What are you reading?

[edinatlanta]

You people are nerds.

 

[Fueco]

 

[imatlas]

Anything in particular you would recommend from him, that's in print?

I have the following 3 on my list for things I might pick up in the February book sale:

- though I haven't checked yet if there's any overlap between these...

The Zothique stories (which include The Dark Eidolon) got me into him in the first place. Early version of a “Dying Earth” type sequence, a la Vance or Wolfe.

His poetry is of an excessively florid late Romantic style. It can be a lot to wade through but has its own charms.

 

[double00]

I once came across a letter to the editor of one of Lovecraft’s “amateur journalism” magazines, complaining about how racist he was. The letter was written in 1918!

i find lovecraftian *weirdness* sort of tiresome . i'd rather read clive barker or Poe .

 

[SixOhNine]

After I watched John Carter, I decided to read all of the Barsoom books, by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I'm on the second, Gods of Mars. The writing is a bit turn of the century florid, but he's a good storyteller and the pace is quick.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

Highly recommend

 

[imatlas]

i find lovecraftian *weirdness* sort of tiresome . i'd rather read clive barker or Poe .

Can’t disagree with this particularly, mostly Lovecraft is a nostalgia trip for me. It’s an interesting area for collecting, and suits the collecting dictum of “buying the best you can afford”: the early Arkham’s are pricey but achievable; the pre-Arkham stuff can be quite rare and hard to find; and there are some very special limited editions that have been done recently by very talented printers and binders, which is particularly of interest to me. Lovecraft in fine press is the center of my Venn Diagram, so to speak.

I have some very special Poe in my collection as well, including a first edition of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, the progenitor of Lovecraftian ‘cosmic horror’, as well as some fine press work.

I mentioned that I just got a new book in recently, this is from one of the leading fine presses in the country. They have discovered a profitable sideline in crazy high end editions of Lovecraft titles, and I’m here for it.

Original aquatints, letterpress printed and hand bound. An exquisite object of horror.

 

[Kaplan]

Very nice. While I pay a lot of attention to which print edition I pick up (and I'm very pleased with my - very much mass produced - Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories from the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition imprint, with its deckled edges and nice cover illustrations) this is really something else. For something of this level of craftsmanship, do you also use it as a reading copy or more as a collectible?

 

[Clouseau]

Somehow in the vein of Lovecraft, although it is question of satanism, I recently red Denis Wheatley’s « The devil rides out », that I red because i love the 1968 movie starring Christopher Lee and Charles Gray, directed by Terence Fisher. The script was written by Richard Matheson and it is a very good adaptation of the 1934 novel. The ending is better in the book though, but the trip to Greece would have probably been too expensive for Hammer films.

 

[imatlas]

For something of this level of craftsmanship, do you also use it as a reading copy or more as a collectible?

More as a collectible, unless it contains material that i don’t have anywhere else (like this copy has “The History of the Necronomicon” and a “facsimile” page from the 1499 edition of same, along with the main story).

Yes I am one of those collectors will shelves full of books that I will never read. I take them down and leaf through them, i admire the artwork and the craftsmanship, and then they go back on the shelf.

 

[imatlas]

Book collecting got me into bookbinding and case making as a hobby. My first project was a tray case for an original typescript by Caitlin Kiernan. I’ve progressed quite a bit in this area since then. Here’s a box I just finished over the holidays.

It’s a “drop spine” tray case (sometimes incorrectly referred to as a Solander case), covered in goat leather, Japanese silk book cloth, and hand marbled paper.

HP Lovecraft had very little commercial success during his lifetime, with effectively none of his work appearing in hardcover until after his death, so signed Lovecraft originals are almost non existent.

His signature is most commonly found on books from his own library, like this rarity.

 

[edinatlanta]

Book collecting got me into bookbinding and case making as a hobby. My first project was a tray case for an original typescript by Caitlin Kiernan. I’ve progressed quite a bit in this area since then. Here’s a box I just finished over the holidays.

It’s a “drop spine” tray case (sometimes incorrectly referred to as a Solander case), covered in goat leather, Japanese silk book cloth, and hand marbled paper.

HP Lovecraft had very little commercial success during his lifetime, with effectively none of his work appearing in hardcover until after his death, so signed Lovecraft originals are almost non existent.

His signature is most commonly found on books from his own library, like this rarity.
View attachment 2312485 View attachment 2312487 View attachment 2312489 View attachment 2312491

Great bookplate.