Star Wars Book Collectors Corner

Hello there! Welcome to the Star Wars Book Collector's Corner. Grab a squashy chair and join us here for discussions of books from the Star Wars universe!

In here we can talk about books that we've read, give advice for finding/seeking hard to find books, show off our book collections, share personal encounters with authors, report news on new books, and share news when rare editions become available.

The purpose of the thread is to share in our overall love of books that are a part of our Star Wars collection. This can include comics, novels, kids books, magazines, and/or collector's hard cover books and guides.

So let me begin with a few warm up questions - note this isn't necessarily a poll type of thread, just giving some discussion points. Feel free to pick/choose whatever you would like to share!

How long have you been book collecting?
How many books do you think you own?
What are your favorite books to collect?
Where are your favorite places to find books?
What is your favorite book?
What is your rarest book?
Is there a Holy Grail book that you wish to obtain?
Have you ever met w/ any authors of the books or have autographed copies of books? If you met the author what was the encounter like?

 

How long have you been book collecting?

Technically I've been collecting books since the beginning. The first book I got was the Star Wars Storybook. I loved that book, in it, I believe they had the section with Biggs talking to Luke on Tatooine. My copy has that the spine is taped up because I read it so much. By Empire I was reading the actual novels. I then sort of took a break from collecting books once the NJO started. When I found out who they killed off I was like Pfffft not bothering with those. So I went a couple of decades with only occasionally picking up nice guides and hard cover collector's books, but not novels or comics.

It's only been in the last couple of years that I've returned to reading/buying Star Wars books. I picked up a bunch of the YA girly books - Padme, Leia, Jyn novels which got me going again. And when I heard about The High Republic I ordered the books because the idea of the timeline fascinated me. I've been collecting books again in earnest probably for the last 7 months.

I'm getting very close to having at least 1 copy of nearly everything novel-wise that's come out (that I want) and have started working on upgrading books to hard covers.


How many books do you think you own?

Until I actually can get them out and put away, I have no idea, especially if you include comic books. I collected a lot of the original Marvel comics when I was a kid and got a lot of the comics from the early Dark Horse run in the mid-'90's. I have a Dark Horse comic w/ Boba Fett on the cover that Jeremy Bullock signed for me.


What are your favorite books to collect?

I love collector's editions or first editions of books. I don't necessarily need all of my books in Hard cover, but I do prefer reading books that way vs paperbacks.


Where are your favorite places to find books?

I've gotten a lot of my books on Mercari. I very rarely get books or anything there that is smokey smelling. Ebay is such a crapshoot in that regard. It's why I primarily buy from big book sellers there because they are picky and don't want their reputation blown by selling smokey books.

I do have a couple of amazing used book store chains here in the Valley (Phoenix area) - Half Price books, there's a store in my city, it's not super close though. And we have a giant Bookmans store.

I haven't been to either of them to look for books...mostly because I'm quite sure my wallet would mightily protest.

What is your favorite book?

I have a book club hard copy of "Star Wars" that belonged to my Dad (he gave it to me.) We were living in Australia when the film came out. When we got back and he saw the movie, he was like "I know this story..." He went looking through his books and realized he was one of those sci-fi guys that Lucasfilm had marketed the story/book to before the film came out in order to try to garnish interest in the film. A few years ago my Dad and I went to a writer's panel at my local con and Allan Dean Foster was there and he got to talk to him about having that.

I don't think it's the rarest copy of the book, but it's close.

What is your rarest book?

I have a copy of "Dressing the Galaxy." It wasn't cheap when it came out. But now it's impossible to find.

Is there a Holy Grail book that you wish to obtain?

My copy of "Dressing the Galaxy" is just the book, I'd LOVE to have the version that has the actual swatches of fabric from the films in it.

More obtainable - maybe - I'd love to get the four Clone Wars (Wild Space, No Prisoners, Gambit - Seige, Gambit - Stealth) books all in hardback. I've seen people who have them so I do know they're out there.

There are also 3 multi-book, book club hard back editions of The Young Jedi Knights books out there. I have the first one and need the second and third. There are also soft cover versions as well. I don't have the latter books of those eiither. Apparently there are hard cover library versions of these as well that I would love to obtain. I deeply love these books and the way that they depict the twins and their friends.

 

Hello
I have been collecting star wars books for about 20 years
I have around 400
My favorite books to collect are the omnibus's and those about the old republic
My favorite place to shop or get them from is either amazon or Books-a-million
My holy grail is a Young jedi Knights book My Grandma gave me before she Passed
My rarest book would be a copy of Return of the jedi 1st edition
And a holy grail I hope to obtain is the YJO series

 

Ii have no idea of the number of books (SW and non-SW) I own but I could open my own bookstore. I have all of the adult SW novels and some of the YA ones. I also own a first edition paperback (1976 - not in great shape) of the original novel of the film. needless to say I have a newer copy for reading (omnibus of the OT novels.)
I (and a bunch of folks from the boards) are also mentioned in the Essential SW Atlas. Hit the link to Amazon UK and do a 'Look Inside' on the book. Scroll down to the author acknowledgement section and look in the right hand column. You'll see us there! And I was able to get the book signed by author Jason Fry at the last London Celebration!

 

Great idea for a thread.

How long have you been book collecting?

I bought my first Star Wars book when I was 13 or 14 (I'm 41 now). I won a high school writing competition and the prize was £15 in book tokens. I immediately went out and bought paperback copies of The Truce at Bakura and the first two books in the Corellian Trilogy (Ambush at Corellia and Assault at Selonia).

How many books do you think you own?

I really don't know, but it's several hundred.

What are your favorite books to collect?

As far as Star Wars books go, I only buy novels and comics (collected editions). Right now, I'm trying to complete my EU collection (all in paperback format). When I buy Disney canon novels, I usually get hardbacks. I like the Epic Collections that Marvel have been releasing.

Where are your favorite places to find books?

I like eBay, Amazon, Blackwell's and a site called AbeBooks.

What is your favorite book?

For Star Wars novels, it has to be Shatterpoint. This is closely followed by Lost Stars and Darth Plagueis. For Star Wars comics, it's The Crimson Empire Saga and Tales of the Jedi.

What is your rarest book?

I don't really have anything rare, but I have Dark Horse hardcover copies of Legacy (books 1 to 3) and The Crimson Empire Saga. Those seem quite hard to find now.

Is there a Holy Grail book that you wish to obtain?

Not really, but I would be interested in anything signed by Timothy Zahn, Matt Stover or Claudia Gary.

Back in the 90s, the Bantam Books had really great covers. I loved the artwork and the metallic/foil lettering they used for the Star Wars logo. If I see any of those in a used book store, I'll probably pick them up.

 

Books-A-Million is a new bookstore site, right?

I need to get to my used bookstores I'm hoping I can find some of the rarer junior books there at reasonable prices. I have 1 full set of the YJK books but want a second so I have the nicest ones for displaying and one set to read. They really need to re-release those again along w/ the Jedi Apprentice, Jedi Quest, and Jr Jedi Knights books. The last few times I've hit thrift stores I've bombed completely out on finding any Star Wars books.

I suddenly have a bunch of of the omnibus's and Epic collections also. My "to be read" pile of books is hilarious

Hee hee I know all about having enough books to start a bookstore. My sister used to sell used books on ebay and Amazon and I'm pretty sure batches of her inventory came with us from back east when we moved here. Those came a long w/ our books that are still in storage.

Along w/ my SW books I spent years picking up travel guides for my sister when she used to sell vacations. I saw a house listing online that had this gorgeous huge library in it, it just made my heart sing. I kept thinking I really could fit my whole shrine and all of our books in there. Who'd stinkin' need a TV with a room like that?

That's cool about the SW Atlas!

I like the Epic collections, only problem is I have a few of the older Dark Horse Omnibus's and sometimes things overlap in them. I'm really just swatting at flies when I pick those out to buy because I really don't know a lot about the comic lines. I can't wait to get a bookcase to put my books into so I can try better see what all I've got and what I might need. I do have a google sheet that I track my book inventory (that I know of) on it, but it's hard to keep track of everything.

Those Dark Horse hardbacks sound cool!

I haven't rad "Darth Plagueis" yet, everyone raves over it. It's in that enormous "To be read" pile of mine

 

Yeah Books-a-Million is a website but also has many physical locations

 

I can relate to that. I’m hoping to move house sometime this year and my goal is to have a little library room where I can put up shelves for all my books and collectibles. If I can achieve that goal, I’ll post some pictures here.

 

I know what you mean I need more book storage also.

 

It's an overall problem for all collectors. We can't all be like George RR Martin who bought his neighbors house and moved his entire Lord of the Rings collection into it.*
*Life Goals

 

I know now one of us just has to write another GOT

 

What are you all reading? I'm plowing through the Clone Wars novelization and working on Alphabet Squadron.

Clone Wars is awesome, I don't remember much of the movie. I like all of the internal thoughts of the characters.

Alphabet was a bit hard to crack into with it all being new characters. As luck would have it I had just read the graphic novel with Shara Bey that has events from it goes with the novel so at least I was up to speed on that. Now that most of the intros are done, it seems yo be moving along.

 

I’m currently reading through Claudia Gray’s Into The Dark. I’m about 150 pages in and I already feel like I know and care about all of the main characters (even though they’re all new). Gray is just so consistently good. I’ll probably go straight into The Rising Storm when I’m finished.

 

For The Light and Life! I really enjoyed "Into the Dark" - I read it before "Light of the Jedi" - oops! I love Reath. I felt out of the 3 Young Adult books that "Into the Dark" was the best. You are right that Claudia really did a beautiful job w/ the characters and world building.

So here's the thing, you can read just the adult and young adult books - but you'll miss a lot of other good storytelling that meshes w/ the novels if you skip the other books and comics.

The young readers books are good and they do contribute to the overall story. Vernestra is one of my favorite characters in the books, she's the main protagonist in the first of the young readers books "A Test of Courage." The hardbacks have gorgeous illustrations in them. To me they don't necessarily read like little kids books, they read like short stories that are just lighter in content. Vernestra shows up as a primary character in "Out of the Shadows" (which is after "Rising Storm" and "Tempest Runner.")



I bought the little kids books also for the stickers and they have lovely illustrations in them also.



You also should get the graphic novels that go with the saga. The IDW Adventure comics have characters who pop up all over in later books.If you haven't read the comics that go with them - it's confusing because they're written with the assumption that you've read the comics also. Avar has her story-arc gets moved over to the comics.

You are lucky - nearly everything except for the last of the major Marvel comics and the last of the IDW Adventures comics are available to get as graphic novels. So you can read pretty much everything in order. By the time you're at "Midnight Horizon" - hopefully the rest of the comics will be out as graphic novels. I still haven't read those - I might need to just download them online.

 

Thanks for the tips @PadmeLeiaJaina. It’s interesting that you mention A Test of Courage, as I found the cover very striking. I intended to read Out of the Shadows, but I think I’ll check out both of Justina Ireland’s novels.

I haven’t read any of the comics. To be honest, I lost track of all the new Marvel Star Wars comics a couple of years ago. That said, one of the nice things about the High Republic period is that it’s separate from the other story arcs. I checked and the Marvel collected editions are being released in three volumes. Coincidentally, the third volume is released tomorrow.

There’s a lot of content with the High Republic and something to appeal to every fan.

 

I got notification my High Republic "Jedi's End" shipped today! (Mixed feelings about getting it - they've left our heroes on a massive cliff-hanger.) (I also ordered Claudia Gray's "The Murder of Mr. Wickham" and it shipped also. The English major in me who loves Jane Austin is delighted by this book.)

Indeed - Novels, books, short stories, Manga, Comics, audio dramas, and coming soon art books! I like them all! I love the characters so much from The High Republic that I've been working on getting as much as I can from the line. I've never read Manga comics and really enjoyed Edge of Balance. I'm looking forward to the second volume (it's out as ebook...I don't read ebooks so I'm waiting on my physical copy.)

I do like that they are trying to get the graphic novels for The High Republic out as fast as possible so they can mesh with the book timelines. It doesn't always work. We have no idea when the last round of the IDW Adventures comics will come out with Dark Horse taking over their stories, though which rather sucks.

• This page lists out everything in every category that is out and the order to read them per category. (Someone had gotten a hold of The Edge of Balance vol 2 comic and apparently it says there's a 3rd one also coming...maybe it's on the ebook. It's not on any lists yet though.)
• This article works for reading order of all of the printed material - it's just missing "Tempest Runner" which I believe can be read either before or after "Out of the Shadows". Tempest Runner was created as a full audio drama you can either read the script book or listen to the audio. Currently I've done neither.

Prior to this line of books, I had very few graphic novels and just tons of older Dark Horse and Marvel comics that I haven't read in decades. And now I'm trying to make heads or tails out of 30 years of comics to catch up on I really need to get my SW room cleaned out so that I can get my books all up and in order so I can fully see what I have and don't have.

 

I just got Tempest Runner and I am reading the script Book

 

How long have you been book collecting?

Since I was born. My aunt still has some of my books from when I was an infant. Since I have been old enough to read I have been collecting. Unfortunately I have lost most of my collection from the 70’s-90’s due to my divorce. Then I lost all the books I recollected from the 80’s-90’s , and up to 2010, we had moved into a new place and the cats were quite literally p$ssed off. And peed all in the boxes of books, destroying many autographed by Timothy Zahn, Matthew stover, Karen Travis’s, not including all the other genres of books I had. A prized possession was my autographed edition of Journey To An 800 Number by E L Konigsburg, it was a graduation gift from my high school librarian. I treasured it.

How many books do you think you own?

never counted, between Arkansas and Arizona several hundred. Though I started dropping off boxes of books at bookmans in trying to scale down what I have.

What are your favorite books to collect?

Star Wars books!! Comics/novels/ships/costumes/rpg/creatures/magazines, any Star Wars is my favorite!

Where are your favorite places to find books?

bookmans is my go to, we have 3 bookmans in town. Plus there are a few tiny secondhand bookstores hidden away in Tucson that I like. One of them is new. I don’t like to order secondhand books online. So hard to get smells out. If I ever move to a larger place I might use @PadmeLeiaJaina
Ways of getting rid of smells and order online though.

What is your favorite book?
From The Mixed Up Files Of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler, by E L Konigsburg.

What is your rarest book?

I honestly don’t know. I have inherited several book collections in the last 40+ yrs and to this day I still haven’t ever gone through all of them. Most are stored in my aunts house, some on her bookshelves, and more in boxes.

Is there a Holy Grail book that you wish to obtain?

simple, I don’t even know if it is expensive. I want the hardback edition of Queen’s Shadow by E K Johnston with Padme in her geonosis outfit on the jacket cover.

Have you ever met w/ any authors of the books or have autographed copies of books?

I have a brand new autographed copy of Queens Hope by E K Johnston that I love.

I have met a few authors, my favorite meet greets were karen traviss and Timothy Zahn. A large group of us were seen railing at Karen Traviss at CIV because she had just released Sacrifice. We were extremely upset with Karen. Someone with the group even threw their copy of Sacrifice on the ground in front of Karen Traviss.

my other memory is that I won a raffle to go to dinner with Timothy Zahn. It wasn’t just us. There were two raffle winners, and a few librarians there. Timothy Zahn is a very dear man. I love that he wasn’t afraid of talking about his religious views, which I shared with him. Not mentioning what those veiws were in case I accidentally offend unknowingly. I also loved picking his brain about Survivors Quest and Outbound Flight!! My two favorite Zahn SW books. An especially interesting note was when I asked Timothy Zahn what he thought of what Karen Traviss did to a character in her book Sacrifice, a character that he had created many years ago. I was saddened to know he wasn’t even asked or consulted on what he thought about what Karen Traviss did. He read it just like everyone else.

right now I am reading Queens Hope. I wanted to finish it tonight but I helped my neice move today and I can’t even manage ten minutes of sitting up in bed to read. I spent all my energy typing my answers to these questions! Which was great fun to do!

 

So far I've only had one instance of odors from books I've bought online. I purchase most of mine now from a few big book sellers on ebay. They are all non-smoking.
There are purifiers that are supposed to take pet urine smells out of books, doesn't help w/ the staining though

I haven't read the NJO onwards books, although I did read "Crucible" so I probably know who you're talking about in "Sacrifice." Yes I'm a weirdo, I read books completely out of order.

I think that version of "Queen's Shadow" was a San Diego Comic Con exclusive. I know the Zahn Thrawn book that has CW Anakin on the cover w/ Thrawn goes for a fortune. I don't know if I've even seen the Padme book being sold. Good luck finding it. The art is on the paperback version at least.

Poor Karen Traviss. I have been enjoying her prequel books. I just finished "The Clone Wars" novelization and enjoyed "No Prisoners." A part of why I stopped buying books long ago was that I didn't like the bloodbath that I kept hearing about that was going on in the NJO books. I have the whole series now at some point I'll get around to reading them. Considering I'm rereading The New Republic books from the very beginning - it'll be a while before I get there. I'm an oddity, I really don't care much for Zahn's writing style. Maybe it's improved since the "Heir to the Empire" trilogy, I don't know. I can't remember if I ever read the other books he wrote in that timeline ("Specter of the Past" and "Vision of the Future.") There are things he does in his writing that makes me cringe. I've been putting off "Last Command" but I think I'll force myself to working on it next.

I think we have 3 Bookman's here in the Valley. I need to try to get to the one on Northern? to see what they have. I really want to hunt down all of the bookclub hardback Legends books where they bound together multiple books into one. I have 2 of them, I've got one of the 4 "Young Jedi Knights" books and the "Force Heretic" trilogy book. It's in brand new condition so I also have paperbacks that I'll read for those. I have a copy of the "Before the Storm" trilogy coming that way.

I'm currently reading "Alphabet Squadron" and "Dooku: Jedi Lost." Both books are engaging. "Alphabet Squadron" I'm finding to be fascinating. I rather enjoy how they are building out the new post-ROTJ timeline. I recall trying to read a few of the X-Wing books way back when and they didn't grab me. I was worried that I'd find these books dull too. It took a bit to get into "Alphabet" since it's all new characters and they're world building the new canon era view of life post-ROTJ - I'm now over 1/2 way through and I really like the book. There's a very grounded feel to it. These people are all shell shocked from the trauma of war and there's a very raw realness with how these nearly broken people are trying to keep themselves together.

"Dooku: Jedi Lost" - I can tell this was written while Cavan and the crew were working on starting "The High Republic" series, there are a couple of clues dropped in there that are intriguing. I'm enjoying the story, it's nice meeting the mysterious Sifo-Dyas. I always love anything w/ Asajj Ventress. According to this book - Dooku was always a pompous ass

 

My copy of The High Republic Vol. 3 - Jedi's End arrived today along w/ Claudia Gray's "The Murder of Mr. Wickham." The Marchion Ro 2 set of comics are also included in Jedi's End.

 

Just found out new comic issue coming up will be Halcyon Legacy number 3. It will feature Padme and Anakin! Yippieee

 

Thanks for the info

 

How long have you been book collecting?

Since the prequels were released. I bought the novelizations for each film. I don't consider myself a completist collector of the books. I will either borrow or buy the books that interest me and if I didn't like it, then the book get sold. I only keep the ones that I'd absolutely read more than once. I've picked up a couple of the Making Of books recently (Solo and the Mandalorian) and am just now adding the two Star Wars archives.

How many books do you think you own?

Maybe 20. I just keep the ones I really like.

What are your favorite books to collect?

Just Star Wars books or any? For Star Wars it's movie novelizations, Claudia Gray, some of the old Legends like the Darth Bane trilogy.

Where are your favorite places to find books?

Used book stores. There's a Books a Million in one of the local malls. If I can't find it there then I order it from whoever has it in stock.

What is your favorite book?

The Horse God Built by Lawrence Scanlan with Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand a close second.

For Star Wars so far it's Darth Bane Path of Destruction

What is your rarest book?

I don't think I have any.


Is there a Holy Grail book that you wish to obtain?

The Art of Star Wars series from the prequels
Rinzler's Making of Series

Have you ever met w/ any authors of the books or have autographed copies of books?
No.

 

In a couple of my Facebook SW book groups that I follow people mentioned that they'd found some of the rarer multi-novel Hardcover Bookclub Star Wars books at Half Price Books.

I went to mine on Saturday and found four! I also got CD soundtracks for Rogue One and The Last Jedi. And I got a set of Queen Amidala Paperdolls. I already had them but they were $1.99 - that's dirt cheap nowadays.



I also have one for the Dark Tide Duo coming. If they only combined the trilogies and duologies for the NJO books I think I only need Enemy Lines book. I haven't seen if they combined the other standalone novels or not. Anyone have any idea if they did?

I know they have them for the complete Young Jedi Knights saga. (There are 3 of those, I have the first.) There's one for the Jedi Academy trilogy books.I just found this Wiki page, it says there are also these available:

Star Wars: Tales Omnibus
The Star Wars Trilogy
The Han Solo Trilogy
The Bounty Hunter Wars Trilogy
MedStar Duology
Republic Commando: Volume 1
Republic Commando: Volume 2

The rest of the bookclub novels seem to be just single books. I did see someone who got the Bounty Hunter book. I think if I got the 3 YJK and the last of the NJO books I'd be fine. The MedStar duo would be cool also.

A friend of mine who lives in Australia bought the deal of a lifetime. He found a hardback of "The Clone Wars: Gambit Stealth" for $4. So jealous. He was shocked to learn that it's going for anywhere between $100-250 each.

 

More new books:



From what I can tell the Epic Clone Wars collections are the same as the skinny white Clone Wars 9 comic series from Dark Horse. I'll probably keep both.I just need to track down Epic Vol 2 now.

The little Clone Wars Adventures series is now complete. I'm down to needing 3 of the Jedi Apprentice books. They are the 3 that are the hardest to find - I need #13, 14, and #17. Once I get those all of the young readers series will be complete from the Clone Wars era (that I want - I don't care about the Boba Fett books.) I'll probably finally track them all down and they'll get rereleased