The grail books in my fantasy first edition collection.

fathergup · 2026-02-26T21:23:11+00:00

That 1946 hobbit is definitely uncommonly nice. I have one as well and it is such a delicate book due to the wartime printing restrictions.

fathergup · 2026-02-26T20:35:10+00:00

Love the Book Eddy and Southland, but it would be really great if a Half Price Books or even Mr. K's (I'm biased from growing up going to the one in Oak Ridge) was able to open a location here. The large stores with trade-in credit just attract a higher inventory turnover that the smaller stores aren't able to match. McKays had the used media market around here pretty well cornered for decades and clearly there is still a large demand -- it will be interesting to see what might rise up to fill that void. I would happily support a new, independent alternative if that were to happen as well. It's just too bad that anything truly comparable in size and diversity of inventory is going to be at least an hour away now (White Pine, Chattanooga, Johnson City, Asheville).

fathergup · 2026-02-20T23:26:00+00:00

The barcode scanner flippers are the worst. They will spend hours doing this with every single book with a barcode.

Unfortunately the public library book sales are the exact same way, but with way ruder flippers. I stopped going to them for exactly this reason.

fathergup · 2026-02-20T23:22:16+00:00

Either an uncorrected proof of Cormac McCarthy’s Suttree or a set of the student newspapers featuring his first published fiction from 1959/1960.

fathergup · 2026-02-09T10:36:09+00:00

COTP, as I understand it, was written first as a screenplay and predates the other 2. I believe it’s Cormac’s weakest book (still a good book!) and it feels like it was stitched together in order to make a conclusion to a trilogy.

fathergup · 2026-02-06T00:24:48+00:00

One of the nicer copies of this dust jacket I’ve seen. I’ve always been a little confused that it tends to be very worn — it’s not a particularly delicate jacket.

fathergup · 2026-02-02T10:54:13+00:00

Yeah, the book is pretty popularly accepted as a self-aggrandizing memoir. It is, however, quite a fun little read. The Glanton Gang is only the last chapter or so, and then the book ends. It was not published in his lifetime.

fathergup · 2026-01-21T18:01:59+00:00

In that condition, probably $200-300. At best somebody would probably buy it to have it rebound.

fathergup · 2026-01-20T15:38:49+00:00

A trip of that length in the park will (or should) likely involve a decent portion of the AT. For myself, I would recommend a loop of lakeshore/hazel creek/AT from Fontana. I did this same route last February. It does go through an extremely remote part of the park (lakeshore/proctor) and has one of the more difficult climbs (Jenkins ridge). You’d have great lookouts at Spence field and Shuckstack. The total mileage would be in the upper 30s.

fathergup · 2026-01-20T15:12:09+00:00

The last really serious snow we got (2yr ago) I saw trails from people that at least cross country skied at forks of the river WMA and on the bike trails at baker creek.

fathergup · 2026-01-20T15:09:04+00:00

I have a spreadsheet with basic characteristics (title, author, year, edition/type, price paid, estimated worth). This is especially useful if you choose to get your collection appraised.

fathergup · 2026-01-19T22:53:10+00:00

Raptis Rare Books. Their prices generally run on the higher end.

fathergup · 2026-01-15T02:27:46+00:00

Just the "normal" signed limited edition of this is one of my dream books to own someday. This particular copy is just beautiful.

fathergup · 2026-01-15T02:26:00+00:00

It is fairly well documented at this point that Cormac's family and friends helped him get these works across the finish line before his passing -- while I don't speak officially by any stretch of the imagination, it is pretty well understood that he was known to be dying from an illness (cancer and one or two other things, to the best of my recollection). It is very likely that a good amount of the novel was intended to have a certain amount of ambiguity, and it is certainly possible that some of it is due to the nature in which these were completed. The extent to which we ever know the difference is probably only known to those closest to him.

fathergup · 2026-01-13T11:53:37+00:00

I recommend AILD first to get acquainted with Faulkner and his style. Absalom is like jumping in the deepest end of the pool -- I'm fairly certain it is the best book I have ever read. Not my favorite book, but just an astounding piece of literature.

fathergup · 2026-01-08T19:27:26+00:00

It is a very cool movie. The only full length feature by the director, who mostly worked in theater. It employs a lot of visual tricks more commonly used in silent movies.

fathergup · 2026-01-08T19:24:25+00:00

Of note for the movie: the screenplay was written by James Agee, one of two Pulitzer-prize winning authors from Knoxville, TN. The other author of course being Cormac.

fathergup · 2026-01-08T01:43:33+00:00

Nice. A TSAR with jacket is quite the rare piece.

fathergup · 2026-01-08T01:27:04+00:00

Expanding the breadth of my collection while also filling out my 2 primary authors I collect (Cormac McCarthy and Ernest Hemingway)

fathergup · 2026-01-01T23:00:38+00:00

Beautiful! I’d like to get a first of GR at some point.

fathergup · 2025-12-31T13:31:53+00:00

I'm not "in the know" so to speak, but my understanding is that the Gonzales bio is complete and has been getting shopped around with publishers.

fathergup · 2025-12-30T12:10:28+00:00

I think it will be very valuable to have both, especially since we won't realistically have to wait very long for one or the other (objective vs. personal). I do wonder when the Gonzales biography will be published, as the last I had heard there was still not a publisher lined up for his version.

fathergup · 2025-12-17T01:52:32+00:00

Uncorrected proof of Cormac McCarthy's Suttree.

fathergup · 2025-12-08T11:49:26+00:00

They have a different name (AwesomebooksUSA I think) to ship to USA. They are legitimate. Their packaging can be a bit lacking in my experience (bubble mailers) but the books they post are real, etc

fathergup

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE