u/wangosaurusrex

Got my first "Adult Fantasy" subscription book from Owlcrate last week for their month of August book. It's pretty much a "romantasy" book instead of a fantasy book so I gave it to my 17 year old daughter as that's not really my thing.

Other than the book content itself the quality of the book is a couple steps behind the majority of the books from The Broken Binding and seems just a standard trade hardback with a fancied up dust jacket and end papers. The text block itself is quite mediocre with thin low quality paper, zero extra illustrations, and low end glue bound. I probably will NOT keep the Owlcrate sub but will see what arrives next before deciding fully. What do you all think? How do they compare in your opinion?

I did a video on the book and compare it to a few books from The Broken Binding including their glue bound The Dungeon Book and their sewn bound Piranesi from the Fantasy subscription. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr-w5815KAM

Purchased a copy of The Dungeon Book by Gareth Hanrahan and received it a few days ago. Finally got a chance to open it up. Pretty cool numbered and signed edition. Pretty neat sprayed edges design. It's mostly a slightly prettied up standard trade hardback and not sewn bound but still a pretty cool book overall. Would of been nice to see some end paper art and some additional art within the book but I still look forward in reading it when I get a chance. Never read anything from Gareth before but have heard some good things. Has anyone else picked the book up and read it already... thoughts?? Quick video looking at the book that I had made for anyone interested, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITlP2L9eiPs.

Pre-ordered the book back in February and it finally arrived yesterday. They had some manufacturing problems and paused production for a while until they figured everything out which was a large part of the delay. This is the "fixed" version of the book and it looks magnificent :) Look and feel is really nice, the illustrations and 2 tone printing are fantastic, and overall a very nice version of one of my favorite books! I did kind of a longer video for anyone interested looking over the book in more detail and comparing it to a Folio Society and Easton Press book, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYGkIb5r3Ok.

I've read the series 3 times through, initially in high school in the late 90s, again on deployment around 2004 or so, and a 3rd time once the series was completed. Once this full run of leatherbound books is completed I'll have another reason to read the series once more :D

My only real negative of the book is in his it was packed and shipped. They placed the book in a box a good bit larger than the book itself with zero packing material so the book was able to bounce around within the box. Luckily my book arrived undamaged but I'm sure others will not be so lucky. Seems kind of lazy for a somewhat expensive book.

Pre-ordered the book back in February and it finally arrived yesterday. They had some manufacturing problems and paused production for a while until they figured everything out which was a large part of the delay. This is the "fixed" version of the book and it looks magnificent :) Look and feel is really nice, the illustrations and 2 tone printing are fantastic, and overall a very nice version of one of my favorite books! I did kind of a longer video for anyone interested looking over the book in more detail and comparing it to a Folio Society and Easton Press book, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYGkIb5r3Ok.

My only real negative of the book is in his it was packed and shipped. They placed the book in a box a good bit larger than the book itself with zero packing material so the book was able to bounce around within the box. Luckily my book arrived undamaged but I'm sure others will not be so lucky. Seems kind of lazy for a somewhat expensive book.

Added a few things... have volumes 1 and 2 of The Books of Magic omnibuses on the way and just sold the Invincible Ultimate Collection on comic swap so will be boxing those up tomorrow to ship out making way for some new pickups once I figure out what I'd like to add... suggestions? :D

Finally received the 2nd set of 2 books, Ruin & Wrath, to complete the set. Overall, they are quite nice! It does seem TBB has gone a little cheap on the packaging this time around with just a single wrap of the hex packing material, so, sadly one of my corners got banged up a bit, but thankfully not horribly so by any means. With the first 2 books my top and bottom sprayed edges are pretty poorly done, but the last 2 books it's quite nice, so, maybe they improved the process in the end.

For anyone interested and wanting to see the books in a little more detail I did a "quick" video on all 4 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pknctlfGGuc ⬇️

Bonus... I did get 1 holo card this time!

$300 Shipped, PayPal G&S only. Selling the complete set of Invincible Ultimate Collection hardcover volumes 1-12 in mint condition. These are newer printings with the dust jacket art also on the hardcovers themselves. All books have dust jackets BUT for volume 2 which in the very latest 2026 printing no longer include a dust jacket, for whatever reason. I recently picked up a full set of the Invincible Library Editions (these can be seen in the 4th photo) hence why I am selling these to make some room for other stuff :)

I don't have a ton of Manga's and focus mostly on deluxe editions when possible. Also enjoy collecting absolute/omnibuses/deluxe editions of comics/graphic novels, as well as somewhat higher quality books! Recently replaced all of my bookcases with Ikea Billy bookcases and they turned out pretty good but already beginning to run short on room, lol. Any suggestions on new additions or questions? :) Thanks!

Received my latest order from InStockTrades which was beautifully packaged, as always, within 5 large boxes :) Probably my largest single order so it was fun unboxing everything and kind of a puzzle on getting it all on my shelves! For anyone interested I did a video on unboxing it all as well as looking through all of the books that I picked up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoHTbG-DZeA :) Now to find time to read it all!

I received my August Fantasy subscription book a few days ago.. it's quite nice! The headband on the top is not completely glued in place it seems... this shouldn't cause any issues, just a visual thing, I believe, lol. Book itself opens up nicely and lays flat. Artwork is quite good and there is a decent amount of B&W art sprinkled throughout. Sadly I got the regular trading card, haha.

I did a more detailed look in this "quick" video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYuVIrPdaXs, for anyone interested.

Unfortunately, I like books, manga, comics, & more... It begins to get a little expensive, lol. Soon I will need to begin expanding into some additional space, I think... and find more time to finish reading everything! I don't really have many omnibuses yet as I've focused more on Absolutes and deluxe editions but do have a few more omnibuses arriving tomorrow actually :D

Folio Society recently listed the 2nd printing of the Gormenghast Trilogy so I had to pick up a copy :) I know the LE had an introduction by Neil Gaiman... did the 1st printing SE also have this same intro? The 2nd printing does NOT have an intro at all so am thinking if the 1st printing did then they had removed it from the 2nd printing and didn't bother with finding an alternate introduction, sadly.

Anyways, here are a few photos of this beautiful set and a "quick" video I did on it for anyone interested, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32OhSYqdRiM :)

Just started picking up Folio Society books this year.. hope to continue growing the collection as they are beautiful to look at and read :) Donated the majority of my books when I moved from TN to TX about 6-7 years ago, mostly paperbacks and the like, so when I began rebuilding my collection I've decided to mostly pick up higher quality physical books for reading and for the others I just read them on my Kindle.

I have The Gormenghast Trilogy & A Canticle for Leibowitz on the way.

Finishing up Solo Leveling the Novel Omnibus currently and will read Neuromancer from Folio Society next in preparation for the new upcoming TV show.

Slowly coming together. Put together 10 of the tall narrow Ikea Billy bookcases with the top height extensions and 3 of the narrow short bookcases. Collecting manga, graphic novels/comics, and nicer quality books... an expensive combination I've found! Lol.