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I have volume 1 of Kim Il Sung’s works in English - printed in North Korea in the 70’s. I don’t know if the Foreign Languages Publishing House survived long enough for a Volume 2. They did put out some of Jong’s thoughts on film, if I recall correctly.
This is probably the prize of my collection. I have a first American printing of Lolita, which unfortunately has a bit of cat vomit stain on it or might be in that spot.
Oh! Here’s another delightful one - this was like $1 at Habitat for Humanity.
That's pretty neat.
My rarest that I still own is a full collection of Shakespeare works from the early 1800s bound in leather. It is absolutely beautiful but isn't worth much because the leather binding isn't original. I did have a signed leather bound copy of Ender's Game that was 1 of 2000 or something. I bought it for $200 brand new and sold it for $1500 a few years ago, though.
Itching to know if they included Two Noble Kinsman or any other of the apocrypha.
I'll try to remember to look into that tonight
My partner and I stumbled across first edition Ticknor & Fields printings (1867) of Henry Longfellow's translations of Inferno and Purgatorio at a used bookstore a couple years back. Got them for a song since they were missing the Paradiso to complete the set.
The owner said that they had been sitting in his storage for 15 years as part of an estate donation he got and he finally had the chance to go through it. When he found them he tore apart the rest of the boxes looking for the Paradiso but it just wasn't there.
Now its our white whale. Every used bookstore we go in we scour the classics/oldest/rare book section looking to complete the set.
I found a book non ironically titled "psychopathology of the deeply retarded". And it's not about Reddit users! It's a 70s academic text for professionals dealing with mentally deficient children 💀
Sounds like a photo of the cover would be an excellent image macro or a retort in a comment thread.
Yes that was my thought too! Sadly it is in french ("psychopathologie des débiles profonds") so not usable everywhere
Protestant Prayer book in Lithuanian, printed in 1912 in Tilsiter, now Sovetsk, Kaliningrad. My grandparents had many more books like this one, but ended up burning most of them when they were moving to another house and Soviet repressions were getting scary.
2 volume bookplate signed set of Will Eisner's "A Contract With God". #33 of 125.
I have a copy of the Codex Seraphinianus (not the original printing, but a facsimile edition that came out a decade or two ago). It’s as odd as it sounds.
I have a manuscript in Latin that was passed down in the family. The content seems to be some religious stuff when a family friend who understands Latin took a look at it. No one in the family actually bothered to understand what's written in it.
Maybe I will bring it to someone who could translate it when I have time on the future.
I’m bored, curious, and able to pierce my way enough through Latin kinda sorta if you have uploads you’d like to dm or post in public. Undoubtedly there’s geeks online that are far better than me if you allow us a peek.
(Or - I love that kind of stuff being preserved and am peer pressuring you into uploading when you have the spoons for it.)
I will try to take a few pictures of it when I have a chance. We haven't opened it for years, because the book is is pretty bad shape. The binding (which is not original binding as far as I can tell) is about to fall apart. It's currently on the bookshelf squeezed between a few book to prevent it from crumbling.
We were even planning at one point to digitalize it and donate it to a library (or some organization that can restore and preserve old book). But the family debate about it when this conversation come up because it's something that has been passed down for generations already.
Would love a picture, that sounds really cool
Damn, wish I could go get a picture of them but I have 1930 ish prints of Dante's Paradisio, Purgatorio, and Inferno. The specific print is relatively sought after and there is only one more in circulation. Doesn't have the dust covers like mine do though. Got them from a local collector. I also have a physics textbook from 1820 and a good few others I couldn't name. If I still remember when I get home in a few hours I'll update
A technical description of how the Stockholm underground was constructed and works.
Nice. Similarly, I own a 1971 East German translation of Stanisław Lem's Eden. It's one of my favorite books anyhow so I'm unlikely to ever let go of it.
A first edition of “Bleak House” by Charles Dickens. I’m not even sure how I ended up with it, but it looks cool.
That looks fascinating. I’m not able to delve into it right now, but I absolutely will on Thursday! Thank you.
