Benefits of membership

Having purchased every one of my collection (currently 101) second-hand, I constantly wonder whether membership is worth the cost.

Tell me more about these "FREE" books that are mentioned in the other posts and any other benefits.

I am on the verge of actually joining this year but I need to know that it would be money well spent.

You get an offer each year to renew your membership. It can potentally be very awarding. Normally you have to buy four books at original price to get the free offer and membership but if you do not renew they might offer you other free books and other terms fx three books at original price (good for me because i am a poor students.
You however wil be joining and not renewing so you will get the offer you can see on their homepage see below), and it will be different whether you live in Europe or the U.S.

http://www.foliosoc.co.uk/default.php

I only renew when their offer is really good and otherwise buy second hand as you

during your membership year there will also be different time limited sales fx. for every book you by, you get another book of similar value for free. When there is no sale the prices are pretty steep but some books very seldom appear on ebay and other secondhand sites, and some books tend to be as expensive on ebay as on the folio site so it is hard to say if joining will be worthwile for you. It depends on your taste in books and the offers they provide

One of the advantages of buying new is, not surprisingly, the books arrive in new condition. I buy about 15 new every year and buy all others from Ebay. Once upon a time I bought everything they published new - but then they jacked up the rate of publication and I could no longer justify the expense. :(

Ebayers vary considerably in their accuracy of description of condition - one seller's fine is another seller's very good. As jacobnp notes, some books rarely appear on Ebay and others are often more expensive on Ebay than when the FS published them. As a member you do get a chance to buy into the limited editions - and those (mostly) appreciate in value and rarely appear on Ebay.

Thanks for your responses.

Now I'm really unsure ..... I went out second-hand Folio buying today. Came back with 6 titles for £28.20 plus £10 part exchange. Some are fine, some are v.g. Still I'm very happy.

It's that Fairy Tales offer for £9.95 and the titles I can't find 2nd hand that are soooooooooo tempting ....

I buy the requisite four for membership each year, then add to them during the year when "deals" appear that seem reasonable. I've never felt compelled to buy everything they offer; I only purchase where my whims take me.

The "free volumes" they offer on renewal are seldom a lure for me; they're often not of interest to me. What I have found is that the longer I wait, the more they change the offers and sweeten the deal, so they've taught me the habit of holding out as long as possible.

One of the perks of new membership is that you get, for peanuts, an introductory offer which this year is:
a full set of Empires of the Ancient World or
The Fairy Tales Collection or
The Times Atlas of the World
or a full set of John Buchan Richard Hannay novels or
The Botanical Garden or
The complete Reference Library plus
Penguin Encyclopedia and an address book.
I wish I could be a new member again to get the Botanical Garden.

Though it's probably Pecksniffian of me to point it out, one advantage of being a member is contributing to the economic health of the Society so that it will continue to produce editions which we all want in our libraries--kind of like contributing to Public TV. If everyone felt the same way as some of the "Devotees" here, I'm afraid the Folio Society would soon go the way of the Nonesuch Press, the Peter Pauper Press, the Limited Editions Club and the Heritage Press.

Besides, you only have to choose 4 books, and through the year there are many "buy 1 get 1 free" and other special offers--not just the renewal offers--that are wonderful incentives for being a member.

But basically, if you really love the work that the Society is doing and want to see it continue (and expand), being a member is really the right thing to do.

I think the days when the Folio Society lurched from crisis to crisis are long since gone. John Letts was an idealist and the Society is his legacy - but today it is a thriving international and very commercial organization. It is the title "Folio Society" that subtly gives the impression that it is something of a co-operative when it is nothing of the sort. I spend several hundred pounds a year on its products (I never buy less than 12 titles) and I do get a bit peeved when I see some people being offered a much better "gift" offer than the one offered me and for no obvious reason. These 'freebies' are not gifts - their cost is factored into the price of the books we all buy. If someone doesn't beat me to it, I will look up its last return to Companies House when I get back to England and report its profits. So far as I recall it is a private company that has no need to raise capital on the stock market.

I got a brochure about joining the society this morning and I have no idea where they got my address as I have never even heard of them before. So I thought the one place to find out what they were about, was here. Very cool that there's even a group about it.
I must say I am very tempted to join. The joining offer is great and includes even more than the offers on their website. It's not the Essential Reference Library, but the Definitive Reference Library which also includes Roget's Thesaurus of English Words & Phrases. Plus vols. 1 and 2 of The Greek Myths. I'm a sucker for good reference works and a mythology lover.
Ah, what to do? I think I might give this a try :-)

Hello Thalia (it's good to see a little levity in the group).

I hope you you do decide to join. I have been a member since 1990 (I also received an unrequested flyer, and have been poor ever since--in the material sense, though the hundreds of book purchases I've made have considerably enriched my life in other ways.

Seriously, it's a wonderful organization, and thanks to them I have been introduced to books that I might have otherwise never discovered--The Franchise Affair, Pax Britannica, A Visit to Don Otavio, The Story of San Michele, and many more. Right now I'm looking at a paperback edition of The Odyssey in the Fagles translation that I paid $35 US when it came out. Next to it is the Folio edition, also in the Fagles translation, that I got for free when I paid full price for The Iliad. As a result, it ended up costing me the same as the paperback, but had it been twice as much, I receive more than double the pleasure from the Folio Edition.

Much happy reading and browsing ahead!

:-) Well, levity that's me! Therefore I posted that joining flyer on my way to the grocery store this afternoon. Like I need more ways to spend money...

I am excited about the whole thing though. I did some "research" before I filled it out and had a look at their online catalog. As it looks like there are way more than the required four books that interest me, I decided to join even if that means emptying my account and getting a bigger house (or asking my roommates to let me use their rooms as well to stack my books).

Reply to Django6924 Message 7

Point taken and provided I make enough from my next car boot sale, I shall spend the proceeds on a Folio Society membership. I need £120 to buy the 4 books I want.

In the meantime, I refuse to feel guilty for providing a loving home for those poor orphaned FS books on ebay.

I had no intention of making anyone feel guilty. I have several Folio books purchased from 2nd hand sources (after all, they were printing desirable books 40 years before I ever heard of them), as well as many other collectables from other publishers.

Good luck on your "boot" sale! (What an interesting concept for this Yank!)

I joined when I was still an improvished student, and remained a member until I moved to the US, when I decided that the postage costs dictated taking a break... I never had any trouble finding four books to fulfill my annual membership quota, and the books themselves are physically beautiful things. If there's a good joining offer that you like, I think it's worth trying them for one year. Membership *is* annual, so if you don't renew you will get the begging letters, but you won't have to actively unsubscribe.

you won't have to actively unsubscribe.
Actually you remain passively subscribed, I haven't been a 'member' for five or six years but my last begging letter includes a neat plastic membership card for the current year.

I love the feel of the books and remember spending delightful hours in the Reading Room in the West End (of London) just sitting and browsing before making my choices. You can still do that at the offices in Holborn but somehow it's not quite the same.

I did write to them before leaving the UK, explaining that I was moving overseas and would like to be removed from the mailing list. Which they honoured. :-) But given how many book clubs will keep sending you books unless you take active steps to discourage them, it's worth pointing out to people new to the Society that yes, they really do mean it about never senidng a book unless you've explicitly ordered it.

(I've got a lot more FS books than are currently listed in my catalogue page, as I'd only just started working my way through them before going on an extended trip. Even on minimum annual membership requirements, I've managed to fill a 36"x42" Billy bookcase.:-)

How do you get a plastic membership card? I don't!

It's funny, even when I intend to try to hold to a budget every year, I always end up buying at least ten volumes. A book I really hadn't intended to get, "Slaughterhouse 5" arrived today. It's a beauty. Folio Society authors must generate a lot of envy among other living authors.

Django

I know exactly what you mean. Having no longer been able to defer my purchase of Gibbon's Decline and Fall (currently heavily discounted on the Folio website), I now feel compelled to purchase Hodgkin's Barbarian Invasions and Nero and I, Claudius and ...

I can hear the screech of an exploding budget!

If anybody has received their 2007 Membership books and would like to recommend any of them (or otherwise) it would help in making a more informed choice of the books 'I really hadn't intended to get'.

I am looking forward to getting: The Spy's bedside book, The Shooting Party, My Family and other Animals and Seeds of Change.

Seeds of Change is one of those books I would never have considered purchasing before it appeared in the Folio prospectus - one of those books a little beyond the ordinary that the Folio Society are so good at bringing to our attention.

KESTREL

Uh-oh--you are afflicted with the same disease!

Your book choices are just like mine. The Gerald Durrell book I found many, many years ago when I was working part-time at the LA County Museum bookstore. I never would have picked it up but the manager of the store recommended it highly. My Pelican paperback of it is falling apart, so I was very glad to see it on this year's list. It's a favorite I reread often. (Apparently the BBC did a telefilm adaptation which I haven't seen--I wanted to do a film myself, damn their eyes! Incidentally, there is a very good film version of The Shooting Party, with another great performance by the under-appreciated James Mason.)

I can't improve on what you said about Seeds of Change--you hit the nail on the head!

Haven't received any of my new books yet--I received the last Mrs. Gaskell novels (which are going out of print) yesterday after ordering them over a month ago. Sometimes I think the Folio Society uses Mayflower re-enactors to deliver my books. (Maybe I'm too impatient.)

I previously posted a message saying I would look up the latest filed reports on The Folio Society at Companies house and report its profits. It has a turnover of appx GBP22 million and reported a pre-tax profit of GBP555k in its latest filed accounts. Its Standard & Poors' assessment is "secure". It is privately owned, has 94 employees, and some assets are in a holding company.

So now we know...

So now we know, indeed. Thanks for looking that up, and I WILL wait for a better subscription offer. :)

Honestly folks, the great expense of the books new is a bit of an illusion. Since you are always given "offers" that are really of quite remarkable value (in every case), the cost of the four "membership" books is spread across the entire lot. The trick, as many have noted, is to wait for the right offer (they hit you with several every year) so that you are actually getting a bundle of books all of which you actually want. I just fell for Hobsbawm's 4-vol history series, plus the other freebies. Once you spread the price of four books out across eight or more, all of which you really want, it's a bargain.

Just found this site & group by the way. Nice reading.

I actually share my membership with my dad - the idea was that we would then only have to buy 2 books each, thus making it easier to justify the expense. However we ended up buying about six each this year, so the plan didn't really work! Also, the free offers work well for me because I don't collect first editions or anything, I buy books because I want to read them.

Django6924, re the Mayflower enactors: I got my latest box of Folio books today, 10 days after ordering them online - and I live in Australia!

Well, I've just held a virtual car boot sale on Ebay and raised the £120 needed for my membership! (Isn't Ebay just wonderful?)

I've sent off for my introductory parcel - The Fairy Tales collection.

To my horror I discover that one of the books I wanted - Epics of the Middle Ages - is no longer listed on the site. Any advice? I'm thinking of ringing the FS to see if they still have it. What are my chances?

Just keep your eye on eBay - everything comes up there sooner or later. I have bought all but three of the Folio Trollope series from eBay and even the missing titles have come up on it before - just not at the right price.

Ebay is the way to go for discontinued titles, although they may do another printing of Epics of the Middle Ages at some point. They might have one stashed but that didn't work for me when I called to see if they had a book that wasn't listed.

It's well worth the effort. That is a beautiful book!

If you are in London it's worth a trip to the show-room, sometimes I've found the odd copy there of long deleted books (though they do seem much more 'modern' and organised than the old reading in the Burlington Arcade or thereabouts).

Good news! I emailed and they still have Epics of the Middle Ages in stock. Now I just have to decide on the other 3 titles from my shortlist of 13 ......

"Epics of the Middle Ages" is really one of the most beautiful books from the Society. I somewhat regret that the editor included the "Song of Roland" and "El Cid" as these two works really deserve their own separate volumes. I also regret that having chosen to include "Roland," the editor selected a newer (perhaps more accurate), but less sonorous translation than the one Dorothy Sayers did--which I prefer to Scott-Moncrief's and all others for its poetic quality.

The binding and illustrations of this edition are really splendid!

Thanks for your comments.

Can I assume that Legends of the Ring is a companion volume and as splendid as Epics of the Middle Ages?

So I finally join and discover that I'm now paralysed by choice (and hamstrung by budget!). I've whittled down my shortlist of 13 to 6. Now I need some help.

For definite:
Epics of the Middle Ages
Legends of the Ring

Possibles
The Lifted Veil
In Trouble Again
Trouble is my Business
The Daughter of Time

Can you offer any advice on the books in the last 4?

Legends of the Ring is in the same series of mythologies as Epics of the Middle Ages. They are all set in the same typeface (Erhardt) and are the same size and quarter bound in leather. Illustrations vary widely in style.

The Lifted Veil was one of my original membership books and is absolutely gorgeous, with a wonderful story selection.

LizzySiddal, why not just choose two of the possibles and keep the two in hand for next year, in case you can't find four you like from the new list?

Lizzy, of your 4 possibles, my favorites are "The Daughter of Time" and "In Trouble Again." The Tey novel is one I've heard about for years, and I was happy to see it available in Folio Society dress (some have objected to the collagelike illustrations, but I think they are splendid and apropos to the time-jumping narration). "In Trouble Again" is one of those True Life adventures that I like so much--like Eric Newby's and Patrick Fermor's books. I think you have to have an appreciation of these kind of memoirs to enjoy it as much. The Chandler stories are good to have in a nice edition, but the quality is not up to his best novels. "The Lifted Veil" is beautifully bound and illustrated (the nicest of your 4 possibles), and contains some rare and desirable stories.

Thanks for your advice - I finally placed by committment order.

Epics of the Middle Ages
Legends of the Ring
In Trouble Again
The Lifted Veil .......

and

(from left field) The Shooting Party (because I couldn't resist the "Myths and Legends of Britain" for £5.95 if I bought 5 titles.)

.... Thus it begins .... seduction by special offer, budget blown ... here's to a long and fruitful membership!

Just received my parcel. I am one very happy bunny!

Epics of the Middle Ages is absolutely gorgeous! Legends of the Rings will arrive later. Just wondering, were there any other titles in this series?

Celtic Myths and Legends?
Legends of King Arthur?

There's an Indian Myths and Legends as well.

the icelandic sagas (2 volumes), perhaps.

Unfortunately, the legends of the ring has been entered by various LTers with the editor Elizabeth Magee as author, the illustrator: Simon Brett as author, and with no author, so there are several different entries for it which cannot be combined unless the varous LTers get together and agree on a common way of entering the author.

If any LTers with this work read this, may I suggest the author is various, with "elizabeth magee (editor); simon brett (illustrator)" in the 'other author' field? It's not perfect, but it keeps the work together until LT is modified to better handle compilations. The parenthises around 'editor' and 'illustrator' are necessary to ensure that LT reads the actual name correctly.

The other works in this series suffer from the same multi-author entry confusion, I'm afraid.

O.

I know what you mean about getting peeved by some of their practices. For example when I first signed up I didn't realize that all their "published" prices were grossly inflated (to cover the cost of the free membership books), and, seeing many books I wanted, I purchased more than the requisite 4 at the inflated standard price. No sooner had I done so (through the website) than the whole new "members" area of the website opened up to me, and I saw that many of the books I had just purchased were available at significantly lower "offer" prices for members. So I had just drastically overpaid -- I could have purchased four, and then immediately turned around and purchased the rest for substantially less money. Needless to say I felt rather suckered. I'm sorry, but that's not the way a business that values its customers treats them. They really ought to make clear somewhere in their membership materials or on the website that prices are much lower after your initial four have been purchased. Or why not have the prices automatically adjust on my order -- give me all the books other than the first four at their current discounts?

Oh, sorry to be so unclear, that was a reply to appaloosaman's Message 8.

Is putting "various" the best way to go in the author field of a compilation work? Or blank?

Also, does LT do anything when you put (editor) or (illustrator) in the "other author" field?

jbmill3,

We all did this mistake the first time... For my part I ordered 5 books instead of the 4 required. I thought they wouldn't be available afterwards....

What I do now when renewing the subscription is to select the 4 cheapest books I'm interested in. I suppose I'm not the only one to have this policy.

About subscription renewal: usually the first FS offer is not very attractive (Who Is Who in Mythology, and so on). If you don't renew, their second offer is much better, and I usually re-subscribe then (these last years I got Dickens, Burton, and Shakespeare). Did anybody try to wait more to get a still better third offer?

(If FS spy this group, I hope all this won't make them change their policy to punish us...)

>45 jveezer:
jveezer,

Here comes my soapbox answer. Sorry for the length, but some explanation/defense of my recommded approach seems necessary and, I hope, helpful. The LT help entry starting with "What are works?", should be helpful as well.

1) If the primary material in the book is by an unknown author (Beowulf, for example) I recommend using 'anonymous' in the author field. If it is a compilation from many authors, I recommend using 'various' in the author field. For the person who compiled, edited, translated, illustrated, etc, the work of another, or others, see my response item 3, below. I also suggest resisting the temptation to abbreviate 'various', 'anonymous', etc., as it simply creates additional and separate authors in the database.

2) I would never recommend leaving the author field blank. It makes many of the tools available for maintenance useless.

3) Though there are varying opinions about this, I recommend the 'author' field be used for the primary author of the material in the book, which means, generally, not for the editor, translator, or illustrator. I put these secondary names in the 'other authors' field, with their role in '()'. LT generally ignores what's in '()' so searches and sorts work better.

So, for example, Samuel Johnson's Dictionary edited by Jack Lynch, which is a compilation of selections from the original work, would have Samuel Johnson as the author, with Jack Lynch (ed) in the 'other authors' field. If you put Jack Lynch as the author, it will look as if Jack Lynch wrote a book about Samuel Johnson, and it will be unclear to most that this work contains primarily Johnson's original writings.

That's my approach. Obviously, the more an editor creates and the less of the original author's work he includes, the greater the argument for the editor as the primary author. A re-telling of Beowulf as a children's fairy tale, for example, should probably be listed with the 're-teller' as the author. That's a judgement call each LTer must make, but, if you're interested in the social networking of LT for your copy of Johnson's dictionary entries, you will want to attribute your volume primarily to Johnson.

O.

Nice answer!

Quick note to say I'm glad you persuaded me to join - even if my bank account is not!

Did anyone mention the "free sets" benefit? Not sure, but I decided to avail myself of The Classic Tales of Crime and Detection. Of course, I had to buy four others to get it but I was going to buy them anyway, wasn't I? :)

Hello, I joined the Folio Society in April 2002, but I only became a member of LT at the beginning of the month. Since I am still entering my books I have spent only a limited amount of time on the groups and just came across the FS group today.

Pepys wrote:
We all did this mistake the first time... For my part I ordered 5 books instead of the 4 required. I thought they wouldn't be available afterwards....

In my case, I was not overwhelmed by the books in the 2002 Prospectus, so I only ordered the minimum 4 books. However, I have ordered new sets over the years, several which then appear as joining/renewal offerings…

About subscription renewal: usually the first FS offer is not very attractive (Who Is Who in Mythology, and so on). If you don't renew, their second offer is much better, and I usually re-subscribe then (these last years I got Dickens, Burton, and Shakespeare). Did anybody try to wait more to get a still better third offer?

Yes, I have waited until the third offer. I was not impressed with my first renewal offer for 2003, so I called about it and the man who took my call told me to wait and I would receive further offers with more choices (he did not say that they would be better or of more value).

For 2005 I did not like the first or second offering and did not renew, and soon enough a third offering arrived in the mail. I cannot say that the third offers were of more value, but one offer was a set that I was interested in. That was also the same year that Richard III by Paul Murray Kendall was being published and I really wanted the FS edition.*

Then last year even the third offer did not have any books I was really interested in, but I had found four books being published I wanted, so I wrote a short note on my renewal form asking for a set (of lesser value) that was not listed in the prospectus or website (I keep all my mailing, so I had the FS book code) and stating I would take the offer for set x if that was not possible. When my books arrived I opened the box not knowing what to expect and to my pleasant surprise the set I had requested had been sent to me.

I apologize if my post has rambled and hope that some find it interesting.

* I first read Richard III after seeing Ian McKellen’s Richard III, which spurred me on to read more about Richard, and I have wanted my own quality edition since. In 2003 I was sent a society survey asking numerous questions regarding what types of books I wanted to see FS publish and would/might/would not buy. At the end of the survey it asked for my suggestions and I listed Richard III, along with several other books. I was very pleasantly surprised to see it appear in the 2005 Prospectus and felt both an obligation and a strong desire to buy it.

Very interesting indeed!

Wow, I feel like a real rube. I have always happily taken the first offer when renewing. How long do you need to wait before they change the offer? Can anyone give more examples?

As I mentioned, I have kept all (or at least most) of the Society mailings I have received. Unfortunately, I have not kept them all in one place, let alone in chronological order, but instead of entering books into my library I spent the weekend going through them.

For how long it takes for the second and third offers to arrive, the reply by date for the first offer is usually about 1 October and I receive the second offer in mid-October. The two times I did not reply to that offer, I received a third one in November.

In regards to the renewal offers, here is what I have since the 2003 membership year. I am not sure about the order of the offers for 2004, but I think they are correct.

2003
First Offer
The Folio Book of Days
The Folio Photograph Album
The Folio Diary 2003
Second Offer
A set selected from
The Forsyte Saga (3 vol)
Pepys’ Diary (3 vol)
The Lords of the Rings (3 vol)
A History of the Crusades (3 vol)
The Campaigns of Napoleon (3 vol)
Great Stories of Crime and Detection (4 vol)
and
Tanglewood Tales
The Folio Diary 2003

2004
First Offer
Great Philosophers of the Ancient World (3 vol)
Plato · Republic
Cicero · On the Good Life
Aristotle · Ethics
and
Cities and Civilisations
Second Offer
A set selected from
Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (2 vol)
Great Philosophers of the Ancient World (3 vol)
The Complete Hercule Poirot Short Stories (3 vol) and The Complete Miss Marple Short Stories (1 vol)
Winnie-the-Pooh: The Collectors’ Edition (4 vol) plus Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
Great Philosophers of the Ancient World (3 vol)
The Works of Oscar Wilde (3 vol)
The Campaigns of Napoleon (3 vol)
and
A Christmas Carol
The Folio Dairy 2004
Third Offer
Byzantium (3 vol)
Cities and Civilisations
Fourth Offer
A set selected from
The Adventures of Richard Hannay (5 vol)
Byzantium (3 vol)
The Complete Novels of Jane Austin (7 vol)
The Folio History of Ancient Greece (4 vol)
The Oxford Leather-Bound Reference Library (4 vol)
and
Cities and Civilisations
Fifth Offer
A set selected from
Great Stories of Crime and Detection (4 vol)
The Works of Oscar Wilde (3 vol)
The Arabian Nights (6 vol)
The Folio History of Ancient Greece (4 vol)
A History of the Crusades (3 vol)
The Oxford Leather-Bound Reference Library (4 vol)
The Complete Entertainments - Graham Green (6 vol)
The English Civil War (3 vol)
Italian Cities (3 vol)
Empires of the Ancient Near East (4 vol)
The Botanical Garden (2 vol)

2005
First Offer
Shakespeare’s Life and World
Penguin Encyclopedia
The Folio Dairy 2005
Second Offer
A set selected from
David Copperfield and Great Expectations
The Complete Winnie-the-Pooh (3 vol) plus soft toy (8 ½” bear)
The Age of Illumination (3 vol)
Rulers of the Ancient World (3 vol) - Nero, Hannibal and Julius Caesar
The Botanical Garden (2 vol)
Classics of Science Fiction (3 vol)
and
Christmas Crime Stories
The Folio Dairy 2005
Third Offer
A set selected from
The Works of Oscar Wilde (3 vol)
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (4 vol)
The Botanical Garden (2 vol)
Shorter Oxford Dictionary (2 vol)
The Arabian Nights (6 vol)
The Folio History of Ancient Greece (4 vol)
The Complete Entertainments - Graham Green (6 vol)
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (4 vol)
The Complete Novels of the Brontë Sisters (7 vol)
Rulers of the Ancient World (4 vol) - 3 above plus Alexander the Great

2006
First Offer
Leonardo da Vinci
The Folio Dairy 2006
Second Offer
A set selected from
Lives of the Mongol Warlords (3 vol)
A History of the Crusades (3 vol)
Hans Christian Anderson: The Complete Tales (2 vol) plus The Wind in the Willows
Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (2 vol)
F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Complete Novels (4 vol)
The Complete Sherlock Holmes Short Stories (5 vol)
Empires of Early Latin America (3 vol)
The Anatomy of Melancholy (3 vol)
and
Christmas Ghost Stories
The Folio Dairy 2006

2007
First Offer
Wonders of the World
Three Illustrated Panoramas -Panorama of the Classical World, Medieval Panorama and The Panorama of the Renaissance
A is for Ox: A Short History of the Alphabet
The Folio Dairy 2007
Second Offer
A set or folio edition selected from
The Making of the Modern World (4 vol)
Lost Cities of the Ancient World (5 vol)
Peter Pan and Wendy and Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens
Dorothy L. Sayers Crime Collection (5 vol)
Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (2 vol)
Montaigne’s Essays (3 vol)
Robert Louis Stevenson (4 vol) - Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – Weir of Hermiston, Kidnapped, Catriona and The Master of Ballantrae
The First Folio of Shakespeare
and
A Traveller’s Christmas
The Folio Dairy 2007
plus a set of six Christmas cards using Paul Slater’s “I am busy in these short days in working at small pictures in oils” illustration (p. 33) from A Traveller’s Christmas

2008
First Offer
Michelangelo
Oxford Companion to World Mythology
A Short History of Time
The Folio Dairy 2008
Second Offer
The World Crisis
Who's Who in Military History
A Short History of Time

Going through these offerings I realize it was the second 2006 offer that I was not very interested in the sets that I did not already own and I asked for a set not listed. I did this because I received a second offer reminder letter that I had only seven days left, and I did not want to miss out on A Traveller’s Christmas (like I had on A Christmas Carol back in 2004).

Edited to add 2006 first offer as I found the flyer
Edited to add 2008 first offer
Edited to add 2008 second offer

>53 LucasTrask:

As best I can tell from the conversations in this group, the offer(s) you receive vary from country to country. I seem to recall that, when the new membership offers first came out last year, the freebies for UK members were different from those for US members.

Os.

53-

Oh, I am kicking myself now. Thank you for going to the trouble to type all that...

Thank you to everyone who has given such great advice on this topic. I found your group a couple of months ago, when I first joined LibraryThing, and have found the above discussion very helpful. I have almost decided to join (when I get my tax return!), but while looking through some of your libraries, I have noticed that many of my favourite works and authors have been published in Folio editions in recent years, eg. Dickens, Trollope, Gaskell (although I'm hoping against hope they might still have a copy of Wives and Daughters for me), George Eliot, etc. While I realise that I could get many of these second-hand, as someone said above, one of the nice things about membership must be receiving new editions (I'm incredibly fussy about my books!). Does anyone know, is it at all likely that these books/authors will get a reprinting in the not-too-distant future(ie. in the next ten years)? Also, I noticed on the website that The Wings of the Dove was published recently. Is the Society publishing a Henry James series? Or Wilkie Collins? I don't think I'll have any trouble fulfilling my membership requirements, anyway! Thanks again for all the great advice everyone has taken the time to give.

P.S. How do you know which books are going out of stock soon? How long do stocks last? I want to try and be somewhat clever when I join and not buy all the newly published books, only to miss out on something that's in its last year!

One question, Lucastrask, what was the time between offers? i.e if you received the first offer on August 15, when would the second offer come in (roughly)?

Thanks,
Marlow

caroline42 asks: "How do you know which books are going out of stock soon? How long do stocks last?"

My how I wish I knew! I've missed a great many books I very much wanted because I assumed I could just get them "next time." To this day I am still hurt by the losses. Yet I can do nothing but continue to try and guess--it's not as if I can afford to purchase every volume I desire from every flier.

In answer to your question, suffice to say it's highly irregular. Some volumes hang around forever, others come and go without warning.

Yes it's highly variable. If something does go out of the catalogue it's often available through the shop in London for quite a while.

I really would not bother about "missing" a particular book. Although I have been a FS member for 30 years, I did not buy the Trollope series when it was published - but I have managed to buy the entire set in "fine" condition from eBay auctions at less than the price I would have paid as a member. That series comprised (I think) 47 volumes and I had no problem assembling it from eBay auctions in about 9 months

It doesn't matter that you are fussy about books - there is a substantial number of purchasers who buy these books and never get around to reading them. If you can find a bookseller who specialises in FS books - like, for example, Paul Whyles - and that seller describes the book as Fine or "probably unread" then you will find the book indistinguishable from new.

Marrow,

The second offer usually has arrived the week after the reply date for the first offer. This year that means it will likely be mailed and received during the second week of October.

Ok. Thank you for clearing that up.

Cheers