Making books your own

It occurs to me that some of the disagreement which
arises in this newsgroup crops up because a number of
posters write from the standpoint of the dealer and/or
investor, rather than from the collector with a love of
books. While in many cases the resulting viewpoints
do not need to conflict at all, sometimes they create
certain mindsets that do on occasion clash.

For the most part I buy my books off-line and at far
below the going price on the net. I buy books because
I like them. I get the low prices because I spend time
checking out thrift shops, library sales, garage sales,
etc. -- and I know which used book stores have the
bargain finds and which are so well-organized that you
will rarely find a great bargain on anything they have.

Most people do something in their spare time, and while
some folks are out on the golf course, I am poking
around at that library sale. Whee... Yesterday
I bought six books for .25 cents each...and I would
not trade the feeling I got for all the birdys and
bogies in the world, either.

For instance, one of those six books I got for
..25 cents each was a children's book on American
Indians. Sounds ho-hum, maybe, but I happened
to notice it was illustrated by Jack Davis, of
EC horror comic, MAD, and Time Magazine cover fame.

Most collectors make buying decisions controlled
by their special interests, and one of my special
interests is illustration. Getting a children's
book for a quarter at a thrift store is not
exactly anything special. Finding a Jack Davis-
illustrated book in excellent condition for a
quarter is.

Anyway, as a book lover, one thing which is important
to me is making my books my own. After all, I have
to live with them. Dirty books I can't stand. If
there exists any way to wash a grimey book without
hurting it, I will find that way.

Price stickers are an affront to any civilized collector
-- they go, and when they can't be peeled right off,
they go usually with the help of a few drops of
lighter fluid, or, with other types of stickers,
sometimes after a bit of soaking in a few drops of
water and dish detergent.

Inscriptions (by anyone except the author, that is)
are immediately removed with white-out. In some
cases, I later cover the white-out area with
appropriate pitures or graphics removed from
damaged but profusely-illustrated books of the
same vintage.

As far as discards, with any of those I acquire,
all the library stuff goes. Ink lettering on
the pages is immediately whited out (and you have
already heard about my experiment getting the lettering
off the page edges). Any of those pasted-in pockets
for cards are immediately removed, and any resulting
damage to the endpaper is covered by carefully pasting
a new "endpaper" over the old one or by gluing in
an appropriate illustration to cover the rough area.

One execption to this is with very old books
having a neatly-written ink inscription. Those
can lend a quaint charm to the book. Another
exception is a book trader's stamp inside a
paperback. I let those alone, although I have
in fact toyed with idea of printing a miniature
"book plate" and pasting it over traders'
stamps in my paperbacks.

Now, I don't CARE one bit if a dealer or an
investor type tells me some of those practices
of mine will keep down the price of the book in
some hypothetical future sale. If I were sticking
those books in some climate-controlled outbuilding
with the idea of letting them appreciate for a few
years and them re-selling them, that would be one
thing. That is hardly the case, though.

Those procedures I outlined above are things I do
because they make me feel better about my books.
For instance, I personally don't care if a book on
my shelf has "Property of Ed Smith," "San Franciso
Public Library" or "Joe's Bar and Grill" stamped
in black ink on the page edges. Seeing something
like that detracts from the pleasure of owning the
book. It further detracts, in a very small way,
from the atmosphere of my home. I am, you will
remember, a book lover.


Mr. Palmer
--writing from the upstairs office above rec.arts.prose

Don't you ever tire of destroying books Mr. Troll?
Back under your bridge now.

--
Bob Finnan
The Hardy Boys Unofficial Home Page
http://users.arczip.com/fwdixon
New & Out Of Print Books, Books-On-Tape, Videos, DVDs, CD-ROMs For Sale
http://users.arczip.com/fwdixon/hbsale.htm
.................................................. ....................
"Bill Palmer" wrote in message
om...
It occurs to me that some of the disagreement which
arises in this newsgroup crops up because a number of
posters write from the standpoint of the dealer and/or
investor, rather than from the collector with a love of
books. While in many cases the resulting viewpoints
do not need to conflict at all, sometimes they create
certain mindsets that do on occasion clash.

For the most part I buy my books off-line and at far
below the going price on the net. I buy books because
I like them. I get the low prices because I spend time
checking out thrift shops, library sales, garage sales,
etc. -- and I know which used book stores have the
bargain finds and which are so well-organized that you
will rarely find a great bargain on anything they have.

Most people do something in their spare time, and while
some folks are out on the golf course, I am poking
around at that library sale. Whee... Yesterday
I bought six books for .25 cents each...and I would
not trade the feeling I got for all the birdys and
bogies in the world, either.

For instance, one of those six books I got for
.25 cents each was a children's book on American
Indians. Sounds ho-hum, maybe, but I happened
to notice it was illustrated by Jack Davis, of
EC horror comic, MAD, and Time Magazine cover fame.

Most collectors make buying decisions controlled
by their special interests, and one of my special
interests is illustration. Getting a children's
book for a quarter at a thrift store is not
exactly anything special. Finding a Jack Davis-
illustrated book in excellent condition for a
quarter is.

Anyway, as a book lover, one thing which is important
to me is making my books my own. After all, I have
to live with them. Dirty books I can't stand. If
there exists any way to wash a grimey book without
hurting it, I will find that way.

Price stickers are an affront to any civilized collector
-- they go, and when they can't be peeled right off,
they go usually with the help of a few drops of
lighter fluid, or, with other types of stickers,
sometimes after a bit of soaking in a few drops of
water and dish detergent.

Inscriptions (by anyone except the author, that is)
are immediately removed with white-out. In some
cases, I later cover the white-out area with
appropriate pitures or graphics removed from
damaged but profusely-illustrated books of the
same vintage.

As far as discards, with any of those I acquire,
all the library stuff goes. Ink lettering on
the pages is immediately whited out (and you have
already heard about my experiment getting the lettering
off the page edges). Any of those pasted-in pockets
for cards are immediately removed, and any resulting
damage to the endpaper is covered by carefully pasting
a new "endpaper" over the old one or by gluing in
an appropriate illustration to cover the rough area.

One execption to this is with very old books
having a neatly-written ink inscription. Those
can lend a quaint charm to the book. Another
exception is a book trader's stamp inside a
paperback. I let those alone, although I have
in fact toyed with idea of printing a miniature
"book plate" and pasting it over traders'
stamps in my paperbacks.

Now, I don't CARE one bit if a dealer or an
investor type tells me some of those practices
of mine will keep down the price of the book in
some hypothetical future sale. If I were sticking
those books in some climate-controlled outbuilding
with the idea of letting them appreciate for a few
years and them re-selling them, that would be one
thing. That is hardly the case, though.

Those procedures I outlined above are things I do
because they make me feel better about my books.
For instance, I personally don't care if a book on
my shelf has "Property of Ed Smith," "San Franciso
Public Library" or "Joe's Bar and Grill" stamped
in black ink on the page edges. Seeing something
like that detracts from the pleasure of owning the
book. It further detracts, in a very small way,
from the atmosphere of my home. I am, you will
remember, a book lover.


Mr. Palmer
--writing from the upstairs office above rec.arts.prose

"Bad Weather" wrote
if you love your worthless books so much, go jack off on them

Which may make the edges nice and white!

a number of posters write from the standpoint of the dealer and/or
investor, rather than from the collector with a love of books.

if you love your worthless books so much, go jack off on them

Which may make the edges nice and white!

The pages on all of Palmer's books probably stick together, because he loves
them.

"RWF" wrote in message ...
Don't you ever tire of destroying books Mr. Troll?
Back under your bridge now.

Probably most readers understand who the real
troll is here. In case Troll Finnan has
hoodwinked anyone, I will be happy to remark
on his obnoxious behavior. Many groups have
"local trolls" who are really no different
than trolls who make their mischief net-wide,
except that local trolls like "RWF" Bob Finnan
generally confine their trolling activities to
one or two groups.

Lacking genuine ideas and interesting
experiences or unique views to share, they
pester others for attention. Often, like
Bob Finnan, they stoop to defamatory behavior
to get their shabby existence noticed by their
target, who will often be a famous Usenet
writer, because misfits like Finnan realize
that the better-known the person they pester,
the more readers their trolling posts are
likely to get.

Like most trolls, Finnan is a Google near
non-entity. A little research indicates there
is little or substance to him at all, as far
as Usenet is concerned. I have meet pests
like Bob all too regularly: an woefully
anemic GEM count and a desperate wail for
attention characterizes them all too well.

There are no stand-alone posts by people like
Finnan, nothing at all that they can point
Usenet readers to with pride. And how many
trolls have you met, by the way, who could
pridefully rap off the titles of a couple of
dozen (or a couple of hundred) stand-alone
postings they have made? That is one sure
sign of a troll: No substantial Usenet
track record of stand-alone postings
(essays, short stories, poems, whatever).


The Bob Finnans of the net don't contribute,
they beg for attention.

Now you know what Bob Finnan is: A Usenet
non-entity whose lust for attention takes
him down a mean, low-down path through
these electronic woods. That being pointed
out regarding Bob, I will say a few words in
defense of the post he so venomously maligned.

My shared thoughts were completely sincere.
Everthing in that post is true, though of course
part of it is only my opinion and is presented
as such. If some readers think I am a bit
unorthodox as a book collector, fine. In fact,
posts such as mine need to be written more often
for rec.collecting books. Read with an open
mind, they should be help readers understand that
other people may have a different approach to
book collecting, including book restoration, etc.,
than they the readers do.

Of course, what Local Troll Finnan tries to
do -- in his insufferably fatuous attempt to
impugn my sincerity by ironically calling
me a troll -- is create a situation where
as few readers as possible lend credence to
my sincere words.

I certainly hope that all rec.collecting.books
readers see Bob Finnan for the obnoxious, trolling
pest he is and ignore his future remarks.


Mr. Palmer
Room 314 (in the upstairs office)

[...]

--
Bob Finnan
The Hardy Boys Unofficial Home Page

"Bad Weather" wrote in message ...

[...]

Gee. Sort of like, "Perverted individual slithers
out of woodwork under a phony name and pesters writer
for fifteen seconds of attention with a perverted slur."
News at eleven and all that I guess. Sad.

Mr. Palmer
Room 314

On Sun, 22 Aug 2004 01:15:00 UTC, (Bill
Palmer) wrote:

Inscriptions (by anyone except the author, that is)
are immediately removed with white-out. In some
cases, I later cover the white-out area with
appropriate pitures or graphics removed from
damaged but profusely-illustrated books of the
same vintage.

I'd lay off the white-out. they didn't use a felt tip or some other
type of low viscosity ink you might have better luck with fine
sand-papar.

I wouldn't worry about what the dealers say. They're your books and
it seems you are just trying to compensate for pre-existing dammage.

--
Mark Heaely
marknews(at)healeyonline(dot)com

"Bill Palmer" wrote in message
om...
"RWF" wrote in message
...
Don't you ever tire of destroying books Mr. Troll?
Back under your bridge now.

Probably most readers understand who the real
troll is here.

Yes, they know it is you, your fatuous ass.
Since you've showed up here, you've done nother but advocate the detruction
of books in a series of trollish posts designed to look serious.
Now you make a pathetic attempt to take the heat off your trollish tactics
by accusing ME of being a troll.
Nice try.
Didn't work though.
But you DID make it to my kill file, where you will reside with such other
notable assholes as adumbs and Barker.
Now get back under your bridge Mr. Troll!
--
Bob Finnan
The Hardy Boys Unofficial Home Page
http://users.arczip.com/fwdixon
New & Out Of Print Books, Books-On-Tape, Videos, DVDs, CD-ROMs For Sale
http://users.arczip.com/fwdixon/hbsale.htm
.................................................. ....................

(Mark Healey) wrote in message ...
On Sun, 22 Aug 2004 01:15:00 UTC, (Bill
Palmer) wrote:

Inscriptions (by anyone except the author, that is)
are immediately removed with white-out. In some
cases, I later cover the white-out area with
appropriate pitures or graphics removed from
damaged but profusely-illustrated books of the
same vintage.

I'd lay off the white-out. they didn't use a felt tip or some other
type of low viscosity ink you might have better luck with fine
sand-papar.

Thank you. I will experiment with that.
Actually, in general when I use white out,
I do so with the idea of simply covering
up the inscription temporarily until I find
something appropriate to go over the place
where the inscription was written. For
instance, regarding a 1950's travel book,
I would try to find a "cover up" picture
fitting the theme of the first book, in a
damaged book of same vintage. Of course,
that generally only works with endpapers.
If the (non-author) inscription is scrawled
on the title page, then the cover up picture
approach is not feasible.

I wouldn't worry about what the dealers say. They're your books and
it seems you are just trying to compensate for pre-existing dammage.