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05-07-2009, 10:44 PM | #1 |
Spirit of Mist
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Tol Eressea
Posts: 3,326
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My Secret Vice
Uh... hello. My name is Mithadan... and I'm... a Tolkien hoarder.
There. I've said it. Not a "collector", though some of my hoard is undeniably collectible. A hoarder, with all the negative connotations that the word bears with it. I first read the Hobbit in 1971. My copy was a loaner that I respectfully returned in the same condition as when I borrowed it. About a year later, when I learned there was a sequel to the Hobbit, I bought a new copy to re-read before I went on to LoTR. Ballantine paperback, white covers, Tolkien's own artwork. The copies of LoTR that I bought a bit later were the same edition. I treated them well and, as they were more durable than current paperbacks which seem to last as long as an over-ripe banana in the sun, they lasted until 1996 or so, at which time a certain small goblin gleefully shredded them one by one as I read them (I actually reassembled them and bound them with duct tape; I technically still have them). At that time, in 1996, I also owned (and still own) a copy of the Silmarillion (HB purchased the first day it came out), Unfinished Tales (HB), Lost Tales I and II (both HB), Pictures by Tolkien (HB, slipcased) and The Road Goes Ever On (HB), the Tolkien Reader (sc), Farmer Giles and Smith of Wooten Major (sc) various analyses/critcisms, biographies, and an obscure one, The Jewel of Arwen. I did not immediately replace my poor, abused copies of LoTR. At around that time, I came across paperback versions of HoME 3 - 5 and wandered through those. Then I began looking for a new copy of LoTR. By that time I had discovered eBay. I bid on and won a copy described somewhat inaccurately as a slipcased hardcover version of all three volumes. It turned out to be a first reprint Folio Society edition, beautiful, particularly at $15.00. Clearly this could not be my reading copy. Back to eBay. I next bought exactly the same edition I had read in the early 1970's, except it was also slipcased (gold foil, with Elvish heraldic symbols). When it arrived, it turned out to be in mint condition. The books had bever been opened. Clearly this could not be my reading copy. Back to eBay. Second American edition, hardcover, slipcased, better save that one. The Special Edition commonly known as the Big Red One (HB, single volume, slipcased). Too nice to mess up. Finally a single volume Book Club edition. This is my current reading copy... and it's getting a bit worn. Oh, and the first version of the Ballantine paperback edition with the funky psychadelic covers; on the shelf virtually untouched. Oh, and 2 more copies of the Silmarillion, so I can read three at once, and one more Unfinished Tales. The ten volumes of HoME I did not have in hardcover (including replacements for the 3 paperbacks I had purchased) and Letters. I read those. Artist and Illustrator, I sometimes look at that one. Children of Hurin. Atlas of Middle Earth. The Inklings, I've had that one for two years and haven't even cracked it open. The Hobbit, let's see. Four paperback copies, both versions that I read in the early 1970s. The Annotated Hobbit, read once. A Deluxe Edition, slipcased, which I gave to my kids and replaced with a 50th Anniversary edition... that I never read. Lot's of books. Multiple copies of the same books, many untouched, all stashed away. There's no rhyme or reason to it either. It's not as if I'm trying to collect versions of LoTR with different covers or slipcases. Nor am I trying to collect first editions, or second editions or anything in specific. I simply gather them all unto myself. This sounds like a hoard to me. Does anyone else do this? And if so, can you help me understand why? Why do I need 6 copies of LoTR, 3 of the Silmarillion, when I have 1 reading copy of each. Why all these other books, some of which I've barely glanced at?
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Beleriand, Beleriand, the borders of the Elven-land. |
05-08-2009, 04:20 AM | #2 |
Wisest of the Noldor
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???
Er, well, to be honest, you do sound pretty weird to me, Mithadan... but then, so do all people (adults, anyway) who collect/hoard stuff for its own sake. I just don't get it. *sigh* Why you people can't do something sensible with your time, like filing each and every book you possess by subject and in alphabetical order, I'll never understand...
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"Even Nerwen wasn't evil in the beginning." –Elmo. |
05-08-2009, 05:34 AM | #3 |
Princess of Skwerlz
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: where the Sea is eastwards (WtR: 6060 miles)
Posts: 7,500
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Why? The classic answer to every irreasonable striving: Because it is there.
OK, I'm a bit more utilitarian about books, and haven't yet fallen prey to the lure of Ebay, so the only multiple books I have are annotated or expanded editions and my original, 36-year old case (Hobbit, LotR, red heraldric box, Tolkien's cover illustrations), which is no longer in use. Of the latter I made the same experience as you, Mith - those good ol' paperbacks sure lasted longer than nowadays! However, I can understand your case - had I gotten "good as new" editions, I would keep them as collector's items instead of using them. Probably a surer investment than stocks these days...
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'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth...' |
05-08-2009, 08:19 AM | #4 |
Fair and Cold
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I collect beer coasters from around the world - and while I like the pretty ones and decorate the living room with them, I also used to hoard all sorts, so I think I get the desire. I think the pack rat instinct is an evolutionary response - it gives people a feeling of security, especially with regard to the things we love.
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~The beginning is the word and the end is silence. And in between are all the stories. This is one of mine~ |
05-08-2009, 09:09 AM | #5 |
Wisest of the Noldor
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Hey, there's people out there who collect barbed wire... and thimbles... and used bus tickets... and erasers... In fact, pretty much anything you can think of has a devoted following.
...Takes all sorts, I guess.
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"Even Nerwen wasn't evil in the beginning." –Elmo. |
05-08-2009, 10:26 AM | #6 | |
Doubting Dwimmerlaik
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Heaven's basement
Posts: 2,466
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The biological explanations for such a compulsion are readily available. Anyway, I (and surely others) am just glad that it's Tolkien's works and not 'roadkill' or 'dentures' or 'other people's laundry.'
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There is naught that you can do, other than to resist, with hope or without it.
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05-08-2009, 10:52 AM | #7 | |
Regal Dwarven Shade
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: A Remote Dwarven Hold
Posts: 3,589
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Quote:
Not, of course, that I would know about such things from personal experience. I must admit I own a copy of The Fellowship of the Ring that could charitably be described as "tattered" (or rather more accurately "destroyed"). You can still read it if you hold it together just right.
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...finding a path that cannot be found, walking a road that cannot be seen, climbing a ladder that was never placed, or reading a paragraph that has no... |
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05-08-2009, 11:07 AM | #8 |
Spirit of Mist
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Tol Eressea
Posts: 3,326
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Alatar, a good place to look for Tolkien collectibles is at the sales libraries sometimes hold to get rid of old books. That's where I picked up a 1st edition of the Hobbit (in rather poor shape).
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Beleriand, Beleriand, the borders of the Elven-land. |
05-08-2009, 12:43 PM | #9 | |
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
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For me, though I'm not terribly keen on getting newer and newer editions of LotR (I have my one-volume beaten up/annotated by self copy and my Red Red Book for prettiness' sake), I do get rather obsessive when I find odd-looking copies in used bookstores (the more beat-up, the better). It's not so much a sense of packrattishness as it is the delusion I hold of "liberating" these neglected books from their slow, unreadable decay. If they're especially odd (i.e., getting a UK edition from a used bookstore when LotR was still published by a company with the name "Unwin" in it) I'll hold onto them; otherwise I try to keep them as "I don't particularly care if you return them or not" loaners as I try to corrupt more people into the goodness that is Tolkien.
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Got corsets? |
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05-08-2009, 11:38 AM | #10 |
Pilgrim Soul
Join Date: May 2004
Location: watching the wonga-wonga birds circle...
Posts: 9,449
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I am a hoarder (though I am currently trying to declutter and am trying to reform - I used to keep everything, every last bank statement, photograph, card, letter and Christmas card, the sweaters that my gran knitted me etc now I am relatively ruthless - pass on read paperbacks unless I really love them, and the day I got a shredder and blitzed everything that had passed the seven year limit - well I could easily have mocked up a set for a reenactment of the Fell winter but I am not particularly emotional about my Tolkien books as artefacts though as works they are precious. As long as I could replace them I am happy..I am a bit protective of The road goes ever on because I had to wait so long to get it and I am careful of my radio series tapes because the new version has been rejigged but otherwise I covet hard backs simply because the paperbacks are rather fragile for the use I give them. Although they look and feel nice a hard back can be rather awkward to read unless you are sitting at a desk.
However I bought a deluxe COH and wrapped it in tissue paper to read it to avoid any risk of paw marks so that slightly backfired. I suppose if I had unlimited space and money I would but in a small house already full of inherited mathoms I try to restrain my own collecting - multiple copies of books when the cases are already double stacked would be rather decadent and if we are going decadent and the money were available then I am not sure that a special edition of a work I already have would win out agains a super handbag or hat or champagne....
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“But Finrod walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar.”
Christopher Tolkien, Requiescat in pace |
05-08-2009, 01:35 PM | #11 | ||
Doubting Dwimmerlaik
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Heaven's basement
Posts: 2,466
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Quote:
Quote:
I'll take my chances with the old books.
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There is naught that you can do, other than to resist, with hope or without it.
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05-08-2009, 02:58 PM | #12 |
Spectre of Decay
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I can still see carpet. Time to buy more books
I have an old paperback of LR that I tried to repair with epoxy resin. It didn't work. That book is now bisected at page 492, with Merry and Pippin in Treebeard's house. You can't throw them away, you know.
Don't lie to yourself, Mith; you know they give you pleasure. My hoard isn't ridiculous yet, since I don't have six copies of the same book. However, I do confess to duplicate copies and volumes I've never read. I've got a first edition and a fiftieth anniversary edition of LR as well as my reading copy and the aforementioned wrecked paperback; an early Silmarillion; two copies of The Hobbit; photocopies of academic articles by Tolkien and everything by or about him that I've been able to afford. I bought the three-volume hard-back of HME and then kept collecting the paperbacks so that I wouldn't have to open it. I've got a first edition of Pictures by JRR Tolkien that I daren't touch any more and a fourth impression of The Road Goes Ever On with sheet music I can't even read. What can you do? They put up this big stall full of books at Oxonmoot: I'm not made of stone. I think this is all perfectly sensible. It's like a drinker's secret stash of Laphroaig down the back of the sink. You never know when a bizarre train of events will leave you desperately scrabbling through a cupboard looking for a second-edition of Unfinished Tales, or the last copy of Mr. Bliss that you know you haven't lent out. How convenient if there's one in every cupboard.
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Man kenuva métim' andúne? |
05-08-2009, 06:31 PM | #13 | |
Regal Dwarven Shade
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: A Remote Dwarven Hold
Posts: 3,589
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Quote:
I only own one set of duplicates. I have two copies of The Hobbit. One of them is the hardback edition with Alan Lee's foggy and washed out illustrations and the other is the one I actually read from because the hardback is so darn big its impossible to actually use. (Does anybody else have this problem with large hardbacks? Not only do you not want to use them, if you try you find that you really can't very well.) I honestly rather regret getting the hardback, but it does look awfully pretty and pretentious sitting there on my shelf next to the rest of the rabble of my tattered tomes.
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...finding a path that cannot be found, walking a road that cannot be seen, climbing a ladder that was never placed, or reading a paragraph that has no... |
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05-08-2009, 06:41 PM | #14 |
Stormdancer of Doom
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To use the hardback one should be in a recliner, modestly reclined (not all the way back) with toes toward the glowing woodstove, and a pleasant cup of tea or coffee at hand (or perhaps an iced juice drink if the woodstove has been hot for a quite a while.)
A couch pillow helps to properly align the book.
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...down to the water to see the elves dance and sing upon the midsummer's eve. |
05-08-2009, 05:06 PM | #15 | |
Stormdancer of Doom
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Okay, now I'll read the rest of the thread... maybe I'll end up taking another inventory. But my real question is music. Whatcha got for MUSIC? EDIT: Ten boxed (or pseudo boxed by me) sets or almost-sets (Meaning I completed the sets myself instead of buying them as sets.) Four that I could locate (but I KNOW I have more-- dweeby black-paperback movie editions-- am I missing another whole plastic box...??? ) single-volume trilogies (one Red Book, two dimestore movie editions, and one old paperback that has a faded Pauline Baynes illustration and is missing much of the appendices.) My husband always said "But it's all the SAME STORY." And that's just the trilogy. I have many hobbits, including a New annotated Hobbit and an Old annotated hobbit... Two paperback sets of History of LOTR; four or five TOlkien Readers... Yeah. Stuff. Inventory started, but I gotta get the pizza out of the oven now... Another Edit After Liberating the Pizza (although the fire alarm went off, the pizza was NOT overdone: ) So you ask, Why? Why do you hoard Tolkien? I don't know why I do it either-- excapt perhaps that the trauma of losing my original Red Heraldry set to mildew triggered it. I HAD to have another Red Heraldry set; but I bought a gold one; then I missed the psychedelic ones, and once I started surfing covers, I just kinda liked them all. Even the movie ones (I know, I know, but I always loved that shot of Frodolijah holding the ring and being all lit with red from his fireplace.) Maybe there's some sort of hope that, if we just collect enough, from one of them will spring a Mallorn tree. Or maybe a Wardrobe that drops us off at the House of Lost Play. Or maybe we'll start Dreaming, Ælfwine. I DO know that's why I hoard the music. EDIT: Squatter: Although I CAN read the Road Goes Ever On, I can't read three copies at once. See above.
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...down to the water to see the elves dance and sing upon the midsummer's eve. Last edited by mark12_30; 05-08-2009 at 06:06 PM. Reason: Why? Why do Mallorns hold their leaves in the winter? Because Lothlorien is like that. Elrond's library? |
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05-08-2009, 05:27 PM | #16 |
Vice of Twilight
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: on a mountain
Posts: 1,121
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Gee, I feel a little silly now. I have one set of the books, and there's one additional set in the house that's for family use. One copy of The Hobbit. And that's it.
But though I'm not looking so great on the Tolkien collections, I can understand the hoarding urge. There must be a reason that I trip over guitars in this house wherever I go. And there must be a reason that we have several editions of the same Chesterton book. I mean... there must be a legitimate reason. Surely we're not all just crazy?
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In the fury of the moment I can see the Master's hand in every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand. |
05-08-2009, 06:10 PM | #17 |
Stormdancer of Doom
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How many Pennywhistles do you have NOW?
Daeron and Tinfang Warble had flutes. I forget who had the harp? Was it Maglor? Someone must have had a lutelike objectr in Middle-earth. Then there were Luthien, Melian, and Nimrodel, singers every one. And Galadriel was no slouch. We're in good company, Nuru.
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...down to the water to see the elves dance and sing upon the midsummer's eve. Last edited by mark12_30; 05-09-2009 at 11:45 AM. Reason: MIdedle Earth-- where's that? |
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