I used to go to this variety thrift shop that sold books. Stocked my own personal, mismatched library over like 12 to 15 years from that place, from grade school clear through to university. In my high school years I'd save my lunch money on the last week of the month cause they'd have a half price clearance sale (before they brought in new stock). I'd go Friday afternoon after school and buy a stack of 5 to 7 books. The old place burned down last year when a fire in the café next door got outta control. It felt like losing a familiy member.
but at least you get some weird interesting past editions ocasionally XD, I have to buy everything from Amazon because I won't find any weird fantasy or Sci Fi book written in English in Mexico lol
There's something charming about a disorganized, untidy shelf of books. That said, this would cause me to breakdown and cry for the next 4 weeks straight.
It's worse when English isn't your native language and some books in the series are in a different language (also reading books that were translated from English is painful by itself).
I'll add my case of foreign book: Different language, the title on the book's spine is mirrored (this goes for every english book, its the complete opposite of my language and it makes me want to cry), the artstyle is COMPLETELY different. At least they both have hardshell bookcover T-T
@@nathanbeer3338 nope, it's german :') idk how to explain the mirrored part but it's not that its read from right to left, it has more to do with the structure. While german book titles face the right direction, english books face the left (or other way around,not really sure rn)
@@aliin8763 Ah okay, I thought you meant the whole book is mirrored which is the case of my native language which is Hebrew because it's written from right to left.
@@aliin8763 same here, I have to either shelf them upside down or rebuy them and then they somehow still don’t match but now I’m also broke… it’s a pain to be honest
Makes me wonder how my dad acquired all such perfect series and avoided the pain I feel now. Those Stephen King books in the library man..... the uniformity they display, all neatly stacked in a row.... I'm jealous.
my grandpa had a lot of books on his shelf that were all uniform. Apparently, door to door book salesmen used to go around and sell these nice collections.
My Grandma had a mega Stephen King collection. She would buy them hardcover as they released, read them once then set them on the shelf. That and Anne Rice. I know what you mean, it looked so smooth.
This felt like a personal attack lol; I've returned books that I've ordered online before just because the artwork didn't match what was advertised, and I rarely ask for books as gifts because I don't trust other people to find the exact copy I'm after (my fiancée is the sole exception, she knows I'm a freak and has accepted it)😂
Exactly hahah, I literally included pictures and what edition and color and shit it was supposed to be on my wishlist and they still bought a BLUE book with a cartoony person on the cover when I wanted a RED one with a super simple and clean design😭😭 still happy for the book ofc but like cmon
Also: different cover art versions in a single series! I remember this BS when I was in school and there were American and British covers for Harry Potter which looked totally different. Of course now we have the option of buying all of them in a box set but what to do about all the previous mismatched ones!? Sure as hell can't part with them!
Every country/region usually has a different illustrator, that isn't really that unusual. What I'm wondering is where you were where both versions were available.
This happened with the Lunar Chronicles. I had the ones with the simple covers. Cinder had a foot, Scarlett had a cape, Cress had her hair, Winter had an apple, and Fairest had a mirror with Levana's face being covered by a veil. Come to find out the softcover versions have art on them showing the characters, and they look amazing, especially Fairest, but I could only buy Stars Above with the softcover art. That was annoying, and I wish I had the softcover versions of all of them.
@@rosykindbunny1313 I've never read those books, but they were big around my high school. I never really liked the cover designs, but I looked up the ones that you described and... Wow. Those covers look amazing. Why do I never see those around?
I had this a lot. Though, I convinced myself that buying a book that I already own, but in a matching cover/size isn't a waste of money. It gives me piece of mind and pure bliss when looking at my book shelves.
@@djokealtena2538 I actually just bought a second single volume of LOTR, because I reread it so often, it's my travel book to keep me from over packing books as well as one of my absolute favourites 😁
Luckily, as I grew up poor, I always got secondhand versions from friends and my local libraries. Never had a complete series, so matching ones were not even something I ever considered. It’s quite funny to see how affording all of these books still doesn’t satisfy people. I guess it figures, money can’t buy you happiness.
Ikr!! I'm too poor to buy even books.I read on ebook.I'm just happy to read.Though sometimes I buy books.But It's really impossible to satisfy yourself when you wanna read all the books in the world.
I'm fine with just having all the books, you just sometimes look at your shelf and cringe as you realize that one of the books has a completely different design. The book itself is fine, but since it's basically decoration while you aren't reading it...
I actually kinda like having all my mismatched sets because it tells a story from all the different thrift stores you were able to buy them at at the time. And if you’re like me, you can remember when and where you bought each book
Unpopular opinion: I actually prefer for the books in my series to all looks very different because then it looks as though every book was one I found personally, and it would look more like a collection which I have been growing and caring about. If all your books look the same it just looks like you bought them all off Amazon in one go. Besides having different covers means it looks like I'm a diverse reader when I'm not.
I feel you! Sometimes publishers just change up the design and size while the series is being released. Or the originals go out of print and they completely change up the new releases. It makes it hard, frustrating and really stressful to be a book collector. Almost like you HAVE to buy the whole series at once in the same design to not get your shelves messed up. But that's expensive :P Great channel btw, I subscribed.
Meanwhile us audiobook listeners have to worry about the narrator voice actors losing their touch or changing midway through the series and ruining the voice of the characters.
At least they're uniformally... Un-uniform. These kind of shelves look like more like a reader's shelves to me than someone who only has pristine box collections!
YAY for some reality here. No need to be a nerd either. Can't say how many times we grump looking at all those booktubers that seem to have all those perfect looking shelves behind them with matching expensive books that always look brand new no matter how many times they say they've read them. My shelves are often "where will this fit". Most of my series are mismatched. Probably because I'm a reader. I mean seriously. Like Wheel of Time I started buying the arty Orbit publications in the 90's and later they went and stopped doing art covers so the rest of my set became chunkers with covers that looked like text on wrapping paper. Sheesh. As much as I like matching sets I'm not going to spend hundreds of dollars replacing books I've read on new fancy 10, 15, 20 book sets when I can spend that money on buying more books I haven't read.
My family thrifted a lot of books when I was a kid. The Narnia books were a jumble. Two of them were Harper Collins standard paperbacks, two of them were the Harper Collins miniature paperbacks, one was a Scholastic paperback, and two of them were pre-1998 US paperback copies (if you know the history of those books, you know that the author actually made some minor improvements to the US editions and then Harper Collins reverted back to the original UK text for some reason when they acquired the rights in 1998). This also led to my parents getting confused on what order the books went in because of the two different orders on the backs of the books.
I thrifted for years before I managed to get all of the Narnia books in the hardbacks I read as a child. It's like a treasure hunt. :-) We borrowed all the books at the public library when I was a kid.
I feel like everyone has such a weird Tolkien collection specifically, just so so many editions of those books it inevitably will just be a mess in the end.
This is especially hard on me because I got most of my books came from the thriftstore. The covers are from different decades and the covers and sizes are different.
I feel that, especially since most of my books are thrifted byt at the same time, I like how... alive those books feel. Like there is a bit of a story in the book itself and especially with series with different editions together, it's like holding pieces with context. Especially with second hand books, they feel pre loved and with persinality. Idk there is something charming about mismatched book colections
Yes!! This is EXACTLY what happens to me! I have a collection of fifteen book from same series, and only ONE of them is hardcover and it drives me crazy!!
The only way I've been able to get over this is by ignoring what series my books are a part of and sorting them all by color. That way all of the heights are jumbled up and it looks kind of like a library. It works for most of them and I own a ton so it forms a nice gradient. I can still find the books easily because I spend so much time with them of course I know the exact color of their spine 😉. It's a little bit ocd of me (I'm always tweaking the order to make it look better) but it is sort of a solution 😝
This is the most relatable thing I've seen in a long time. All of the Tolkien books I own have Alan Lee illustrations on their respective covers and Tolkien's name printed in gold letters... all except The Return of the King, which has an image from the movie and no gold letters.
I have this lovely box set of all the Narnia books, and I've had them for years, and I convinced my sister to start reading Narnia. And guess what! SHE LOST PRINCE CASPIAN AND NOW THERE'S A GAPING HOLE IN MY BEAUTIFUL BOX!
Unlike what Saruman said, we have not chosen the way of pain. It is thrust upon us by circumstance. Thrifting is a good way to go for building a collection quick--if the goal is simply to read. Of course, piecing together a trilogy or series can be a challenge. Even Amazon can be frustrating at times, in the uniform book department.
I feel this pain so hard! I get all my books from thrift stores, yard sales, and the occasional goodwill and my bookshelf is a mess with old and new prints jumbles together in what is really an organized bookshelf. Complete mess 🤣
I've only just started getting into Brandon Sanderson, and so obviously already have all the Cosmere books in paperback already. Tempted now to only buy future Cosmere in ebook until paperback versions come out specifically to avoid this
A lot of people likely have a similar ASOIAF collection. You can fairly accurately guess when someone started reading, by what was out at the time, by how many hardbacks in their library, - if they could wait the extra months for the paperback to come out. Personally, have Feadt and Dance. And my Dune collection is all over the place as I have some of my Dad's from the middle 70's where they changed the cover every printing it seemed like.
I am glad to discover this cool channel and be one if its first 300 subscribers. In one year's time, we will be considered as the "first disciples" of a channel with 10.000-s of followers
Yes!! No one understands why I will literally rebuy a book that I already own so that I can get the cover/edition to match the rest. Although some series, like my Harry Potter one, is half paperback (books 1-3) and half hardcover (books 4-7). They at least all have the same colour scheme and look the same, plus the old books hold memories and I can't bring myself to replace them.
Same... like the same exact issue and HP books too. I've come so close to spend the $150 to all new hard covers of the series, I dunno how many times. I always talk myself out of it because not only do I have the original books I bought on release but the Stephen Fry audio books too. So it feels like I'm investing money into something I own twice, lol.
Too true!! I had HP1 in paperback and HP2-6 in hard cover and then could only find HP7 in paperback. So I like that it's a nice mirroring but also hate it lol.
I totally feel your pain on this, it's unavoidable and I've just made my peace with it...however I have learnt to appreciate the variety. Odd books are also a sign of their success if they continue to be reprinted.
As a french who likes to read her books in the original version when it’s english i have now the added issue of country of origin. Ofc my old french translations aren’t gonna match the books in english but then it’s also often a coin toss if I’m gonna get the US or UK version when I’m ordering online. Even when I’m ordering the whole series at once. Sometimes amazon just lies to you about it. And good luck finding bookstores selling (more than a handful boring) books in english around where i live.
This is something I funnyily enough love about my book colection. It tells its own story, some series I have all matching because I bought them all at once and other were gotten piecemeal. Some are hardcovers because I got them when they came out and other I am very late to reading. Sad that people cringe at something I find so nice and cozy about books as a hobby
That was actually me with ASOIAF. I have owned three copies of A Dance with Dragons overall. One to match the other paperbacks after receiving hardcover for Christmas in 2011, then I picked up the leatherbound box set of all the books. It’s a mighty need for the matching sets, man.
And this is exactly why I always go for the collection or the box set of a book series when I want one, at the end of all if I don’t like it, well I sell it and relieve myself of the unmatched covers pain…
yeah for getting back into reading again in the last year I'm starting to feel the pain, thankfully with the ASOIAF example they did come out of a paperback version of "a dance with dragons", at least it came of the boxset I got lol
'The wheel of time' thing is exactly what happened with me. Actually, I live in bangladesh. Finding any books of real version is almost impossible but if you get one you have to sell your kidney for this. So ,that makes only one way left 'pirated books'. Don't think that the pirated are priced low. So , I brought 'the eye of the world' from a page. Before ordering i told them again to give the Tor cover . But guess what they gave the version 'where a guy is hanging with the ships piller' cover. They also did it with the 'the way of kings' . I wanted the yellow cover but they gave the white cover. 'Twok' is still bearable but 'wot' is totally painful. Sharing this may reduce my pain.
The pain is real! ALSO! When books are available with the same cover art but in different sizes (who else has a ruler on hand every time they order books online?). Or same cover art but different design on the spine. Or you're collecting a beautiful translated edition of Asimov's Foundation and Robot stuff but for some odd reaso two books aren't available in that edition and then you pick up an English version instead that also doesn't match but at least you can sort it into a different book shelf because you separate by language.
I laughed AND cried at the same time cause, man… same. 🤣 Especially, when you get into a series and buy the paperback, only to buy the hardcover when the new book comes out.
Literally. I was searching for the edition of the book that matches the one I already have from this series, and IT’S NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. And my mum is like “do you need the text, or the cover???” She doesn’t get it…
"At least they are the same size, if nothing else." Lol! That IS a comfort. Also, I have alleviated the problem of having my Tolkien books all different by getting them all amassed into one book. It's one heck of a brick, but it serves its purpose.
I felt this way when I was trying to get all the original covers for the Lunar Chronicles series. I didn’t want them in hardcover because I had gotten accustomed to paperback. But they had changed the covers for the paperback. Well I didn’t like the new covers (and I know the person worked hard on the art style, but I just didn’t like it all that much). So, I ended up having to get used covers. One came in a plastic bag….but I was happy. I had all the original covers. But I feel this. I need my books to be consistent. Either they have the same cover, or they have to be either all hardcover or paperback. There is no in between.
Omg this is literally me as well. I am fortunate enough to have the Penguin Harry Potter covers so they're all uniform. This is why boxsets are a must!
I actually have my dad's old copy of The wheel of Time series and I went out and rebought a couple of the books so that they would have the original cover
I recently rebought the first two books in the Inheritance Cycle (Eragon) so that they would all match. I didn't realize the author was actually writing another entry in the series. The new book matches a DIFFERENT set of covers for the series that have come out since. Oh well, at least they are the same size.
The pain is real lol 😂. I remember a few years ago when I was buying the Harry Potter series I was buying the newest cover versions at the time and my dad kept trying to buy ones with a different cover and I was like no dad they have to match lol 😂. It’s a book nerd thing if they don’t match it drives you crazy. I also wanted the new ones because the artwork was cooler and more my preferred art style. Don’t get me wrong hardbacks are amazing and durable but paperbacks rule in terms of comfortability for me. Xx
As someone who has lord of the rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars legends, and other books that don’t match each other, I feel your pain. It almost makes me want to buy copies that match each other.
Yes, I compleatly understand You. I feel Your pain too. But, also, watching this Video, I felt another Pain too: all of those Works are writen in English by People whose First Language is English! I would LOVE if You had in Your Shelf Books writen by People whose First Language isn't English on that other lamguage translated to English, like Classic Chinese Novels or Works by Freanch Authors like Jules Verne!
YES! what i especially hate is when you get like 4 book in the series and they all are published in the same style, and it was the only style they were published, but then for the 5th book they change the style, and they dont print the 5th book in the old style at all!! so you are either stuck with the mismatched series on your shelf, or have to go spend money and buy the first 4 books again ... UGH
I lol'd... and felt your pain... I try to just enjoy the uniqueness of my different books... *avoids looking over my discworld novels* I got rid of my Harry Potter books years ago, and good fucking riddance--they took up so much space...
The Malazan series suffers from cover disharmony too. Ten book series and books 1, 9 and 10 have distinctly different styles in both art and font. Books 2 - 8 have that cool painted fantasy cover (at least on trade paperback) and the 3 others just look like bad photoshops. Its sad.
So true y'all. I buy my books from the same bookstore, book 1～3 was from the same publishing company, then book 4 the bookstore sticker it from a different company and the size and art style of the book just don't fit the rest.😢
Bruhhhh I relate so much- I got the whole Percy Jackson series (including HOO, TOA, KC, MC,) but there was just these *two books* that stands out- both of them are like- *extra tall* and one has a hard cover-
At least you got every book. There's no pain like seeing your shelf and having one volume missing. No matter how you try to hide it, the hole will always be visible. Your heart will always knows its missing.
Oh, no! Just triggered my book OCD. 😄 My problem too, different size or design of the same series drives me nuts to the point I'll search, till I find the matching piece.
The fourth one is truly painful, I owned the first edition printing of The School for Good and Evil series (very pretty illustration book cover for the first few series of the book), then there's the latest publishing of the books along with the latest release tittles they've change the book covers and the new book don't even matches the aesthetic of my older ones. 😭 (Also i hate the change of the book covers)
This is part of the reason I switched to kindle. - Save space in my tiny little flat - Mismatching book sets - Damaged edges and page bends give me the fear
This is so true and so painful!! I got all the wings of fire books (except 15) and for Christmas I asked for 12, 13, and 14 and I should have put softcover now I got those 3 in hardcover and it’s just pain to look at, I’m even considering buying all of them in hardcover now the hardcover looks so good Idk if I’ll have room! It’s complicated when it doesn’t need to be!! SMH 🤦♀️
Also if you own some books on audio and some physical. My wheel of time collection consists of: First edition hardcover of Eye of the World Audiobook on my phone of Great Hunt Minimalist cover with just the wheel of Dragon Reborn and Shadow Rising Original Paperback of Fires of Heaven with the cover falling off and held together with packing tape (found at used bookstore) And Lord of Chaos through Winter’s Heart in original paperbacks, given to me by a friend before she moved to South Africa.
I feel this pain. Some while back I started collecting the Tom Clancy books, and...all the ones I have are a mess. I'll just say that. As an addendum, I waited some two...ish? Years waiting for The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson to release in paperback with the old art style. To match the rest that I own. So...hyped about that.
All my Percy Jackson books are like this 😭 1st and 2nd books front covers are from the movies, 3rd book's font is gold color and is kind of big compared to the others and 4th book is the one of the original copies with silver font 😭 it's so painful for me
I'm just glad I haven't had the misfortune of starting a long-running series that changes cover artists/designers multiple times throughout the run so there's no consistency until it's finished and they reprint the originals IF they reprint the originals with new cover art
Literally none of my Tolkien books match each other cause when i started off on Fellowship of the ring i got a paperback , and then i got the more expensive Two Towers which had a nicer cover , and then i was broke again so i had to get the paperback . so on my bookshelf Fellowship and return of the king are way in the back and Two Towers is jutting out cause the pages are longer.
Its like the Hunger Games books. I have one the newer versions (pure black with coloured birds) and then they released The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.....and the spine is neon green - NeOn GrEeN! And Dune....I have my Dad's version, so probably one of the earliest, the whole trilogy in one (yay) but I adooooree the newest covers (that are fresh, and clean, and beautiful, with spines that are not pre-cracked😭)
I love that Michael Whelan cover on Second Foundation with Arkady on the cover. I have that as the wallpaper on one of my computers and rebought the Whelan cover versions a few times over the years. Also I bought the illustrated Barnes & Noble "A Song of Ice and Fire" (Game of Thrones etc.) hard covers but I think they only put out the first three that way. Argh.
I bought multiple copies of a couple books in the ‘Malazan Book of the Fallen’ series to ensure that I got all ten in the Mass Market Paperback size with matching cover art styles.
I haven’t read for fun in a while but I just started the expanse series and I did the same thing. Bought the 10 year collectors hardcover versions for the first 3 and then the paperbacks for the remaining 6
I have a thing for owning books that I love as hardcovers, but they are sooo expensive compared to paperbacks. Whenever I can get one cheap, I'm so happy and don't even mind that it doesn't match the others, though ideally it would be sweet to have a fully library with matching hardcover series.
I hate when the books layout changes after a few years. Like for example, I have this set of all hardcover books. The first 4 are all different color, but same layout, same print and stuff. And then there is number 5 where they completely changed the theme they went with...
The pain is so real.. I have the Hunger Games books, A Song of Ice and Fire, and LOTR+Hobbit all nice and matching, perfectly placed in my shelf, but then there's my Dark Tower series which is all matching softcover, EXCEPT the first book is a slightly older edition, so it is only slightly different then the rest. And then there's my Harry Potter mess of a series. I got the American edition, because they are just so pretty and nostalgic, since I grew up with the Slovak edition which has the same cover art, and I got books 1, 6 and 7 as hardcover, then book 2 is old softcover (with the shiny silver title) and book 3-5 are the newest most boring softcover, and I'd love to have all the hardcovers but they are 1. So hard to come buy outside of US and 2. Just so freaking heavy? I don't know what's up with the American way of printing hardcovers but those babies are heavy as f... Compared to that, the Slovak hardcovers are like feathers. Also dust covers are really fun, until they're not as you read the book for a while and you come to a point when it's just super annoying, so Slovak hardcovers are way more practical. And don't even get me started on the binding of the American books😂 Don't know why but I sometimes get super obsessed over this stuff. Like this one time when I ordered the Mockingjay from amazon and it came without the dist jacket even tho the description said it had one, I wrote a complaint, and they returned all the money I paid for it even the delivery just like that, but I had to get another one with the dust cover anyway😂 luckily back then it was super cheap. Or this other time I ordered 'salem's Lot and I got a different edition than the one the page displayed, this ugly orange new cover (yuck) and I just couldn't read it. I'm sick in the head I guess🙃 So I don't know if this way of thinking about books is the result of being freaky in the head, but I'm glad I'm not in this alone.
Most common painful of readers, the story is not understanded, that when to repeat reading it, the sensation feels different each page. So you stumble to another books, and do the same problem over and over, until you questioning your life, "Am i a reader, or book collectors?"
this is SO triggering.. physically painful. i can understand if i have books from different publishers but it’s 90% of the time the same publisher not matching the cover/finish/size 😤
😂 this is painful and especially true if you thrift your books.
I work at a used book store, so that's what my shelves look like 😂
@@brynndolynn that sounds about right! 😂 I’m sure you found some great books there.
I used to go to this variety thrift shop that sold books. Stocked my own personal, mismatched library over like 12 to 15 years from that place, from grade school clear through to university. In my high school years I'd save my lunch money on the last week of the month cause they'd have a half price clearance sale (before they brought in new stock). I'd go Friday afternoon after school and buy a stack of 5 to 7 books.
The old place burned down last year when a fire in the café next door got outta control. It felt like losing a familiy member.
So so so true! 🤣
but at least you get some weird interesting past editions ocasionally XD, I have to buy everything from Amazon because I won't find any weird fantasy or Sci Fi book written in English in Mexico lol
There's something charming about a disorganized, untidy shelf of books.
That said, this would cause me to breakdown and cry for the next 4 weeks straight.
lol
It's worse when English isn't your native language and some books in the series are in a different language (also reading books that were translated from English is painful by itself).
I'll add my case of foreign book: Different language, the title on the book's spine is mirrored (this goes for every english book, its the complete opposite of my language and it makes me want to cry), the artstyle is COMPLETELY different. At least they both have hardshell bookcover T-T
@@aliin8763 Is your native language Hebrew by any chance?
@@nathanbeer3338 nope, it's german :') idk how to explain the mirrored part but it's not that its read from right to left, it has more to do with the structure. While german book titles face the right direction, english books face the left (or other way around,not really sure rn)
@@aliin8763 Ah okay, I thought you meant the whole book is mirrored which is the case of my native language which is Hebrew because it's written from right to left.
@@aliin8763 same here, I have to either shelf them upside down or rebuy them and then they somehow still don’t match but now I’m also broke… it’s a pain to be honest
Makes me wonder how my dad acquired all such perfect series and avoided the pain I feel now. Those Stephen King books in the library man..... the uniformity they display, all neatly stacked in a row.... I'm jealous.
Nice! It's hard not to feel a bit jealous when seeing pristine book shelves
my grandpa had a lot of books on his shelf that were all uniform. Apparently, door to door book salesmen used to go around and sell these nice collections.
My Grandma had a mega Stephen King collection. She would buy them hardcover as they released, read them once then set them on the shelf. That and Anne Rice. I know what you mean, it looked so smooth.
This felt like a personal attack lol; I've returned books that I've ordered online before just because the artwork didn't match what was advertised, and I rarely ask for books as gifts because I don't trust other people to find the exact copy I'm after (my fiancée is the sole exception, she knows I'm a freak and has accepted it)😂
lol
SAME!!!
Exactly hahah, I literally included pictures and what edition and color and shit it was supposed to be on my wishlist and they still bought a BLUE book with a cartoony person on the cover when I wanted a RED one with a super simple and clean design😭😭 still happy for the book ofc but like cmon
I've honestly done the same with returning unmatched artwork/hard cover, paperback editions.
@@alvatillback9263 damn, now that hurts. Reason to end the friendship.
On a spiritual level, man. I feel this on a *spiritual level*
Also: different cover art versions in a single series! I remember this BS when I was in school and there were American and British covers for Harry Potter which looked totally different. Of course now we have the option of buying all of them in a box set but what to do about all the previous mismatched ones!? Sure as hell can't part with them!
Every country/region usually has a different illustrator, that isn't really that unusual. What I'm wondering is where you were where both versions were available.
This happened with the Lunar Chronicles. I had the ones with the simple covers. Cinder had a foot, Scarlett had a cape, Cress had her hair, Winter had an apple, and Fairest had a mirror with Levana's face being covered by a veil. Come to find out the softcover versions have art on them showing the characters, and they look amazing, especially Fairest, but I could only buy Stars Above with the softcover art. That was annoying, and I wish I had the softcover versions of all of them.
@@rosykindbunny1313 I've never read those books, but they were big around my high school. I never really liked the cover designs, but I looked up the ones that you described and...
Wow. Those covers look amazing. Why do I never see those around?
@@braydengraves4655 The hardcover or softcover designs?
@@rosykindbunny1313 Softcover.
I had this a lot. Though, I convinced myself that buying a book that I already own, but in a matching cover/size isn't a waste of money. It gives me piece of mind and pure bliss when looking at my book shelves.
Stop fooling yourself. It definitely is a waste of money
@@lestath2345 Everybody has their priorities and hobbies. Other people "waste" money on other things.
@@huro1845 Sorry, my bad, I have problem when trying to make it clear that I'm just kidding
It is simple you have a travel version that you can read till it breaks and you have the bookshelf version there to be pretty
@@djokealtena2538 I actually just bought a second single volume of LOTR, because I reread it so often, it's my travel book to keep me from over packing books as well as one of my absolute favourites 😁
Luckily, as I grew up poor, I always got secondhand versions from friends and my local libraries. Never had a complete series, so matching ones were not even something I ever considered. It’s quite funny to see how affording all of these books still doesn’t satisfy people. I guess it figures, money can’t buy you happiness.
Ikr!! I'm too poor to buy even books.I read on ebook.I'm just happy to read.Though sometimes I buy books.But It's really impossible to satisfy yourself when you wanna read all the books in the world.
Money can buy you happiness. How would you feel right now if you were billionaire? Lol
@@angel79nunn he didn’t talk about himself rather of people seemingly having enough money Isn't content.
I'm fine with just having all the books, you just sometimes look at your shelf and cringe as you realize that one of the books has a completely different design. The book itself is fine, but since it's basically decoration while you aren't reading it...
Of course I am grateful to have all those books. It's just being a little fussy about the details.
The most relatable bookshelf tour 😂
I actually kinda like having all my mismatched sets because it tells a story from all the different thrift stores you were able to buy them at at the time. And if you’re like me, you can remember when and where you bought each book
Unpopular opinion:
I actually prefer for the books in my series to all looks very different because then it looks as though every book was one I found personally, and it would look more like a collection which I have been growing and caring about.
If all your books look the same it just looks like you bought them all off Amazon in one go.
Besides having different covers means it looks like I'm a diverse reader when I'm not.
It’s good to see people suffer from the same stuff as I do 😁
I feel you! Sometimes publishers just change up the design and size while the series is being released. Or the originals go out of print and they completely change up the new releases. It makes it hard, frustrating and really stressful to be a book collector. Almost like you HAVE to buy the whole series at once in the same design to not get your shelves messed up. But that's expensive :P
Great channel btw, I subscribed.
This channel is going to explode with new subscribers. People love a person with a good sense of humor. Great video
I appreciate that!
when the spines aren't consistent with placing of name & book number, it drives me crazy
so basically all of Wheel of Time
Meanwhile us audiobook listeners have to worry about the narrator voice actors losing their touch or changing midway through the series and ruining the voice of the characters.
At least they're uniformally... Un-uniform. These kind of shelves look like more like a reader's shelves to me than someone who only has pristine box collections!
YAY for some reality here. No need to be a nerd either. Can't say how many times we grump looking at all those booktubers that seem to have all those perfect looking shelves behind them with matching expensive books that always look brand new no matter how many times they say they've read them.
My shelves are often "where will this fit". Most of my series are mismatched. Probably because I'm a reader. I mean seriously. Like Wheel of Time I started buying the arty Orbit publications in the 90's and later they went and stopped doing art covers so the rest of my set became chunkers with covers that looked like text on wrapping paper.
Sheesh. As much as I like matching sets I'm not going to spend hundreds of dollars replacing books I've read on new fancy 10, 15, 20 book sets when I can spend that money on buying more books I haven't read.
My family thrifted a lot of books when I was a kid. The Narnia books were a jumble. Two of them were Harper Collins standard paperbacks, two of them were the Harper Collins miniature paperbacks, one was a Scholastic paperback, and two of them were pre-1998 US paperback copies (if you know the history of those books, you know that the author actually made some minor improvements to the US editions and then Harper Collins reverted back to the original UK text for some reason when they acquired the rights in 1998). This also led to my parents getting confused on what order the books went in because of the two different orders on the backs of the books.
I thrifted for years before I managed to get all of the Narnia books in the hardbacks I read as a child. It's like a treasure hunt. :-) We borrowed all the books at the public library when I was a kid.
I feel like everyone has such a weird Tolkien collection specifically, just so so many editions of those books it inevitably will just be a mess in the end.
This is especially hard on me because I got most of my books came from the thriftstore. The covers are from different decades and the covers and sizes are different.
I feel that, especially since most of my books are thrifted byt at the same time, I like how... alive those books feel. Like there is a bit of a story in the book itself and especially with series with different editions together, it's like holding pieces with context. Especially with second hand books, they feel pre loved and with persinality. Idk there is something charming about mismatched book colections
This hits hard. I feel your pain, Mike.
Yes!! This is EXACTLY what happens to me! I have a collection of fifteen book from same series, and only ONE of them is hardcover and it drives me crazy!!
The wheel of time one really hit my soul
The cover art is what peaked my interest when I started reading them in high school
Collecting Tolkien's work in the fabulously illustrated new edition hardcovers is a great pride of mine.
Oh yes that new edition of lord of the rings looks amazing!
Hopefully I can do the same as well
I feel this on an emotional level! My Percy Jackson collection is a mess of hardcovers and paperbacks and mixed editions
The only way I've been able to get over this is by ignoring what series my books are a part of and sorting them all by color. That way all of the heights are jumbled up and it looks kind of like a library. It works for most of them and I own a ton so it forms a nice gradient. I can still find the books easily because I spend so much time with them of course I know the exact color of their spine 😉. It's a little bit ocd of me (I'm always tweaking the order to make it look better) but it is sort of a solution 😝
This is the most relatable thing I've seen in a long time.
All of the Tolkien books I own have Alan Lee illustrations on their respective covers and Tolkien's name printed in gold letters... all except The Return of the King, which has an image from the movie and no gold letters.
I have this lovely box set of all the Narnia books, and I've had them for years, and I convinced my sister to start reading Narnia. And guess what!
SHE LOST PRINCE CASPIAN AND NOW THERE'S A GAPING HOLE IN MY BEAUTIFUL BOX!
There's something charming about a mismatching book series. A full matching set just looks unread.
This happened with The Lunar Chronicles for me. It hurt. Especially when I had mostly hardcover but the softcover covers had cool art on them.
I love the lunar chronicles!!
Unlike what Saruman said, we have not chosen the way of pain. It is thrust upon us by circumstance. Thrifting is a good way to go for building a collection quick--if the goal is simply to read. Of course, piecing together a trilogy or series can be a challenge. Even Amazon can be frustrating at times, in the uniform book department.
I feel this pain so hard! I get all my books from thrift stores, yard sales, and the occasional goodwill and my bookshelf is a mess with old and new prints jumbles together in what is really an organized bookshelf. Complete mess 🤣
I've only just started getting into Brandon Sanderson, and so obviously already have all the Cosmere books in paperback already. Tempted now to only buy future Cosmere in ebook until paperback versions come out specifically to avoid this
Oh don't get me started... My books from Brandon Sanderson have 4 different sizes :')
A lot of people likely have a similar ASOIAF collection.
You can fairly accurately guess when someone started reading, by what was out at the time, by how many hardbacks in their library, - if they could wait the extra months for the paperback to come out. Personally, have Feadt and Dance.
And my Dune collection is all over the place as I have some of my Dad's from the middle 70's where they changed the cover every printing it seemed like.
I am glad to discover this cool channel and be one if its first 300 subscribers. In one year's time, we will be considered as the "first disciples" of a channel with 10.000-s of followers
Thank you!
Yes!! No one understands why I will literally rebuy a book that I already own so that I can get the cover/edition to match the rest. Although some series, like my Harry Potter one, is half paperback (books 1-3) and half hardcover (books 4-7). They at least all have the same colour scheme and look the same, plus the old books hold memories and I can't bring myself to replace them.
Same... like the same exact issue and HP books too. I've come so close to spend the $150 to all new hard covers of the series, I dunno how many times. I always talk myself out of it because not only do I have the original books I bought on release but the Stephen Fry audio books too. So it feels like I'm investing money into something I own twice, lol.
I would do this if I weren't s poor student
In shopping websites, you plan to buy a whole book series and there's discount! But darn it!! Your friend gifted you the first book :(
Oh golly, preaching to the choir! Your bookcase looks like mine, I feel your pain!
Too true!! I had HP1 in paperback and HP2-6 in hard cover and then could only find HP7 in paperback. So I like that it's a nice mirroring but also hate it lol.
Me, an e-book reader: *Look what they need to do to mimic a fraction of my power!*
I feel ya, I really do, but just remember the words are all that really matter. *THE WORDS*
I can understand you very well I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM TOO DUDE... IT PAINS A LOT
I totally feel your pain on this, it's unavoidable and I've just made my peace with it...however I have learnt to appreciate the variety. Odd books are also a sign of their success if they continue to be reprinted.
As a french who likes to read her books in the original version when it’s english i have now the added issue of country of origin. Ofc my old french translations aren’t gonna match the books in english but then it’s also often a coin toss if I’m gonna get the US or UK version when I’m ordering online. Even when I’m ordering the whole series at once. Sometimes amazon just lies to you about it. And good luck finding bookstores selling (more than a handful boring) books in english around where i live.
This is something I funnyily enough love about my book colection. It tells its own story, some series I have all matching because I bought them all at once and other were gotten piecemeal. Some are hardcovers because I got them when they came out and other I am very late to reading. Sad that people cringe at something I find so nice and cozy about books as a hobby
That was actually me with ASOIAF. I have owned three copies of A Dance with Dragons overall. One to match the other paperbacks after receiving hardcover for Christmas in 2011, then I picked up the leatherbound box set of all the books.
It’s a mighty need for the matching sets, man.
And this is exactly why I always go for the collection or the box set of a book series when I want one, at the end of all if I don’t like it, well I sell it and relieve myself of the unmatched covers pain…
yeah for getting back into reading again in the last year I'm starting to feel the pain, thankfully with the ASOIAF example they did come out of a paperback version of "a dance with dragons", at least it came of the boxset I got lol
'The wheel of time' thing is exactly what happened with me. Actually, I live in bangladesh. Finding any books of real version is almost impossible but if you get one you have to sell your kidney for this. So ,that makes only one way left 'pirated books'. Don't think that the pirated are priced low. So , I brought 'the eye of the world' from a page. Before ordering i told them again to give the Tor cover . But guess what they gave the version 'where a guy is hanging with the ships piller' cover. They also did it with the 'the way of kings' . I wanted the yellow cover but they gave the white cover. 'Twok' is still bearable but 'wot' is totally painful.
Sharing this may reduce my pain.
The pain is real! ALSO! When books are available with the same cover art but in different sizes (who else has a ruler on hand every time they order books online?). Or same cover art but different design on the spine. Or you're collecting a beautiful translated edition of Asimov's Foundation and Robot stuff but for some odd reaso two books aren't available in that edition and then you pick up an English version instead that also doesn't match but at least you can sort it into a different book shelf because you separate by language.
I laughed AND cried at the same time cause, man… same. 🤣
Especially, when you get into a series and buy the paperback, only to buy the hardcover when the new book comes out.
EMBRACE. Embrace a shelf that truly reflects the state of your mind.
Literally. I was searching for the edition of the book that matches the one I already have from this series, and IT’S NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. And my mum is like “do you need the text, or the cover???” She doesn’t get it…
Yup, been there!
And that's how you end up with multiple copies of the same book in the end... You settle for "the wrong" edition and then you find the right one...
I feel your pain brother. Been going through the same
"At least they are the same size, if nothing else." Lol! That IS a comfort. Also, I have alleviated the problem of having my Tolkien books all different by getting them all amassed into one book. It's one heck of a brick, but it serves its purpose.
I felt this way when I was trying to get all the original covers for the Lunar Chronicles series. I didn’t want them in hardcover because I had gotten accustomed to paperback. But they had changed the covers for the paperback. Well I didn’t like the new covers (and I know the person worked hard on the art style, but I just didn’t like it all that much). So, I ended up having to get used covers. One came in a plastic bag….but I was happy. I had all the original covers. But I feel this. I need my books to be consistent. Either they have the same cover, or they have to be either all hardcover or paperback. There is no in between.
Omg this is literally me as well. I am fortunate enough to have the Penguin Harry Potter covers so they're all uniform. This is why boxsets are a must!
I actually have my dad's old copy of The wheel of Time series and I went out and rebought a couple of the books so that they would have the original cover
This is remarkably accurate 😂😂
I recently rebought the first two books in the Inheritance Cycle (Eragon) so that they would all match. I didn't realize the author was actually writing another entry in the series. The new book matches a DIFFERENT set of covers for the series that have come out since. Oh well, at least they are the same size.
This hurts me too much, especially some of the books you own are worn.
The pain is real lol 😂.
I remember a few years ago when I was buying the Harry Potter series I was buying the newest cover versions at the time and my dad kept trying to buy ones with a different cover and I was like no dad they have to match lol 😂. It’s a book nerd thing if they don’t match it drives you crazy.
I also wanted the new ones because the artwork was cooler and more my preferred art style.
Don’t get me wrong hardbacks are amazing and durable but paperbacks rule in terms of comfortability for me. Xx
As someone who has lord of the rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars legends, and other books that don’t match each other, I feel your pain. It almost makes me want to buy copies that match each other.
Those GRR Martin books on the shelf did make me laugh out loud! lol
Yes, I compleatly understand You. I feel Your pain too.
But, also, watching this Video, I felt another Pain too: all of those Works are writen in English by People whose First Language is English!
I would LOVE if You had in Your Shelf Books writen by People whose First Language isn't English on that other lamguage translated to English, like Classic Chinese Novels or Works by Freanch Authors like Jules Verne!
YES! what i especially hate is when you get like 4 book in the series and they all are published in the same style, and it was the only style they were published, but then for the 5th book they change the style, and they dont print the 5th book in the old style at all!! so you are either stuck with the mismatched series on your shelf, or have to go spend money and buy the first 4 books again ... UGH
I lol'd... and felt your pain... I try to just enjoy the uniqueness of my different books... *avoids looking over my discworld novels*
I got rid of my Harry Potter books years ago, and good fucking riddance--they took up so much space...
The Malazan series suffers from cover disharmony too. Ten book series and books 1, 9 and 10 have distinctly different styles in both art and font. Books 2 - 8 have that cool painted fantasy cover (at least on trade paperback) and the 3 others just look like bad photoshops. Its sad.
Hits deep with incarnations of immortality
I get it and this is exactly why a. I don't buy incompleted series and b. look everywhere for the same matching designs before buying.
So true y'all. I buy my books from the same bookstore, book 1～3 was from the same publishing company, then book 4 the bookstore sticker it from a different company and the size and art style of the book just don't fit the rest.😢
Bruhhhh I relate so much-
I got the whole Percy Jackson series (including HOO, TOA, KC, MC,) but there was just these *two books* that stands out- both of them are like- *extra tall* and one has a hard cover-
Same man, I got loads of matching covers (it even matched with my Harry Potter set) only for TOA book 4 to be a goddamn giant hardcover. 😑
@@ssssssric Omg sameeeee 😩
I feel you pain. My Wheel of Time collection is all over the place
At least you got every book. There's no pain like seeing your shelf and having one volume missing. No matter how you try to hide it, the hole will always be visible. Your heart will always knows its missing.
LITERALLY!! My harry potter books are all in the same style except for the Sorcerer's Stone ! The painnnn
Oh, no! Just triggered my book OCD. 😄
My problem too, different size or design of the same series drives me nuts to the point I'll search, till I find the matching piece.
The fourth one is truly painful, I owned the first edition printing of The School for Good and Evil series (very pretty illustration book cover for the first few series of the book), then there's the latest publishing of the books along with the latest release tittles they've change the book covers and the new book don't even matches the aesthetic of my older ones. 😭
(Also i hate the change of the book covers)
This is part of the reason I switched to kindle.
- Save space in my tiny little flat
- Mismatching book sets
- Damaged edges and page bends give me the fear
This is so true and so painful!! I got all the wings of fire books (except 15) and for Christmas I asked for 12, 13, and 14 and I should have put softcover now I got those 3 in hardcover and it’s just pain to look at, I’m even considering buying all of them in hardcover now the hardcover looks so good Idk if I’ll have room! It’s complicated when it doesn’t need to be!! SMH 🤦♀️
Also if you own some books on audio and some physical. My wheel of time collection consists of:
First edition hardcover of Eye of the World
Audiobook on my phone of Great Hunt
Minimalist cover with just the wheel of Dragon Reborn and Shadow Rising
Original Paperback of Fires of Heaven with the cover falling off and held together with packing tape (found at used bookstore)
And Lord of Chaos through Winter’s Heart in original paperbacks, given to me by a friend before she moved to South Africa.
Omg no! That hurt my eyes! Why? They should know there are people with OCD! 😂
I feel this pain. Some while back I started collecting the Tom Clancy books, and...all the ones I have are a mess. I'll just say that.
As an addendum, I waited some two...ish? Years waiting for The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson to release in paperback with the old art style. To match the rest that I own. So...hyped about that.
All my Percy Jackson books are like this 😭 1st and 2nd books front covers are from the movies, 3rd book's font is gold color and is kind of big compared to the others and 4th book is the one of the original copies with silver font 😭 it's so painful for me
I'm just glad I haven't had the misfortune of starting a long-running series that changes cover artists/designers multiple times throughout the run so there's no consistency until it's finished and they reprint the originals IF they reprint the originals with new cover art
I love my mismatched chaotic shelf! But I can see how it would annoy people!
Literally none of my Tolkien books match each other cause when i started off on Fellowship of the ring i got a paperback , and then i got the more expensive Two Towers which had a nicer cover , and then i was broke again so i had to get the paperback . so on my bookshelf Fellowship and return of the king are way in the back and Two Towers is jutting out cause the pages are longer.
Same here. This is relatable. I covered some of my unmatching books with fabric. Why do publishers do this?!
Its like the Hunger Games books.
I have one the newer versions (pure black with coloured birds) and then they released The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.....and the spine is neon green - NeOn GrEeN!
And Dune....I have my Dad's version, so probably one of the earliest, the whole trilogy in one (yay) but I adooooree the newest covers (that are fresh, and clean, and beautiful, with spines that are not pre-cracked😭)
I love that Michael Whelan cover on Second Foundation with Arkady on the cover. I have that as the wallpaper on one of my computers and rebought the Whelan cover versions a few times over the years. Also I bought the illustrated Barnes & Noble "A Song of Ice and Fire" (Game of Thrones etc.) hard covers but I think they only put out the first three that way. Argh.
I bought multiple copies of a couple books in the ‘Malazan Book of the Fallen’ series to ensure that I got all ten in the Mass Market Paperback size with matching cover art styles.
This hurts so deeply and is so true
I haven’t read for fun in a while but I just started the expanse series and I did the same thing. Bought the 10 year collectors hardcover versions for the first 3 and then the paperbacks for the remaining 6
I have a thing for owning books that I love as hardcovers, but they are sooo expensive compared to paperbacks. Whenever I can get one cheap, I'm so happy and don't even mind that it doesn't match the others, though ideally it would be sweet to have a fully library with matching hardcover series.
I hate when the books layout changes after a few years. Like for example, I have this set of all hardcover books. The first 4 are all different color, but same layout, same print and stuff. And then there is number 5 where they completely changed the theme they went with...
The pain is so real.. I have the Hunger Games books, A Song of Ice and Fire, and LOTR+Hobbit all nice and matching, perfectly placed in my shelf, but then there's my Dark Tower series which is all matching softcover, EXCEPT the first book is a slightly older edition, so it is only slightly different then the rest.
And then there's my Harry Potter mess of a series. I got the American edition, because they are just so pretty and nostalgic, since I grew up with the Slovak edition which has the same cover art, and I got books 1, 6 and 7 as hardcover, then book 2 is old softcover (with the shiny silver title) and book 3-5 are the newest most boring softcover, and I'd love to have all the hardcovers but they are 1. So hard to come buy outside of US and 2. Just so freaking heavy? I don't know what's up with the American way of printing hardcovers but those babies are heavy as f... Compared to that, the Slovak hardcovers are like feathers.
Also dust covers are really fun, until they're not as you read the book for a while and you come to a point when it's just super annoying, so Slovak hardcovers are way more practical. And don't even get me started on the binding of the American books😂
Don't know why but I sometimes get super obsessed over this stuff. Like this one time when I ordered the Mockingjay from amazon and it came without the dist jacket even tho the description said it had one, I wrote a complaint, and they returned all the money I paid for it even the delivery just like that, but I had to get another one with the dust cover anyway😂 luckily back then it was super cheap.
Or this other time I ordered 'salem's Lot and I got a different edition than the one the page displayed, this ugly orange new cover (yuck) and I just couldn't read it. I'm sick in the head I guess🙃
So I don't know if this way of thinking about books is the result of being freaky in the head, but I'm glad I'm not in this alone.
Most common painful of readers, the story is not understanded, that when to repeat reading it, the sensation feels different each page. So you stumble to another books, and do the same problem over and over, until you questioning your life, "Am i a reader, or book collectors?"
this is SO triggering.. physically painful. i can understand if i have books from different publishers but it’s 90% of the time the same publisher not matching the cover/finish/size 😤