What do you think about the price and recent collections of the Folio Society? Has your collection and interest increased or decreased?

The last Folio Society release there wasn’t a single volume I was even remotely interested in. I don’t care about Marvel comics, I don’t care about James Bond! Agreed about spirituality, mythology, anthropology, or even psychology. Imagine an illustrated CG Jung Memories, Dreams, and Reflections!

that's a healthy collector mindset, i like folio society, especially because they usually have unique illustrations (often for books that have no other illustrated edition), but the prices have been unreasonable. i'm interested to see what the upcoming non-limited edition of the Gormenghast trilogy will cost, it's one of the few new editions i have been interested in, but i fear they'll go mad with the price.

Yeah... I agree with you. I do enjoy FS books, however I agree they are taking a path in their title choices which does not interest me in the slightest. The new spring releases; there is not a single book in there that interests me in the slightest. Recently somebody made a comment to me in a social media forum that FS of the past was too British, and the books do not hold value in todays market for that reason... WOW!!! I unfortunately think he's right though, being reflective in the titles they choose to publish. They seem to be publishing books to cater for a younger, more precious audience. Price? Well, it is what it is! FS are a business and need to maintain profit to exist. My criticism here is that the differences between a LE and a SE are negligible. Take Casino Royale for example.The LE is just over $1000 Australian. The standard is $95.00. The art work is mostly the same save some black and whites and it's an edition of 750. Regardless of the pretty leather etc, 750 books at that price, is an awful lot of books and really doesn't represent a 'Limited Edition." At this point it's pure marketing with no substance. Your comments in this video are not new to me. I have heard similar in the past twelve months from a number of different sources, one being a well recognised book dealer in London. I think FS have some work to do as they are loosing their older more established reader and collector base as well as people such as yourself clearly. Somehow you do not seem to be the type of person to be reading Marvel.

Totally agree with you regards TFS's change of direction and especially the price hike!

I always enjoy watching your presenting a new book and will be watching whether it's Folio Society or not. More than 90 percent of my personal library is non-fiction. The only books I want from Folio Society are Murakami but the price is a bit too high, so I keep thinking but not buying.

I love Folio Society books but how many I buy is largely a function of the price of a book. If they insist on charging $70-140 for basic editions, I'll still buy them, but it will be once a year or so. Lately the prices have been getting so high that I can't remotely justify buying everything I want from them. And that's fair enough, it's their business to set pricing, but they won't sell as many either. And overall my spending has reduced. Maybe their profits are higher on fewer, more expensive titles, but I kind of doubt it. I used to buy 5-10 books a year and now it's like 1-2.

I also keep a spreadsheet! Makes inventory easier, especially if I've lent books out.

Folio have become addicted to their wildly overpriced LEs. They used to offer handsome editions for @£30 but no longer. Their choice of illustrators is poor (the OO7 volumes are ruined due to that) and their sales have long been a joke.

Very similar, my interests are close to yours, not bought a folio for a long time, the last one was micrograph by Robert Hooke during a sale. I have been looking at monkey and not sure about it, do I want a more complete "journey to the west" book, or is this abridged version good enough, and decided that even though I really want it I will go through many periods of regret. Still looking for a nice hardback for all 4 classic Chinese novels maybe I get folios outlaws of the Marsh, but it won't be for a while

Norway here. Owner of approx 350 FS books. I went out hard, it was that hot passionate kind of love. I got sucked in first hand, secondhand, mailmen stopped me on my way and said they had another book for me. Then the bubble burst. This is why: 1 - It got too expensive and a cost I spendt around 22500 gbp limited editions included as a total. 2: I had to stop because I wanted to buy less things, spend more on my house and car (suv - which can and will be cost expensive at some point). I will buy the occasional book, but be a lot more selective, thus I have found and bought most of my whales 3: Less time to read at the moment, work and other passions take a lot of time. 4: I have enough to read at the moment because of 3. 5: I don`t want my home too crowded with books, it`s not that pleasing to look at if it gets to that point it seem untidy - it really isn`t. Remember FS books are a part of furniture, and furniture needs it`s place to shine 5: Looking forward to slim my collection down a bit, down to a more personal collection. My taste is pretty eclectic. - About modern FS: I have some on my wishlist, but no stress. I know I have supported FS good through the years, so my conscience is clean. Some holy grails I def want to keep. I love my FS collection, but at some point it also has to be justified. I believe I came around and found FS at a very special and exciting time of which I will always be thankful of. I found FS before youtubers announced them on their channel, yet not far from, and before facebook groups. The community was smaller, which in a way made the books more special (right time, place kind of thingy). Find out what you want to collect, don`t stress, unless it`s something limited. Brick by brick.

I have to agree that I have felt the same, but especially about their limited editions. They do no longer feel like they are worth their price-tag. The most recent one of On the Origin of Species has me so confused.. Do I want it because it's a limited edition, or do I want it because it's an awesome limited edition. When I saw your special edition of Alice in wonderland now that was a special edition that deserves a handsome pricetag... what do you think about the 'On the Origin of Species' limited edition?

For me, apart from the obvious issue of price (reason I will never buy any limited edition of anything, as a matter of principle) it's that so many of the illustrations are just terrible. There's no other way to put it. There's been a few recent releases that in theory would have interested me, but the pictures were so bad (this weird kind of smudged grainy amateurish-looking pomo impressionist style, where I prefer illustrations that are crisp and clear and well-defined). Which is baffling considering how many amazingly good concept artists and illustrators there are out there on the internet.

Two I see you will not be getting rid of (quite correctly) are that beautiful Alice in Wonderland and the Faerie Queene that are up on your shelf. Those were really from the golden age of Folio Society publishing, 2008-2016 in my opinion. EDIT: Or perhaps that's not the Faerie Queene on the top shelf, since the FS version was only 3 volumes.

I agree, Spiritual & Historical non-fiction books are well suited to the Folio Society, it makes you feel you are analysing an something extraordinary and important. However, it feels very overkill and pretentious for a novel. It's hard to read a huge heavy FS hardback in bed! For classic novels, I prefer the Everyman Library. You said at the end that you would buy The Iliad / Odyssey from FS if they published one. But, they already have published this a couple of times and appear frequently on the second hand market. Do you not like this edition? If so, why not?

Is the market for second hand Folio Society books very liquid?

I revisited this video after I made a secondary market purchase for Japanese Tales. I find myself buying old volumes. Their new stuff is so strange, Marvel and DC make amazing collected editions, so I can’t understand the comics they’re doing. I understand the need to do modern books to survive, but I miss the more careful selection of old titles.

Hey Pontus. I just wanted to drop you a line to let you know that your latest video upset me, but also made me happy. It's hard for me when you admit that your interest in Folio Society collecting just isn't there any more, because when I started getting into the publisher and building my own little collection, your videos were my primary resource and guide. There wasn't much for FS content on YT back then! I've spent hours watching your stuff, and honestly you were a big reason why I even tried my own hand at putting together Folio videos. My own attempts still fall well short of where you took it, so I also must thank you for the inspiration you've provided me and the bar you've established. But I'm happy that your journey has brought you to this new focus. It takes a lot of reflection as a collector to recognize that the collecting-focus that was once a part of your identity no longer brings you as much joy as it should, and it takes courage to move past it. So I'm pleased that you're more at-peace and more focused in your collecting, and I just wanted you to know that I'll continue to watch and appreciate your work no matter the form and focus it takes. All the best sir, and thank you for the Folio spark that you helped foster in me.

Agree. I was so disappointed now with their announcement of the Spring collection. The last release that interested me-which I added to my collection-was 'The Bell Jar'. Other than that one volume, I haven't got myself anything Folio Society since then. The last LE I liked and bought was the 'Kamasutra of Vatsyayana'. Again, other than that... Nothing. I would have wished they would publish a new, more elegant edition of Marcel Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time' (I despise the old existing edition, with those uninspired hues of blue and the horrid-looking numbers on the spines). I would also wish they would release more works of 20th-century writers like Daphne du Maurier, Patricia Highsmith, Virginia Woolf or even E. M. Hull. I would have loved their Shirley Jackson titles if the designs weren't so childish and cartoonish. Not everything by a female writer needs to look like a YA book now! Some of the most aesthetically pleasing editions they have published over the last ten years, as for my own taste, were Montaigne's 'Essays' (superb volume) and 'If not, Winter' (Fragments of Sappho). Would wish they would have given authors like Shirley Jackson a more serious treatment - her work deserved it!

I agree about the prices. I mean, it's a fact. And I agree that the sales haven't been great, or contain books that I wanted. Except for the most recent sale, when they had a lot of pretty interesting books for half price. As far as the selection, they do seem to be introducing more modern stuff. (Though I don't think I've seen a lot of fantasy.) Since you asked us about our own collections, I'll say that I've avoided buying from them purely because of the cost. The books themselves and the shipping are just too high for me. Excepting this latest sale, I can't really remember my last order. But unlike you, I don't only keep books I really love. On the contrary, I only get rid of books that I don't care about at all. If it spoke to me at all, I tend to keep it. Though, as I run out of shelf space, the math changes!

I also am mostly looking for folio society on the second hand market. Selling books I don't love as much. These fund new books. I keep my book record on goodreads. Using tags allows me to essentially filter my books. And other details can be added tot he notes.

Yes. I agree with you completely.

Tipp für den Umzug: Die Kisten nicht zu voll packen mit Büchern. (Eigentlich logisch, habe aber schon bei drei Umzügen mitgeholfen, wo das ein Problem war.)

The few decent offerings they’ve had from the past few collections for me were the new Divine Comedy edition and Byzantium. Byzantium has a glued binding though which is criminal considering it’s a $110 edition. Nothing else they’ve offered recently has me interested, I definitely see my Folio collection stagnating as they continue to offer up more things like comics, Agatha Christie, and James Bond novels.

My current Folio Society collection consists of: The Bell Jar The Color Purple The Great Gatsby The Handmaid’s Tale Atonement The Godfather I love the one’s I have to death but I just can’t really get into their new offerings. At those prices I rather get Amaranthine, Centipede, or Suntup offerings

Expensive? Yes. Poor catalogue? No. Plenty of good titles available and I appreciate all the scifi selection. Jump on prices are explained by production costs. Paper has become more expensive and printing the same.

I agree with you Pontus and I can also relate to you so much. Now I'm only buying books about religion, mainly Catholicism or eastern religions like Daoism. But I have also cut back on my spending significantly thanks to our lovely post-Covid inflation. I only have 3 Folio books, Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book, the Secret Memoirs of Pius II and some other one I'm forgetting.

It's not just Folio Society, everyman's Library books are also increasing in price. It's £25 for a used copy of Dostoyevsky. That's nearly 2x increase in from RRP and it's used!

I really enjoy a lot of what they put out but I absolutely agree on the price, especially considering shipping costs. Buying even one Folio book is a huge investment, even if the book itself is "only" 40 pounds. Im hoping they will continue putting out more Haruki Murakami books at least, and more Shirley Jackson

Just bought Dominion and Pandemonium from Folio yesterday.

What are your newest interests in reading?

100% Agree on their not publishing mythology, epics, Virgil, Homer, Dante .. etc.. I also enjoy their Literature classics .. Moby Dick, Ulysses, Gargantua, etc...

Hi, I love your books and videos. I review books in my channel and I resonate with the price increase of books.

I’ve bought Folio books for nearly 25 years now but you’re right, they’re just costing too much now. What a shame! There are so many I’d go for if the costs were £15 or so lower. And to charge postage on top of such an already overpriced item is just taking the mick. Such a shame!

I’m looking forward to the release of band of brothers the book looks seriously cool.

I’ve moved home recently and having a big book collection to move was a real stress. It’s good that you’re preparing a long time in advance. FS prices have been increasing relentlessly, even before the global inflation of the past 2 years. I understand they need to be profitable, but even a standard book is £45-50 now, and often a lot more. I need to really want a book to spend that, a d live everything about it. I do think their more popular strategy is probably quite profitable though. They must have sold a tonne of the A Song and Ice and Fire books.

My own folio collection has definitely not grown for quite a while now. Meaning years actually. Sad but there it is. Brexit certainly didn't help either.

The prices have gotten too high for me, and the books they publish has changed drastically, if you’re into woke literature and comics then folio is for you but if you are primarily interested in classics then you can buy their 12th printing of Frankenstein or you can look elsewhere