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

[busybusybee]

I have a heap of kids books that are starting to become a family collection!

Just wondering what sort of books other MN collect!!!!

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

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.

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...

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...

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.

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

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)

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...

thank christ I had a bar of green & blacks in my hand before I clicked that link, franny.

Ebay is a good idea though, will stick it on my watch list.

Ah yes, and if you know Swedish you also know Norwegian, yes?

Not that I've holidayed extensively in Scandianvia on numerous occasions in order to soak up that Moomin feeling, you understand.

And from that I have learnt the following vocab:

Hej.

hang on...if I buy the ABE one, maybe I can sell it on ebay for 800% profit!

Like lighting I am

Mycket bra Fillyjonk, hej is a good start!

I must admit I was sort of hoping BagelBird would have come back and sworn undying gratitude to me for finding her book by now

I'm watching the one on ebay, but I don't think it will sell. Perhaps we should lobby Sort Of Books - they published the Summer Book so they might republish more if the demand is there.

Hej , azroc!

Yeah, lets get on to Sort of books. The Summer Book is amazing, so gentle and yet powerful, I have had to kidnap my mum's copy. It sums up the grandmother/grandchild relationship really well, I think. They need to republish it! They're republishing the Moomin books, I think. I wonder why she stopped doing proper illustrated books?

Hej, kateF, didn't see your post, ASAIK the Pippi Longstocking books are pretty widely avalible, on Amazon marketplace/ABE if nowhere else, the Bullerby children books are replublished in the UK/US as The noisy village children books. The illustrations are the same but for some reason they have changed the boys names! Karlsson on the Roof seems hard to find. . I think the last are great books for a little boy.

Its really interesting to see what other people collect - None of you seem to hunt for the types of books I look for - which is strangely nice!!!!

Hi - I dont really collect books per se, but I do love them.

Have spent quite a few years trying to find a book I loved in my childhood - in fact it was my absolute favourite, and I memorised all the words back then!! It is called Tootles the Taxi, unfortunately it went out of print and I have not been able to find it Think my Mum gave it away years ago, with all of my much loved Molly Brett Books .

Brownie

\link{http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/detail/offer-listing/-/0721408184/used/ref=sdp_usedb/202-0548513-2519827\Tootles the Taxi}

KateF - I have managed to get the Pippi books, The Brothers Lionheart, Rasmus and the Vagabond, Mio My Son, Karlsson on the Roof, Karlsson Flies Again, the Confidences of Britt-Marie Hagstrom, a couple of Emil books, Mardie (Madicken in Swedish), and a Bullerby book on ebay. I think that's all... The Karlssons were fairly expensive but not as much as The World's Best Karlsson which someone occasionally tries to sell for about £80! (I think ABE books have it for about £300!). Still looking for Nils Karlsson-Pyssling which I think was published in English as Simon Small - I have never seen this. Of course if you are fluent in Swedish or German you will have no trouble.

Two Fillyjonks, what fun! There is just something so magical about Tove Jansson's books, isn't there? The dear characters who you start to love as a child, and whose depth you only appreciate when you are older. Let's start a republish campaign - we need to read her other books. I believe there are several written for adults. We could enlist as many people as possible and then all contact the publishers in the same week.

3 Fillyjonks now...

Yes lets declatre Tove Jansson week.

I was assuming all the Fillyjonks were you, Fillyjonk?

sorry, am i speaking here to frannyandzooey, frannysmith, or the eater of quinoa?

it gets sooooooo confusing, I find

I want first edition of any of Conan Doyle's books. Also first edition of his books printed in a foreign language.