Browse the bookplates of the famous, infamous, and unknown

You’re a serious reader if you have your own bookplate. Or you’re a book collector. Or a dignitary. Or maybe you’re someone with a lot of time on your hands. But most bookplate users basically boil down to folks who love to read and want to brand their beloved books as their own. It’s pretty […]

Rare books are now easier to find at Alibris

Interested in an $8,000 edition of To Kill a Mockingbird (inscribed by Harper Lee)? Or how about a hard-to-find $38,000 copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (U.K. edition)? You can find them via the new rare books gallery at Alibris. Of course, books at these prices are likely to interest only serious book […]

A bookseller takes you behind the scenes of book collecting

I’ve been a collector of books (and a few other things) for almost 25 years. I spent most of these years as a bookseller—first as a bookstore owner and later as a manager. My love of books has kept me connected to the book industry. Being in the trade has been very beneficial to my […]

“Book Talk” discusses book collecting in depth

In Book Talk: Essays on Books, Booksellers, Collecting, and Special Editions, edited by Robert H. Jackson and Carol Z. Rothkopf, 18 perceptive and thought-provoking essays by noted collectors and sellers of books are presented. The result is a kaleidoscope comprised of the many textures, flavors, tones, and hues found in the book field. The authors […]

Book-collecting musings from a lifelong bibliophile

I caught the book-collecting bug at an early age. Growing up in Boston, I found our apartment filled with them—the teetering stacks at every turn. Henry Miller mingled with Virginia Woolf, Julia Child, and Kurt Vonnegut. Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys nearly bricked up an entire wall on their own. Books were exchanged on […]

The accidental book collection: from the airwaves to the page

The most enjoyable book collections can begin inadvertently. Mine started that way. I became mesmerized by radio dramatist Joe Frank’s odd and inventive tales of everyday people. When I discovered Frank had penned a collection of short stories, I immediately set out to find the out-of-print The Queen of Puerto Rico. Little did I know […]