Best Online Sites for Rare Book Collectors.

Where to buy Rare Books Online.

So, you live on a desert island, isolated, lovely beech, gorgeous sea, yes I am jealous. But , how to you feed your addiction for your Books, glorious Books. Well my friends, fret not.. All you need to do , in your desert island, is go find a WiFi connection... that is literally all you need... Oh ok, a few bob and a paypal account (not to mention a credit card).

So what sites ? Well, You can get the usual Ebay merchants. Have a look at the link below, for a handy section on Ebay, selling some rare books.

Ebay Rare First Edition Books

More Great Online Sites are :

Abe Books - Rare Modern Classics

Alibris - Also Gives Good Advise for Novice Book Collectors

Bookfinder Another Great Resource for Finding that Rare Treasure.
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Bookfinder also have a handy You Tube Video as a guide to using their website:

Next Post will be all about the Price to Pay. How do you know that its a good deal ?
Untill then...

Where to Find Rare Books.

Where to find your treasures ?

Ok, so we know what we are looking for, and we know how to establish if its really a first edition or not, the next step my dear reader is - where do we find these treasures.

So we have two possible routes - Offline and Online.

Offline:

This is a kind of a post way of saying, buy it in a shop. Now, this is my personal favourite. You get wander round a rare books bookshop. This, for most readers, is a magical experience. You get to pick up the books ( if the shopkeeper lets you, and they are not too rare). Smell that special book smell, wander the shelves, and just get lost for a while.

The Image above comes from the Famous Book Shop - Shakespeare and Co. Now that delightful shop is in Paris - that may b a little further than you were prepared to go. So what about Ireland ?

Well, my friends, I found a little treasure in right here in Dublin. In the Heart of Dublin City, the old historic Duke Street ( Number 10 to be exact), you will find a veritable delight in rare books.
Ulysses Rare Books , a veritable mecca for the book lover.

Ulysses Website . Have a look at this. You are Welcome.

Next Post - Where to buy Online...

How to find First Edition Books..

So... you want to start collecting ... how do you do it, where do you start.. Well, before our imaginations start thinking of Quaint Old Bookshops, patiently sitting in Harry Potter Diaganon Alley type lanes, lets first look at how to identify a First Edition. How will we know it when we see it..

When in doubt, You Tube It Out... I say. Here is a very Handy Tutorial to show you the basics about identifying a First Edition Book ( don't worry its only 2.52 minutes long)

So now we have the basics, Lets go Adventuring to find our books.

First Edition Books .... 

Who wants a Kindle when you can have the joy of  reading a Book , in your hands, with that Glorious Book Smell. Imagine, getting your hands on a First Edition of your very favourite old novel. The book you love most in the world, the book that changed your life, the one you go back to time after time... The Desert Island Book.

Imagine a Jane Austen Devotee, reading about the Gorgeous Mr Darcy and the Elusive Elizabeth Bennet, from a Book the Author could have actually touched and held herself ? The original illustrations, the smell of the musty pages, And to take this dream one step further, a book she actually signed herself.. that precious signature, every time you open the first page.

For me, it was Watership Down. That delight from Richard Adams.

First Edition 

And even greater joy, he signed it , dated it, and dedicated it to a friend in Covent Garden.
What a find.

More Information on Watership Down

Next Post.... how to Identify a First Edition