TIRED of the same old "collectable" books turning up in dealers at ever increasing prices? Tired of chasing the same old evergreens? It is time to re-think your book collection. Choose a brand new path that is untrodden. Our anonymous contributor 'betweenthelines' has some great suggestions.

There are a lot of books about. Have you noticed? Estimates vary, but it’s certainly in the billions. No wonder we trip over them every time we turn a corner.

The demand for books is insatiable. Each year more are made than in any preceding year, joining the mountains left behind from last year, not to mention the countless millions from the last five centuries.

Books are built to last and despite the rise of the screen they’re as popular as ever which is a big problem for collectors. With all those volumes to choose from deciding which ones to buy and which ones to leave on the shelf can be a real dilemma.

Seventy-five years ago a book was published which tried to address this problem. New Paths In Book Collecting (Constable, 1934) was edited by John Carter and it turned out to be one of the century’s most influential books about collecting.

Before we have a closer look at it let’s examine the perennial problem of what to collect.

In one sense all book owners have a collection but in fact ‘accumulation’ would be a better word. Readers’ shelves tend to be a mish-mash of interests and book collectors usually start their hobby in much the same way.

Once the bug bites we accumulate old books because we think they’re beautiful, or find them fascinating, or think they’re bargains, or promise that we’ll get round to reading them someday.

And of course these are all perfectly good reasons for buying. Some enthusiasts accumulate all their life; some find that after a while their interest in a particular subject, author or era tends to dominate. Sooner or later a decision is made to look out for more books in that line and … well, let’s just say that your days of aimless accumulation are over.

Welcome to the club – you’re a book collector. But what sort of collection are you going to make?

There are only two types. First – and by far the most popular – is making a collection of books which have already been collected.

By that I mean that they’re already known and described, maybe even comprehensively detailed in a bibliography.

Single authors such as Enid Blyton, common genres like fishing and certain publishers such as the Collins’ Crime Club fall into this category. Book and Magazine Collector has half a dozen suggestions every month.

Making the collection is a lot of fun but there are drawbacks. To begin with you’ll be competing with other people for the material, which pushes up prices, and it’s also very unlikely that you’ll make any new discoveries other than a minor issue point here or there.

‘New path’ collecting is very different. As the name suggests, it involves striking out on your own and putting together a book collection that nobody has made before. Daunting as the prospect might sound, there are in fact very good reasons for trying this approach.

To start with, the material is ‘hidden in plain sight’. Dealers are blissfully unaware of its importance because until you break cover and present your collection to the world the books are considered ordinary.

Secondly, it follows that they are usually not expensive. Thirdly, you will make many genuine bibliographical discoveries which is far more satisfying than simply ticking items off a list. There are many other benefits. Following a ‘new path’ to a unique collection of your own is harder to do but a lot more rewarding.

The biggest problem of all is coming up with the new idea in the first place. Fortunately there are a few good ruses that may well provide inspiration. (See my ‘Guidelines’ at the end of this piece)

Let’s suppose a collector was interested in Africa. The first step is to narrow the field. ‘African Natural History’, ‘African Exploration’ and ‘African Cookery’ are all old hat. Even if we chose Natural History and discarded everything except for, say, birds it would probably still be an overwhelming prospect.

We need to keep narrowing down and focussing in. One way to do this – an essential element, in fact – is to limit the time period of the collection. ‘Victorian Flights of Discovery: African Ornithology’ would be better but it too is neither new nor particularly inspired. It would also still be incredibly expensive to assemble.

Fair enough, let’s take a few further steps. We could certainly make it cheaper by bringing things forward a century. And let’s use another tool of the trade and try looking at things from a different angle. As we’re dealing with Africa, why not concentrate on Africans? ‘Taking Flight: The African Ornitholgist in the Twentieth Century’ has definite promise.

I have no doubt that Africans contributed as much to the topic as European or American ornithologists. I’m also prepared to put my neck out and state that they didn’t get the credit they deserved. This prospective collection would allow their voices to be heard, maybe for the first time.

Those clear bookends of time, place and content mark the edges of a potentially wonderful new collection. Logical thought gets you a long way; a creative twist will do the rest.

An original, pioneering collection like this is much more than the sum of its parts. It educates, entertains, surprises and could well provide the material for a book in itself. It might also be of interest to academics, museums and libraries, sociologists, media commentators and a whole host of other people.

Well, if there’s one thing you get from collecting old books it’s the realisation that human nature never really changes. People have always wanted to get ahead of their rivals and the problem of new areas to collect in has puzzled bibliophiles for centuries.

Modern collectors have Book and Magazine Collector to help and over the last 25 years this magazine has inspired thousands of collections. That makes it the perfect place to take a new look at ‘New Paths’, all the more so because it too is celebrating an anniversary.

• If you would like to read the rest of this feature complete with full bibliography and price guide, you can order the Xmas 2009 issue of Book and Magazine Collector here.