Wishlist for 2025

For me it's mainly that they keep on with the Ian M Banks series.

I'd also like to see A J Cronin's works.

More Murakami.

And opening up the Canada storefront again so we don't have the double hit of non-UK prices and USD/CAD exchange rate.

Or even better, removing all geographic price discrimination completely and changing shipping rates to cover actual expenses.

- New Georgette Heyer
- An Agatha Christie book
- Faceless Killers #3
- The next “Ages” book in the DC collection (although I don’t think this will happen)
- Final James Bond book
- Something special (maybe an LE?) for the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, as someone on here had pointed out!
- EDIT because I almost forgot: The Shadow of the Wind #2

>2 abysswalker:

I second what you said about price discrimination and shipping. That would really be appreciated and would make me buy more from them than I'm doing now, plain and simple.

As for books:

- I hope they're finally going to finish the Bond series.
- Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
- Michael Ondatjee, The English Patient
- James Clavell, especially Shogun and Tai Pan, but ideally the complete Asian Saga
- the Gaiman short story collection they promised and then cancelled
- Red Magic illustrated by Kay Nielsen
- Robin McKinley's The Hero and the Crown, The Blue Sword, and ideally Deerskin, which is set in the same world

>4 SF-72: Robin McKinley oh yes! I totally second that!

Apart from the ever present wish for Watership Down, I also am still hoping for Piranesi and an Agatha Christie with illustrations by Andrew Davidson, another Marple would be great.

And also agree wholeheartedly about the whole pricing mess, this is getting a tad ridiculous

More poetry, as always. Given that there will be new editions of The Iliad and The Odyssey, other Homeric titles that FS could (and should!) publish include Omeros by Derek Walcott, the complete War Music of Christopher Logue, and Alice Oswald's Memorial and Nobody.

That said, I'd happily settle for something unimpeachably canonical, such as Wordsworth and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads, Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil or Stevens' Harmonium.

I really liked the suggestion someone had posted on another thread for Anna Kavan's Ice. Would also like to see more Vonnegut and Atwood, as well as Tolstoy's Resurrection.

If 'tis wishlists we are going for, to echo >4 SF-72: Ondaatje's The English Patient and Clavell's Shôgun would be superb; as would be >5 woodstock8786: Clarke's Piranesi!

Setting out a few of my own (w. the Ferrante & Tartt at least feat. in a Folio survey from Oct. '23), those of relative recency:

Catton's The Luminaries
Chabon's Wonder Boys and The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See
Ferrante's Neapolitan Quartet
Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and I would adore The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
Ogawa's The Memory Police (and absolutely any others they see fit to publish of hers)
Tartt's The Secret History
Towles' A Gentleman in Moscow, and Rules of Civility

And those of more distinguished vintage:

Dazai's The Setting Sun and No Longer Human
Fallada's Alone in Berlin
Zweig's Beware of Pity and The World of Yesterday

>9 LT79: Thanks for the tip!

I would like Battle Cry of Freedom to be finally published next year.

>8 FitzJames: The Dazai titles you selected are superb and I love Ogawa's The Housekeeper and the Professor. Lovers of Murakami are being well catered to. It would be great to see some other Japanese authors getting the FS treatment.

>11 NLNils: I second this. Greatest single-volume history of the American Civil War. A masterpiece. It’s been on my wishlist for years.

>11 NLNils: Yes! One of the best single volume history books in English.

I wish they would continue with the Richard Sharpe series.

>15 varielle:

FS really sank that ship themselves by not doing better with the illustrations and probably also by not starting in the order they were written, with the more popular books. It's a real shame.

They also missed an opportunity when they didn't do The Last Kingdom at the time instead. The series definitely increased interest in that series, and it's not as seemingly endless as Sharpe.

>4 SF-72: I second the Clavell recommendation. I recently finished Shogun and thought that it was excellent. The complete Asian Saga would be fantastic, and with the right illustrator would be a stand-out edition.

The Stronghold (formerly known as The Tartar Steppe), by Dino Buzzati, in the recent Lawrence Venuti translation.

>19 LT79: I haven't read the new translation, but I've read about it, and all reports are that it is superior to the old translation. I did see that The Stronghold is more in keeping with what Buzzati wanted to call it, though the Italian title is more in keeping with The Tartar Steppe - I really don't know which is the better title, but it's a terrific book.

>18 coynedj: Strong agreement here. Read the NYRB edition when it came out and it was one of my favorite books of the year.

Australian books don't seem to get much love. How about a copy of Picnic at Hanging Rock, On the Beach, and/or anything by Colleen McCullough (the whole Rome series would be nice, but if it was only one volume I'm partial to Tim?

>23 Cardboard_killer: To be fair they have covered many of the ‘big’ name authors - Thomas Keneally, Tim Winton, Clive James, Robert Hughes, Peter Carey etc, and only last month Markus Zusak.

(Nevil Shute spent his last decade living in Australia (though mainly for tax reasons) but spent the majority of his life in England & always retained British citizenship so while ‘On the Beach’ has an Australian setting (like Chatwin’s Songlines which they have also published) I suppose technically it’s more of a ‘book set in Australia’ than an ‘Australian book’ ?)

>23 Cardboard_killer: I read On the Beach about a year ago and was duly impressed by the setting of the book. So much so, that not too long ago I sought out the classic film with Peck and Gardner. I might watch it tonight as I have my hands free! A folio version would be interesting with a new (updated) introduction or afterword.

>24 antinous_in_london: Miles Franklin as well.

>26 PartTimeBookAddict: Indeed, though that publication was 42 years ago.

And no sign of The Magic Pudding, either...

Some of my favourites that would be lovely to have in a folio edition:

Narziss and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse (an LE please, why not—it’s a wishlist)

Papillion by Henri Charrière

The Discovery of Slowness by Sten Nadolny

A short stories collection or a book of poems by Neil Gaiman would take my fancy as well

At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien
The Táin with Thomas Kinsella translation
Dream of the Red Chamber
Love in a Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by G.R.R. Martin

A couple of other non-fiction:

Thinking, Fast and Slow

The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln

>30 assemblyman: And the illustrations of Louis le Brocquy.

For a sample see here.

https://imma.ie/artists/louis-le-brocquy/

>32 N11284: If only but I also wouldn’t mind a fresh interpretation.

As someone who is looking to start a lovely collection of fine books that I actually want to read and keep, I'd really like to see a Folio Society version of 'On The Black Hill' by Bruce Chatwin. A winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1982 when first published it surely merits consideration.

>1 DukeOfOmnium:

I strongly second the Culture Series as well. There's still quite a long way to go - we are at #2 out of 10.

I look forward to having a full shelf someday of all 10 Culture books published by Folio.

>17 DivinaCommedia:

Adding my support for the Clavell books as well.

My favorites in order of preference are: Noble House, Shogun, Tai-Pan.

I still plan to read King Rat, Gai-Jin and Whirlwind someday.

>29 stopsurfing: Papillion is a great idea! I second that.

>36 Ibkay: I loved Shogun, liked Tai-pan very much, and finished Noble House in confusion wondering what the point was. However, King Rat is Clavell's masterpiece IMO. I recommend against the "long" version that has been released as it was edited well the first time. Easton Press has a copy of it available, but I would gladly double dip for a FS copy.

>4 SF-72: I always say Shogun, I will stick with that. Even better though would be the complete Asian Saga. Others I would like:

- Another Ancient Greek LE (in line with the recent Herodotus and Thucydides)
- U.S.A. Trilogy by John Dos Passos
- Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
- The Red and Black by Stendhal
- The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

>39 Hamwick:
Out of Africa was done in 1980, authored as Karen Blixen

>40 affle: ok thanks. I will check on eBay.

>39 Hamwick: And Stendhal's The Red and Black was published by Folio as Scarlet and Black in 1965 and is widely available used for under $15.

There are two novels by Dorothy Sayers that were not included in either of the previous Folio sets: Clouds of Witness and The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club. If a third needed to be included, Sayers had a collaborator that worked with her on The Documents in the Case.

More titles by P.D. James and/or Ursula K LeGuin would be great.

>42 ambyrglow: thanks as well. I really should check the list of books that folio has published before I post what I would like, as there are always ones that have been previously released. I must confess though, I prefer new copies that have been released recently. LE’s being the exception. Truly though, thank you.

I would also add Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently books. I don't have a clue why those don't have a nice edition.

>39 Hamwick: Another Ancient Greek LE (in line with the recent Herodotus and Thucydides).

That’s high on my wish list too :)

>45 SF-72: Seconded!

>45 SF-72: Yes!!

>45 SF-72: I'd buy Dirk Gently books in an instant!

>39 Hamwick: Another Ancient Greek LE (in line with the recent Herodotus and Thucydides)

That's one I'd also buy without hesitation.

>39 Hamwick: >46 Dr.Fiddy: >50 SF-72: >51 Ragnaroekk: Will the fact that the Thucydides LE had to go into a 50% off sale to sell out be a deterrent to continue the series?

>52 assemblyman:
That's a worry. I guess it will depend on whether they still earned with it (I would actually expect so), and the fact that Herodotus sold out without any problems might play a role, too. I don't know which book they could do next in this series, but certainly some titles will be more appealing to buyers than others.

>53 SF-72: If they do go ahead with another one, I wonder will the next choice be taken from the next most popular in the survey from a few years back.

Given that there are now only 50-odd non-fiction books versus >200 fiction in stock, I'd like to see a bolstering of the non-fiction collection, particularly the historic travel writing of which there is virtually nothing now, but which FS usually does well (eg Syria, Yangtze Valley and Beyond); I worry that all they'll do is another Palin or similar. Of those mentioned above, I'd normally be really interested too in Battle Cry of Freedom, but I've already got a perfectly serviceable first edition, and I can't see FS adding sufficient value given their track record on history books. I livei in (probably futile) hope of a SE version of the Tristram Shandy LE.

>55 Willoyd: An SE version of Tristram Shandy would be awesome. I'm kicking myself for not getting the LE. It took a while for the LE to sell though.

>52 assemblyman: That is a good question. Personally, I am not sure that they had to put the Thucydides LE into a 50% sale to sell out, I am sure it would of sold out eventually and it was I believe selling at a steady pace. Some books are just not going to be flying off the shelves and that is ok and I think it a good thing that some good quality, desirable books are available to purchase over a period of time. Business wise though, of course they would want to sell them as fast as possible, and it was interesting that they put up for sale almost every single LE. I am not sure what their strategy was to try and sell off all their LE stock.
I hope they continue to mix the fast selling, extremely popular titles, with some that maybe considered more obscure and slow burners. We shall see.

So much Beowulf and so little Grendel.

I would love a good hardback edition of "Tolkien on Fairy-Stories", my tattered paperback is on its last legs. I fear it is too niche for Folio to take an interest, though.

>59 Thwack: Maybe with the full Tales from the Perilous Realm...

>38 Cardboard_killer:

Noble House was my first Clavell, so I think I have some special sentiment attached to it among all his books. It was a whole new world of vibrant and clashing Eastern/Western philosophies of high stakes business and life.

I still recall the tension and adrenaline of betting everything on a single ship, and the subplots of spies and traitorous agents (read it almost 25 years ago now, can't believe how quickly time passes!). Need to re-read it someday.

I'll be sure to read King Rat, thanks for the recommendation!

More Murakami (Dance, Dance, Dance or After Dark for preference).
Continue The Culture series by Iain M Banks

I'd really like the following:

London Fields (Martin Amis)
The Crying of Lot 49/Gravity's Rainbow (Thomas Pynchon)
A Suitable Boy (Vikram Seth)
The Land of Laughs (Jonathan Carroll)
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (Mario Vargas Llosa)

...but I don't fancy my chances!

>49 LegioKraken: me too…

I know that they have done Les Miserables many times in the past but the Christine Donougher translation is incredible and has yet to appear in a fine press edition. I don’t think it’s available right now as a hardback anywhere and definitely deserves a good treatment.

A few, slightly different, wishes:

Farthest North by Fridtjof Nansen - which would complement the recent volumes by Shackleton - this time they deliberately became stuck in the ice!
Heimskringla - the Circle of the World - possibly by Snorri Sturluson - which would nicely complement the Poetic Edda LE
Before Scotland by Alistair Moffat - which Prof Barry Cunliffe rightly says deserves to be very, very widely read
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch - very inclusive and very different policing - and currently being made into a TV production

>65 holymoorside:

It's not Folio Society, but there's a 10th Anniversary Special Edition of Rivers of London that's at least nicer than what you usually get for this series, with the exception of the Subterranean Press editions of the novellas. But yes, I certainly wouldn't mind an FS edition of the series at all.

The Stranger Times by C. K. McDonnell would also be fun in this regard.

>66 SF-72: Absolutely agree with your comment on C.K. McDonnell

I'd like to see more philosophy, a collection of Nietzsche's shorter works would be nice.

Heidegger, Deleuze, Simone Weil, Martha Nussbaum, Bergson, Frantz Fanon, Simone De Beauvoir to name but a few.

If they ever get around to publishing Clarice Lispector or Lucia Berlin my wallet is wide open.

>68 anthonyfawkes: I second this. A whole series of great philosophical works would be amazing

>68 anthonyfawkes: I would definitely be up for some Nietzsche and Plato. I have been looking for a nice copy of Plato’s Republic for a while. I know there are lots of copies out there, none have my jaw dropping with amazement though, including the Folio version from a few years ago.

Would love to see some more of the new version of the ancient civilizations series. I really like the two-volume format of The Aztecs and will likely pick up the Anglo Saxons at some point.

For me, Folio’s commitment to making nice editions of non-fiction titles is their USP.

>74 LT79: Mr Weston's Good Wine would be wonderful - so many strange and beautiful novels in that period. David Garnett's Lady Into Fox, Sylvia Townsend Warner's Lolly Willowes & Mr Fortune's Maggot, Denton Welch's Maiden Voyage and Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm, the last of which Folio has published - also Mervyn Peake's Mr Pye which is soon to come from Extraordinary Editions.

Of course Folio will never publish any of these; they have moved on to other but no less interesting things, and at least the above novels are all in print, or are about to be.

I would like to see Folio do Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet books, or more Ballard.

>62 arpd71: - I second Jonathan Carroll's The Land of Laughs

I would love to see Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow and Children of God; they make a beautiful duology.

And the rest of the original Dune series, of course.

>77 LT79: If my TBR pile wasn't 7/8ths of a mile high, I would reread Gormenghast (the first two books at least). It's just wonderful writing, as you point out.

>77 LT79: Funnily enough, Mr Pye has a lot in common with Mr Weston's Good Wine. Mysterious stranger arrives in community, questions of good and evil are raised, complications arise and stranger leaves, leaving the community changed. It is absolutely nothing like Gormenghast - it is from the Peake who produced Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor and wrote many comic poems, but you can still see the same hand in both.

A couple of years ago, Peter Ackroyd of all people tried his hand at this type of thing with a little novel called Mr Cadmus. It misses the mark a bit, but is quite entertaining.

I think Mr. Weston's Good Wine would be a wonderful, wonderful option!

An LE Finnegans Wake would be welcome, as a sister to the Ulysses LE. I would use it like how some people use the Bible, open it at random and wait for God’s voice to speak

I'd also wish for a series of novels by Elizabeth Goudge -- books like The Dean's Watch or her Damerosehay trilogy (I discovered her work when I read Pilgrim's Inn. In a period of disruption and/or political upheavals, those titles are a wonderful option.

>84 LT79: thanks :) Obviously I’m more of a divination kind of guy, though it looks like a good pick for exegesis style reading. All this is mostly tongue in cheek of course, but Finnegans Wake comes across as a kind of holy book of sorts, doesn’t it?

>87 LT79: I don't have any real desire to ever even attempt Finnegan's Wake, but if Nabakov couldn't make any sense of it (also a famed polyglot) then I absolutely know I'll never try to read it - not with any hopes of understanding it anyway. I'm reading Pale Fire now (along with a critical analysis because otherwise I don't think I'd catch 10% of the brilliance of this book) and man, Nabakov's genius is just staggering. The layers of cleverness in this book are insane. It's hard to comprehend how a mind could come up with such a thing. From the snippets I've read and everything I've heard, Finnegan's Wake is on a entirely different plane of existence.

I would also welcome Dirk Gently.

Still awaiting Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach.

I'd enjoy Straub's Ghost Story (particularly since Centipede's was over $400).

>89 St._Troy: “Still awaiting Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach.”

Me too :)

>91 LT79: Ha, funny coincidence. Yes, Lolita was my only other Nabakov up to this point as well. I have Pnin and a collection of his short stories on the shelf that I'll be getting to at some point too though.

I'm right at the 50% mark on Pale Fire. If I was not reading along with a critical analysis I would likely pick up on *some* of the underlying brilliance but, more likely, it would just come across as a very quirky and strange book without much of a point. I can usually tell when Nabakov is up to *something* but I can rarely quite put my finger on it. So the analysis helps in spelling it out for me and, if I'm being honest, actually understand what's going on in the book.

For me, it's not enjoyable in the usual sense that I enjoy books. I'm not just reading through and enjoying the story per se (although there have been some enjoyable moments and Nabakov's complete mastery of language is, of course, ever-present). The enjoyment for me only comes in the understanding, and that's no easy hill to climb. Of course, I'm hitting the easy button in my case.

On it's surface Nabakov created a character who wrote a poem. And he created a second character that wrote commentary on that poem. But within that you have an unreliable narrator, reflections on life and death (and life after death), reflections on the nature of art, reflections on identity, and much more. And all of this is layered in so many ways it'll make your head spin. It's really quite fascinating!

So I suppose I'm sold on it's brilliance. It's certainly not my favorite book and it's hardly a page-turner (for me) but I have a huge appreciation for what Nabakov did with this book. I try to sprinkle in some books to challenge myself every six weeks or so and this is the one that came up this round. I'd love to hear your thoughts once you get to it!

I am pleading for Anna Kavan's Ice, as all other editions have either horrid or pretty bland artwork. Also, Watership Down or the Plague Dogs, as always, but something seems amiss with the copyrights on those-- would've thought we'd have gotten editions by now, considering theAdams' estate got the rights back from Rosen and Nepenthe.

>94 LT79: I really love reading for so many reasons. The story, character development, insights, etc. But my absolute biggest pleasure and satisfaction in reading comes from uncovering the things that authors are saying between the lines. The things hinted at, things said that aren't being said, symbolism, allegory - uncovering these things feels like finding little treasures. Being an active reader rather than passive observer is a perfect and succinct way of putting it. I agree, although I must confess to plenty of passive observation with my share of genre fiction as well, but we all have our guilty pleasures.

I very rarely read analysis along with a book. (I like to think) I am at least smart enough to recognize when there are things going on that I'm not fully picking up on. And I can usually recognize a book that I am unlikely to want to come back to again. If both of these things are happening at the same time, then I'll read some analysis along with it. You've a great point on coming to your own conclusions though.

Pale Fire very much makes me think of The Master and Margarita in terms of how layered the story is. On it's surface TM&M is about the devil and his cohorts visiting Moscow and generally causing trouble. But it's also a retelling of Faust, a commentary / critique of Communism and Stalinist Russia. The very story you're reading is a reflection of the writing process that Bulgakov went through when writing it! (He burned TM&M at some point while writing it, just as The Master did in the book) And within all of that, there is a story within the story about Jesus written by The Master. It's just a total trip when you consider it on all levels. There's certainly a heavy dose of that going on in PF.

Anyway, now I'm rambling. Happy reading!

On the subject of Nabokov, I just read his memoir, Speak, Memory. Also amazing. If I’m being brutally honest, definitely overwritten at times, but you forgive him because even the verbosity is so amazing.

I also loved Lolita, and enjoyed The (Luzhin) Defence. He was chess mad, and actually designed chess scenarios/ dilemmas. He also disliked music.

>96 Jeremy53: Nice, I'm looking forward to further exploring his bibliography. He was clearly a very intelligent person and definitely seemed to like to show that off. I'll forgive it for the likes of Nabakov, Borges, Eco, McCarthy, etc. They lay it on thick but it's fun to read.

This is interesting for pickup later in the year:

Broken Crosses, rediscovered thirties novel with early warning about Nazi threat (The Guardian newspaper).

>100 LT79: These would be great! As they've never done any Saramago, I assume there are rights issues however.

More Isaac Asimov - ideally Caves of Steel, but I will take pretty much anything.
Another Arthur C. Clarke novel would be good, perhaps The City and the Stars.
Piranesi would be nice too.

Series to continue: Dune, Kurt Wallander. And of course more Agatha Christie.

The reprint I would most like to see is the Poirot short story collection, although that isn't likely this year.

Very unlikely but for historical fiction I would love to see the Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett. I'd also buy Shogun.

And for non-fiction maybe the new Tom Holland translation of Seutonius?

I'd love to see an edition of "Sled Driver" by Brian Shul. It got an absolutely garbage reprint (the original is about USD 750 these days). It is a fantastic book by one of the SR-71 pilots, but impossible to find at a decent price for the non-garbage edition. The kind of thing that goes along with books about Apollo or the Right-stuff, etc.

Dropping in for my yearly wishlist plea for Clavell’s Asian Saga. Specifically Shogun, Tai-Pan, Gai-Jin and Noble House.

Little chance of any of these I think, but for what it’s worth:

Mark Z Danielewski’s House Of Leaves
Victor Canning’s ‘Smiler’ trilogy (The Runaways, Flight of the Grey Goose, The Painted Tent)
Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Carl E Schorske’s Fin-de-Siecle Vienna

More realistically: more Murakami, King, Culture, Christie, and hopefully the final Bond.

I put forward Karl Marlantes - Matterhorn. It stayed with me for a long time after I finished the book.

>102 LT79: Do people not read Saramago anymore? That’s a mistake.

I imagine anything by Gene Wolfe would sell well, since there aren’t other good versions available.

>107 NLNils: (NLNils) It's an outstanding book. I guess many FS potential buyers have a hardback original copy though. I certainly do. Also what sort of art would you add? Quite a lot that's tricky about it for FS>

>108 CabbageMoth: (CabbageMoth) I've never even heard of Saramago - will have to investigate. Gene Wolfe - I have the SE of Book of the New Sun, and whilst I liked it in parts I found it overall a bit of a slog.

Having started this thread a couple of months ago I think it's really interesting as to how many and how diverse the thoughts are. You've got to imagine that Folio will pick up on the Shogun appetite.

And please, please the Banks!

>109 DukeOfOmnium: Saramago won the Nobel Prize in 1998. I thought he was still a big deal but perhaps the world has forgotten. Some of his books are not so good, but the best ones are spectacular!

>111 LT79: I haven’t seen any of the movies, but I’ve read most of Saramago’s books, or at least most of the ones with English translations. The Double is okay but definitely not one of his best. I think my favorite is All the Names.

>109 DukeOfOmnium: Illustration wise you can go different directions, but I would opt for the atmospheric approach as so much in the novel is around surroundings and consequent thought and action. I can't fathom a more atmospheric setting than the dense tropical jungle. Definitely not your generic Vietnam photography, but that's less of a worry with A Bright Shining Lie already out. Along the lines of the upcoming Dispatches with original illustrations. I would think there are artists who could tackle the material, given the chance.

>113 LT79: Cain and History of the Siege of Lisbon are still on my TBR list. I found Gospel According to Jesus Christ too much of a diatribe and not enough of a novel, although parts of it were very enjoyable. In the end, I would buy any of his books from FS, even probably the really boring one about the elephant (which would at least lend itself to good illustrations).

My Wishlist:

Seven Years in Tibet
Out of Africa
Memoirs of a Geisha
All Quiet on the Western Front
All the Light We Cannot See
Piranesi
Dandelion Wine
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The English Patient
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Year of Wonders
Cloud Atlas
The Christian Year (Keble)
The Sketchbook by Washington Irving
The Martian

>117 Lady19thC:

I second:
Piranesi
Dandelion Wine
The English Patient

Just in case: Curious King is going to do a special edition of The Martian soon.

>117 Lady19thC: I second:
Seven Years in Tibet
Piranesi
The English Patient

By my count, I'll fourth Piranesi. Less strongly, I'll also go with The Martian and All Quiet on the Western Front. I'm surprised The Picture of Dorian Gray hasn't been done by Folio (or at least not in quite some time), but while the premise of the book is absolutely brilliant, I found the execution to be lacking.

Out of Africa
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Picture of Dorian Gray

Have all been produced by FS.

The English Patient would be wonderful. I haven’t read Piranesi, but it sounds interesting.

>121 PartTimeBookAddict: Yes, and it has been something like 45 years, I believe, since Out of Africa has been in print. Nothing wrong with a fresh copy for those of us who would like one.

>117 Lady19thC: A swell list! Of which, I would be very happy to see:

Clarke's Piranesi
Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See
Mitchell's Cloud Atlas
Ondaatje's The English Patient
Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front
Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray

and Harrer's Seven Years in Tibet

>120 coynedj: I have the 2009 edition of Gray and I love it. You should have a look.

>125 David_Mauduit: me too - a lovely edition.

I’d love to see Seven Years in Tibet. Great idea.

>117 Lady19thC: Great list! I think David Mitchell would be a perfect fit for today's Folio. Literary weird/speculative fiction is flying out of the warehouse, and Cloud Atlas or The Bone Clocks might do very well. Also, we really are owed Dandelion Wine. We seem to have had everything from Ray Bradbury except his most famous book.

>108 CabbageMoth:

I would LOVE to see The Urth of the New Sun or The Fifth Head of Cerberus (Peace or Latro would of course be welcome too), but I can't imagine Folio doing much else with Wolfe, unfortunately.

I have been reading the FS version of Churchill's My Early Life and he raves about Fire and Sword in the Sudan by Rudolf Carl Slatin Pasha. That would be a very appealing FS book for me.

I'm just reading Wuthering Heights in the FS 2014 edition, and I really wish they did more novels by the Brontes in the (visual) style of this one, Jane Eyre, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. I'd particularly love for them to do Villette.

Off topic and not FS level, but since so many here keep hoping for a special edition of this novel: The Broken Binding (a small UK publisher - they also do subscriptions - which so far mostly does fantasy or science fiction, but also did a small selection of historical novels) are publishing a limited edition of Shogun, which is certain to be nicer than a regular hardback. Just don't expect it to be private press level.

More info on their social media, including a link to an interest list.

https://x.com/binding_broken/status/1904896155424530556

>131 SF-72: that looks beautiful. Shogun was my grandfather's favourite novel.

I do have some reservations on the broken binding, since they don't sew all their books. On that front alone I'd be inclined to prefer the bonded leather premium collectors' edition published by Blackstone, but I can't find it on Amazon anymore... seems it was superseded by an ugly tv series tie-in edition.

>132 dyhtstriyk:

Exactly, the Blackstone collector's edition seems to be out of print. I was pretty disappointed that they didn't continue that with other books from the Asian series, and I'm not surprised that they gave up on it completely.

And yes, The Broken Binding mostly offer books that are a bit nicer than regular hardcovers, but you can't expect a sewn binding, and I would ask about the paper, too, since acid free paper has only been recently introduced and I'm not sure if this edition will have it. I'm well aware that most people here won't find this edition appealing, but some might, so I thought I'd mention it. If FS ever did an edition, it would certainly be higher quality. I'm just not sure if they will.

edited to add: They just confirmed that they plan to do the other books, too.

In the hopes that the mole from the Folio Society is listening. It would be great if FS could get permission to do a complete set of Agatha Christie's Mr. Quin stories (what's in The Mysterious Mr. Quin plus the two other stories that were published in other collections) and join them in a two book set alongside the single full length novel in which Mr. Satterthwaite also appears. That would be Three Act Tragedy. The combination would be unique, creating real interest.

>131 SF-72: Lovely illustrations!

>134 jillmwo: Great idea!

>135 amysisson:

I particularly like the ink drawing for the cover. It really fits the book.

I know, from time to time, FS tips its hand with regard to future publications; what is the level of confidence that they will publish an edition of Peter Straub’s Ghost Story? Centipede Press did one a few months ago, but well out of my budget ($425), and I’d love to see FS take a stab at it.

I know it is too early to be thinking about 2026, but I hope Folio Society or Suntup does the Narnia series as a limited edition set. This year will be the 75th Anniversary of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

>128 UltansLibrary:
The Folio Society has published the Narnia series as very nice standard editions twice, in 1996 and 2007. A multi-volume limited edition would be very expensive.

>139 wcarter:
True! But it be worth it, in my opinion.

A complete set of Sir Walter Scott’s books and/or H. Rider Haggard’s books would be nice.

The works of John Cowper Powys and Charles Williams would fit in with the current trend.

>139 wcarter: 2007 is going to be 19 years ago in 2026. I was hoping for a Narnia Set too. It's 7 books. Not terribly long. The longest is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader at around 223 pp. So, Assuming all 7 are 200 pp, then that's just 1400 pp. Jonathan Strange is 1008 pp. Gormenghast is 1376 and Gormenghast was done last in 2011. ASOFAI is obviously a much bigger undertaking. I don't think it's too impossible. I am not a heavily religious person and still think the Narnia books are good fun. No doubt HarperCollins will want to do anniversary editions too though. That might be a sticking point. But Narnia is such a British institution I think FS would be perfect to do it again and I was recently considering reading all 7 again for fun.

And, granted, the new Austen set will probably be only a limited edition set, but they still have the previous set, which published its last member in 2017. The in print Austen set is 6 books and probably average 300 pp each book. As said, the sticking point would be the rights from HarperCollins, I think.

Also, when did the Dahl set disappear from the store? I've wanted to pick those up, but I recently bought Neuromancer, Piranesi, and some others because I thought the Dahl set would be around.

The demand is certainly there for a new Narnia set but there must be a good reason they haven't done one yet. Their children's fantasy like Diane Wynne Jones seem to sell very well. I can only imagine it might either be an issue with Harper Collins or with selling seven books for a reasonable price while still making a decent profit. The Roald Dahl sets are £210 (ROW) for six so the price for a Narnia set would be at least £240 and maybe more if the illustrations by Pauline Baynes were in colour.

Well, I usually start by complaining about the dearth of Sir Walter Scott, and it normally goes nowhere so I'll not mention the Complete Works of Sir Walter Scott here.

But on the topics of Greats, GK Chesteron Chesterton wrote around 80 books, several hundred poems, some 200 short stories, 4,000 essays (mostly newspaper columns), and several plays.

What has Folio published? Father Brown stories and a couple of inserts in an omnibus of Crime.

Sigh.

>145 LesMiserables:

And a book of poetry. Terrible. I got rid of it within a week. Available for single digit £s second hand.

On the subject of Lewis, though mileage may vary, considering they can be very strange, dated and are heavy handed with allegory, I'm honestly surprised Folio hasn't tackled his Space Trilogy (or Cosmic Trilogy for the UK'ers) yet. The safe bet is that there's a copyright/publishing rights issue somewhere, but unsure of what that'd be. I do recall having email correspondence with Martin Rosen (director of the Watership Down animated film) saying he was once attached to create an adaptation of Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra, but it never got past the concept/pre-production phase. Considering that Rosen and Nepenthe held onto the rights to Watership Down for so long, wonder if there's a similarity there? Then again, we still don't have a Watership Down folio yet either, despite the rights going back to the Richard Adams estate, IIRC.

>147 UltansLibrary: That's a good point. I'd love to see a folio edition of Watership Down. The the boat has sailed for the 50th Anniversary. Although we got this pretty close to the 50th Anniversary.

https://www.librarything.com/work/31104454/t/Watership-Down-The-Graphic-Novel

>147 UltansLibrary: C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy would be great.

Joseph Campbell - The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Robert Graves - The White Goddess
Aldous Huxley - The Perennial Philosophy
Hesiod - Theogony/Works and Days/Shield of Heracles
Elias Lönnrot - Kalevala

Wishful thinking?

>150 SyllicSpell: The Hero with a 1000 Faces would have been an instant purchase for me. Hesiod is unfortunately very much neglected by decent publishers. Theogony offers ample inspiration for illustrations, and it’s short enough to be printed letterpress.

The moon is a harsh mistress, Heinlein.
Lonesome Dove, McMurty
The Solace of Open Spaces, Erlich
Blindsight, Watts
The Demon-haunted world, Sagan
Winterset Hollow, Durham
Snow Crash, Stephenson

>151 bacchus.: I really struggled to get through hero with a thousand faces, I found his writing quite unclear and hard to follow. However, his series of conversations in the Power of Myth showed me he is a wonderful orator and teacher and had an incredible depth of knowledge, it’s just a shame for me I couldn’t get that from his writing.

It will never happen, but I think James Jones' The Thin Red Line is simply a perfect war novel, yet we don't have even a LOA version.

>153 anthonyfawkes: I can’t argue with that, it’s a dense read. Much like its equally influential contemporary, Bruno Snell’s The Discovery of the Mind. I guess both were intended to be scholarly rather than accessible.

>141 Bibliophile-I: >145 LesMiserables:
Wanted a complete set of Scott for years, but no chance sadly - not even, I suspect of individual volumes as things are, especially given the utter mess they made of Rob Roy. I gave up, and acquired a nice eminently readable 1912 OUP illustrated set at a cost of what would nowadays be barely 2 FS volumes. I don't think I'd even try and collect a full Folio set nowadays.

>156 Willoyd: They wouldn't complete if started. I have a late 19th Century multi-volume edition, but would invest in a newly published set if available.

>152 snottlebocket:
The moon is a harsh mistress by Heinlein is one I'd love to get in a nice edition. I really don't get why there's been nothing except for FS and Suntup Starship Troopers and Stranger in a Strange Land. Those two are great, but I don't get why Moon was left out.

>158 SF-72: Yes, I'm surprised that we haven't gotten more Heinlein (and Asimov) given how well they sold and the high prices they demand on the secondary market. Might be licensing issues involved.

>159 HonorWulf:

Could be, which would be a real shame.

In the same vein, I’d like to see more le guin and a reprint of the dispossessed.

>158 SF-72: I feel like moon is the most accessible for his big novels really. And the whole revolution is pretty topical at the moment.

>162 snottlebocket:

Definitely, among other things with AI now being a reality, if maybe not quite as advanced. And yes, Moon is really good, classical science fiction. I really hope someone will still tackle it. Ideally it would have been a set with the other two when FS and Suntup did their editions.

>152 snottlebocket: The suntup edition of Winterset Hollow was very good though. Still, I'd be interested to see what Folio comes up for it, if they ever made a limited edition.

>157 LesMiserables:
Just don't think I could afford it at Folio prices nowadays.

>165 Willoyd: On second thoughts, that and the likelihood that they shouldn't complete, just about kills the idea.

>164 spinfiction: I'm sure it was but Suntup editions are very limited aren't they? I've never had the chance to buy one, let alone have the money at the right time.

>167 snottlebocket: Ah fair enough, so you are more interested in seeing Winterset Hollow as a standard offering from Folio Society rather than a limited edition. I dig that, I'd buy a copy. I was thinking more on the limited side of things.

And yeah, limited books are pricey. I also have to pick and choose the ones I really care about.

>168 spinfiction: Honestly, I don't pay too much attention to the status of a book. I just got in the habit of doing all of my casual one-time reading in e-books and buying nice quality hardcovers for books I read repeatedly. Most of my classics are old leather bound Franklin Library. Folio Society is just the easiest to get a hold of for decent quality hardcovers of late 20th century and onwards fiction.

I'm willing to pay around 75-150 euros for editions that are better than the cheap mass produced hardcovers with cheap paper. That puts me fairly firmly in FS regular edition territory. The special editions are usually outside my budget or I'd have been all over that beautiful Perdido Street Station.

Maybe I should pay more attention outside of Folio Society but the availability of their standard editions does make it very convenient to buy decent books at my convenience instead of keeping an eye on limited releases.

>169 snottlebocket: Fair enough! Can't say anything bad about your strategy. I do something similar with cheap paperbacks which I can give away after reading.

The standard edition folio books are generally very good for the price and the higher quality paper is probably my favorite of those features as well.

To be honest, you bring up the reason I like folio. Most other high quality book makers I know only do limited editions.

From the sale email today, re 1984:

“…once it’s gone, this edition won't be coming back.”

Suggests a new SE based on last year’s LE?

>172 cyber_naut: Probably, but the current SE is near perfect so can't imagine taking the plunge on a new one.

I just saw that they finally gave a release date for Pullman’s final Book of Dust novel. It’s coming on October 23, 2025. Now I am thinking about getting the two earlier Folio versions after all. Up until now, I was too cautious with buying a not yet finished series. I guess they will not release the last book as a Folio version this year…but maybe next year.

I just discovered the wonderful title The Nebuly Coat by John Meade Falkner. This had been in print (OUP did an edition in the 1980s and Ash Tree Press did an edition in 2004) but now seem to have fallen out of print. I'm told Moonfleet is equally as good.

Given that Dorothy Sayers The Nine Tailors was actually inspired by The Nebuly Coat, I was thinking this would fit in well with the Mystery Fiction line that the Folio Society has been doing. Plenty of opportunity for artist illustration as well.

This is just anticipating the need of a wishlist for 2026. Before I forget.

>175 jillmwo: Seems like it's time for a Wishlist for 2026 thread, seeing as FS seems to be done with 2025 titles :)

>175 jillmwo:

I enjoyed Moonfleet very much. I didn't know about the Sayers connection to The Nebuly Coat, which I haven't read. The Nine Tailors must be due for a re-read as well, although, once read, never forgotten.

Since Lonesome Dove keeps getting mentioned in wishlists: The Broken Binding, a small UK publisher of special editions, will make one of Lonesome Dove. It won't be up to par with an FS edition, but I thought I'd mention it here just in case someone is interested in it anyway. Currently the plan is a sewn binding and acid-free paper along with illustrated endpapers and four black-and-white interior illustrations, as well as a ribbon bookmark. They hope to do a full set according to their info on social media. There is an interest list: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc24pmKoaxOheIhmJLxmSHBLpCkFKN-4BWguiAK...