Collecting Bête Noire?
 

Is there a book that haunts you--and not in good way? A bothersome piece
that pops up on your eBay searches and continually gets in your path in
secondhand bookstores?

Mine is the *Great Religions of Modern Man* a six-volume boxed set published
by George Braziller in the early 1960s They must have printed MILLIONS of
them. I see this thing (and its component parts) EVERYWHERE! There's
probably almost always one up on eBay, e.g.:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=4515869109

Whatever the merits of these works, I have never seen a positive review, a
scholarly citation, or even a cross-reference. There just seem to be so
many more interesting and authoritative books on the subjects. They seem
like one of those great BOMC turds (like the Durants' *Story of
Civilization*)--omnipresent and worthless.


William M. Klimon
http://www.catholicbookcollector.com

"William M. Klimon" wrote in message
news:QvjGd.32967$Wo.1946@lakeread08...

Mine is the *Great Religions of Modern Man* a six-volume boxed set
published by George Braziller in the early 1960s They must have printed
MILLIONS of them. I see this thing (and its component parts) EVERYWHERE!
There's probably almost always one up on eBay, e.g.:



Sorry to reply to myself, but no sooner than I posted this message and did a
little searching on eBay than the turd resurfaced:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=4515869109



William M. Klimon
http://www.catholicbookcollector.com

"William M. Klimon" wrote in message
news:QvjGd.32967$Wo.1946@lakeread08...

Mine is the *Great Religions of Modern Man* a six-volume boxed set
published
by George Braziller in the early 1960s They must have printed MILLIONS of
them. I see this thing (and its component parts) EVERYWHERE! There's
probably almost always one up on eBay, e.g.:

The fellow who wrote the volume on Hinduism was a professor at the
University of Iowa, and I took several courses on Asian religion from him
when I went to school there. He was a pretty decent teacher on the subject,
though a believing Christian himself. I probably couldn't count the numbers
of sets that I have seen, almost all of them are book clubs with the notch
on the back cover of the book. I personally collect pretty heavily on Asian
religion but I don't own this set, still looking for the true first trade!
I bet almost all of the editions that come up for sale are bookclubs but not
sold that way.

Randy

Bete noire department for me includes
the multi-volume Churchill History of
WWII (well-written, but overblown and
with some "patriotically interesting"
comments and slants on the Soviet
contribution to the Allied effort) and
that horse's ass Toynbee's my-religion-although-one-of-many-is-
nonetheless-the-Only Way-and-the-
true key-to-historical-and-cultural-
progress histories. And to think I read
most of them as an impressinable
teenager. (Would have spent my time
more profitably improving social skills
such as playing honkytonk piano in a
sportin house....)
--Dave Conford

William M. Klimon wrote:
Is there a book that haunts you--and not in good way? A bothersome piece
that pops up on your eBay searches and continually gets in your path in
secondhand bookstores?

Mine is the *Great Religions of Modern Man* a six-volume boxed set published
by George Braziller in the early 1960s They must have printed MILLIONS of
them. I see this thing (and its component parts) EVERYWHERE! There's
probably almost always one up on eBay, e.g.:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=4515869109

Whatever the merits of these works, I have never seen a positive review, a
scholarly citation, or even a cross-reference. There just seem to be so
many more interesting and authoritative books on the subjects. They seem
like one of those great BOMC turds (like the Durants' *Story of
Civilization*)--omnipresent and worthless.


William M. Klimon
http://www.catholicbookcollector.com



How about Boswell's London Journal? This is a book that *looks* like it
ought to be quite collectable but that was in fact so common, in both
trade and the very large book club distribution, to be almost valueless.
There are usually 3 or 4 copies available on Ebay at any one time, and
many an optimist has had a starting price of $10 or more; when they sell
at all its usually for a few dollars.

Some of the later volumes in the series are genuinely scarce and bring
significant money, but the London Journal just clutters the listing.

But don't misunderstand what I'm saying: it is fascinating reading. As
for the later volumes, I've been trying to fill in a second set of the
complete Boswell papers with a copy of Boswell in Extremes for over a
year now. I've not been able to locate a copy for less than $100; the
current least expensive one listed is $250.

When scouting, I always run across The Tontine and it sets my hair on
edge. What is is about and why was it such a best seller? Maybe a
Book Club freebie for joining?

Although largely forgotten now, Thomas Costain was an enormously popular
novelist in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Most of his books were historical
novels ranging in period from the 1500s to the 1900s. His most popular
books were "The Black Rose," "The Silver Chalice," "The Moneyman" (my
favorite), and "The Tontine." If you like historical novels, I strongly
recommend any of these. A tontine was a once-popular
lottery/insurance/retirement plan in which a group of people pooled a sum of
money which was then turned over to a money manager to invest. The money
was invested, re-invested, and re-invested until only one of the original
members of the tontine was still alive. That person received all the money
that had accumulated. And, yes, "The Tontine" in two volumes was a popular
Book-of-the-Month Club selection. wrote in message
oups.com...
When scouting, I always run across The Tontine and it sets my hair on
edge. What is is about and why was it such a best seller? Maybe a
Book Club freebie for joining?