I talk a bit about fancy editions and the pretty things I buy. They’re mostly from small presses, specialists in science fiction and fantasy. I’m on various mailing lists so I can find out about new releases and hopefully pre-order before they get to market. While there is a rabbit hole of small publishers to find and lose myself in, the big publishers also release nice editions. Somehow I rarely come across those nice editions and I don’t know if it’s because I go to the wrong book shops, or simply many of such things don’t make it to Oz at all.

I have some fancy editions from big publishers including my beautiful copy of Lord of the Rings from HarperCollins. That was possibly my first special edition in the late 80s, and was certainly the most expensive book I’d bought for over 20 years since, only to be beaten a decade ago by Malazan book 1, Gardens of the Moon.

In recent years, I have focused on finding nice editions but really most of my books, especially my science fiction, are paperbacks, many bought cheaply secondhand. And it shows. Lots have yellowed and deteriorated, some need to be handled carefully as I’ve had instances where the soft cover has detached with a mere touch.

I have a few nice Tolkien tomes from HarperCollins and the Quicksilver trilogy by Neal Stephenson from Morrow – actually Morrow is an interesting one as I think it was originally its own company but these days is an imprint of HarperCollins. Gollancz used to publish their new releases in hardcover with yellow dustjackets so they always stood out – was never interested in collecting those plus couldn’t afford hardcovers in those days. These days they look like an imprint of Hachette, along with Orbit and no doubt many others.

I’ve recently found out that Orson Scott Card’s Ender series had some titles published in pretty editions but I don’t think I’ve ever seen them locally and they’re a wee bit eccy to buy on the secondary market. It must be said, that I’ve recently discovered that there were books beyond the trilogy I had read. The trilogy is more a quintet, and there’s a further 14 novels and a bunch of short stories. While I won’t be seeking those other nice editions, Centipede is releasing nice versions of their own, signed, numbered and in a capped case. So far they’ve released Ender’s Game, Ender’s Way (a collection of almost all the short stories) and will soon be releasing Speaker for the Dead.