In my search for a copy of Gibbons' The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, I came across Easton Press, a company I hadn't previously heard of. It's just about the only company that prints an unabridged version of Gibbons' work. The books appear to be very well bound in leather with hubbed spines, 22kt gold accents, gilded page edges, thread-sewn pages, etc. They're really quite pretty to look at. They offer a subscription service to various series of books which I found quite interesting. For instance they have the "100 Greatest Books Ever Written", and "Books that changed the world". I then proceeded to fire-up ebay and I found a pretty large secondary market for them, and so I thought, why not? It's nice to find that there are still some companies that care about the quality of their offerings because I hate crappily glue bindings that fall apart. Regardless, I've decided that I'm gonna divert some money to filling a decently-sized bookshelf with easton press books. With a steady supply of them on ebay, it shouldn't break the bank either.
FWIW I was briefly tempted by The Folio Society because they actually have an introductory offer whereby you can get the complete Gibbon's for 20 bucks but then have to purchase another 4 books at an approximate price of $75ea. (plus shipping I'm assuming). I don't find them as attractively made either. I much prefer leather to cloth binding.
I also did a quick search for a first edition of gibbons' out of curiosity. It can be had for 25k! Unfortunately, I think that will have to remain absent from the collection for a while...
Here's a link in case anyone else is interested:http://www.eastonpress.com/intro.asp
FWIW I was briefly tempted by The Folio Society because they actually have an introductory offer whereby you can get the complete Gibbon's for 20 bucks but then have to purchase another 4 books at an approximate price of $75ea. (plus shipping I'm assuming). I don't find them as attractively made either. I much prefer leather to cloth binding.
I also did a quick search for a first edition of gibbons' out of curiosity. It can be had for 25k! Unfortunately, I think that will have to remain absent from the collection for a while...
Here's a link in case anyone else is interested:http://www.eastonpress.com/intro.asp