Strategy for collecting books.

[Moonraker]

You should meet up with our other Aussie friend, MJE. It would be a fascinating 'fly on the wall' experience for us!

[Jamie]

     I don't think I've seen any copies with a diagram of the school. Is it accurate? That is, do the details in the map and the details given in the stories agree?

Not a very good scan ( a quick photo taken with my phone), but this is the one that I think chloe 1 was referring to:



There is also the outside illustrtaion:



which bares an uncanny resemblance to Lulworth Castle, in Dorset.

Nice to see a picture for Malory Towers after all these years. I've got to admit though that it isn't how I imagined it, when I read them. My vision had the towers at the cardinal points, in the middle of the sides of the building. What you've essentially got here is two north towers and two south towers. Or to be more exact, one north-east, one north-west, one south-east and one south-west tower.

I was always fascinated by the description of the swimming pool at Malory Towers as being one that was part of the sea, having been built inside of a natural cove. There is one almost identical to it in the grounds of a hotel on the south side of Tenerife.

[Jamie]

My strategy for collecting books, which has been in existence for less than a week, is incredibly simple. (Like me.)

Ebay!

I couldn't believe it when I saw so many editions from the forties and fifties that were priced for pennies!

I'm now up to my ears in gollywogs, Niggers, black villains, sexism, xenophobia and jingoism.

Simply spiffing super. lol

[Zar Quon]

My strategy for collecting books, which has been in existence for less than a week, is incredibly simple. (Like me.)

Ebay!

I couldn't believe it when I saw so many editions from the forties and fifties that were priced for pennies!

I'm now up to my ears in gollywogs, niggers, black villains, sexism, xenophobia and jingoism.

Simply spiffing super. lol

Keep at it & you'll soon find they ain't all of 'em that nice & cheap (which is a bit of a nuisance as it goes...), but of course that also depends on condition of the book(s) and presence or lack of a DJ..

[Katharine]

Paperbacks from the late 1970s/early 1980s are to the best of my knowledge mainly the original text, and can often be picked up quite cheaply. I'm filling any gaps in my collection with those with a view to replacing them eventually with the oldest, best copies I can when space/money allows.

At the moment my aim is to get a copy of as many original titles of Enid Blyton books as cheaply as possible, regardless of condition. I'd rather get another 5 titles I don't own for the same price as I would have to pay for one first edition of another title. I won't however buy anything that's more than about 25 years old as I would authomatically assume the text has been altered too much for my liking.

[Zar Quon]

At the moment my aim is to get a copy of as many original titles of Enid Blyton books as cheaply as possible, regardless of condition. I'd rather get another 5 titles I don't own for the same price as I would have to pay for one first edition of another title.

I wouldn't go so far as to say regardless of condition myself - I don't like 'em to be too bashed about.

I won't however buy anything that's more than about 25 years old as I would authomatically assume the text has been altered too much for my liking.

Do you mean *newer* than 25 years old? Tho that's only, what, mid '80s - almost yesterday

[Katharine]

Well, it depends on the book. I don't object to a previous owners name in the front, but would probably draw the line at sticky finger marks. It would also depend on the book. If I could get a very tatty 1st edition Five on a Treasure Island with a ripped, but complete D/W for about £10 I'd eagerly buy it. On the other hand I probably wouldn't pay more than about 10p for a 1980s paperback which had a creased cover.

Yes, I did mean I probably wouldn't buy anything printed after about 1980, which is about the last time I asked for Enid Blyton books for presents, so they would remind me of my own childhood. It's quite depressing to see books listed on E-Bay as 'vintage' when I have identical copies which I've owned from new.!

[Zar Quon]

Well, it depends on the book. I don't object to a previous owners name in the front, but would probably draw the line at sticky finger marks. It would also depend on the book. If I could get a very tatty 1st edition Five on a Treasure Island with a ripped, but complete D/W for about £10 I'd eagerly buy it. On the other hand I probably wouldn't pay more than about 10p for a 1980s paperback which had a creased cover.

Ah, but again it depends upon the book. There's '80s pb's out there that'll happily attract the tenner at least.

Yes, I did mean I probably wouldn't buy anything printed after about 1980, which is about the last time I asked for Enid Blyton books for presents, so they would remind me of my own childhood. It's quite depressing to see books listed on E-Bay as 'vintage' when I have identical copies which I've owned from new.!

It's even more depresing to see stuff from the mid '90s listed as "vintage"...

[Jamie]

Keep at it & you'll soon find they ain't all of 'em that nice & cheap (which is a bit of a nuisance as it goes...), but of course that also depends on condition of the book(s) and presence or lack of a DJ..

Found that out already. I've seen several first editions going for three or four hundred quid.

I'm lucky however, I'm not a collector, I just want the stories in their unfettered, original form. It's turning out to be a lot easier to get that than I feared it would be.

[Jamie]

And even more depressing to hear yourself described as it.

[Zar Quon]

Keep at it & you'll soon find they ain't all of 'em that nice & cheap (which is a bit of a nuisance as it goes...), but of course that also depends on condition of the book(s) and presence or lack of a DJ..

Found that out already. I've seen several first editions going for three or four hundred quid.

That'll be the cheap ones, yeah?

I'm lucky however, I'm not a collector, I just want the stories in their unfettered, original form. It's turning out to be a lot easier to get that than I feared it would be.

Wanting the full set would probably mark you out as some type of collector, but certainly there's a reasonable wodge of HB Blyton floating about ebay for fairly sensible prices (at least when there's not a free listing weekend and all the comedians come out of the woodwork (and that doesn't just apply to Blyton books either)

[Jamie]

That'll be the cheap ones, yeah?

Wanting the full set would probably mark you out as some type of collector, but certainly there's a reasonable wodge of HB Blyton floating about ebay for fairly sensible prices (at least when there's not a free listing weekend and all the comedians come out of the woodwork (and that doesn't just apply to Blyton books either)

Well I'm a collector of stories then, not books. Although it does matter to me that they're books, not digital files. I'm just not bothered about the actual value in money terms of the physical property.

[Zar Quon]

That'll be the cheap ones, yeah?

Keep an eye out. At some stage you'll se some marked up at silly money. Which then won't sell, but still...

Wanting the full set would probably mark you out as some type of collector, but certainly there's a reasonable wodge of HB Blyton floating about ebay for fairly sensible prices (at least when there's not a free listing weekend and all the comedians come out of the woodwork (and that doesn't just apply to Blyton books either)

Well I'm a collector of stories then, not books. Although it does matter to me that they're books, not digital files. I'm just not bothered about the actual value in money terms of the physical property.

Quite agree on the physical book thing. I keep reading that this kindling thing is going to overtake proper books, but I'm not convinced. Maybe one day, & for comon stuff, but I suspect we'll be having those big papery things for a while yet.

[Jamie]

It probably will, but I will never buy one. I'm a 1930's cliché, because I hate the time I was born into so much. My attitudes to practically everything pre-date most Enid Blyton books. lol Even my preferred telephone is a 1930's imitation one.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-NOSTALGIC ... 195wt_1139" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Zar Quon]

It probably will, but I will never buy one. I'm a 1930's cliché, because I hate the time I was born into so much. My attitudes to practically everything pre-date most Enid Blyton books. lol Even my preferred telephone is a 1930's imitation one.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-NOSTALGIC ... 195wt_1139" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I can only see it being useful for the latest blockbuster tat novels, as it currently stands I don't see something like this appearing on amazons kindle store any time soon, or indeed any of these. Besides which, a shelf with (for instance) 21 Famous Five books on it is going to look a lot nicer than one with an ickle gadget on it

Nice 'phone - shame it's not a proper dial tho...