your unique books

Post Reply New Topic

I take pride in my unusual collection of books.

Name up to 5 books on your bookshelves that no one else you know has, and you doubt anyone else here would have.

Here are mine:
1) The British/American Language Dictionary (by Norman Moss)
2) The Pessimist's Guide to History (by Stuart and Doris Flexner)
3) Handbook of Unusual Natural Phenomena (by William R. Corliss)
4) Ancient Inventions (by Peter James & Nick Thorpe)
5) The Dictionary of Imaginary Places (by Alberto Manguel & Gianni Guadalupi)

Eccentric and Bizarre Behaviours

The Prophet * Kahlil Gibran

Be Here Now * Baba Ram Dass

Are You Getting Enlightened or Losing Your Mind? * Dennis Gersten, M.D.

The Invisible Partners ~ John A Sandford
Fate, Love & Ecstasy ~ "
The Fisher King & the Handless Maiden ~ Robert Johnson
Aion ~ Carl Jung
Transformation of the God-Image ~ Edward Edinger

"Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds."

But...

All the books I possess (around a thousand, maybe more) were printed at least in the thousands of copies, often tens of thousands, so I doubt that I've acquired any book that somebody else doesn't have.

The most rare would probably be a hand-stitched Japanese-style book by Paul Reps, published before he became well known, called "Big Bath." Zen Buddhism had not yet become a commodity. I don't imagine there are more than a few hundreds of those extant.

Gnomes

First edition of "The History of Philosophy" by William Durant

First edition of "T.H. Huxley's Diary Of The Voyage Of H.M.S. Rattlesnake" by Julian Huxley.

I'm sure that other people have these books somewhere but they are not exactly common:

1. Signed 4th ( ) edition copy of The Contemporary American Organ by William H. Barnes -- A relic of my days being obsessed with Pipe Organs.

2. When Eve Was Naked by Josef Škvorecký -- A really interesting collection of short stories by Czech author mostly relating his experiences of WW2.

3. The Fencing Master by Arturo Pérez-Reverte -- Signed first English edition. He writes Spanish thrillers that make Dan Brown look like a talentless hack.

4. Extremities by W.M. Mastrosimone -- a play about a man attempting a to rape a woman, she fights him off, and then tortures him. It has fascinating and well drawn characters. I would direct it but I think that me directing the rape scene would be very awkward for the actor and actress.

5. The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd -- he is more well know for his graphic design but this novel he wrote is very clever and has a lot to say about art.

"Niler" by R. J. Edwards

I take pride in my dragon books.

UK First Edition Paperback Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban.

Worth about £100 now but i'm not gonna sell it. It's hard to let things like that go.

"The Way Of The Sacred" by Francis Huxley - first edition.