Your thoughts on these books please.

[pokermike4283]

So, I went to a book sale at the local YMCA the other day.  I am huge on the history part of everything so naturally, I was looking for some old books.  I came upon the following books and added them to the bag I had ($5 for everything in the bag).  I am wondering if anyone here could tell me if I should get these books restored, what they may be worth and if they were a good buy or not.  I want to start building a collection of old/rare books and was hoping I got a good start here or not.
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(All of the books are in good condition, with their covers intact-other than needing some minor binding repairs.  The pages are not ripped and a few pages have some minor discoloration, due to age?)

~"In Noah's Ark" by Rumer Godden
The Viking Press 1949
Comes with a full page book review that was in the Dec. 4th, 1949 New York Herald Tribune
Inscribed "Happy Birthday Mother" "December 8, 1949"

~"The Song of Roland" by Isabel Butler
Houghton Mifflin Co. 1904
In the back of the book, there is a blank page that was written in cursive and appears to be done from that time period, due to the writing style and the fact that the ink has discolored.  I can't read cursive but the first three words that I can read are "France is complete".  I will post a scan on here of that page and hope someone here can help me to read what is there.  
There is also a small blue stamp on the inside back of the book from "Brentano's Booksellers & Stationers New York"

~"A First Book in German: To Precede the "German Course"" by George F. Comfort, A.M.
Harper & Brothers, Publishers 1881

~"True Stories of The Favorite Sons And Daughters of America" (For Young People) prepared by John S.C. Abbott, William Garnett, D.C. L., Prof. W.W. Birdsall, Edward S. Ellis and Others
1899
Extremely bright, vivid engravings and photogravure portraits are throughout this book
*NOTE:  This was the first book I bought that day and instantly knew I had to have it.  They originally wanted $3 for it but said I could put it in the $5 bag seeing they were closing up.
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Well, there are the books I bought that day and would apprciate any and all thoughts/ideas on restoring them, worth, etc.  Thanks in advance and have a great day.

P.S.  All of the books are hardcover, too.  I will post pictures of the books and any relevant pages that I've mentioned tomorrow, as I have the day off of work.

[CuriousCollector]

Wow, what fun finds!

The Butler "Song of Roland" is the standard translation for the Song, which is the oldest existing piece of French literature.  It might have some value to French Literature professors (sorry, not my field -- I'm more 18th century British, and Native American Lit). 

The value of most old books is in the following:  (1) first editions in first printing/run; (2) autographed editions; (3) book was owned by a historic person; (4) quality binding; (5) high quality illustrations/photos/maps for which the book can be dismantled and the images sold separately.  The latter makes this bibliophile shudder!

The "True Stories" book is offered on Antiqbook for $25 without dust jacket.  Pretty good profit for you there!

Rumer Godden was a popular fiction writer in her time, with several of her books made into movies in the 40s and 50s.  She wrote books into the 1990s, and died in 1998.  Your book is her first edition of poetry, published in 1949 -- check to see if it's a first run first edition!  Again, since she's not that well known now, the value of that book might be more with someone who studies her work or her genre.

Sorry that's not much, but it's all I have!  Nice finds, and I hope you enjoy them!

[talesofthesevenseas]

I remember Rumer Godden's childrens books, Miss Happiness and Miss Flower, as well as Little Plum. These were children's stories about Japanese dolls that I read in the 1960's. She wrote many books. You can see a list here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumer_Godden

To get ball park pricing for books, I like to use Abe Books. It is a massive hub for book sellers carrying everything from paperbacks to rare manuscripts. Just enter the titles and the year of publication and see what similar copies are selling for:

http://www.abebooks.com

[pokermike4283]

Your book is her first edition of poetry, published in 1949 -- check to see if it's a first run first edition! 

How would I go about doing so?  I thank you both for the great info so far as it is really helpful.  By my adding pictures of these books, as well as the writing in some of them, would that be helpful in any way and also, would anyone be able to decipher German and English cursive?

[CuriousCollector]

It's imprecise, but one way is to look at the title page and copyright page.  If you see no words pertaining to "first edition" or "first printing", you probably have a first edition and first run print.  If you see either of those phrases, you might have a first edition, and you might even have a first printing, but not necessarily a first run (it takes an expert in the author or the publisher to pinpoint the differences in printing styles).  And of course, if you see "Second Printing" or "Second Edition", you don't have the jewel. 

There are books where subsequent runs have some historical value.  I have two first editions (different printings) of "Treve" by Albert Payson Terhune.  APT is popular among dog lovers because his books are about his beloved collies, so they are very collectible to begin with.  My "Treve"s straddle the time when there were wartime paper restrictions, so one has the wartime paper disclosure and one does not.  They are more valuable as a set than they are individually, because of the difference. 

But with books, bear in mind that there's not a lot of big money until you enter the realm of the five rules I mentioned above.  For example, my two "Treve"s are probably worth about $40, which is great when you consider I paid less than $5 each -- that's 300% profit!  But most people would not consider $40 as "big money".  Meanwhile, at AbeBooks, the most expensive "Treve" is priced at $375 because it was APT's personal copy.

[pokermike4283]

Upon looking at the books I have, none of them state anything in regards to print runs besides the actual year of printing.  None of them say anything to lead me on to thinking they aren't first editions.  I'm planning on taking pictures/scans of all of these as well as the interesting writing in them today.  I hope that will help anyone out more as well as help me read what it says too.

[Skinny]

A good way to help determine first edition is to go to abebooks.com, do an advanced search and mark "first edition" as part of your search criteria. I don't think any of these books are particulary rare or valuable. I'm not familiar with the "Noa's Arc" , as modern books aren't my speciality. Abbots histories for children are fairly common, but that sounds like a nice illustrated book, worth the five dollars on its own. I wouldn't put any money into professional restoration, as this can cost big bucks. There are things you can do yourself, but if you don't know what your doing you'll probably do more harm than good.

Good luck building your collection! There are a lot of great old books out there for relativly little money, if you don't mind sometimes waiting quite a while between good underpriced finds. It can take years to build a great collection on the cheap, but it can be done.