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Scott Brown's avatar

That sounds like an interesting collection. I know someone who collects novels set in Humboldt County, where I used to live in Northern California. I know he has a few he's never been able to find. I've been after RK Narayan for 30 years and there is still one book I have never seen, one I don't have in jacket, and one I only have 2/3 of a jacket on. I'd really like to find those, but if I did, I'm not sure what I'd do. I'd be the dog who caught the car.

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Benjamin Dreyer's avatar

Fascinating, Scott, thank you.

It used to be a point of honor with me to purchase my precious old books only live and in person (and generally by serendipity), but after years of hoping I'd run into a copy of Stella Gibbons's Conference at Cold Comfort Farm, and not running into it, I broke down and bought a copy from England. (Irony alert: It's such a bad book, I never finished reading it.) The web is nice now when I very particularly want something, but I still do enjoy most running into volumes in stores (though there are fewer stores than there used to be, and a lot fewer books of the sort I'm looking for stocked in them).

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Scott Brown's avatar

There's something of a paradox too in out-of-print books that are hard to find. Sometimes it's because they are keenly sought after and sell as soon as a used bookstore gets one in. Other times they are hard to find because used booksellers have learned to avoid them. If you can't find a book, it's likely to be great or awful. Middling titles are everywhere.

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C Jackdaw's avatar

Any chance you know where to look for a overview of bibliographies like that? A bibliography of bibliographies? I'm not sure how to know what's out there or how I'd find it.

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Scott Brown's avatar

https://www.abaa.org/about-antiquarian-books/bibliographies-reference

That's a list of references compiled by Vic Zoschak of Tavistock Books, ABAA. If you are looking for something specific, I'd be happy to let you know if there is one.

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C Jackdaw's avatar

I don't think I'm looking for anything specific, just curious what's out there, I think. I appreciate the link!

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Walter Burton's avatar

I collect early British Columbia novels and poetry, and to a lesser degree, history. While there have been previous collectors in the field, it sometimes seems I am the only one interested. Some books you would think wouldn't be rare just don't turn up. Often there is no way of really determining how scarce they are in actuality, other than checking the number of institutional copies. Many times it's ex-library or nothing.

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