I have about 3-400 paperbacks, mostly SF and space opera, some horror.
The bulk of it though, is old, old books. I started collecting at garage sales and second hand stores, and the main criteria was age and authors. I tried not to get anything newer than 1940, and after I was going for a while, and started running out of room, I limited it to nothing newer than 1900. Unfortunately, books that old are seldom in very good shape. Not pretty to look at, but I love em anyways.
I think my oldest is an Arlington Press copy of the Pickwick Papers, which I estimate at around 1840-1860. There's a copy of the Complete Poetical Works of Byron which doesn't have a date, either and so should also be around mid-late-1800's.
I do have a nice set of 10 of Kipling's works from 1880 that was one of a limited set of 1000 (Edinburgh Press), but it's not a very good printing. The signatures weren't even cut through on two sides. I am also ticked because it doesn't include The Jungle Book, and so I think there may have been at least one more volume, but I couldn't find it. |
