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Discarded delights: The joy of ex-library books (2021)

(www.abebooks.com)
95 points MrVandemar | 1 comments | 20 Nov 24 09:58 UTC | HN request time: 0.221s | source
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sofayam ◴[20 Nov 24 11:37 UTC] No.42192915[source]▶
If you are going to collect books as physical objects, rather than their much more convenient digital versions, then it strikes me you should actually find the signs of previous interactions with that object (library stamps, marks from other readers etc) make them more interesting than pristine copies that no one has read.
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iamacyborg ◴[20 Nov 24 11:45 UTC] No.42192968[source]▶
That runs very much counter to how collectors actually collect books currently. The more pristine the book, the better, aside from particularly rare or valuable inscriptions.
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defrost ◴[20 Nov 24 12:03 UTC] No.42193119[source]▶
The story of a bookseller who made a fortune selling complete libraries to collectors, warts and all:

    Glenn Horowitz built a fortune selling the archives of writers such as Vladimir Nabokov and Alice Walker.
~ https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/10/28/a-controversia...

Different collectors buy different things- some like books owned by specific people, others want works (drafts, letter, editions, etc) of an author.

Pristine is for some, a book that's been lived in is worth more to others who look for margin notes.

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1. iamacyborg ◴[20 Nov 24 13:46 UTC] No.42193891[source]▶
Arguably the “lived in” copies are only notable if they’ve been owned and scribbled in by someone who is themselves notable. There’s no serious demand for books that have been scribbled in by nobodies like myself.