Becoming A Book Collector

I was surrounded by books, magazines, and comics when I was child growing up in Denver in the early 1960s. The most unusual book my family owned was a nineteenth century German math book that was bound in flesh colored leather, eerily resembling human skin. Because of its strange appearance my family simply called it The Skin Book. That old tome was just one of several interesting books in our home that fascinated me when I was young. As I grew older, books of all kinds, particularly novels, began to interest me not only for the quality of their content, but for their aesthetic appearance. Book covers, in all their various design forms, took on a special significance with me in part because of that weird looking leather bound book.

The first books I collected on my own were Mystery by Moonlight and Yellow Eyes, purchased through a Scholastic catalog program in my elementary school. Both books were considered standard curriculum for grade schoolers, but they turned out to be formative choices for me, permanently effecting my reading habits and psyche for many years to come.

After finishing Mystery by Moonlight I went looking for more challenging material, and started reading novels by Agatha Christie, Earl Derr Biggers, Rex Stout, Mary Stewart and John Dickson Carr. My parents had hundreds of books back then, including representations from all of these major authors. I've been an avid reader, collector and fan of mysteries, thrillers, and detective stories ever since.

Yellow Eyes, Rutherford Montgomery's classic novel about the struggles of a young mountain lion growing up in the Rocky Mountains, had a powerful influence on me too. While reading the book I quickly developed a fascination for wildlife and their habitat, as well as a strong interest in environmental issues and a love for the great outdoors. Ten years later when I discovered Richard Adams' wildlife adventure novel Watership Down, it immediately became one of my favorite books. I still have my original copy of the paperback first edition, published in 1975 by Avon Books.

My interest in science fiction can be traced back to a specific children's novel by Alexander Key. My brother Gary and I liked Sprockets A Little Robot so much that we found ourselves drawing pictures of the characters in our spare time. After that I discovered Robert A. Heinlein's renowned young-adult science fiction novels, which two of my brothers had already begun borrowing from our school library. Heinlein's ability to incorporate science, technology, sociology and adventure into his juvenile novels made them all that more remarkable to us as young readers. My family also made regular trips to the Denver Public Library where we would peruse the shelves, bringing home armloads of books in all categories to enjoy, including books in our favorite new subject area, science fiction.

Comic books also had a huge impact on me, and were probably the genesis for all my book collecting habits. Once a week, empowered with our allowance of 25 cents each, my brothers and I would bike over to Lincoln Drugs, a local establishment that sold candy bars and comic books. A quarter would buy us one of each, with change left over too. With three older brothers and a sister who all had artistic temperaments and above average reading proclivities, the Silver Age comics began piling up like veritable stacks in our house. Occasionally we would swap comics with each other, but only after a careful negotiation was worked out. One of our favorite shared comics was the Classics Illustrated version of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, illustrated by the great Lou Cameron. I still have that copy, loose cover and all.

By the time I entered middle-school in the late sixties, my mother had started a routine of driving Gary and me to the Cinderella City mall to shop at Waldenbooks. That historic mall was located in Englewood, Colorado, and it was distinctive for being the largest covered shopping center west of the Mississippi River. Near the mall's main hub and almost directly in front of Waldenbooks was an enormous water fountain, probably the first of its kind ever built for an indoor mall. My mom spent a lot of time sitting by the water waiting for us to finish our browsing. On each visit she allowed us to buy one book, mostly paperbacks starting at 45 cents or very inexpensive hardcovers. Our choices were usually aimed at SF series books, either Tom Swift Jr. Adventures, Rick Brant Science Adventures, Doc Savage Adventures, or anything written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. We also liked the young-adult science fiction novels of Andre Norton. Daybreak 2250 A.D. was a huge favorite for both of us. My passion for collecting paperbacks (a natural extension of comic book collecting), can be traced back to those days spent shopping at Cinderella City's Waldenbooks.

When I was 13 years old my oldest brother Jim returned home from college with several boxes of books he had acquired. His incredibly varied collection provided me with my first serious exposure to the world of contemporary adult literature. Landmark novels like The Oxbow Incident, Coffee Tea or Me, The Harrad Experiment, Catch-22, Tropic of Cancer, The Sun Also Rises, Papillon, The Cool World and Papillon captivated my reading attention for months at a time. I had entered a brand new realm of literary excitement. There were quite a few Playboy magazines mixed in with his books too. Lucky me.

However, there was one book in Jim's boxes that seemed entirely out of context for him to have, in relation to the rest of the contents. It was an epic fantasy novel with a pictorial cover illustration, painted by an artist named Barbara Remington, someone completely unfamiliar to me. The book, which had become popular on college campuses across the nation, was a mass-market paperback edition of The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien. That Part One in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, published as an exclusive authorized edition by Ballantine Books, just happened to be an unread copy in almost mint condition, and it would significantly shape my collecting and reading habits forever.

After buying, reading, and lionizing Part Two and Three of Tolkien's monumental trilogy, I was eager to find something else to collect and read that was in a similar vein. Musing over the science fiction shelves at Walden Books one night, my attention was instantly drawn to a paperback cover showing a Viking-styled warrior wielding a bloody double-edged axe. At his feet sprawled wounded barbarians, corpses, and an oversized reptilian creature. That phenomenal paperback was Conan the Warrior by Robert E. Howard, published by Lancer Books in 1967, and the amazing cover artist was Frank Frazetta. Two of the novellas collected in that book, Red Nails and Beyond the Black River, would eventually be recognized as the author's finest achievements. Frank Frazetta would eventually become an icon among illustrators, and like the character Conan, almost a household name in his own right.

From there on I bought every paperback in Lancer's twelve-volume Conan series. Robert E. Howard was now my favorite writer. Frazetta was almost certainly my favorite illustrator. Next I began to discover other genre related authors like E. R. Eddison, Mervyn Peake, William Morris, Clark Ashton Smith and Lord Dunsany. Most of these major fantasists were being reprinted in Lin Carters excellent Adult Fantasy Series, published in paperback by Ballantine books. That quickly led to H. P. Lovecraft, a pivotal author in my developing interest in horror and dark fantasy fiction.

Mention should also be made of my favorite science fiction novel, Dune. Even though I read Frank Herbert's cornerstone achievement when I was only a teenager, I still consider Dune as the genre's best representative novel, and its most influential book next to 2001 A Space Odyssey. The original paperback edition from Ace Books is one of my most cherished possessions.

The rest is history, as they say, some of which is still evident by visiting the Berserker catalog listings.

Every paperback I owned back then I managed to read without causing significant wear to the covers or spine. It was as if I wore kid gloves while reading. That same approach to preserving my early paperbacks also applied to the hardcovers I would later purchase as an adult. I love books and have tried to maintain my collection as best I could by storing books flat and inside mylar bags whenever possible. As a result, many of the modern books offered for sale at Berserker Books are still in almost retail-like condition, with only minimal wear to covers and dust-jackets. A substantial portion of my books have never even been read.

Each book listed for sale has its condition described in detail, so customers can remain confident in what they will be buying. All images shown in the catalog have been scanned from the actual books themselves, and each image can be enlarged to almost full-screen capacity for further scrutiny. Please use the Add to Cart shopping method to purchase items, it will take you directly to PayPal where your transaction will be safe and secure, handled exclusively by the online bank. If you prefer paying by check or money order, please use the "Contact" form to discuss arrangements, and to reserve your selections. For added convenience, domestic shipping costs have been included in the price of each item listed (international orders will require extra shipping costs, and must be negotiated first).

Have fun browsing, and remember, Reading Lasts Forever!