled the coin or engraved the banknote plate); what is the approximate value to other collectors of this particular item in a particular state of preservation.

That last bit of information is why most people buy numismatic price guides: to answer the question, "what is it worth?" As is true of books and other types of collectibles, the better the state of preservation, the more an item generally is worth (all other things being equal).  For numismatic specialties where the value of an item is tied to its fabric (what the item is made of--e.g., gold, silver, bronze), the information contained in printed price guides may become obsolete too quickly.  That is why publishers also make this information available electronically, through CDs & DVDs as well as via online access to real-time databases. Even with electronic access to such information, numismatic book collectors usually still purchase the print edition of such price guides for their private library (for historical data; in case electronic access becomes unavailable for whatever reason; because they do not buy & sell numismatic items that frequently; etc.).

Because price guides do not answer the question "is it real," numismatic book collectors also generally will have on their bookshelves several books designed to answer that specific question....

The Private Library: Collecting Numismatic Books (Part I)

People build their private libraries around a great variety of different interests.

For some, the private library may be a reflection of their vocation: doctors, for example, may collect books about medicine; lawyers may collect books about law; magicians may collect books about magic.

For others, the private library may reflect an avocation: doctors, for example, may collect books about gardening; lawyers may collect books about model railroading; magicians may collect books about photography.

Our second case study looks at building a private library around an avocation, a hobby that used to be quite popular, though anecdotal evidence suggests that its popularity, like that of many other hobbies of an older generation, is on the decline.  That hobby is numismatics:

Numismatics is defined as "the study or collection of coins, tokens, and paper money and sometimes related objects." The "related objects" may be items that resemble coins (such as medals) or items that serve the same function as coins (such as credit cards).

We suggested in a previous post that most folks probably would find collecting numismatic books to be a bit more "obscure" than collecting something like romance fiction. That is because most people do not realize just how extensive the literature of numismatics is, nor do they realize just how far back such literature began.

In fact, the first known numismatic book, De Asse et Partibus Eius, "a scientific study of Roman metrology and coinage written by Guillaume Budé in 1514," was published only 60 years after Gutenberg first introduced printing from movable metal type to western Europe. And a recent publication, Christian Dekesel's A Bibliography of 16th Century Numismatic Books, finds that some 1148 individual numismatic titles were published during the 86 years after Budé.

More impressively, in a highly-acclaimed sequel--A Bibliography of 17th Century Numismatic Books--Dekesel found the pace of publishing numismatic books actually increased, to some 2825 individual titles. This pace would only quicken in succeeding centuries.

While the earliest numismatic books were concerned primarily with the evidence that numismatics provided for historical personages and events, the focus of such books would undergo substantial change as "common folk" began to collect coins, paper money and the like. Increasingly, numismatic books would also focus on "what do I have?" (is it really what it is purported to be?) and "what is it worth...?"

Romancing The Private Library: Part III

As we have noted in previous posts, it is difficult to collect in a lot of genres without a little help: there simply is too much published to keep up with it all, or to objectively assess what may or may not be worth your hard-earned currency.  Also, the more you collect a specific genre, the more likely it is that you will want to know whether or not the book in hand is a true first edition, or the true first edition in book form, etc. 

That is why we include in every post a slew of links, and why it is very much worth your while to make certain that you click on each and every one.  These links take you to additional resources that are designed to make your collecting life a lot easier: things like bibliographies (both print & online), wikis, histories or overviews of a specific genre, etc.  Any resources that do not fit into the "flow" of a particular post, we intend to save for a final additional resources post like this one....

The best one-volume historical overview that we've come across for the romance genre is Pamela Regis' A Natural History of the Romance Novel:

 

First published as a hardback by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2003, it was reprinted as a paperback in 2007.

Your very first online destination for all things romance fiction should be RomanceWiki.  In addition to excellent bibliographies of print articles & books about romance fiction, you will find an equally excellent collection of online resources for the genre. And, as might be expected, you will find that RomanceWiki has a home on both Facebook and Twitter.

Tomorrow, we will turn from the most read genre in the United States to one of the least read and, most folks probably would agree, one of the most obscure.  Notwithstanding which, those who collect this specialty are very, very devoted...the organization which represents this band of diehards calls it bibliomania....

Romancing The Private Library: Part II

Romance novels generally are categorized as either single title romances or category romances. What is arguably the greatest of all romance novels, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1813), was a single title romance.  The archetype of modern romance fiction, Samuel Richardson's Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740), also was a single title romance.

Category romances, though, probably are what most people think of what they think of romance novels.  These are short works (rarely more than 200 pages), which usually are published in some sort of series, often at the rate of several per month.  They are widely available at grocery stores, airports and the like, as well as through various book clubs.  The largest publisher of category romances, Harlequin, offers devoted readers of such romances substantial discounts through its website.

Category romances (first published by Mills & Boon in the 1930s) generally are what the critics are dissing when they work up a good lather.  Because of the novella format (generally no more than 55,000 words), category romances have to do away with extensive character development, subplots, etc.  Because the major publishers have specific guidelines for the elements which go into each of their category romances, the term "formulaic" certainly is appropriate.

But it is precisely this formulae which historians of the book find interesting.  How such formulas are established, and how such formulas change over time, give historians of the book insight into the culture(s) for which such books are published.  Other elements of romance fiction, such as how the cover art for such fiction has changed over time, also provide such insight.

A comprehensive collection of romance fiction would be a goldmine for book historians, allowing them to plot, among other items of interest: when such fiction quit depicting heroines as having to give up their careers in order to get married and have children (ca. 1970); the context within which the first line of multicultural romance novels was released (Arabesque, Kensington Books, 1994); when romance novels first followed protagonists into the bedroom (1972, Kathleen Woodiwiss' The Flame and the Flower); when romance novels waived the requirement that the heroine be a virgin (1980, Amii Lorin's The Tawny Gold Man):

 

These shifts in what publishers found to be permissible elements in romance fiction are tracked by the cover art that graces such fiction, which has gone from demure to aggressively erotic over the years. 

A good bit of romance fiction is now published in hardback, so if you dislike the extra work it will take to keep paperbacks in Fine condition, you can still collect the genre. (Hardback romance novels were published as early as the 1930s, when Mill & Boon published their "books in brown," category romances that were published weekly and sold through "two-penny libraries" in a uniform brown cloth binding.)

Whether you collect this fiction for its cover art, or for its potential scholarly interest, or simply because you enjoy the genre...you will have lots of company!

Romancing The Private Library: Part I

To what genre of popular fiction do the following statistics apply:

• it is the best-selling genre in the United States
• 22% of its readers are male (an increase of 15% over the past 6 years)
• 64.6 million Americans read at least one novel in this genre last year
• 42% of its readers have a bachelor's degree or higher
• 2% of its readers read between 51-100 such novels per year

Here's a clue:

Despite the fact that romance novels have for years been one of the great success stories of the publishing industry, critics almost uniformly despise them:

• they are dismissed as "badly written"
• they are dismissed as "schlock"
• they are dismissed as "capitalist tools" that "subjugate women"
• they are dismissed for "reinforcing the traditional female role"
• they are dismissed for "shaping life as an infantile fairytale"

Why on earth would anyone want to build a private library out of such...such...trash?!

Well, aside from the fact that we have repeatedly advocated that you should collect what you dang well please, building such a collection would present a formidable challenge, and most book collectors love a really good challenge!

The earliest romance novels, like the earliest novels in other genres that are routinely dismissed by critics (e.g., science fiction), were almost uniformly printed as paperbacks.  The paper used was very acidic.  The spine often was broken when the book was read.  To put together a comprehensive collection of such early romance novels in Fine condition might not be financially prohibitive (you can still find these books at garage sales, yard sales, library book sales and the like), but it might take the better part of a lifetime....

You will encounter fewer condition problems if you focus on modern romance novels (printed in conformity with the ANSI/Niso Z39.48  standard for paper permanence), but only if you store them properly.  Even with proper storage, the sheer magnitude of what is published in this genre may well tax your ability to keep up with it: in 2007, the last year for which we have seen firm numbers, this genre saw almost 8100 titles published!  

To deal with the deluge. many collectors of this genre focus on a few select publishers, such as the "Big Five:"

• Harlequin
• Random House
• Penguin Group
• Harper Collins
• Kensington

Another way to build a private library in this genre without trying to buy over 8000 titles a year is to focus on a sub-genre of the genre, such as:

• mystery or thriller
• exotic locale
• contemporary theme (e.g., AIDS)
• spiritual subplot
• Colonial American or other historical setting
• paranormal theme
• scifi theme

The genre's critics notwithstanding, the cover art of romance novels, among other distinguishing features, is extremely "attractive" to scholars of book publishing, for reasons we'll examine tomorrow....

Collecting The Private Library

We have examined several ways to create an infrastructure (shelving, furniture and the like) for your private library. We have examined multiple ways to obtain books as inexpensively as possible for your private library. We have noted the distinction between accumulating books for your private library vs. collecting books for your private library. We have noted that the ultimate disposition of your library will garner far more interest from far more people if you build your private library as a collection rather than as an accumulation. And we have suggested that, in the end, you should ignore everyone else's opinion and buy what you please.

Now we're going to circle back a bit, because we want to nip in the bud any idea that a collection of books is necessarily going to be more expensive than an accumulation of books. All things being equal, if a collection costs about the same or (the shock! the horror!) even less than an accumulation of books, and if collections generally garner a lot more interest from a lot more people when you (or your heirs) finally dispose of your private library, why not go the collection route....?

As the various student book collecting competitions around the USA indicate, a very nice collection can be put together for very little money. Having observed these competitions for a number of years, I have found, time and again, that the key to creating a great collection for very little money is to collect materials that other people don't.

Example: the top three prize winners in the graduate division of the recent University of Alabama competition were:

1. the "Grrrl Zine Collection,” which "studies the role of 'zines' in punk rock feminist movements of the 1990s"
2. a collection "studying antebellum architecture and the author’s family roots in Natchez, Miss."
3. a collection "which featured experimental books, chapbooks, magazines and journals"

The undergraduate winner of the same competition won with a collection that "traces the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and ’60s."

What interests you?  A collection that has something to do with your occupation? Or a beloved avocation? Something, perhaps, that "the critics" routinely dismiss?  Whatever it is, if few other people appear to be collecting the types of books in which you're interested, you can easily build a formidable private library with very little money.

We are going to examine this concept in considerable detail over the next few posts.  We will focus on three very different types of collections that can be built for very little money.  One collection will involve a genre that gets very little respect from critics.  Another will involve a subject that most folks likely would find to be a bit obscure.  And the third will involve books that most folks probably think are well out of their price range, but aren't....if you use the tips and strategies we've outlined thus far.

It's unlikely that this approach will enable you to build a private library akin to the Long Room at Trinity College Library in Dublin (home to the Book of Kells), but it's a start....     :-)

Publishers' Clearances & The Private Library

A sharp-eyed subscriber has reminded me that, before we get too far into auctions that often are beyond the reach of the average collector, it might be wise to examine one often overlooked source of reasonably priced books...publishers' clearances.

Publishers' clearances occupy a niche somewhere between full retail price and remainder pricing.  Such clearances are, in fact, why many titles never get remaindered: clearances allow publishers to dispose of their overstocked titles without having to go the remainder route.

Among publishers' clearances that we are particularly fond of (because of the very high quality of the titles on offer) are those of academic publishers like Oxford University Press:

We also are fond of the clearances held by smaller academic and university publishers, such as the University of Akron Press:

The point to keep in mind about these clearances is not that you will get the lowest possible price (as you likely would with a remainder house), but you will get a very reasonable price (akin to what you might get using a coupon at a bigbox retailer).  Reason enough to get on the email list of such publishers....

eBay & The Private Library

We have looked at several ways to begin building your private library: gifts from friends & relatives; inexpensive purchases at garage & yard sales, library & Friends of the Library book sales, bigbox retailers and professional independent booksellers.  We have seen how the latter two sources can be "comparison shopped" using a number of different bookish search engines.  Today, we look at another major source of book purchases...the book auction:

Book auctions have been around for hundreds of years. But until recently, such auctions were largely the province of booksellers and advanced collectors.  The advent of eBay and related sites has democratized the auction world, and now anyone who thinks they have anything worthwhile can put their item(s) up for auction and see if anyone else agrees with them.

Because the folks who sell on eBay often are not professional booksellers, their descriptions as to the condition of the books they have on offer can be...a bit optimistic!  As a subscriber noted in a comment to a recent post, "grading is often questionable."

This subscriber was speaking of a book she purchased from a seller on Amazon, but it applies equally to any source that is not a professional independent bookseller or reputable bigbox retailer.  If an IOBA, ABAA or ILAB member says a book is Fine, that term has a very specific meaning.  When a member dealer ships your book to you, they will package your book to insure that it arrives in the same condition it was in when it left their shelves.  (For a look at how books should be packed & shipped, click here).  As to all others...caveat emptor!

Tomorrow we will look at the world of professional book auctions....

Bigbox Retailers & The Private Library

We begin today's post by extending our sincere thanks to Blogville for designating this blog an Editor's Choice.  There are hundreds of thousands of blogs out there.  For a major search engine like Blogville to pay attention to such a young blog (we began this blog on 29 March 2009) is very gratifying....

Attention is precisely what independent booksellers have not been getting much of since the rise of bigbox retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

These retailers purchase titles in enormous volume, and they use this purchasing power to ruthlessly negotiate price points with publishers.  End result: bigbox retailers consistently undersell independent booksellers.  This is great for consumers (at least in terms of price), not so great for independent booksellers.

Which is why a lot of independent booksellers have moved away from stocking "everyday" titles.  Instead, they focus on specialized genres, out-of-print titles or antiquarian books, areas where it's much more difficult for bigbox retailers to gain an advantage.  (Although bigbox retailers take advantage of this as well.  Both Amazon and Barnes & Noble allow independent booksellers to set up storefronts on their sites, and Amazon--as noted in yesterday's post--owns both ABEbooks and Bookfinder.)

That said, if price is your major concern in building your private library, the bigbox retailers definitely will well repay your attention to what they have to offer.

Which is why you should be aware of sites like BestBookBuys and AddAll, which allow you to "comparison shop" for the best deals among bigbox retailers.  You can sort these deals by total price (including shipping), determine whether a title is in stock, get an approximation of shipping time, etc.  Depending on the search engine, you also can search out-of-print titles, sign up for a book club, or use coupons.

Coupons, which are available with membership at several bigbox retailers (Barnes & Noble, Borders/Walden Books, etc.) can save you as much as 40% per title, more if the retailer allows the coupon to be used in addition to any other discounts. 

Book clubs deserve a post of their own...tomorrow.

Browsing the Online Aisles to Stock Your Private Library

As you will have seen from yesterday's post, many independent booksellers have a strong online presence.  This is an  additional sales venue for those independent booksellers who still have a brick & mortar presence, and a lifeline for those who don't.  While the great joy of a serendipitous discovery is greatly reduced by the closing of so many brick & mortar bookshops, this is offset somewhat by easy access to the enormous variety of titles available online:

Many independent booksellers have their own websites, with a built-in mechanism that allows you to search their inventory and place an order online.  Many of these same booksellers also make their inventory available through various online consortia, such as ABEbooks--formerly Advanced Book Exchange & now wholly owned by Amazon, Bookfinder (also owned by Amazon) and TomFolio (owned by a consortium of independent booksellers).

Our favorite way to search the inventory of independent booksellers, though, is through viaLibri, which not only searches individual bookseller websites, but also several consortia similar to those mentioned above (e.g., Maremagnum, Bibliopoly, Antiqbook, etc.).

Tomorrow, we will look at a few ways to use the bigbox retailers to your advantage....

Independent Booksellers and the Private Library

We suggested in yesterday's post that an excellent way to begin filling the shelves of your private library is to visit your local neighborhood independent bookseller.

"Wait a minute!," we can hear many of you mumbling under your breath...the independent bookseller is dead, or close to it, done in by Amazon and bigbox retailers like Barnes & Noble.  Right?!

As Mark Twain once observed, "the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."  To be sure, independent booksellers worldwide have shuttered their brick & mortar operations in distressingly high numbers.  But many of the dealers are still out there, not dead but transformed. They now cater to very select clients interested in very specific genres, for example, or they have moved their bookselling operations completely online, often as part of a consortium of like-minded booksellers. 

Their operations have been transformed, but their professionalism remains.  And here's where you will find many of them:

1. American Booksellers Association
2. Antiquarian Booksellers Association (UK)
3. Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America
   
4. Antiquarian Booksellers Association of Canada
5. The Booksellers Association (UK)
6. Independent Online Booksellers Association
7. International League of Antiquarian Booksellers

Designing & Building Your Private Library

Apparently yesterday's post touched a nerve.  So we have listed below some additional websites that you might wish to investigate as you prepare to design & build your home library.  These are in no particular order:

1. How to Design a Home Library (eHow Home & Garden)
2. Custom Home Libraries (JWP)
3. Custom Library Furniture (Manhattan Cabinetry)

Remember, much of this is overkill for someone just beginning a home library.  And unless your design includes environmental controls to deal with the condition problems covered in yesterday's post, you could well wind up with a gorgeous space filled with execrable books.

To see how "the woman who got America reading" curls up with a good book, click here.

Special Considerations in Building Your Private Library

Given the choice, which would you rather have...a hardback book missing pieces of the spine, the dustjacket and one or more pages that have been dogeared too frequently...or a Fine copy of the same book, with crisp, pristine pages, a straight and unsunned spine, and a bright, completely intact dustjacket?

Most folks, understandably enough, would opt for the latter.  So would most scholars and the marketplace. But to insure that such condition is a commonplace in your home library, you need--when designing & planning your private library--to give a bit of thought to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune to which books are prone.

Humidity, for example. If you live in a very humid environment (such as the southeastern U.S.), you easily could wind up with a private library of moldy, mildewed books...unless proper preventative care is taken.

Do you live on the West Coast of the U.S. or along the Pacific Rim (Japan, for example)?  Welcome to earthquake country! Earthquakes are great for cocking spines or, worse, tossing every book you own into a massive, undifferentiated pile.  Unless proper preventative care is taken.

Is your private library going to have bookshelves exposed to direct sunlight?  Kiss your bright dustjackets and gilt-lettered spines goodbye! As anyone who has ever paid much attention to billboards or outdoor signage knows, direct sunlight fades colors quicker than just about anything. Do your books a favor...keep 'em in the dark!  (Semi-dark also works, but--at the very least--out of direct sunlight.)

Wondering why the spine tops of your books look like someone has mashed 'em down?  Consider how you take your books off the shelves...finger(s) to top of spine, pull firmly?  Your book will survive in much better condition if you push in the books on either side of the book you want, then grasp the book you want firmly by its spinal midsection.

Chipped dustjackets, cocked or sunned spines, loose pages...all can be avoided with proper preventative care....

Taking Your Private Library to the Next Level

We have looked at ways to obtain free books for your private library.

We have looked at ways to obtain books for your private library for less than $1 a day.

We have looked at ways to build the infrastructure of your private library using free or otherwise very inexpensive materials.

We have looked at how, or whether, to organize your private library by examining the differences between an accumulator and a collector.

We have glimpsed a tiny bit of what makes a collection more valuable than an accumulation to scholars and to the marketplace (should you eventually decide to dispose of your collection).

And we have suggested that you should, first and foremost, collect what you please!

We now look at ways to take your private library to the next level.  We start with a look at infrastructure.

Infrastructure includes everything from the shelves you store your books on, to various types of furniture manufactured specifically for libraries, all the way up to designing and planning a specific room or rooms within which to house your books.

The range of furniture crafted primarily for use in home libraries is truly astounding.  And often of superb quality.  Having looked at a lot of companies that manufacture and distribute such furniture (including shelving), we continue to be very impressed with what's on offer at Library Essentials. A half-hour or so spent browsing their very comprehensive website will give you tons of great ideas for your home library (we're lusting after one of the neoclassical revolving bookcase tables shown below):

Don't think their site is all about new and expensive stuff--there's lots about used furniture and breaking down "old stereotypes about [what is acceptable as] library furniture."

You also might want to spend some time with Brodart, which supplies institutional libraries and booksellers, as well as private individuals, with everything from books to furniture to library automation.  This is an especially good company to explore in depth if you have the bucks to design and create a specific room or rooms within which to house your private library.

And if you are indeed going the latter route, while there certainly are lots of such plans readily available on the Internet (here, for example, or here or here), most folks probably would prefer to speak with a local architect to insure that their own personal ideas about such a home library are fully realized....

Building a Better Private Library

11 Glossaries, 27 Selected Bibliographic Resources, 53 Blogs, 61 Podcasts & Webcasts, 101 Organizations...there is a lot going on at this blog in addition to the daily post!

The reason for gathering all these resources is that most blogs that are not about sex or sports die aborning if they have nothing more to offer than posts.  Thus, this blog is deliberately setting out to gather together the most comprehensive set of quality bookish resources ever gathered together online in one place.

You can help.  Here's how:

1. If you are aware of a resource that's been missed, point it out!  There probably are a gadzillion or so great resources that could be made available to folks building their own private library, but no one has managed to track down more than a very small percentage of them.
2. If you are an expert in a particular bookish area--a specific genre of collectible books, for example, or the planning & construction of home libraries--why not post a Guest Editorial on the subject?  It would be good PR for you, and a big helping hand to everyone else!
3. Post a comment! 
4. Rate this blog! Use one or more of the links in the left column to let others know whether or not you find this blog to be useful.
5. Tell your friends!  There are lots of ways to subscribe to this blog, via RSS as well as via email. This blog also is part of Networked Blogs on Facebook.

Tomorrow, we review our journey thus far, and take a further look at the economics of building our home library....

Science Fiction Defeats Fine Press in Evidential Battle!

Unlike fine press productions, science fiction---especially early science fiction--is rarely found in very good shape.  Unless one is collecting science fiction, my experience also has been that little thought is given to completeness, either by author, publishing imprint or any other organizing principle.

There are several reasons why I believe this to be so:

1. SciFi has long been the poor stepchild of literary genres, beloved by its legions of fans but almost universally dissed by "the critics."  You admit that you collect science fiction at your critical peril!
2. Because it's the poor stepchild, scifi traditionally has not been given much respect from publishers.  Though this has begun to change as the collectibility of the genre has slowly begun to be recognized, for decades first-edition science fiction was published either in serial form (such as the recent classic Dune, which first saw life in the magazine Analog) or as a paperback.
3. These paperbacks usually were printed on very acidic paper which disintegrated very rapidly unless the paperback was carefully read (being especially careful not to break the spine) and well protected afterwards (in a moderate environment so as not to hasten disintegration of the paper).
4. Under these last conditions, one might be able to savor the gorgeous cover art of such paperbacks for a very long time....

Photo by levar

And it's precisely for the reasons outlined above that scholars would be much more interested in a well-preserved, fairly complete  collection of scifi paperbacks than they would be in a collection of random fine press titles.  The survivability of scifi paperbacks in organized, near-pristine condition is not something that scholars of the book ever routinely encounter....

 

 

The Private Library as "Fresh Evidence"

I tend to think of descriptive bibliographers and historians of the book as the CSI teams of the book world.  It's their job to look at books and try to figure out "who did it," "how did they do it" and "what impact did it have?"  In other words, what is the publishing history of particular titles and how were those titles received in the cultures within which they were published?

It should be obvious from our previous posts that the melange of used paperbacks and hardbacks described in our last post would be of little interest to scholars.  The evidence offered by such a melange is too scattered, and in too poor a condition, to let scholars draw any definitive conclusions.  So the real evidential contest is between our selection of individual fine press titles and a fairly comprehensive collection of scifi paperbacks in near pristine condition.  Let's look at each of these in turn....

Is there anything in the book world more beautiful than a finely printed, finely bound book?  The handmade paper...the exquisite printing from hot metal type (or, what is more likely nowadays, photopolymer plates)...the magnificent binding of hand-marbled paper or artistically layered leather....

 

Photo Copyright Martyn Ould 2006

Because the materials and labor involved in fine press productions are so costly, such books tend to be better preserved by their fortunate owners than other types of books.  Even saying that the edition of a particular title was limited to 100 copies is a bit misleading, since better preservation means that most copies of that title are likely to survive in Very Good or better condition. 

This is but another way of saying that while a collection of individual fine press titles may be of some interest to scholars (e.g., as an overview of what was available during a particular time period or from a particular geographic region), scholars would not necessarily need your collection to draw those sorts of conclusions.

A near-pristine collection of science fiction paperbacks, though...now that definitely would get our scholars attention!  Tomorrow, we'll look at some of the reasons why....

The Curious Case for Collections

I had strongly suspected that one or more subscribers might take umbrage at my dismissal of a collection as the exemplar par excellence of a private library.  Since no one did, I will take umbrage at it myself!

While one can easily dismiss the economic posturing that surrounds the emphasis on condition and focus in building a private library, it is much more difficult to dismiss the very real impact that these two "holy grails" of book collecting have on the value of a private library to scholars.

Scholars advance scholarship by collecting and evaluating various types of evidence.  Scholars who work in fields like descriptive bibliography, for example, collect and evaluate evidence such as the type of paper on which a particular book was printed, the typography chosen to print such book, the sequence in which the pages of the book were printed, the material chosen to bind the book, and so forth.

While very little definitive evidence can be gleaned from a single copy of a particular book, multiple copies of the same book provide scholars with a much stronger basis for drawing conclusions about the publishing history of a particular work.  That is why collections, such as that of The Folger Library, which focus on multiple copies of a single title (in the Folger's case, Shakespeare's First Folio) are so important to scholars.

But it's not just multiple copies of a particular title which are useful to scholars.  Consider the following three collections:

1. A collection of fine press publications, printed on handmade paper using hot metal type, bound in full Niger goatskin or similar materials, with no title having been produced in more than 100 copies.
2. A collection of paperback science fiction novels, complete for most major science fiction authors, in virtually pristine condition.
3. A melange of paperback and hardback novels, spanning several different genres, in average used condition.

Which of these three collections do you think most scholars would find most valuable...?

Collection or Accumulation, It's Still A Private Library!

By your own admission, you are the type who buys whatever book or books appeal to you at the time: a paperback romance, perhaps, along with the latest critically acclaimed biography, a pop-up book for your youngest child and a really nice hardbound translation of some forgotten Chinese classic.  If you have set aside a special little place in your home to store these books, you have a private library:

Many of my friends and colleagues in the publishing, bookselling, library and book collecting communities--you know who you are!--have done the concept of the private library, and book collecting in general, a great disservice by continually harping about focus and condition.  Not every reader on the planet is interested in, or can afford, a room full of custom-crafted mahogany shelves upon which sit endless rows of first edition, first printings of [fill in your favorite author], all in pristine condition (both book, and more importantly nowadays, dustjacket).

A lot of folks prefer a less expensive, more haphazard approach to building their private library, an effort that book lovers everywhere should endorse just as enthusiastically as they embrace the costly, decades-long, very focused efforts of people like J.P. Morgan or Henry Huntington.

Especially when one is just beginning to put together a private library, it is difficult to know what, if anything, one wants to focus upon.  As time passes, I suspect most folks alternate between accumulator and collector, with some portion of their books having a specific focus, while the remaining portion is a mishmash of whatever has recently struck their fancy.  I have put together, or have helped put together, numerous private libraries in my four+ decades of active involvement with books, and the highly focused collection has, in my experience, more often proved the exception than the rule.  Which is why such collections always make the news when they are sold or are transferred to institutional safekeeping.

Having said all this, there is no doubt that a well-focused collection, in the best possible condition, will always prove a more valuable asset than a melange of mixed condition paperbacks and hardbacks.  Other collectors will lust to acquire your private library (should you choose to focus your book collecting efforts in this direction), as will major scholarly institutions.  No doubt your name will be writ large in Posterity's hall of book collecting fame.

But this is an observation about the marketplace; it is not an aesthetic statement.  Collect what you damn well please, and to hell with the naysayers!

Organizing Your Private Library

You have by now managed to acquire some books, free or at low-cost.

You have the beginnings of an infrastructure in, or on, which to store your books.

What next?

This simple question will consume many, many years of posts and comments!

Your answer(s)--which likely will change as time passes--will determine whether you are, at heart, an accumulator or a collector.

Either way, you are the proud possessor of a private library, as the difference between the two has no real concern with what makes you happy.  The difference in direction, though, makes an enormous difference in how you or your heirs eventually dispose of your private library.

I had plans to write a really long & detailed explanation of why the above is so, but someone at Wikipedia beat me to it, and actually did a very nice job of it.  I strongly encourage you to read this article in full, as its precepts are ones that we will return to time and again.

Also, you might want to peruse this article by Allen and Patricia Ahearn, who have written several books on the subject,....

So, where the ____ are you gonna put all those ____books?! Part III

In order to answer the title question, we need to resolve two important issues:

1. Where and how do we physically store our books?
2. How (or do) we organize our books?

For centuries before the book took form as a codex, it was rolled up and stored as a scroll.  In fact, up until the very recent past the scroll still was the form in which books most often were encountered throughout Asia.  As you might imagine, scrolls usually are stored quite differently from the way in which we in the West store our codices.

Although we now prefer our books on sturdy shelves, standing upright, with the spines facing us so we can see the titles printed thereon, 'twas not always so.  You will remember from our last post that the codex in Western Europe, prior to the invention of moveable metal type, was produced by hand, a laborious process of several years duration.  Because this process was so expensive, the books produced were so valuable that they often were stored in locked chests, in locked cupboards or chained to desks or shelves. 

After the introduction of printing from moveable metal type, books finally could be produced in sufficient quantities to

1. insure an increasingly literate population
2. that eventually would desire books for home consumption
3. that eventually would need inexpensive ways to store such books

No one knows who first thought of using empty milk crates and cast-off wooden planks to engineer inexpensive bookshelves, but there have been myriad variations on the theme, such as cinder blocks and planks or repetitively stacked milk crates and similar empty containers.  For an engaging look at some simple book storage solutions, as well as some very creative gadgetry for your home library, we suggest a visit to Kimbooktu, a fellow bookish blog that should be on the blogroll of anyone creating a private library.  And to see the results of some of the suggestions therein, be sure to visit Kimbooktu's sister blog, Your Shelves!....

So, where the ____ are you gonna put all those ____books?! Part II

For over a millenium after the invention of the codex around 400 CE, finding a place to store one's books wasn't much of a problem. 

First of all, most people were illiterate.  The few people who were literate--mostly priests and assorted  members of the "upper classes"--owned very few books.  That's because all books were produced by hand, one copy at a time, a process that often took several years.  It wasn't until the invention of movable metal type (a subject of continuing controversy) that books could be easily and inexpensively reproduced.  In Western Europe, this invention fueled the rise of the university as well as the Protestant Reformation, historic processes that eventually would lead to widespread literacy and the dissemination of books to the masses.

So, being a literate member of the masses, what's next?  Maybe start with these...

 

to get to this....or this...?

So, where the ____ are you gonna put all those ____books?! Part I

It is the hour before dawn.

You pad softly down the hallway into your private library, where you settle into your favorite chair by the fireplace.  You switch on the lamp that sits on the table next to your chair. The fire is out, but no matter...your family will awaken shortly, and you have but a precious hour or so to enjoy one of the volumes you have collected so assiduously over the years.

Your golden retriever, Rex, settles by your feet.  Life is good.

Rex is 18 years old, and in poor health.  Which is why he promptly throws up all over your slipper....

Well, this was a fantasy!  After all, we just spent the previous four posts trying to find a few really cheap books with which to begin building our library.  We can hardly expect to immediately shelve those treasures on custom-crafted mahogany shelves.

Baby steps....

So, we will spend the next few posts looking at how best to put together the infrastructure of our nascent private library.  If you have an idea or two how best to proceed, drop us a line.

When I was much, much younger, and doing a lot of traveling, I stashed my books in a well-worn backpack under whatever bed I happened to be sleeping on.  But since we want a more permanent abode for our budding book collection, I think maybe...milk crates and planks...?

How to Build a Private Library for Less Than $1 a Day: Guest Editorial

Here are a couple of other great suggestions-one for building your private library, the other for getting rid of books you no longer need--from Chris Fuccione, who writes:

• Every area has a Freecycle group that lets members post items that they want to give away and also members that are looking for certain items for free. This is the main website [where] you can do a search for your area. http://www.freecycle.org/
• If you live in the Boston or Southern New Hampshire area there is a company called Got Books? where they have people donate books and then they sell them at their two locations in Wakefield and Danvers, MA.  All proceeds go to area nonprofits. Here is their website: http://www.gotbooks.com/.

How to Build a Private Library for Less Than $1 a Day: Part IV

A sharp-eyed subscriber has reminded me that the "Free Books" sign at your local library could just as easily have been placed by a Friends of the Library group as by the library itself.  Which is a nice segue into today's topic...the Library, or the Friends of the Library, book sale:

 

This is what happens when a library has an active Friends group, which provides the library with financial support that the library should be getting from local government but usually isn't.

The library's friends donate a bunch of books, the library deaccessions books that it no longer needs but does not want to just give away for free, and it's all put up for sale to the general public.

There are literally hundreds and hundreds of these sales held every year: click here to see if there is one about to be held in your area.

In the old days (aka pre-Internet), it was difficult for libraries and their friends' groups to have a good idea about how to value these volumes, unless a local bookseller was willing to donate his or her time for the purpose.  Nowadays, of course, a click of the mouse allows both the libraries and their friends' groups to get a pretty fair idea of pricing very quickly.  Where these nice folks sometimes unintentionally go astray is in pricing their volumes at a Fine price when in fact the book is only in Good condition.  Moral: you can find some great deals at these sales, but you can just as easily find volumes that you could have bought less expensively elsewhere....