/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.21301847]

What do we think of The Folio Society?

[Anonymous No.21301962]

>>21301847
Why do you care what we think?

[Anonymous No.21302057]

>>21301962
because this is the literature board where people discuss literature

[Anonymous No.21302067]

>>21301847
They're pretty but expensive desu.
Go for them if you're rich and want a good-looking bookshelf

[Anonymous No.21302075]

I cant afford them desu

[Anonymous No.21302078]

there can't be many people who actually read them after purchasing one

[Anonymous No.21302096]

>>21301847
Commodity fetishism

[Anonymous No.21302101]

>>21301847
I like them, they're expensive but it's very difficult to find high quality illustrated sewn hardbacks these days, so I don't have much of a choice. I don't spend a crazy amount overall though because 95% of what I read are pirated ebooks; the books I buy are the select few I value enough to own a physical copy.
My only real criticism is their illustrations always seem to be placed randomly--in the same book you will have an illustration for something that happened 15 pages ago, and then the next illustration will be for something that doesn't happen for another 10 pages so you have no fucking idea what it is showing.

[Anonymous No.21302133]

There nicely made books.
Decent thick paper.
Sewn bindings.
Quality material is used for the covers.
The slipcases help prevent damage.
Original artwork that is sometimes very good, although not for all volumes.
They occasionally republish books that are only available in crappy paperback volumes or not at all.
If I have a major gripe, it’s that the books are heavy, and more cumbersome to read than equivalent volumes published by Everyman’s Library or library of America for certain available titles.

[Anonymous No.21302209]

>>21302057
>because this is the literature board where people discuss literature
Do you even check the catalog?

[Anonymous No.21302250]

>>21301847
They're well made books, but the actual quality of design choices to justify the price varies wildly. Pic related is hideous, yet costs 745 pounds. I wouldn't consider buying it even if it were 50, and I love Gormenghast. They do have some well designed books though, but they seem to becoming less common.

[Anonymous No.21302251]

>>21302067
Rich people don't buy crap like this. Rich people buy first editions and custom bound books.

This shit is purely for the aspirational middle classes whose tastes are dictated to them.

[Anonymous No.21302269]

>>21302250
Wtf were they thinking with that design

[Anonymous No.21302270]

The price, combined with the often garish covers makes me think they're just conspicuous consumption. Like the final boss of "look at my bookshelf I'm such a READER"

[Anonymous No.21302302]

the virgin folio society
the chad easton press
the gigachad limited editions club

[Anonymous No.21302786]

>>21301847
Sometimes they have good editions. I love some of the very exclusive productions they've made, but I find a lot of their work too garish or too childish for my tastes.

[Anonymous No.21302795]

>>21302302
>limited editions club
Cool find.

[Anonymous No.21302819]

>>21302302
LECs are god tier and a good investment considering how cheap you can find some of them

[Anonymous No.21302828]

>>21301847
I think they are ugly. I prefer old first editions

[Anonymous No.21302834]

>>21302302
*the gigachad wordsworth

[Anonymous No.21303152]

>>21302834
That’s a gay cover.

[Anonymous No.21303199]

>>21302250
I don't know, the cover art for those grew on me after looking at it for a while. The slip case is atrocious, though. I actually thought about buying them since Gormenghast is my favorite novel and a limited edition set would be nice to have, but the price just seems far too high to justify it

[Anonymous No.21303517]

Kino

[Anonymous No.21303865]

I have several folio society books and they're great. However, design choice varies wildly, some look God awful. They're easy to find used but I'd recommend buying any popular titles you can't live without. Sometimes titles quadruple in price on the used market. I bought a copy of beowulf for 70 that is now commonly listed for over 350.

If you want classic kids books though, absolutely buy folio. They look like they belong on one of the bookshelves that were in the intro to old Disney movies.

[Anonymous No.21304207]

>>21303517
Is there an actual place to buy this cover? I legit want it.

[Anonymous No.21304220]

Everyone who has purchased one of their books should be executed.

[Anonymous No.21304474]

>>21301847
the un/lit/ man's idea of a /lit/ man's book.

[Anonymous No.21304498]

>>21304220
I've bought some of their older ones for cheap

[Anonymous No.21304744]

>>21304207
No idea

[Anonymous No.21305123]

>>21302067
>Go for them if you're rich and want a good-looking bookshelf
I can't even afford the shelf!

[Anonymous No.21306120]

For me, it's Centipede Press.

[Anonymous No.21306121]

>>21301847
I don't think.

[Anonymous No.21306184]

>>21301847
often quite ugly and tasteless

[Anonymous No.21306196]

>>21306120
What a horrible cover

[Anonymous No.21307177]

>>21302251
Why does the middle class make so many people seethe?

[Anonymous No.21307625]

They're so expensive but I normally buy them pre owned for a third of the price

[Anonymous No.21307640]

Too expensive for me
I can't afford to splurge on them and yet also I feel like even if I could afford to I would feel bad spending that much money on them
There are a few books for which Folio Society is the only way to get decent quality hardback editions of them, for example Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey Maturin series and a few nonfiction books which really sucks
I wish Everyman's Library would just get the license to print everything starting with Tolkien

[Anonymous No.21307648]

>>21307640
Oh yeah actually I forgot that I own a Folio Society book now
I bought it for $2 at a charity shop and I have absolutely no interest in the contents of the book
I just bought it because I wanted a Folio Society book and I hope I see more
Book quality doesn't really impress me though

[Anonymous No.21307811]

>>21307648
What book

[Anonymous No.21308385]

>>21302096
This. They’re the funko pops of books

[Anonymous No.21308864]

>>21301962
Fpbp

[Anonymous No.21309066]

>>21301847
The commodity fetishism accusations have a certain amount of truth and its a waste to buy them new, but whenever I find one of a book I like or want to read really cheap used I'll grab them just because they're mostly well made. I'm not sure if they've changed recently but they at least used to all be sewn bindings. I got a folio copy of A Time of Gifts for 3 bucks and that is absolutely worth it.

[Anonymous No.21309137]

>>21302251
This.

[Anonymous No.21309251]

>>21306120
For me its Baronius Press.

[Anonymous No.21309276]

>>21301847
A lot of these look like they are trying to imitate SOVL. Its like when an indie game dev uses shitty pixel art. Some of them look nice, maybe as a gift.

[Anonymous No.21309307]

>>21307177
Only someone with uppity peasant blood would ask this. Allowing for class mobility and the emergence of the merchant class destroyed European civilization.

[Anonymous No.21309584]

>>21306120
>>21309251
for me, it's tartarus press.

[Anonymous No.21309654]

>>21309584
thank you avast

[Anonymous No.21309704]

>>21301847
i am in favour of the idea, but everything they do is just so ugly
as far as i can tell, their materials and bindings are good, they just have no taste, no judgement, it all comes out so corny, so reddit, so ugly
not just how they ornament their volumes, but even about what they choose to print there is something distinctly midwit, its somehow always very middlebrow, seldom anything interesting or recondite or edgy

also with those editions where they print art directly onto the cloth, the paint just comes off all over your fingers, whenever i handle their rubaiyat of omar khayyam my girlfriend thinks i am cheating on her because i end up with glitter all over my hands and thence all over my face

were they ever good? idk, i check out their old books in secondhand book shops and they were at least less tacky in how they decorated their books (and didn't do the thing of printing onto cloth)
i actually like pretty well their series of shakespeare from the 50s/60s and lowkey collect them when i can find them cheap enough

in the late 80s/early 90s they did a series of 12 slim volumes called folio fine editions, these were printed and bound to a higher standard than usual, in my view much more handsome than the usual fare, and a good choice of books material, genuinely rather beautiful set of books
i recently bought yeats' the tower from this line, the most expensive book i've ever bought by some margin, see picrel, but i'm pretty happy with it.

but other than that i'd say that their proper place is honestly as gifts, which role they perform admirably; i got my brother for his birthday their edition of dune which he liked pretty well.

[Anonymous No.21309711]

>>21302786
I'd folio her society if you know what I mean

[Anonymous No.21309716]

>>21309654
filed under blocklist: too scary for life

[Anonymous No.21309723]

>>21309711
>not using 'socialise her folio'
ngmi.

[Anonymous No.21309742]

I think the shackleton set the put out this past year was pretty solid. but i agree that some of the design are a bit much. also 1000+ dollars for a book that isnt a first edition is a bit wild. but i appreciate that the spirit of the collection.

[Anonymous No.21309743]

their old shakespeare series
their only downfall is that they just have slightly too few notes to be really comfortable; they gloss the occasional weird word, which would almost be enough, but they do it as endnotes rather than in the margins or as footnotes, so you have to take your chances and flip to the back whenever you're not sure about something, and 80% of the time you're disappointed
other than that they're pretty, readable volumes

[Anonymous No.21309744]

>>21309723
damn...that would have been better

[Anonymous No.21309752]

>>21309744
dw anon, we've all got to start somewhere.

[Anonymous No.21311079]

I'm lazy

[Anonymous No.21311087]

>>21309752
How about "I'd lick her asshole"

Or not subtle enough?

[Anonymous No.21311885]

>>21311079
Okay, what does that have to do with thread topic?

[Anonymous No.21311901]

>>21301847
They are good if you don’t overdue them. Any bookcase with just one publisher looks bad. Diversity is key

[Anonymous No.21311917]

>>21311901
>They are good if you don’t overdue them.
Well who wants a fine.

[Anonymous No.21312147]

Some of them are too gaudy. They've also moved their production to China for quite some time and it shows through the quality of their books.

[Anonymous No.21312600]

>>21301847
Funko Pop equivalent for literature.

[Anonymous No.21312647]

>>21303152
good