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Birders Libraries (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter tom24
- Start date
Mine's minute compared to many: c.110 titles plus 28 years' worth of BB and a complete run of Birding World up to mid 2004. I think very carefully before buying these days; I have all the best intentions, but far too many of the reference books I've bought have remained lamentably under-used.
That's just the birding section. As for my other interests - well just ask my better half. When she eventually does me in, the books will be the very first thing out of the door. The space in the house will double!
That's just the birding section. As for my other interests - well just ask my better half. When she eventually does me in, the books will be the very first thing out of the door. The space in the house will double!
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Mine is even smaller @ about 50 volumes. Only 14 years of BB and 9 years of Yorkshire birding on the magazine side, and a dozen or so video guides. This is nowhere near what I would like but my better half :h?: is quite strict on my buying books. I am a nut when it comes to books and will buy Waterstones one day. I have a loft full of books, fiction and non-fiction. As I got into birding late in life I have not had chance to build up the library too much. Best buy was at an auction when I spotted Heydal's Kon-Tiki expedition in a small pile of books. Bid £4.00 and got it along with 400 other volumes of various kinds! My wife was amused :storm:
gordon hamlett
Well-known member
library
probably about 1200 - but I do get sent some review copies <grin>
Gordon
probably about 1200 - but I do get sent some review copies <grin>
Gordon
Docmartin
Thought Police
tom24 said:
Can't really afford a proper library. I have about 150 bird books (most recent purchase Gurney's 'Rambles of A naturalist in Egypt etc.' DON'T TELL MRS DOC!). BB run complete from 1946 and a few volumes before then (I actually have Volume 1 issue 1, unbound as nature intended). Birding World up to this year when stopped. Prizes of my books are Richard Richardson's own copy of Vaurie's Birds of the Palearctic fauna I, also Vaurie's Asiatic Larks with a dedication to meinertzhagen by the author(! - they hated each other), a complete set of bannerman's Birds if the British Isles, a set of Yarrell, bits and bobs of old stuff.
Docmartin said:
Did you receive the book from RR himself or was it a gift? He has been one of my birding heroes, main regret is never being able to meet him. Spoken to a few birders who knew him and everyone said that he was a complete gentleman in everyway.
Jane Turner
Well-known member
Not counted mine - but it accounts for a room or two. Well impressed with your RAR Doc...... My Witherby Handbook is my prize possesion - the amazing thing is it is still useful.
Jane Turner
Well-known member
Keith Dickinson said:
I tried another trick once - there was a book I really wanted (it was a 1st edition Wallace (Island forms). In a huge general book lot in my local auction house. I waited till the the end of the auction and offered the winner a £10 for the book (the whole lot had been just £20) I escaped several hundred weight of readers digest specials.
Stewart J.
Well-known member
150+, my BB go back to 1937 (bound till 1995) Poysers, Croom Helms, BWP, Witherbys Handbooks as said still useful, various overseas field guides and site guides, New Naturalist titles, older stuff by PAD Hollom, TA Coward etc. One of my favourite reads is A Naturalist on Lindisfarne (R Perry) full of littles gems ie catching rabbits by frightening them out of burrows by introducing a live crab into them with a lit candle on its back, ingenuity or what? Plus selection of video's and DVD's.
I need to get out more?
Stewart
I need to get out more?
Stewart
No Witherby here, alas, but I've got Hollom's The Popular Handbook of British Birds, which, when it was published in 1952, was distilled from it. And, yes, that's still useful too.Jane Turner said:
The oldest item in my library is four volumes of hand-painted plates from the third edition (1812) of Lewin's Birds of Great Britain. Alas, it looks as if some former owner was only interested in the pictures and had them rebound, discarding the accompanying texts and thus reducing eight volumes to four. If they hadn't done that the books would probably be worth a tidy sum. And if they were Lewin's first edition of 1789 they'd be priceless.
I once posted some plates from it:
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=17824
Dave B Smith
Well-known member
Thank you all. I've been telling my wife that the dozen bird books and half dozen CD's are really nothing but she didn't believe me. Now seeing birders with 100's of books, I'm sure I'll be able to convince her that I need more!
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