DO YOU HAVE A BOOK QUESTION?

[manor_house_books]

Hi all, pippy_oak here, posting under my brand new user name. Hopefully, Richard will pin this thread, as it seems a nice tidy place to pose specific questions about a book (Is it a 1st edition, what's it worth, where to find it etc. etc.) Don't just come here with a question. If you think you have the answer, then let's hear it.

Or we could just mooch around and learn a few things.

Cheers

Paul

[manor_house_books]

I found this in the catalogue for Allsworth Rare Books (http://www.allsworthbooks.com/index.htm)

HORE, Annie Boyle. To Lake Tanganyika in a bath chair. London, Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1886.

8vo (18 x 12 cm), pp. [xii], 217, with a portrait frontispiece of the author, half-tone plate opposite p. 80, two folding maps; some very minor foxing; contemporary half morocco. £1500

First edition. Extremely scarce. Annie Hore travelled in a wicker bath chair from the coast inland to Ujiji; the remarkably eccentric journey, covering some 830 miles, took ninety days

Still looking for your art book. Hope this helps.

[broadsman]

Thanks for that! My edition doesn't sound as grand as that one. It has blue pictorial cloth boards (showing author being carried in bath chair. It also doesn't have the portrait frontispiece or the half-tone plate but it does have the maps. Size is about right! I'm thinking that mine isn't a first edition but wonder how many (or few!) firsts were printed before my version was published. Not too many of either, I guess!

[broadsman]

Thanks for that! My edition doesn't sound as grand as that one. It has blue pictorial cloth boards (showing author being carried in bath chair. It also doesn't have the portrait frontispiece or the half-tone plate but it does have the maps. Size is about right! I'm thinking that mine isn't a first edition but wonder how many (or few!) firsts were printed before my version was published. Not too many of either, I guess!

[sigmapsidelta]

I picked up what I thought was a relatively common childrens illustrated title today.....

The Snow Lambs by Debi Gliori. Published by Scholastic/Andre Deutsch Childrens Books in 1995.

Trouble is I can only find mention of paperback copies, yet this one is a hardcover in dust wrapper.

Anyone seen another hardcover anywhere?

. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Whomever you may murder, there's no police like Holmes.
Σ Ψ Δ
σ ψ δ

[ok-mrs-bee]

Amazon.com had used hardcover copies (Scholastic) - all in America. Is it the American edition?

http://tinyurl.com/t7tlu

[ok-mrs-bee]

... can't be, the Am. edition is 1996.

[sigmapsidelta]

Definitely UK as the wrapper is priced '£9.99'.

Didn't happen to notice what they were going for, did you?

There's another item - I Ching Numerology - a trade paperback. I found two others being offered, but both claimed to be published by HarperCollins in 1979. Collins hadn't yet met Harper in 1979. And my copy was published by Routledge & Kegan Paul in the same year.

. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Whomever you may murder, there's no police like Holmes.
Σ Ψ Δ
σ ψ δ

[ok-mrs-bee]

Steve, the link in #944 will take you to the page where you click on the link for 'New and used from ...'. As to what they're going for - watch and note which ones disappear.

[sigmapsidelta]

Thanks, Mrs Bee. I missed that link at first.

Not much in the way of description on that Amazon lot. Only the two highest-priced copies mentioned the binding at all, and one of them was softcover.

. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Whomever you may murder, there's no police like Holmes.
Σ Ψ Δ
σ ψ δ

[ok-mrs-bee]

I've just realised that I said 'had' instead of 'has', in #944 - no wonder you were asking about prices - sorry!

I've just followed the link again and found some for sale on Amazon UK, with much higher asking prices.

http://tinyurl.com/ykys5t

[ok-mrs-bee]

Oh - they're still in the US.

[black-country-books]

Need a bit of advice, please.

Have a textbook: Contemporary Spain Essays and texts on politics, economics, education and employment, and society. ISBN: 0-582-29422-3 Published by Longman 1998.

The only copy I can find is on Amazon for £50. Can only assume that it is no longer printed. Can't possibly ask anywhere near that and expect it to be sold.

Would appreciate a bit of help, please.

[manor_house_books]

It has a sales rating of over 500,000, so not exactly a best seller. Personally, I don't think buyers for specialist texts of this type look on ebay, so Amazon is the best bet. Just make sure that when that elusive buyer comes along, yours is the most attractive.

[black-country-books]

Thanks, Manor House.

Presumably a low sales rating means it is a scarce book - in the case of a textbook, probably out of print. (Yes, I know it could also mean it is an unwanted textbook; but I'm the eternal optimist)

Where would I find the sales ratings, please?

[black-country-books]

ps - Sorry to hear about your conservatory - glad you are safe 🙂

[ok-mrs-bee]

The Sales Rank is given at the bottom of the Product Details, Chris.

[manor_house_books]

The amazon sales rating is a valuable piece of information. Worth a check even if listing on ebay. I wouldn't use the term "scarce", as this implies "sought-after". A big number for sales rating usually means a very low demand, irrespective of whether or not there are many copies about.

Thanks for your concern. Yes, we are all safe. I was worried about one of my cats who was in the conservatory when the storm struck. He went missing for about 5 hours, but eventually turned up when the storm abated. The old manor is perched on top of the Pennines at 1000 ft, so tends to get a lot of weather. A more thorough check this morning revealed quite a bit of damage to the main roof, with an amount of lead torn off. Could have been a lot worse though. Nowhere near as bad as some of the places on the news.

[ok-mrs-bee]

Cats know where to go, don't they? Is the lead re-usable? - on the roof, I mean.

[black-country-books]

Manor House, all my books are 'sought after' 😉

I wish.

[manor_house_books]

Theoretically, the lead is re-usable, but you have to solder the bits together. I'm repairing the conservatory etc. myself, but I've decided to get someone in to do the house roof on insurance, as it's quite high up, so I don't mind if they use new lead, my guess is they will, and "weigh in" the scrap as a tax-free backhander.