Building a Library

[waarp8nt]

Here while back I posted a thread looking for books in the wanted to buy section. I'm happy to say I had fairly good results and want to thank the members who sold me some books.

My wife and I had to go to Peoria, IL so naturally I wanted to go a little farther to Galesburg, IL to check out Simpson LTD and the local antique shops. We had a great time in Galesburg, a nice lunch at a local favorite restaurant and a fun time shopping the stores downtown. Between Simpson's and the antique shops I was able to add several books to my library.

Anyone else have a library or building a library?

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[nagantguy]

I have two, though those not in the "know" call them bathrooms, I call them my private library, no phone no one to interrupt my while I get lost in a good book, and they are full of them, books that is, my "bathrooms" filled with books magazines reference guides and other forms of print medium , it's amazing what you can learn from them! book that is, and bathrooms to I guess.

[Porterhouse]

I did before I moved and about 70% of the slowly accumulated literatures are still in boxes. Finding and reading gun related materials give me as much pleasure as hitting targets at the range.

[Bmi48219]

If you're interested in nostalgia I have a bunch of manufacturers catalogs & flyers from the lat 60's & early 70's, not books but really eye openers when you look at prices then & now. Hate to throw them out. If you or anyone else wants them pm me, will mail for price of postage.

[waksupi]

If you like Gun Digests, and Shooter's Bibles, I would send you my supply for $1 each, plus shipping. Probably a dozen, I imagine.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

The next best thing to owing and shooting firearms is to read about them. If you're looking for some suggestions, here are photos of some of mine. No, they're not for sale. Two places that readily come to mind as a good source for gun books are Brownell's and Dixie Gun Works. If you have their catalogs each contains very exhaustive lists of books they have in stock for sale. Another great place to find them is at gun shows. Anyway, these are the books I refer to 90% of the time and are kept in my office. I have more in my shop such as the Jerry Kuhnhausen shot manual series. I'm not bragging--I'm sure other members have even more extensive collections, but if you can read the titles you may see some you'd like to acquire. I see from your photo that you have already found some of them.

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[Der Gebirgsjager]

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Some of the photos overlap a bit because if I backed up enough to get the entire shelf in the picture you probably couldn't read the titles.
The pinkish 3-ring binder has notes from unusual gun repair jobs, and the large black binders contain such things as hard to find schematics, published reloading information, and old magazine articles I found worth saving for reference. If you click on the photos they might get larger.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

While were on the subject of gun books, here's an invaluable source for you, Cornell Publications, LLC, www.cornellpubs.com (http://www.cornellpubs.com) Since you can get their address and phone no. from the website I won't bother with that. It's owned and operated by two very nice people, Abby and Rob (Mrs. & Mr.) and their business is the acquisition, preservation, and reproduction of all old gun related material like brochures, flyers, advertisements, catalogs, etc., etc. Anyway, that was their original field of interest, but because of the overlap in sporting goods catalogs, etc., they also have some information on old knives, air guns, reloading catalogs, etc. If you go to their website most of what they have to offer is listed. Bring a cup of coffee and a sandwich to the computer, because you'll be looking for a long, long time. A really great feature of their website is that they have some free downloads of reference material, some of it some very unusual stuff. If you become interested in a certain gun, let's use the US Springfield .30-40 Krag rifle as an example, and go to e-bay and enter a search for "Krag" hundreds of items will come up to tempt you. As you scroll down through the offerings, down near the bottom you'll see some reproduction booklets related to the Krag rifle, and these are reproductions of period literature from Cornell Publications. I rate their stuff as pretty good, considering the age of some of the literature that they reproduce, but the get a lot of flack from people who expect a reproduction of a 150 year old item to look like it was first published yesterday. If their copy of the literature, be it book, booklet, pamphlet, whatever, is old, worn and stained, or if the quality of the paper and printing wasn't the best originally, that will all show up on the reproduction. You've got to remember that you're buying a repro, not an original, and I've never had any complaints. They used to put out a monthly newsletter that listed what was new in their offerings, and also had a rants and raves column of letters and e-mails they get from people around the world. It was absolutely hilarious, and one of my favorite readings. Haven't gotten it for awhile, so maybe they don't do it anymore. I offered them my 40 year collection of back issues of 4 gun-related magazines just for the shipping, but they already had them. I'd really like to see them go to someone who would treasure them as reference material, but they're very heavy and the shipping would be a killer.
Anyway, -----Cornell Publications. Check them out. Good to know about, and not everyone does.

[Blackwater]

I've been building mine since I was about 12. Early on, started getting books from Outdoor Life Book Club and the Field & Stream Book Clubs, plus whatever I just lucked into. While I was off in the Navy, I packed up all my old magazines and books into 15 large cardboard boxes, very neatly and tightly packed, and stashed them in their attic. When I got back, she'd burned them!!!!! I had a 1946 F&S and a 1948 OL in them, and a whole collection of old American Riflemen magazines, back when they were really heavy on info and technicalities and good advice. My wife was afraid I was going to go ballistic, but I was far too hurt and stunned to even react! I just sat there, and finally asked her, why she thought I'd go to that much trouble to pack them so neatly if they weren't "any good?" She never answered me. I just walked off and found somewhere else to be for a long while. All that effort and "gold" (to me at least) gone up in smoke! I'd been given much of those old mags by a man who was happy to get rid of them, and I was most certainly happy to receive them. I think I read every one of them at least a dozen times. Just kept going back to the stacks and rotating them out, and read some every day for years. And I loved those older magazines. They were probably my prize possessions at the time. I still wonder how my MIL thought those were "no good." She's gone now, but I never really understood many things she did. That's the only time she ever really hurt me, though. And it still saddens me. I'd dearly love to have those "old friends" back again, but it's not to be.

Later, I started getting the nice leather & gold bound reissues of really good books from the NRA Classics series, and have most of them now. Also have picked up books here and there on guns and other subjects of interest for many years now. My wife, like her Mom, regards them as "just stuff." She'll never appreciate them, and I'm leaving them to my son and grandkids, in hopes one of them, at least, will find them interesting and useful enough to keep. There sure is an awful lot of info in them! I refer back to them regularly, now that the memory can't be fully trusted any more. Verify twice, cut once. Sure has saved me from a lot of trouble!

[bedbugbilly]

Ilove books . . . always have . . . and that can be a BIG problem. I had a library . . . I ended up with so may Civil War books, gun books, etc from over fifty years of reading and collecting that I had to take a bedroom and build floor to ceiling book shelves to hold them . . and then I ran out of space. When my wife retired, I finally came to the realization that while I loved my books . . . if something were to happen to me, who would want them? Plus, it would be a big chore for my wife to get rid of them. I finally decided to dispose of them. I gave may of them to a young man who teaches high school history . . like ten large tote boxes full. They went to the right place as he is young enough to want them and will work his way through them as well as sharing with his students. I at one time had well over five hundred books. I kept a very special few. Now, when I finish reading a book, I either pass it on to a friend, take it to a used bookstore or donate it.

I applaud those tho love books but at some point in your life, they will become overwhelming. They can e as addicting as any other hobby - fishing, shooting, reloading, etc. For myself, I'm glad I disposed of my "library" . .. and so is my wife. It's like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders.

Enjoy those books - but take the time to read them. But, if you haven't cracked it in a couple of years . . . well, it's up to you whether you keep it or not.

[GONRA]

GONRA sez - do NOT buy "Chemical Analysis of Firearms, Ammunition and Gunshot Residue".
Overpriced ripooff. Amateur stick figure diagrams. Never went thru any kinda editing.
Plagerized lottsa MY publicly published stuff. !@#$%^

There's a really olde (1950's) book on Automatic Pistols (Swanson?)
that is a *** too but can't remember the title right now... Be careful.

The 5 volume set "The Machine Gun" (Chin, US Government)
is really cool.

There's a multi volume Automatic Pistol (Professor Mathews) book (U of WI)
back in the 1960's available too.

These 2 are Really Great - but REALLY PRICY on the used book market.

You get what you pay for!

[shooter93]

I have a few hundred books at least in my collection. I joined both the Firearms Classic Library and the Frontier series from the NRA when they started them. Leather bound and very good reading. You may want to look into those. And the book seller is the first table I go to at gunshows.

[SSGOldfart]

The next best thing to owing and shooting firearms is to read about them. If you're looking for some suggestions, here are photos of some of mine. No, they're not for sale. Two places that readily come to mind as a good source for gun books are Brownell's and Dixie Gun Works. If you have their catalogs each contains very exhaustive lists of books they have in stock for sale. Another great place to find them is at gun shows. Anyway, these are the books I refer to 90% of the time and are kept in my office. I have more in my shop such as the Jerry Kuhnhausen shot manual series. I'm not bragging--I'm sure other members have even more extensive collections, but if you can read the titles you may see some you'd like to acquire. I see from your photo that you have already found some of them.

172593172594172595172596
Wow. I thought you had my pictures until I took a little closer look, If you was to get hit by a bus please tell your better half I want to buy your library

[SSGOldfart]

I also have a couple hundred in my library of books and more magazines than I could ever read,I pass a lot of books magazines and catalogs to the VA Hospital,those guys need something to pass the time
I've got every handloader magazines printed and 15 years of the American Rifle,most if not all the Bassmaster magazines and FLW's Bass Fishing magazines. I used to fish almost every day.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Wow. I thought you had my pictures until I took a little closer look, If you was to get hit by a bus please tell your better half I want to buy your library

LOL--I always look both ways before I cross the street!

[SSGOldfart]

LOL--I always look both ways before I cross the street!
Well my luck hasn't changed much,just wanted to let you know
:bigsmyl2:

[waarp8nt]

I guess I was lucky. My folks kept my G&A from when I was a teenager. I have my American Rifleman from my early twenties. My first hardback was Parker O. Ackley Handbook for Shooters and Reloaders. I had a book store locate it for me, before the internet was readily available.

Along with the books I got from the forum. I have a couple boxes of books from when we moved a year and a half ago. In the boxes are The Foxfire Books, some of The Book of Buckskinning series and a few others.

I suppose one of my favorites is the Lyman Cast Handbook #3. In fact I was going to find order a 2nd copy from Cornell, but I was lucky enough to find on Craigslist while out in Colorado around about a month ago.

Counting a book here and there....I've been building for awhile, but it wasn't until recently my numbers bulked up enough to justify buying a book shelf.

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

A good firearms library is a priceless investment for days when you can't be out shooting or making bullets/loading ammunition.

I developed a bad habit about twenty-five years ago of attending the SHOT Show and the Safari Club Intl. gatherings. I have about 300 books, about a third on Africa, the rest shooting stuff.
If you see any for sale at a decent price, Phil Sharpe's books about handloading and rifles are classics. Ditto with Elmer Keith's.

If you get into long range shooting, the five by Brian Litz are great. www.appliedballistics.com is his company. Want to hit small targets at very long range? Brian is the man.

Rich

[Ballistics in Scotland]

A good source of information on what is good and relevant is the bibliography in the back of books you trust. www.bookfinder.com (http://www.bookfinder.com) is priceless, being a consolidation of all sorts of other bookselling websites, from the big ones like Amazon, through medium down to independent booksellers.

Some booksellers nowadays will price uncommon books on the "How much? How much have they got?" school, and they copy each other. I suppose with stock which isn't being made any more, it is logical enough to try for what salmon fishermen term a blind one or a daft one. So it is worth keeping looking regularly, until you find one that doesn't do the homework, or breaks ranks. This is perhaps more likely on eBay, where rare books are often sold as parts of general estates. You can put up a followed search with e-mail notifications, and on "Advanced Search" you can specify price limits. I've stalked books that way for years, sometimes, and ended up buying them for a small fraction of what I could have paid for a quick purchase.

[victorfox]

Gun literature in brazil is so poor I have to "steal" what I can from foreign sources. That said, I only had one shotgun book by an Englishman I can't remember named "the sporting gun" i bought at a used books store. When I moved states I filled my car trunk with all my books and sold them all. I regret doing it but...

So my library now is digital and organized by a neat application named "CALIBRE" and it makes my cataloging easier.

[beezapilot]

I've been dealing with this company for close to 30 years... granted you oftimes have to pick through an awful lot of awful... but they sometimes get in things of great interest.. buy one book or fifty... S&H is $3.50....

http://www.hamiltonbook.com/Fishing-Hunting


same site, different page... for some reason the sub-category search for "Firearms and knives" isn't working... so... a fine example of picking through an awful lot of awful....

http://www.hamiltonbook.com/Collecting

Ahhh....they got it working.... http://www.hamiltonbook.com/Collecting/Firearms-Knives?&listing_sort=2&view=2

For the military history buffs..

http://www.hamiltonbook.com/Military-History