I've been buying first edition hardcovers for years. But for 99.9% of the books I buy, I don't even consider whether or not they were printed in the UK or Canada or where ever first. But lately, the more I get into crime/thriller novels, the more I realize that many of these books are printed elsewhere before they hit the US market.

Before I start laying down money on first UK editions, I'd like to hear the pros and cons of going such a route. I know that many UK books don't have the nice bindings or paper that their US counterparts have, but as far as collecting, what else is there to consider? Does anyone here collect both? Or is the US version "good enough" for most of you?

I do have some UK firsts, and they're definitely not as nice as the US editions. I really don't see the point in collecting them over the US firsts. But I think it depends on what the focus of your collection is going to be.

You could make the argument that, for some books, the UK edition is the true first. But you could also argue that, for a US book, the ARC is the true first. So you have to decide for yourself what is most meaningful.

Personally, I think that for a favorite book, it can be fun to have a variety of different editions. (I've got lots of ARCs, some UK editions, some French editions, etc.) But for my collection as a whole, I'm not interested.