The Book Buying and Collecting Thread (Page 1 of 3)

I don't collect books but I try to get the collector's version of Bond books and the limited editions. There is a Bond folio or something like that version of Casino Royale that I'm getting next. It has new interior artwork and a few other details.

A few of my Bond books:

I have several of the 'Forgotten Voices' books that tell the story of various military campaigns through interviews with veterans, so you get a proper feeling of what it was like. It can be pretty harrowing, comical, heart warming and tragic.

It's a good way to appreciate how fortunate you are.

Sorry, that picture was just purely for illustration purposes. It is not an actual photograph of my book collection. 

My field of interest in book collecting would be spy fiction (and fact), history, war books, Forteana, Law, Politics and Biography.

Just a little update post to say that I mean book buying generally as well as specifically collecting. Please believe me when I say that there's no snobbery here from me!

I've amended the title a little bit to make it more inclusive. Sorry to give off any elitist vibe as that's just not me! 

As do I these days, but on a bond approved sony e-reader 

A period historians have extensively written about.
And the relevant politicians, too. Macmillans 6 Vol. memoirs and Edens 3 Vol. just at the top plus three modern biographies each and Dutton appraisal of Eden. Even middle ranking politicians of this era  tend to get a biography sooner or later. And "Suez" and "Profumo" as cottage industries. A lot to read and collect.

For those who like pulp horror then the books of Guy N Smith are required reading. It was Night Of The Crabs  that made him famous and several sequels continued the saga. Basically giant sized crustaceans invaded the seaside and created terror in their Godzilla like trampling of towns. He also wrote several books of the nature unleashed type with various animals causing mayhem to the public. His first books were of a werewolf and are highly priced on the second hand market today. GNS was a huge seller for me in the day and I could never have enough of his books on my shelves.

In addition to Bond books, my other reading and books collecting interests include:

- World War II novels and true stories, particularly Royal Air Force stories.
- Books on steam locomotives, particularly locomotives of the South African Railways.
- Commando war comics, The Adventures of Tintin and Asterix books
- I've recently started collecting PG Wodehouse books

Here is a picture of my main Bond shelf:

This is what I would describe as the focal point of my Bond collection, the 1960s Pan Paperbacks:

Some hardbacks. A mixture of first editions, book club editions and reprints:

I also have this box of assorted paperbacks, including some of the 1990s Coronet editions which I really like:

These are pretty much all of the Bond novels I have access to at the moment. I also have a complete set of the 2008 Penguin paperbacks with pulp-style cover art, as well as the first 10 paperbacks published in the Penguin Modern Classics range stored at my parents' home.

Brilliant collection, Golrush007, thanks for sharing 

Congeries? You didn't like it when Connery wore them in NSNA!

I'm off on holiday to Florida next month and it has reminded me of author Carl Hiaasen. He has written a score of novels all set in his native Florida. They are full of wicked black humour with glorious characters and fantastic plots. I can recommend all his novels but Lucky Dip and Skinny Dip are my favourites which deal with a lottery winner and a wife thrown off the side of a cruise ship respectively. Striptease was made into a film with Demi Moore and Burt Reynolds but does not do the book justice.