What's the oldest book you own? Mine is a 205 year old Mennonite German bible from 1820.

>>24508187 (OP)
1744 text on roman dictators

>>24508187 (OP)
thats not a bible
its a collection of songs and psalms for mass

>>24508187 (OP)
Gulliver's Travels from 1749

I have one volume of the original report to Congress on the US expedition to open Japan, which is in very poor shape but also gigantic, with lots of cool etchings.

I also have some cool out of print memoirs and instant histories from around 1880-1930 I've collected. One is a guy who was a State Department hand from Lincoln to the end of the 19th century, mostly in East Asia, which has some interesting stuff on Great Power politics.

>>24508187 (OP)
a finnish bible 1832

norwegian king sagas 1871

1884 printing of George Eliot's Adam Bede. Not that old compared to the rest of this thread, but I got it for free because I stole it from children.

>>24508187 (OP)

Are old books even worth anything or are they just for the novelty?

>>24510819
it depends
>18th century and before
Generally anything 18th century and before has some inherent value unless they're extremely mass produced pocket editions
>first editions
first editions in good condition are pretty much always worth something. but that only applies to popular authors though, a "newer" first edition finnegans wake will be worth more than a first edition 1830s book from an author nobody remembers
>illustrations
older books with illustrations from famous illustrators like arthur rackham, nc wyeth, aubrey beardsley, etc in good condition are usually worth something, although modern reprints that use those illustrations aren't for obvious reasons
>controversial or edgy subject matter
sex, drugs, the occult, from days when those subjects were more controversial are worth a lot
religious books generally aren't worth much unless they're very old (17th century and before) because people generally aren't religious days. Walter scott novels aren't worth much because he was extremely popular back then but isn't really popular now.

>>24508187 (OP)
I have a first edition of Plato's Republic

>>24508187 (OP)
>>24508250
>>24508262
Did people really write and read in these Gothic fucking letters all the time?