Aficionado of a Private Collection

[Steve Vaught]

About 7 years ago I started to get this affinity for purchasing hardbound books. As my collection increased I noticed I was preferring books with no jacket. I am contemplating taking the cover off all the books to display the character of these hardbounds.

My question to others is...

How do you display YOUR books? Is this being pedantic? Does anyone else do this for asthetics sake?

Thanks for your comments

Steve V (the other one)

[Dustin Stinett]

Steve,

I have yet to meet another one of us until now (and everyone I have told this to has called me nuts). I have hated dust jackets since I was a kid. That being said, I keep all the dust jackets from my books flat in large drawers (minus those destroyed when my boat sank--which is another story). Books are worth more with their DJs, so be sure to keep them.

Dustin

[Steve Vaught]

GREAT! Thanks for your reply. I feel courageous now!!

Looks like your offline.

I'll ask something else and then maybe hear from you tomorrow.

How do you organize your library? I have eclectic interests. About 7 different categories. Do you alphabetize? number?

Again, I go back to the way it looks on the shelf. In my "special" magic section I will make sure the books are arranged by height

SV

[Dustin Stinett]

My books are organized by category then alphabetical by Author within each category. My categories are:

General Magic
Close-up
Cards
Coins
Mentalism
History
Collecting
Theory
Specialty (includes rope, linking rings, thumb-tips, etc.)
Kindred (juggling, gambling, occult, etc.)

Lecture notes and manuscripts are in another book case, apha by author regardless of subject.

Dustin

[Kevin Connolly]

My libray is very simple kept. Everything is under H. :)

No really, I keep my books in alphabetical order. The books cover Houdini, escapes and spiritualism. I don't use seperate catergories. It seems to work for me.

You could use a Brodart cover for your jackets if the DJ stays on the book. You can also use them on books with out DJ's. They look great on the shelves. Also, the oil, dirt, etc. is kept off your books.

[Steve Vaught]

Great, Great, Great!

Thanks for a look into the cut of your jib.

See Ya!

Steve V (the other one)

[Gord]

I like the look of having some books with slipcovers and others without. It gives a generational look to me collection.
I also organize alphabetically. That's it. A to Z. (Pronounced Zed.) I've tried doing it by category but it drove me up the wall.

Gord

[Dustin Stinett]

Zed?

Zed's dead, baby.

Zed's dead.

I've thaught about reorganizing by alpha only (that's how just about everyone I know and talked to does it). But I haven't made it past the thinking stage.

Dustin

(Well, think me up a cup of coffee and a chocolate doughnut with some of those little sprinkles on top, just as long as you're thinking.)

[Kent Gunn]

I don't display my books. I put them on shelves in order so I can look stuff up. Nobody goes in the room with the magic books but me and the cat. He goes in their to eat and . . . that other thing cats do.

Anal-retentive boy, (That's me) has them on the shelves in alphabetical order by performer. Otherwise I'd have too darned many books by Kaufman in one place and look like a synchophant. Dammit, that was syncophantic! If the book isn't about a specific magician then they're by author.

I tend to fall back on the same ten or fifteen books anyway. Someday when I grow up, I should file about half of the others under eBay. It would free up a room. Many magic books I own are drivel. Really good magic books are far and few between. Good books on card magic are falling out of the sky in the last year though. Oh . . . yeah, the Regal book too . . . Badass!

I'd take any of them over ANY video.

KG

PS. Damn you Dustin, now I want a darned doughnut.

[George Olson]

Kent, when I lived in the City by The Bay, there was a great Bakery with killer donuts et al way out on California Street. The Altzhiemers is kicking in can't remember the name, but god it was good!

GO

[Kent Gunn]

I lived on California Street as a tot. I wasn't allowed out, unescorted at that age though.

There's a chain of Chuck's Donuts all over the Bay Area now. There's one on California St. Mmmmm Chucks mmmmmm . . . Donuts. They were not around North Beach/Chinatown, where I lived most of my S.F. days. This was all 30 to 45 years ago, btw!

[John Bodine]

i organize in the same way as Mr. Gunn, alpabetical by performer/creator and if it's a general book on magic then by author. The challenge i found with organizing by subject were the books spanning subjects, a book on cards and coins for example.

Byron Walker organizes a bit differently. Everything pre-18?? is in one room. Everything gambling related in another. Catalogs in one room. Everything else throughout the rest of the house. Seems to work for a fairly large collection.

-johnbodine

[Bob Farmer]

I organize my books by magician, by writer, by subject and by title, but I'm not consistent -- though all the mentalism books might be in the mentalism section (M), the Ted Lesley book might be in the L magician section. This way, I never have to wonder how I filed the book -- if I can't find it, I just try another filing class.

Incidentally, I have as many books as you, 200 more, and enough left over to count to ....

[DrDanny]

I've found it makes no difference how I shelve my books. My wife moves and rearranges them at her whim, using a system known only to her. (Although I suspect it was inherited from her mother.....)

[Timothy Hyde]

"One of the advantages of being disorderly
is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries"

AA Milne

[John Nicholls]

Regarding dust jackets. I've always understood that a book was worth less if it did not have its jacket so I make sure and keep all mine intact. Others may care less.

[Nick]

A dust jacket adds to the character of the book. Some dust jackets are beautiful (for example, the ones by Katlyn Breene for Todd Karr's Miracle Factory books), some are a bit weird (Corinda's Thirteen Steps, Cassidy's The Art of Mentalism), some reflect the era in which they were produced (the original Greater Magic dust jacket screams "1930s!") and, OK, many are just run-of-the-mill.

But even if you dont display the dust jackets, you shouldn't throw them away. If you think you might ever sell your books, those dust jackets could make them worth a lot more. For example, you could probably sell a first edition of Greater Magic without a dust jacket for a couple of hundred dollars (depending on its condition), but with a fine just jacket, you would get several (= 3 or more) hundred dollars more.

For a modern literary first edition, the dust jacket can increase the value of a book by a factor of 10. (Im assuming that both book and dust jacket are in fine condition, and that the book is a sought-after one.) For most magic books, the ratio isnt so extreme, but it can still be significant.

[Nikodemus Siivola]

I alphabetize by performer (or author/editor for collections, etc), and sort books by the same person by the original publishing date. Periodicals, including bounds collections and reprints, are kept separately, alphabetized by the name of the publication. Videos and DVDs are kepth with the books, along with trick manuscripts.