Calling all Book Collectors - What have you got? What are you hunting for?

FillyjonktheSnibbet - We could be kindred spirits. I love the Fillyjonk! If I were you, I'd learn Swedish instead, it's much easier. I believe all T.J.books are available in Swedish, possibly published in Swedish before Finnish. Not that my Swedish is up to the required standard yet...

Fillyjonk, what about \link{http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sculptors-Daughter-Tove-Jansson-1st-HB-1969-Benn_W0QQitemZ7026067741QQcategoryZ29182QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem\this one?}

(you may want to sit down and fetch yourself a stiff drink first)

Bagelbird, could it be \link{http://217.115.192.61/books/bookinfo.phtml?nr=235164413\this one?}

Ooh, ABE is a bit steep, Fillyjonk. Have you got it on search at eBay? I reckon you could get it for cheaper on there if you were patient.

Yes maybe ask some Finn first if it is any good. It would be a bit galling to shell out and then find it a bit mediocre :)

Bagelbird, if you give me the author's name I will put it on my list of books to look out for. I have a few 'contacts' in the business and have occasionally been able to help people out before.

I have a book I have spent a decade searching for called "The Adventures of a Teddy Bear", I have the author’s name somewhere, a woman, and it is from my childhood. Full of wonderful pictures of people and fairies the teddy meets on his travel. It was my dad’s book and he used to read it to me as a child. I trashed it when I was little and would love to buy him a mint condition copy of it with al the beautiful colour illustrations as I know how much it meant to him (he lost almost all his childhood toys/photos etc at the start of the war when family fled the country).
I have tried numerous internet book searches and have only come close once - a very expensive 2nd edition in Australia..
Still hunting...

Franny I have seriously contemplated learning Finnish just to read that autobiography.

Not sure why I want to read it so much...

They're ABEing for £150...

this thread has sent me scurrying off round google - \link{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Lang's_Fairy_Books\this} is what i'd like to collect. my mum has some really old ones, far too decrepit (and precious i suppose) for reading now. i think every child should read at least the blue book - can't wait till ds ready for proper stories.

I have phases for collecting but have just spent a fortune on GGB reprints

But busybee, for what reason are you collecting? To make money? To impress other collectors? Or to find beautiful books that you can cherish and enjoy?

If the latter, it doesn't matter what edition or state it is in, as long as you like it. Just enjoy your books :)

I adore books,they are my absolute passion and willhappily go without shoes,clothes and girly stuff to add to the overstuffed bookshelves.
Used to collect beautiful victorian hardbacks but now am stocking up on the old matt ladybird and enid blytons that I so treasured as a child for my little boy.He has inherited my love of books and is a real little book worm.I love bedtimes..snuggling up with a big pile of scrummy favourites!!!
Charity shops are great hunting grounds as are car boots.

Goodness, I don't read the first editions ! I have crappy paperbacks to drop in the bath for that purpose.

They're my savings account, hopefully with a better interest rate than the bank. Listen to me, sounding all mercenary...

So does anybody know what else Tove Jansson wrote apart from the Moomin books and the Summer Book (that has been printed in English!)?

I don't do first editions either, mainly because I can't afford to . I just like having the books to read so I'm an amateur too!

Fantastic thread. Right up my street.

Collect C.S. Lewis books (of all genres) and still desperately trying to put together a shockingly expensive collection of his Narnia firsts (btw, this was an obsession before the film, not inspired by it). Anyone who has anything to do with Narnia in written format that they want to get rid of (not just paperback reprints but interesting stuf IYKWIM) please throw it my way! I would love to get my hands on the Narnia Cookbook, but alas, no-one wants to sell it to me.

An aspirational 'collection' (currently very small) of children's firsts - am hoping to get a copy of EB White's Charlotte's Web very soon and also investing in modern children's illustrators.

Also got a good selection of F. Scott Fitzgerald and more cookery books than I know what to do with

I am looking for tatty nancy drews for dd to read.

Yes - I get newsletters from a great company called TopsyTurvey so have been aware of the GGB reprints. I already had a couple of them so will be on the lookout for any more. Interesting how many Astrid Lindgren fans there are. She was one of my childhood favourites and I would love to get hold of some for the dds but I've never seen any about.

Fillyjonk, I have seen a copy of Tove's autobiography, but missed out on buying it :(

Chalet School a wonderful series to collect :)

Have you bought \link{http://www.ggbp.co.uk/Titles/inPrint/ebd.html\the Girls Gone By reprints?}

tove jansson, am desperate for her autobiography in english. (she wrote the moomin books featuring the original fillyjonk)

Anna Cath Vestey (the Aurora books, a deeply pc series about a norwegian girl living in a tower block with her brother and SAHD. Actually really well written)

Astrid Lingren also, but am really just starting there.

Busybee, \link{http://www.grandmasgraphics.com/clarke3.htm\this} is the illustrator I adore

The Chalet School series Franny. Started collecting them as a kid when I picked one up at a jumble sale. I have some Antonia Forest and Noel Streatfield too. Am looking forward to reading them to dd1 soon. I also have all the Swallows and Amazons ones of which I'm quite proud. My grown up collection is African writers.

Chalet school books. I used to read these as a kid and started collecting for when dd1 is old enough.
Apart from that I read (and collect ) almost any thing!

Which series, Kate?

Did anyone here go to the Antonia Forest conference? I would love to hear what it was like. :)