Invaluable Books I Wouldn’t Mind Owning

A while ago I was approached by Invaluable, an online auction website with a huge collection of antique books. They asked me if I would like to put together a little collection of antique books that I would love to own, and if there’s one thing I love it’s browsing through books, so of course I said yes! I picked out a couple of lots I definitely wouldn’t mind owning, so here they are!

Lot 94: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

These are both first editions and include a few errors that were taken out in later editions. I’ve only read The Hound of the Baskervilles so far, but a very nice edition of the completed works about Mr Holmes is still on my wishlist, so wouldn’t this be a cool thing to own? Unfortunately, the estimated price is between $2,500 and $3,500. That’s a bit out of my price range, unless I make a load of money really fast. How much do kidneys go for these days?

Lot 574: When We Were Very Young, Winnie-the-Pooh, Now We are Six and The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne

I’ve only ever read the Winnie-the-Pooh stories in Dutch, but I adored them, so a nice English edition of these stories is still on my wishlist! These are first editions, all with their original dust jackets and this lot is estimated to go for anything between a whopping $4,000 and $6,000. Oh well, who needs lungs anyway? I clearly know absolutely nothing about the organ black market, or basic human anatomy, for that matter.

Lot 401: Alice’s Adventures Under Ground by Lewis Carroll

I didn’t know this, but apparently Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was called Alice’s Adventures Under Ground in the early days. Which makes this edition very old! It’s a first edition published in 1866, and while I have to admit that I (still) haven’t actually read Alice, I would love to own this book. Besides the fact that old books are cool, this edition is just so pretty. I adore practically anything if it’s red, and look at that beautiful lettering! I’d definitely proudly display this if I owned it, but again – slightly out of my price range.  Perhaps I should read the book first, anyway… I might hate it (although I strongly doubt that).

The entire original manuscript for Alice’s Adventures Under Ground is available for all to see online on the website of the British Library! Here’s the link to the page, and here’s the direct link to the manuscript.

Lot 517 (sold): Le Morte Darthur by Sir Thomas Malory

Something most of you probably don’t know about me is that I love anything that has to do with the Arthurian legends. The history of King Arthur is just highly fascinating to me, and one day I want to have read the entire Morte Darthur instead of only a few passages here and there. I own a cheap paperback copy of it, but look at this majestic book! It’s an edition from 1929 and it’s absolutely gorgeous. I would not mind owning that one bit. Unfortunately, it has already been sold. But who am I kidding, I wouldn’t be able to afford this anyway and I’m kind of running out of organs here.

Well, that was fun! I really enjoyed browsing through Invaluable, although it did remind me of the fact that I am not, in fact, filthy rich. Maybe one day… For now, just looking and drooling at these pictures on invaluable.com is enough!

If you could pick any edition of any book you want, which book would that be? Let me know in the comments!