Slightly OT: King of Geek Collectibles

[innocuous]

I read this in Wired magazine on the way to Baltimore.

 

Click and be amazed

 

I just thought that this guy has some amazing collectibles in a truly amazing home library. Here's a snippet...

 

In the foreground are several early-20th-century volumes with jeweled bindings—gold, rubies, and diamonds—crafted by the legendary firm Sangorski & Sutcliffe. On the table (first row, from left) is a 16th-century book of jousting, a Dickens novel decorated with the author's portrait, and (open, with Post-it flags) an original copy of the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle, the first illustrated history book. Second row: the 1535 Coverdale Bible (the first completely translated into modern English), a medieval tome with intricate illustrations of dwarfs, a collection of portraits commissioned at a 17th-century German festival ("Facebook in 1610!"), a tree-bark Indonesian guide to cannibalism, and a Middle Eastern mother goddess icon from around 5000 BC.

[silverage12c]

 

Very, very cool.

[Park]

I would probably never leave that room. I wonder if my wife would let me gut 3 or 4 rooms in our house for that.

[Subliminal]

I would probably never leave that room. I wonder if my wife would let me gut 3 or 4 rooms in our house for that.

 

You are assuming that he HAS a wife.

 

 

[nmtg9]

er...wow

[Count]

:o

[He11blazer]

Beautiful room, but I didn't see any longboxes...?

 

[Ogami]

what a wonderful library.

 

I'm a huge fan of libraries, and actually own many books about books/libraries.

 

Here's the best quote, and something I think isn't stressed enough amongst collectors.

 

"Walker shuns the sort of bibliomania that covets first editions for their own sake—many of the volumes that decorate the library's walls are leather-bound Franklin Press reprints. What gets him excited are things that changed the way people think, like Robert Hooke's Micrographia."

[Ogami]

I would probably never leave that room. I wonder if my wife would let me gut 3 or 4 rooms in our house for that.

 

You are assuming that he HAS a wife.

 

 

the article mentions that he does indeed have a wife. (or did, in 1982)

[Raphael]

that room is just amazing!

[Monstro]

that is unbelievably awesome.

 

but whats funny is it seems like he made his money developing priceline.com?

 

i assumed at first he was a scientist or something.

 

[He11blazer]

what a wonderful library.

 

I'm a huge fan of libraries, and actually own many books about books/libraries.

 

Here's the best quote, and something I think isn't stressed enough amongst collectors.

 

"Walker shuns the sort of bibliomania that covets first editions for their own sake—many of the volumes that decorate the library's walls are leather-bound Franklin Press reprints. What gets him excited are things that changed the way people think, like Robert Hooke's Micrographia."

 

Well, whilst I appreciate the point about valuing the content more than the package, he DOES still value historic originals for their 'own sake'. Is that an original Enigma machine? Why not just have a reproduction? Would be a lot cheaper. And those old bibles and such antique books as he does have, why not get them copied and sell the originals?

 

He's just as much hooked on original antiques as a bibliophile who loves first editions. I think he stocked the library with reprints so that he could choose the size of the books and colouring and patterning of the bindings so that his library would look pretty (thumbs u