My Secret Vice

[Kuruharan]

I actually reassembled them and bound them with duct tape; I technically still have them

You should have used clear plastic tape. It’s so much better in that you can still see the cover and stuff.

Not, of course, that I would know about such things from personal experience.

I must admit I own a copy of The Fellowship of the Ring that could charitably be described as "tattered" (or rather more accurately "destroyed").

You can still read it if you hold it together just right.

[Mithadan]

Alatar, a good place to look for Tolkien collectibles is at the sales libraries sometimes hold to get rid of old books. That's where I picked up a 1st edition of the Hobbit (in rather poor shape).

[Mnemosyne]

Originally Posted by Mithadan

Alatar, a good place to look for Tolkien collectibles is at the sales libraries sometimes hold to get rid of old books. That's where I picked up a 1st edition of the Hobbit (in rather poor shape).

This is especially true for The Hobbit in America now, at least if there are any beautiful old illustrated versions. In a classic case of the road to Angband being paved with good intentions/the pesky government muddling its hands in other people's business people are no longer allowed to sell (I forget if there's a policy on libraries or not) books with illustrations made with lead paint--which, I should add, has never caused lead poisoning in children (unlike houses with paint in convenient bite-sized peelable chunks), all because of that scare of lead-painted toys coming from China a while back. The law wasn't made to cover books, but it has, which means thrift stores everywhere are pitching their old illustrated books. I should hope that old The Hobbits are recognized as collectibles, though--the one loophole in the bill that means saving old books.

For me, though I'm not terribly keen on getting newer and newer editions of LotR (I have my one-volume beaten up/annotated by self copy and my Red Red Book for prettiness' sake), I do get rather obsessive when I find odd-looking copies in used bookstores (the more beat-up, the better). It's not so much a sense of packrattishness as it is the delusion I hold of "liberating" these neglected books from their slow, unreadable decay. If they're especially odd (i.e., getting a UK edition from a used bookstore when LotR was still published by a company with the name "Unwin" in it) I'll hold onto them; otherwise I try to keep them as "I don't particularly care if you return them or not" loaners as I try to corrupt more people into the goodness that is Tolkien.

[Mithalwen]

I am a hoarder (though I am currently trying to declutter and am trying to reform - I used to keep everything, every last bank statement, photograph, card, letter and Christmas card, the sweaters that my gran knitted me etc now I am relatively ruthless - pass on read paperbacks unless I really love them, and the day I got a shredder and blitzed everything that had passed the seven year limit - well I could easily have mocked up a set for a reenactment of the Fell winter but I am not particularly emotional about my Tolkien books as artefacts though as works they are precious. As long as I could replace them I am happy..I am a bit protective of The road goes ever on because I had to wait so long to get it and I am careful of my radio series tapes because the new version has been rejigged but otherwise I covet hard backs simply because the paperbacks are rather fragile for the use I give them. Although they look and feel nice a hard back can be rather awkward to read unless you are sitting at a desk.

However I bought a deluxe COH and wrapped it in tissue paper to read it to avoid any risk of paw marks so that slightly backfired. I suppose if I had unlimited space and money I would but in a small house already full of inherited mathoms I try to restrain my own collecting - multiple copies of books when the cases are already double stacked would be rather decadent and if we are going decadent and the money were available then I am not sure that a special edition of a work I already have would win out agains a super handbag or hat or champagne....

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

You should have used clear plastic tape. It’s so much better in that you can still see the cover and stuff.

Problem I've had, even with clear tape, is that the pages within fall out - those that my one daughter hasn't torn.

Originally Posted by Mnemosyne

...books with illustrations made with lead paint--which, I should add, has never caused lead poisoning in children (unlike houses with paint in convenient bite-sized peelable chunks)

Actually, it's purported to be the "lead dust" that it emitted from the walls painted with leaded paint. I too am very thankful that the government has made such an industry of protecting me and mine from lead paint...and yet allows the upwind factory to spew forth all kinds of toxins into both the air and water.

I'll take my chances with the old books.

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

I have an old paperback of LR that I tried to repair with epoxy resin. It didn't work. That book is now bisected at page 492, with Merry and Pippin in Treebeard's house. You can't throw them away, you know.

Don't lie to yourself, Mith; you know they give you pleasure.

My hoard isn't ridiculous yet, since I don't have six copies of the same book. However, I do confess to duplicate copies and volumes I've never read. I've got a first edition and a fiftieth anniversary edition of LR as well as my reading copy and the aforementioned wrecked paperback; an early Silmarillion; two copies of The Hobbit; photocopies of academic articles by Tolkien and everything by or about him that I've been able to afford. I bought the three-volume hard-back of HME and then kept collecting the paperbacks so that I wouldn't have to open it. I've got a first edition of Pictures by JRR Tolkien that I daren't touch any more and a fourth impression of The Road Goes Ever On with sheet music I can't even read. What can you do? They put up this big stall full of books at Oxonmoot: I'm not made of stone.

I think this is all perfectly sensible. It's like a drinker's secret stash of Laphroaig down the back of the sink. You never know when a bizarre train of events will leave you desperately scrabbling through a cupboard looking for a second-edition of Unfinished Tales, or the last copy of Mr. Bliss that you know you haven't lent out. How convenient if there's one in every cupboard.

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by alatar

Problem I've had, even with clear tape, is that the pages within fall out - those that my one daughter hasn't torn.

Hence the necessity for the extremely careful holding.

I only own one set of duplicates. I have two copies of The Hobbit. One of them is the hardback edition with Alan Lee's foggy and washed out illustrations and the other is the one I actually read from because the hardback is so darn big its impossible to actually use. (Does anybody else have this problem with large hardbacks? Not only do you not want to use them, if you try you find that you really can't very well.)

I honestly rather regret getting the hardback, but it does look awfully pretty and pretentious sitting there on my shelf next to the rest of the rabble of my tattered tomes.

[mark12_30]

To use the hardback one should be in a recliner, modestly reclined (not all the way back) with toes toward the glowing woodstove, and a pleasant cup of tea or coffee at hand (or perhaps an iced juice drink if the woodstove has been hot for a quite a while.)

A couch pillow helps to properly align the book.

[Formendacil]

I'm pretty sure you don't have a problem until you start getting duplicated of the HoME.

I have three volumes of The Book of Lost Tales, Vol. I, and two IDENTICAL (down to the printings) copies of The Peoples of Middle-earth--never mind the multiple (and uncounted) LotR volumes.

I'm Formendacil and I'm a libraholic.

[Kuruharan]

Alas, I possesseth not a woodstove...or for that matter a recliner...

I do, however, possess a hardback copy of The Hobbit which mostly spends its life gathering dust.

[Mister Underhill]

Originally Posted by Mnemosyne

(the more beat-up, the better)

That's the ticket, isn't it? It seems right that books by Tolkien of all authors should have that ancient, "lived-in" feeling. My old trade paperback Unfinished Tales is the best in that regard -- it's yellow with age, warped by water damage, dog-eared and bisected by a broken spine. When it's not in use, I wrap a couple of big rubber-bands around it to keep it all together. It has this great mummy-spice smell. All I need are some blood stains and fire damage and it'd be a regular Book of Mazarbul.

I'm pretty utilitarian with books too, though I definitely am a hoarder in general. I'm a utilitarian hoarder, if you can dig it. I hoard things on the premise that I might be able to use this again someday.

I have several copies of LotR and TH, but no editions worth mentioning. The nicest one I have is the big red slipcase monster that a few others have brought up. It's not portable, though, and I can relate to Kuru that it's not very practical even at home. I prefer to read in bed, and when I use that bad boy, I always end up with a long, wicked, front-cover/spine/rear-cover trench embossed into my abdomen because of the sheer weight of the thing. It does look nice on my shelf though.

[TheGreatElvenWarrior]

I admire you people for collecting and reading Tolkien... Is that a bad sign?

The only duplicates that I have are the Tolkien Reader, one came in a boxed set along with the Sil and two other books. My other one, my favourite one is a Tolkien Reader from the 1970's, my grandmother bought it for me from a used books place at the Moose Droppings Festival. The other one is The Two Towers, I also got a hardback, illustrated version of TTT from my grandmother for my birthday this year.

The "Pack Rat" syndrome that most BDers seem to get infected with, I have, I have this strange habit of collecting cardboard boxes, a habit that my parents detest. I think that it is not only part of our human nature (blimey, Doctor Who is starting to take it's toll), but is also an inherited thing. My grandmothers both have this habit, their houses and garages, and storage units are not big enough to keep all of their stuff!

I wish I had more Tolkien books, and read more too!

[Kath]

We do have a number of duplicates in the house because my original reading copies of both The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings were the ones given to my father when he was about 13/14. The Hobbit poor thing has had the worst of the years. About three chapters have fallen out and there are more trying to, as well as random pages that seem to have detached themselves. They are all still within the book but trying to read it in the bath turned out to be a really, really bad idea and some of them are now slightly crinkled. Lord of the Rings is also a little battered. The front cover has fallen off one of the books and there are various pages or corners of pages falling out as well.

For that reason and due to going off to uni we now have three copies of The Hobbit and three copies of Lord of the Rings. Despite that, the only ones I really read are still those original copies ... just not in the bath.