Rare Books Uncovered

A most wonderful book, unless you're of a jealous mindset.  In just snappily portraying instances when a few dozen book traders have found the holy grail of something unique and priceless, or just forgotten about and very valuable, the book shows the fun to be had in succeeding at your chosen hobby to the max.  It felt like it needed a snappier edit at times, with a surprising amount of sentences that read as a little woolly, considering it's an updated reprint of an earlier book, but it's a wonderful tome to dip into now and again.  It does raise one issue, without really getting to grips with it, when one buyer speaks of disliking paying full whack at a store for something, knowing the dealer's profit will be huge.  But in finding a million dollars in the 50 cent bins, almost all the entrants here are fleecing the people they buy from in exactly that same way.  Still, with this kind of profit – and profit in messing about with books! - these people are the kind I'd like to join.  And if you can't beat them, or join them, then these pages are the ones to console yourself with.  While the updating hasn't worked (some entrants are of the "currently, in 2015…" ilk) the book itself certainly does.  Four and a half stars.

I loved this book.  Reading books like this one reminds me of why I love books.   Everyone hopes they will have the same experience as we're related by the author

For book lovers, this is a hidden pearl. The book is delightful and precious. I cannot stop reading these amazing stories which are described with a delightful words.

This book includes stories of hidden treasures found in the pages of texts.  It's a collection of stories sure to engage bibliophiles.  The writing is clean and neatly organized, and the stories are engaging.  Recommended for those who peruse the bargain bins looking for untapped discoveries.

I read a lot of nonfiction about rare and antiquarian books and booksellers back when I was in library school just over a decade ago. I always enjoyed the topic, so it's been great to have a sort of "update" on the subject courtesy of Rebecca Rego Barry's collection of stories and anecdotes, first published in 2015 and now updated for 2018.

The stories here are full of interesting people and even more interesting finds. Various book scouts, dealers, and random people who happen to have unearthed something interesting are asked about their experiences. Some tales are very recent, but others are relics of days gone by. There is a lot of repetition that "there are still things out there" vis-a-vis any claims that the Golden Age of book scouting and "barn finds" is over, and while I'm sure there are still *some* things out there, methinks these people doth protest too much. The internet has had too huge an effect on the world, in too many ways, for things to be otherwise, and this fact is largely downplayed in this book but for a handful of examples. As far as the brick-and-mortar world goes, serendipity and/or an overabundance of free time seem to play more of a role than deep, hard-earned knowledge.

In any case, I really liked this book. I could have done without the little sidebar definitions of rare book terminology, which are not needed among the majority of the book's audience, but that's a minor quibble. There are a lot of wow moments, some because of the circumstances of the find (as in, "Wow, what an amazing twist of fate!"), and some because of various behavior (as in, "Wow, I can't believe Harvard did that, what a bunch of a--holes!"). One of my least favorite parts, I should note, was actually the author's introduction, in which she first tells the neat story of how she unknowingly acquired a somewhat valuable copy of Death of a Salesman with an interesting provenance, and then actually laughs it off when it gets damaged by her dog. Haha, right? Sooo not funny. Fortunately, that weird attitude does not carry over into the rest of her writing, which is uniformly good throughout all the other 50+ (!) chapters.

Opening line:
"In 1925, Vincent Starrett posed a question in the Saturday Evening Post: "Have You a Tamerlane in your attic?"

This book was full of fascinating finds--such as a first edition of To Kill A Mockingbird--in unfascinating places--such as under a bed. It would be really fun to make a TBR list from this book of finds. The only negative to this book??? I want to go to all the yard sales and estate sales and find me a rare-find book! 

Thanks to netgalley for the read! I loved it.

More than 50 chapters about rare findings of books, comics and music also. Best stuff ever is the way some of the people involved in these findings find out that they were potential millionaire ;) As a lover of books I enjoyed this volume a lot, but I understand that it is not the right reading for everybody.

Piú di 50 capitoli che raccontano le fortunose e fortunate scoperte di rari libri, fumetti e musica. Alcuni delle migliori tra queste sono le reazioni dei potenziali milionari, una volta scoperto che potevano diventare ricchi. Come amante dei libri, questo volume mi é piaciuto parecchio, ma mi è anche chiaro che non possa andare bene per chiunque,

THANKS NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!

This delightful book asks book collectors, dealers, and others to reflect on their "best deal." That would make it fun enough, but the author goes beyond the usual "editing-only" voice that results in a mess of different voices.

Instead, like a good reporter she takes each story and infuses twitch background and additional information while using extensive quotes. The result is a lovely book about books.

A book about books! 52 amazing stories about finding rare books in (often very) unexpected places. It opened up the fascinating and obsessive world of book collecting to me. Anyone who truly loves books will love this book! Now excuse me while I go check my shelves for first editions......

Thank you Netgalley and Voyageur Press for a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

Rare Books Uncovered tells true stories of fantastic finds in unlikely places.  For me this was a fantastic find and anyone who is a bibliophile will be, at least, intrigued by the book.

It is full of interesting people as well as extraordinary finds although some are in amazingly mundane places such as a library and under a bed.  This makes it even more amazing and the stories are well structured and easily readable.

Thank you NetGalley, Quarto Publishing Group – Voyageur Press and Rebecca rago Barry for the ARC in return for my honest review.

Brilliant read and highly recommended.

Really enjoyed this very unique perspective! Engaging and filled with rich detail. Barry did a fabulous job. A must-read for the bibliophile.

A really enjoyable collection of book tales. I am a keen reader, and bit part collector, and identified with many of the compulsions and desires described. 

Makes me want to take in even more 2nd hand book shops and car boot sales.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Voyageur Press for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

If you like old books, if you dream of finding something rare or unusual, if dusty treasures in forgotten attics are your thing, then this is the book for you. A collection of stories about rare and antiquitarian book and document discoveries, mainly by those who specialise in such things, but also by others, this is one of those books that makes you think ‘just maybe’ and carry on looking for the book you long to find. A great read, will make a wonderful gift, and can be dipped in and out of. 
I received a review e book of this title in return for an honest review. but this has not coloured my opinion.

Interesting collection of stories of fantastic book finds. Also covers fantastic finds of posters and other ephemera. All the finds take place within the last few decades, so it's up-to-date and contains new stories compared to previously published books on the same subject.

My love for books is both my family's pride and the bane of their existence. As a young child my parents would be thrilled to see me reading and infuriated to find my still reading at midnight. No matter where we are, no bookstore can be passed without a visit. And too often I turn pleading eyes onto my family members and beg for 'just 10 more minutes'. I can spend hours in bookstores, especially when they're the kind of bookstores you can get lost in, where the shelves reach to the ceiling, where old meets new, literary fiction meets art history and music theory settles in next to science fiction. So how could I resist Rare Books Uncovered? Thanks to Quatro, Voyageur Press and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My obsession with antique books is really my family's fault. I think it started when my granddad one day decided that since I liked history I could help him riffle through a chest (I'm not kidding!) of old papers, photos and books that had been there for who knows how long. Not only did we discover we're related to George Friedrich Handel (again, I'M NOT KIDDING! It was an exciting day!), but we also unearthed a centuries old Latin copy of Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico. We went to the local library the next day to have it assessed and almost 8 years later my grandfather gifted it to me. That day spent with him lit a fire in me for antique books because I began to appreciate how wonderful those old books are, how they have passed through countless hands and how imbued with history they are. So from then on my trips to bookstores included hunting down books that struck me with that sense of history, books whose plain covers hid fascinating content. It started a passion that hasn't abated and probably never will. I own 7 different editions of Wuthering Heights and have stacks of books waiting at my father's house for me to get my own apartment with actual bookshelves. I may have a problem...

Rare Books Uncovered is the perfect book for bibliophiles and collectors like myself. Barry fills the book with short chapters dedicated to extraordinary finds, whether it's superhero comics or Dali's Alice. For someone who delights in boxes of books and dusty bookstores, these chapters are a delight. I found myself excited by these finds, laughing at the sheer serendipity of most of them, and inspired by the collectors' clear passion for books of whatever kind. Not each find pulls at me equally. I'm much less interested in driving manuals than in Frankenstein, and yet each chapter held something of interest for me. The chapter that struck me most was 'Scarce Scottish Imprint Hiding in the Stacks' in which Barry describes a surprising find in the St. Andrews Rare Books library. The library began a program called 'Lighting the Past' in which they started working their way through their backlog. While doing my Master's Degree in Medieval English at St. Andrews I actually spent time myself helping dig through the Rare Books and cataloguing them, comparing them to other copies in WorldCat and other collections. The work done on 'Lighting the Past' happened in the room next door. I loved the mornings I spent there, surrounded by books, and I felt a surge of pride reading about it in Rare Books Uncovered.

Rare Books Uncovered could easily be a dry and boring book. After all, it is simply a collection of book titles, dates, names and prices. But Rebecca Rego Barry brings these stories to life. Each chapter feels like a mini mystery, and the interviews she has done with the collectors and discoverers brings a personal touch to their stories. There is a love for books in Rare Books Uncovered and it is a love that is shared by Barry, the people she interviews and us, the readers. One thing I especially adored were the little asides in the book that explained certain lingo like 'provenance', 'ephemera' or 'marginalia'. It makes the world of book collectors a little bit more accessible and, in my case, gives me the vocabulary to describe some of the things I have found in my years of book collecting. Rare Books Uncovered is probably not for every reader. If you love reading but don't feel the need to collect them then this book will perhaps not fill you with the same sense of recognition as it did for me. Some of the stories will be interesting and you'll enjoy leafing through it. But if you're like me then this book is close to inspirational. I will have to hunt down a physical copy of Rare Books Uncovered because reading it filled me with joy.

God I adored this book! Barry has written a book for book collectors, full of anecdotes, surprises and passion. Although book collecting has changed a lot in the last few decades, the spirit remains the same. It's about the joy of knowing anything could be anywhere and that maybe you'll find it. I'd recommend this to anyone who knows how addicting book collecting can be.

Rare Books Uncovered is what I call a "coffee table book", by which I mean you can put it down on your coffee table and pick it up now and then to read a couple of chapters. Nothing wrong with that, mind you! I quite enjoyed reading about a book or two, soaking up the story of its discovery, and thinking about it for a few days before opening Rare Books Uncovered again. Some of the stories are heartwarming, others are quite surprising, but each one is a pleasure to discover. I know nothing of book collecting, so I did actually learn quite a lot by reading this book.

A must-have for book lovers!

Books that are about books. There's a novel idea :) 

If you are a book collector or any other type of bibliophile, this book will make you jealous and filled with yearning. 

I think all of us want to make a great discovery at a bookshop, estate sale or in grandma's attic, and the people featured in this book have done just that. Some truly fantastic finds, of historical, sentimental and even monetary value. 

I read this book with interest, enjoying the various stories the author put forth for our consideration and getting a kick out of the antics of book collectors and their joy at finding the rare and wonderful. If you are not a collector already, this book might create a new level of interest within you. It did for me. Or perhaps it simply renewed an interest that was already there. Either way, I enjoyed this a lot and recommend it to other 'book people.' You know who you are. 

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher, provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

A wonderful book for any book lover.  Do you go to yard sales just for the books,  looking for hidden gems?  This volume gives you inside information on a number off titles that would be thrilling to find.

This book is a fun read for a book lover.  If you have ever wished to find a rare book or longed to have a first edition in your own personal library, you would enjoy reading about the discoveries of books.  Have you ever wondered how a book came to be somewhere, especially if found someplace you would never imagine, this might be the book for you!

A joy! If a bibliophile, like me, you will undoubtedly love 'Rare Books Uncovered '. Stories of amazing finds described beautifully by the author. As interesting as it is compulsive. A pleasure to read and left me wanting more.

This book is a collection of essays about booksellers and ordinary people and the rare books they uncovered.  This book does answer the question that not everything has been already discovered .  After reading this book you will be haunting stores and markets looking for your own treasures.  Anyone who enjoys reading books about books will enjoy this.  It will also make a great gift for the bibliophile on your list.

I love books. I love to read. Therefore this book was a no-brainer. In this book are many stories about people and their books. Mostly rare book finds. Wouldn't it be great to find the first edition of a classic book? Could be worth millions. But just think of holding that first edition in your hands. I wish for that! Then there was the comic book collection worth millions found in an attic (my husband would love that!). The chapters are small, mostly short little stories about these books. Great read!