Collecting the series

[David]

I decided to join this group with the idea of getting myself to read the books with a group to discuss them. Of course, then I noticed it's been a couple of years since there was any activity here. I decided to create some.

I've collected all but a handful of the books, but have to admit, I've really only read 4 of them. does anyone have any particular favorites they think would be good to get started?

BTW I have a lot of duplicates if anyone is looking for specific books in the series.

[David]

Hi Scott,
It sounds like you've already read a lot of the major writers in the series. I just read Lud-In-The-Mist this year. I really enjoyed that one. I've also read The Boats of the Glen Carig, Khaled and the first half of The Night Land. I'll have to re-read the 1st half to finish it because it was a long time ago. I haven't read Worm yet, so I'd have to read it to read the next Eddison.

I'm probably just a slight bit younger than you are because I think I started picking these up in used book stores in the late 70's or early 80's when I was in my late teens and early 20's. It wasn't until about 7 years ago I started really trying to find the rest. I had about half of them at that point.

I'm not sure where I'd want to start. Maybe with the 1st, The Blue Star by Pratt or People of the Mist by Haggard or Excalibur by Sanders Ann Laubenthal. Any preferences on your end? It sounds like you'll need to procure which ever one we pick. I won't be able to start until mid-August because I have too many other books going right now.

[David]

Oh, yeah, I was thinking if we decide on a book we could offer it up to the Sword and Laser SF group I'm in and see if there are any other takers.

[David]

I don't know why I didn't think of this before. Why don't we start with the book that's pretty much the Holy Grail of anyone's Ballantine Adult Fantasy collection: The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton? I've been meaning to read it for a while. I have to admit, I pulled it to read a while ago, got sidetracked and now I can't figure out where I put it. It's definitely in the house somewhere. I should probably get a reading copy anyway because it's way to valuable to expose to the stresses of reading it.

[David]

Your house sounds like mine. I have close to every book I ever read on 6 large shelves in my basement, fortunately it's dry. Then I have 7 or 8 shelves of books I've collected and need to read. I also have my vinyl I collected mostly in the early to mid 80's and about 400-500 cd's. A lot of my music is in MP3 and triples or quadruples that number. Definitely cuts down on storage. My step brother and I started sharing our collections electronically last year, so I have double what I originally had. I also collect comic books and have over 10,000 of them.

I hadn't thought about the Chesterton being in the public domain. I'll probably pick up another paper copy, though. Definitely not the BAF version, though. It's definitely the priciest one of the bunch. If you're interested in getting it, there's a nice copy of it on Ebay right now and the price isn't that bad. It has a Buy It Now of $45. I paid about $50 for mine, I think. (I'd better find it quick).

Also, if you're looking to replace your collection, I have about 40 duplicates I've accumulated from filling in my collection with BAF lots on Ebay. I've always intended putting them up on Ebay in small lots, but just never get around to it. They're in varying conditions- everything from reading copies with detached covers (BAF books seem unusually prone to the front cover falling off) to nice collector condition. I'm looking to get $2-$5 each depending on the book and condition. Very few would hit the $5 range.

I don't have any good tips for preserving these. Bagging them with acid free paperback bags is probably the best we can do. They are going to yellow with age because of the cheap acidic paper Ballantine was using at the time. You've got to love the covers, though. I love vintage paperbacks.

I'm in the middle of reading a couple of books right now and have to read As I Lay Dying by Faulkner for a book group I'm meeting with 8/14. So, I'm pretty much booked as far as reading for the next two weeks. How about we aim on finishing it by the end of August and then pick another?

[David]

Just found my copy of The Man Who Was Thursday! It's not in as good shape as I remembered it. I remember being happy with the price, so I'm thinking I paid a lot less than $50 for it.

[David]

Cool. I'll see if anyone in the Sword and Laser group would like to join us.

[Joseph]

Don't think I'll be able to join the read, but I was very happy to learn of the group. I have the full BAF collection -- I had accumulated most over the years, then when this whole "online shopping" thing took off, I was able to fill in the last couple of holes.

I've read the entire series (defined as books with the unicorn head logo and the Carter introduction) once and am gradually making my way through them again -- I tend to read about five in a row, then move on to other things. Most of them were, of course, really, really good; I think the one that gave me the most trouble was actually The Shaving Of Shagpat.

[Steve]

Hey. Glad to see some enthusiasm for these books. After I initially started this group and the response was so underwhelming I thought maybe my interest was (as usual) hopelessly passe.

I'm in for the Chesterton book. My BAF copy is pretty nice, so I think I might not read that copy, but just gaze at the cover (always one of my favorites) while I read it on my ereader.

[David]

I'm going to be doing the same, but I'll probably get another paper copy since I don't have an e-reader yet and reading it on my laptop limits too much where I can read it.

When I wrote my first post here, I was expecting no response, considering nothing had happened here in so long. This is pretty cool!

Could you put The Man who Was Thursday in the, "What we're reading," spot on the home page with a finish date somewhere toward the end of August to give it some prominence? We might pick up a few more people that way. I'm glad you could join us in the read!

[David]

Oh, duh! I should have actually LOOKED at the home page before I wrote that! I see the book is already there.

[Aloha]

I'm so glad to find out about this series. I was on a lull from fantasy because I find the current fantasies vapid and sophomoric. They were unoriginal, repetitious and inelegant. I have an added book passion now. I will be trying to collect all the books in this collection in eBook format if possible, and reading them, too, along with my science and postmodern passions.

[David]

It shouldn't be hard to find a lot of these as eBooks, since, I think, a lot of them are in the public domain. I'd start with Project Gutenberg. I like using them because they are all about keeping public domain books in the public domain. There were some that were new books written for the series, though. They might be tougher. I just looked. They have some of these. And they have A LOT of H. Rider Haggard. I am going to have to get an e-reader soon.

[Aloha]

I found 27 of them. Yes, Dave, you really do need to get an e-reader. :o)

[Joseph]

Finding as much of the series as possible in electronic format is a great idea! The only problem is that you won't get Lin Carter's extremely enthusiastic (albeit factually dubious) introductions. Well, and the anthologies, especially the mixed-author ones, will be difficult to replicate.

[Aloha]

I did a lot of clicking to request an eBook format at Amazon. I hope one day somebody will decide to do the whole series in the eBook format. Here is my bragging shelf:

Aloha's Ballantine Shelf

[Aloha]

You probably can't see it, but I listed which ones I have and which ones I don't.

[Joseph]

Excellent!

For what it's worth, baenebooks.com has electronic versions of the complete Clark Ashton Smith and the complete William Hope Hodgson. In both cases, they're electronic versions of the collections from Night Shade.

[Aloha]

Thanks, Joseph!

[David]

The William Hope Hodgson books are also in multiple electronic forms on Project Gutenberg. But I have to admit, the Night Shade collections are spectacular. I have 4 of the Hodgson in the paper form and you get the novel plus a bunch of collected thematically related short stories in each book.

[David]

Wow, you really did get a lot of them already! LOL

[Joseph]

The hardcovers of the Hodgson Night Shade collections are beautiful, beautiful things.



But the electronic editions actually make for easier reading, I think.

As for myself, I was collecting them before I knew they were an actual series -- found copies of Poseidonis and Hyperborea and some of the Carter anthologies in a used book store in Austin, MN, and one thing led to another and . . .

[Aloha]

Who are you calling an old corpse? :o) It's more for space and portability that I prefer eBooks. Also, it's easier on the eyes and research, when I decide to do a review on a book. But I agree, it is really nice to see those hardbacks lined up next to each other, especially if they have beautiful covers like the Ballantines. I don't mind the Obama adverts. I'm a Democrat.

Scott wrote: "It seems there's life in the old corpse yet.

I have multiple e-readers but there is something about this nasty little yellowing, sometimes smelly, falling apart, paperback series that has always fascinated me. I bought some of these new when they first came out, mostly by authors I was interested in anyway, (now you know how old I am), and kicked myself ever since that I didn't keep up with buying them as they came out. Things like high school, college, girls, music, beer, seem to have drawn me away back then.

I envy your collection.

I just noticed some bizarre little advert (in no way book related; about Obama's possible re-election) that popped up when I looked at your Ballantine Adult Fantasy bookshelf. I think GoodReads is sneaking some new revenue enhancer into our social networking experience.
"

[Aloha]

Last night, I went to sleep thinking of those Ballantines. I usually wake up around 5AM. The first thing I did was look for the eBooks!

David wrote: "Wow, you really did get a lot of them already! LOL"

[Aloha]

The eBooks are reasonably priced, less than a mass market paperback.

Joseph wrote: "The hardcovers of the Hodgson Night Shade collections are beautiful, beautiful things.



But the electronic editions actually m..."

[Joseph]

Scott wrote: "I have all the Hodgson, Smith, Jorkens (Dunsany), and Wellman (much like the Hodgson) hardcover collections from Night Shade. They are fine editions all. I buy the ebook for reading where I can t..."

It's not BAF, but I would love ebook editions of the Karl Edward Wagner Kane collections. But I'm guessing there are all kinds of rights issues there.

[Joseph]

Scott wrote: "It's not BAF, but I would love ebook editions of the Karl Edward Wagner Kane collections. But I'm guessing there are all kinds of rights issues there.

They are available, but where you have to go..."

Yeah, and I tend to steer clear of those kinds of places. I do have the hardcovers, so I'm set; it'd just be nice to also have something more portable.

And I'll gladly pick up Jorkens and Wellman ebooks the second Night Shade makes them available, again despite already having the hardcovers.

(It'd also be nice to have some kind of equivalent collection of Dunsany's earlier fantasy stories -- I have the BAF paperbacks, and I have Time And The Gods, the Fantasy Masterworks collection from Gollancz, but as far as electronic versions, I've had to content myself with whatever free versions were up on Amazon.)

[Joseph]

Scott wrote: "Any system I had went out the window when I ran out of room. No room left in my house. If found my box of Ballantines but now they're sitting in a pile on the floor due to lack of room. Dusting is a nightmare in my house."

That sounds awfully familiar . . . I have some pictures on my GR profile along those lines.

[David]

It sounds familiar to me too. I've run out of space for more shelves and I can't sell the duplicates and excess on Ebay fast enough to keep up with the new stuff coming in.

Maybe we should form a book lovers commune. Then we could have every book we ever wanted, at least collectively. There would be more shelves and more people keep things in order and to dust.

[David]

I finally decided on an e-reader and I just bought it from Amazon.com for $38. It's the Aluratek Libre. It has no bells and whistles (axactly what I wanted), but I can hook it up to my Mac with a USB cord and load all my free books on it. It gets pretty decent reviews. It does audio books, it takes expansion cards and it comes pre-loaded with 100 books, I'm sure all of them public domain, but still pretty cool. We'll see how it does with my PDF version of The Evolution Of The Insects. I may need the iPad for that. Crossing my fingers.

[Aloha]

Your shelves are nicely organized. I think they're even size coordinated. My shelves look kinda like the background of my profile picture. Sometimes I go through my books so furiously, they're stacked high beside my bed.

Joseph wrote: "Scott wrote: "Any system I had went out the window when I ran out of room. No room left in my house. If found my box of Ballantines but now they're sitting in a pile on the floor due to lack of roo..."

[Aloha]

Congratulations on an eReader! I heard good things about the Aluratek.

David wrote: "I finally decided on an e-reader and I just bought it from Amazon.com for $38. It's the Aluratek Libre. It has no bells and whistles (axactly what I wanted), but I can hook it up to my Mac with a U..."

[Joseph]

Aloha wrote: "Your shelves are nicely organized. I think they're even size coordinated. My shelves look kinda like the background of my profile picture. Sometimes I go through my books so furiously, they're s..."

It's partially self-defense -- when I got to a certain number, I had to start arranging them (alphabetically by author, in my case) or I'd never find anything. And I keep mass-market paperbacks separate because I can put the shelves closer together and so get more storage in the same height. Also I'm obsessive about these things.

And believe me, there are plenty of piles and stacks -- they just didn't make the pictures . . . :)

[David]

My Aluratek e-reader arrived today! I'm going to have to get an SD card right away because it's already full. With their 100 free books, I could only fit 5 more books on it. The 100 freebies are from Project Gutenberg. I suppose I could just copy them to my drive and remove them, which I may do, but for now I'll leave things the way they are. In any case, I'll need the SD card to try my pdf of Evoultion of the Insects on it because it's 68 mb. This thing only holds about 1 gb. I takes a while for a book to load. This machine is definitely no speed demon but it's less clunky than the e-readers I've played with at B&N for 5 times the price. Compatibility with my Mac is a huge plus. What little is irritating here, I will get used to. The biggest thing will be renaming all the book files to start with author names. They go by title at this point and that will be an impossible situation once I have a few hundred books downloaded.

My first E-Book read will be The Man Who Was Thursday. I can now return the library book I took out. :)

[Aloha]

Yippeee, Dave! No more being limited when you can't find the paper book! Yes, you are going to need more memory. There's no turning back now.

David wrote: "My Aluratek e-reader arrived today! I'm going to have to get an SD card right away because it's already full. With their 100 free books, I could only fit 5 more books on it. The 100 freebies are fr..."

[Aloha]

I'm almost done with Thurs. and am loving it! Witty piece of writing. I hope the ending will be satisfying because it's starting to get into some strange ideas, which I usually love if it's thoughtful to me. I hope it won't be hokey or something I disagree with.

[Aloha]

Thanks, Scott.

[Joseph]

I used to have the matching edition of Unknown Kadath



I know Ballantine (later Del Rey) reprinted the Lovecraft stuff multiple times. I think the basic content of Dream-Quest and Sarnath stayed the same, but I'm not sure if they kept the Carter introductions when they did the Del Rey editions with the Whelan covers:



They also started including volumes with more horror & Cthulhu content -- that was my first edition of Mountains of Madness. In terms of the Arkham anthologies, I don't think they ever reprinted anything from The Dunwich Horror and Others but I think they put out paperbacks with most or all of the content from At the Mountains of Madness, and Other Novels and Dagon and Other Macabre Tales.

Honestly, once I got the Arkham hardcovers I pretty much stopped paying attention to the paperbacks, except when I reread Kadath & Sarnath because I was specifically rereading the BAF.

[David]

Vintage Lovecraft paperbacks always sell well on Ebay. These sound interesting with particularly because of the horror colophon. I'm not sure I've seen those. And you certainly couldn't go wrong at 50 cents each.

[Joseph]

Apropos of nothing except vintage Lovecraft, my favorite paperback cover:



My first introduction to Lovecraft when I was in probably 6th grade -- scared the bejeebus out of me.

[David]

I am a true, long-time BAF enthusiast, buying them as they came out (and wishing I had paid more attention to getting them all). I'll admit that I only read them fitfully but have read them all. They are only second to my Tolkien HOME collection in personal value. I have 51 of the series and maybe 40 doubles to trade for my missing books (I'm determined to finish my collection). It's a wonderful series and am glad to share it appreciation with others. Anyone still on here?

[Lyle]

David wrote: "I am a true, long-time BAF enthusiast, buying them as they came out (and wishing I had paid more attention to getting them all). I'll admit that I only read them fitfully but have read them all. Th..."

Oh definitely. And congratulations for being so much more stalwart in your devotion to reading and collecting the BAF pantheon than I was back in the day. I'm now on that sojourn to collect all the BAF titles, and in some instances, collecting alternate cover art.

[David]

Great - a kindred spirit! Do you have any copies to trade? Send me a list of what you need. My email is peregrine8@hvc.rr.com.

[Lyle]

David wrote: "Great - a kindred spirit! Do you have any copies to trade? Send me a list of what you need. My email is peregrine8@hvc.rr.com."

Probably not at this point. But perhaps you can direct me to good booksellers for obtaining BAF titles for my collection.

[David]

Am having a hard time finding them, myself. That's why I'm trying to find someone to trade with. I must have some that you need. Let me know what you're looking for, I'll see what I've got, and we'll work out a fair price.

[Lyle]

David wrote: "Am having a hard time finding them, myself. That's why I'm trying to find someone to trade with. I must have some that you need. Let me know what you're looking for, I'll see what I've got, and we'..."

Very good! Let me pull together a short list and see what I come up with.

[Lyle]

OK, Randolph. I just purchased used copies of several of Lin Carter's contributions to the BAF collection: Golden Cities Far, A Look Behind the Lord of the Rings, and Discoveries In Fantasy, but not yet Dragons, Elves, and Heroes. If you or anyone else in the discussion group has extra copies of these and other BAF titles that are in good condition, let me know how much you'd be willing to part with them for.

[Lyle]

By all means, yes. I'll be more than happy to give the BAF editions a good home. I'm as much a collector of the literary tales as I am of the cover art (I must have at least three different RMBM edition covers). Let me know how to get in touch with you about this.

dauerwald@gmail.com

[David]

Hi, Lyle(we've chatted before). Hi, Randolph. I have a bunch of BAF I'd trade for ones I'm missing, or sell cheaply. Please email me at peregrine8@hvc.rr.com or call/text me at (845)594-4863. Thanks.

[Lyle]

Randolph wrote: "Lyle wrote: "By all means, yes. I'll be more than happy to give the BAF editions a good home. I'm as much a collector of the literary tales as I am of the cover art (I must have at least three diff..."

Randolph, I promise you will never see them again! However, I cannot pm you at goodreads; I get a message that you're not accepting messages. Let me know how else to get in touch with you.