The Book Series I Always Buy

These are the most reliable, beautiful, readable, and competent I've found

As a person should, I own more books than makes sense. I’ll die before I get to all the ones I own but have never read.

Still, space is at a premium. I can’t just buy any new book and put it on a shelf. Bookcases fill up fast! And then, if I do that, like a nightmare hoarder TV show, I’m just making stacks of unread books on the floor.

So I need an easy heuristic for my book-buying habit, which has to be strongly tempered because I already have too many books and not enough shelving.

What I want is a book that’s great in every way. It’s not just about the contents. It needs to be beautiful — great font, fine graphic design, and easy enough to find when it’s on a shelf.

The following three series have made my life a lot easier. If these publishers in these series put out a book that looks remotely interesting, I’ll buy it.

Library of America

Probably you all know this one. They’re the black-jacketed books featuring classic American authors and works, going strong since 1982.

In 2024, they are set to publish their 374th volume!

What I like about their books is the feel of the hardcovers, with or without the dustjackets, and the thin acid-free paper that’s just thick enough for me to make notes on. They’ve all got a handy ribbon bookmark in them. The font is just lovely.

I also love that in the last decade or so, they’ve expanded the collection to include genre writers, particularly in science-fiction and detective noirs.

On a shelf they look good and uniform, and every single edition is quite easy to find. The question is whether to keep the black dustjackets on, or to remove them to reveal the variety of colors in the hardcovers.

I’m not sure how many of these I have. Perhaps close to 100.

Almost none of them need be bought at full price. For bargain hunters, there are plenty of like-new copies out there selling for half the price of a new edition.

The Landmark Series

They don’t make a lot of these. There are only five books in this series.

That’s because, I think, the painstaking process of creating these classic ancient books. I’ve been waiting since 2017 for the next one.

For all of these books, a reader gets a hefty volume that contains an amazing amount of contextual information. The key is that that information does not interrupt the reading experience, yet you can access it easily.

All of the maps, for example, are placed right near the applicable passages. With that, we don’t have to wonder where in the world Caesar’s campaign fought the Gauls in the summer of 54 BC. No more searching for where in the world which small Greek island mentioned by Herodotus is.

The margins here are generous for writing notes. They also contains brief summaries of passages. At the bottom of the page are necessary footnotes, and the backs of the volumes offer a mass of teaching about the work.

Basically, you get an undergraduate course’s worth of material in each book, placed and ordered appropriately to guide anybody’s reading experience. Rarely are books organized as well and as aesthetically pleasing as this Landmark series.

As a lay reader, I would not consider reading Herodotus or Thucydides in any other way.

SF Masterworks

This series by the UK publisher Gollancz has been going strong since 1999. It has published most of the great works of science fiction.

My one complaint here is that these paperbacks are slightly brittle. They could fall apart after multiple readings.

But I love the font! Completely and totally love it, as it’s possibly my favorite book font ever.

Moreover, the graphic design of the covers tends to be great, if not outstanding. On a shelf, these books are noticeable and easy to find.

The catch is that the older editions appear in a black binding, with the last 100 or so appearing in a uniform yellow cover.

This amazing website is the best place to locate these books, and the best place to keep up with publisher updates.

You should try to buy these in or from the U.K. For Americans, that’s as easy as going to Amazon’s UK website, where I find these for about $10 each, when they’re in print. If I buy several of them at a time, I only have to pay shipping once.

Or you could check them all out directly from their website.

If you were to start buying and reading this series, my recommendations for all readers would be:

— Joe Haldeman’s “The Forever War” (#1)

— George Stewart’s “Earth Abides” (#11)

— Brian Aldiss’ “Non-Stop” (#33)

— Larry Niven’s “Ringworld” (#60)

— Arthur C. Clarke’s “Rendevous with Rama” (#65)

— The Strugatsky Brother’s “Roadside Picnic” (#68)

— William Tenn’s “Of Men and Monsters” (#95)

Happy Reading!