When I began collecting a few months ago I told myself I wouldn’t be looking for paperbacks; not only are they less sturdy than their thicker cousins, but they are also often much shorter. On my bookshelf I want the books to all look good together, and a puny little short edition isn’t going to achieve that. However, this set piqued my interest, and now sits on my shelf.
This 1996 slipcased set is illustrated by Alan Lee and was published by Harper Collins. It contains the 50 colour illustrations by Lee which first appeared in the 1991 one volume edition. It’s bizarre how I now have a few different books with the same text and same illustrations, but presented so differently (not to mention costing so different a range of prices).
First impressions are good – the box is strong and sturdy, and the soft covers don’t make the books half as flimsy as I imagined they would. The white spines stand out against all of my other books, and the lavish illustrations which cover both sides of the slipcase are very ornamental. Being a three volume set makes it easy to handle, and the pages are shiny and high quality.
The set is 18.5cm high, which is the same as most of my hardback collection. I only know this as I asked the seller on ebay, and I have to say that I would not have picked it up if it was smaller. As it is, it now sits perfectly on book shelf.
Original retail price was £40, but I picked this up for just £3 on ebay (plus postage). This was (in my opinion) largely due to the fact that the picture didn’t make it clear that this was this set, but infact made it look like one of the cheaper, smaller and more common paperback sets out there.
All in all a nice set, and certainly one which doesn’t lose any quality through being paperback.
Will you sell these to me please? haha
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