Collecting books year by year

Why Book Collecting By the Year?

Book collecting interests vary as widely as the people who collect them. Some people collect by genre, others by author, and others by time period. We thought it would be interesting to look at the last 100 years of publishing and compile a list of the most notable, valuable, and interesting books published. We’ve expanded our lists of books to collect and read by decade into categories, to make it easier to navigate. We are continuing to add to these lists so revisit this page periodically to see what's new!

As with any facet of book collecting — these lists are subjective. Beauty, value, and collectability are as always in the eyes, mind and heart of the beholder/collector. We’re interested in your feedback! What do you think of our lists? What books did we overrate, underrate, or leave out?

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  Modern First Editions

  Bookish eye candy! Modern Firsts are highly collectible books from the 20th century, often featuring gorgeous cover art and prized for their dust jackets.

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  Children's Books

  How well do you remember your favorite book from your childhood? Get nostalgic with these beautiful stories beloved by many.

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  Mystery Books

  In this continuation of our Book Collecting By the Year series, enjoy our picks for the most collectible Mystery Novel for each year from 1920-2010.

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  African American Literature

  Celebrating landmark works and mining up little known gems, our series on collecting African American Literature highlights a more diverse perspective of the culture and history of the United States.

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