A Swell-Looking Book Used & Rare Books - Book Collecting

Book Collecting:
Notes of a Book Fool

What I Collect

I once read or heard somewhere, that you can’t be a great collector and
great book dealer. This may be true to large extent. But on purely
personal, and perhaps self-delusional, grounds, I must disagree. You see,
I am a collector and a dealer, and I’d like to be great at both – I know
that’s next to impossible, but… Maybe, I’ll eventually pick one at which
to be truly great and stick with it, but for now, I’m doing okay at both.

Let's first start with what I like to collect and/or read. First editions:
science fiction, mystery, literature. I collect those authors I like to read
- not those authors that book men will tell you to collect. I have large
groups of books on paleontology, natural history, evolutionary biology,
astronomy, and science in general. I enjoy books on the history of
science - especially the earth sciences and astronomy. I have a collection
of books on atomic physics, the atomic bomb, nuclear proliferation, and
cold war strategy (my father is a veteran of "Operation Crossroads", the
very first Bikini Island atomic tests). I have a collection of books on
Imperial Rome and a nice group of Loeb Classics from Harvard
University Press (mostly the historians).

If you don't think I'm all over the map yet, how about this . . . I collect
vintage paperbacks, also. I fell in love with these little icons of a
vanished America several years ago. I have a few thousand of these lying
around. I collect books on books - that is, on the kind of books in which
I'm interested. I have a small collection of books on jazz music and a
small collection of books about films (mainly sf and fantasy related).

I have about 3/4 of all the Lakeside Classics - a nice, long-running
series of books on American History and Western Americana printed by
R. R. Donnelley each year since 1901. (I need mostly the greens - though
I have several good ones). I have some interest in and books on Native
American history and art, the southwest, National Parks, horse racing,
trains, model railroading and toy train collecting. Phew.

. . . More to Come . . .