Here are three books I bought in Austin-area Half Price Books stores. (The books I bought over Thanksgiving week in the Metroplex will be coming later.)
Library Addition: Three Half Price Books Purchases
December 7th, 2022Library Addition: First Edition of Quentin Tarantino’s Cinema Speculation
December 6th, 2022Another Amazon purchase, one that came in as a first edition and blessedly free of of damage!
Tarantino, Quentin. Cinema Speculation. HarperCollins, 2022. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Non-fiction book about the films Tarantino saw as a child in the 1970s, from Dirty Harry to Taxi Driver. Seems pretty interesting.
One interesting thing about the book physically is that the cover has that rough texture that’s been all the rage recently…except the black and white photo of Steve McQueen and Sam Peckinpah on the cover, which is smooth. I’d never seen a book with two different textures combined like that before.
Library Addition: Deluxe Edition of The Lord of the Rings
December 5th, 2022I rarely make impulses purchases, but I saw this listed from a small press publisher’s regular email at $250, and when I went to the product page to get a better look at it, there was a small notice declaring that fulfillment would be done by Amazon. Well, then, why not just buy it from them?
Taking a look on the Amazon page for the book, they were selling it at $150, so I went ahead and bought it.
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings Illustrated Deluxe Edition. William Morrow, 2021 (stated; actually published October 2022). First edition hardback thus, a Fine copy in a Fine slipcase (with a cutout for the eye of Sauron on the book itself), sans dust jacket, as issued, with oversized folding maps of Middle Earth and Gondor/Mordor, cardstock reprint of The King’s Letter (from Aragon to Samwise) in silver tengwar on one side with a en English translation on the other, “Leaves from the Book of Mazarbul” in a waxpaper envelope, and the rear shrinkwraped book description laid in. A sturdy, gilt-edged omnibus edition containing all three volumes, with Tolkien’s own artwork and Middle Earth language calligraphy as full page color plates.
Even the box it ships to you is way too cool to throw away:
And the map pattern continues all the way around the box.
It’s a very attractive production, and if you’re interested in it, Amazon has now lowered the price to $140.01.
Library Additions: Three Gene Wolfe Critical Companions
November 30th, 2022Three Michael Andre-Driussi critical companions to Gene Wolfe works, all bought from Amazon (the only place they’re available; click on the hyperlinks to buy them there).
Counting chapbooks, I now have 14 Andre-Driussi books on Gene Wolfe…
Greg Bear, RIP
November 20th, 2022According to numerous sources on Facebook, science fiction writer Greg Bear, after a sudden onset of multiple medical maladies, suffered a series of strokes that left him unconscious with severe brain damage. Following his stated wishes, his wife Astrid had him taken off life support, and he died yesterday (November 19, 2022).
Bear was one of the giants in the field, probably the best hard science fiction writer of the 1980s, claimed by both the Analog crowd and the cyberpunks. Blood Music (in both novella and novel forms) and Eon are awe-inspiring, sense of wonder science fiction at their best, and would be considered among the greatest works of just about any SF writer. And there was another tier of exceptional works (The Forge of God, Moving Mars, etc.) after that.
Greg and I were on friendly terms, and I ran into him at various SF conventions over the years. He was a smart and genial presence. I have something approaching a complete Greg Bear collection (including a Cheap Street Sleepside Story), minus some recent titles and a few odds and ends like some of the media tie-in books. He was going to be a Nova Express interview subject Back In The Day, but that never happened for various uninteresting reasons.
He was one of the greats, and he will be missed.
Library Addition: Signed First of Stephen J. Cannell’s White Sister
November 18th, 2022I was looking through a bookseller list of signed books when I saw Stephen J. Cannell’s name. “Huh, the Rockford Files guy! I wonder what signed firsts from Stephen J. Cannell are available?”
Turns out a lot, some of which are available quite cheaply. (Hypermodern mystery firsts are doing much worse, on average, than hypermodern SF/F/H firsts right now.) This was available online as one of the cheapest signed firsts, and it turns out it’s the only one of his books (he did a whole series of Shane Scully mysteries) that had its own entry on Wikipedia, and the plot sounds interesting, so I picked it.
Cannell, Stephen J. White Sister. St. Martin’s Press, 2006. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed and dated (“9/12/06”) by Cannell. Bought off the Internet for $5.
Library Additions: Five Arkham House Firsts
November 14th, 2022I won these as part of an Arkham House lot at an Invaluable auction for $217 plus shipping. Other books from that lot will be in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog, already in progress (probably going out just before Christmas).
Library Additions: Two Signed Tim Powers Firsts+
November 9th, 2022Three books, including two signed Tim Powers firsts.
Library Addition: A Little Jasmine Book of M. R. James
November 2nd, 2022Another book in the Borderlands Little Book series:
James, M. R. (edited and illustrated by Stephen R. Jones). A Little Jasmine Book of M. R. James. Borderlands Books, 2022. First edition hardback, #462 of 500 copies signed by Jones, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued. Six tales from the master of the ghost story, plus some nonfiction pieces from James, Jones and others, including a select bibliography.
I will have a small number of copies available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog (currently in progress).
Happy Halloween!
October 31st, 2022Today is Halloween, which means it’s time for the annul Fark scary story thread!
Here are the links to threads from previous years:
While you’re here, feel free to check out some of my other freaky/creepy/scary/silly Halloween posts.
