I found this S.C.U.M. video in a list of Shoegaze videos, and I see them described as “Post-punk,” but what they sound like to me is 1980s-era Simple Minds. Here’s “Whitechapel.”
By the way, Simple Minds are still around and have a tour coming next year, but S.C.U.M. broke up in 2013.
I have a signed first of Sorceror’s Son, so it made sense to add this.
Eisenstein, Phyllis. The Crystal Palace. Grafton Books, 1991. First hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Eisenstein. Sequel to Sorceror’s Son. The U.S. paperback precedes, but this was the first hardback. This was part of the last big Zelazny purchase in 2020 and I’ve just now gotten around to cataloging it. As I’ve said before, there are few price points more attractive than “you’ve already paid for it.”
Another Borderlands Little Book:
Saki (H.H. Munro) (edited by Stuart David Schiff). A Little Red Book of Wit & Shudders. Bands Press, 2023. First edition hardback, #462 of 500 copies signed by Schiff, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued.
I will have a small number of copies available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
The Halloween season is upon us again!
This video features a complete play-through of Isle of Eras, which starts out as a search for a missing brother and quickly morphs into a weird cosmic horror/time travel game with giant monsters and nods to everything from Donnie Darko to 2001: A Space Odyssey. It’s amazingly elaborate for an indie game put together by a tiny team. The monster design is particularly impressive.
Available for PS4/5 and PC (but not, alas, Mac).
This was another Kickstarter purchase.
Adams, Douglas (edited by Kevin Jon Davies). 42: The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams. Unbound, 2023. First edition hardback (number line ending with 1), a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued. A compendium of scripts, drafts, notes, sketches etc. from the archives of this Dr. Who and Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy writer. I backed this on Kickstarter, and my name can be found on page 315. This book was actually a #1 Sunday Times bestseller. I’m not sure if this Kickstarter edition differs from the trade edition, though I count 320 pages, while Amazon UK says 336 pages, so, maybe?
I will have exactly one copy of this available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
At some point I decided that I wasn’t just going to collect every Ray Bradbury first edition ever published, but I was going to obtain every Ray Bradbury first edition signed. When I started on this goal, a lot of signed Fine/Fine Bradbury firsts could be found on eBay for less than cover price. Those days are pretty much over.
But this was a hard and key title to find, so I made the sort of compromises on quality I usually avoid.
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. Ballantine Books, 1953. First edition hardback (Currey (1978) D state/Currey (2002) C state, red boards lettered in yellow, no precedence among hardback states), a Near Fine copy with a few small indentations, very slight glue wrinkling (binding flaw) to bottom of rear cover, slight wear to bottom boards, slight wear at head, heel and points, in a Fine facsimile dust jacket, with a Bradbury signature plate laid in. Currey (1978), page 55, Currey (2002) page 44. Pringle, Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels 8. Barron, Anatomy of Wonder 4 3-31. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, page 39. Magill, Survey of Science Fiction Literature, pages 749-755. Heritage Rare Books and manuscripts Auction #675, page 87 (“one of the most influential and widely read science fiction tales ever published”). Heritage Americana Auction #658 & 65801, page 32. Heritage The Frank Collection Auctions #7001 and #684, page 58. A key 20th century science fiction novel, and the most difficult of Bradbury’s mainstream publisher hardback firsts by a good measure. Bought for $750 plus tax and shipping from an offer on eBay.
Three Subterranean Press books that came in recently:
I will have copies of all of these in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Two signed Swanwick Dragonstairs chapbooks that came in separately:
Both of these sold out the same day they were offered for sale, and I will have copies of each available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
I’ve been somewhat casually collecting Cormac McCarthy for a decade or so. The early stuff (Blood Meridian and before) is insanely expensive, and he was well known for avoiding book signings and other public events. When this signed copy popped up in my price range, I went ahead and grabbed it.
McCarthy, Cormac. The Crossing. Knopf, 1994. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, with McCarthy signature plate attached to half-title page. Second book in the Border Trilogy, preceded by his breakthrough bestseller and National Book Award winner All the Pretty Horses. Supplements an unsigned first. Bought for $400 (with discount) from a fellow dealer.
It’s always chancy to buy books signed by an author who’s recently died. There’s a “death curve” where prices for signed copies jump immediately after their death, and then start coming down again six months to a year later. And there are some writers whose popularity simply falls off entirely after their death. But I fairly strongly suspect that McCarthy’s appeal will prove more enduring, so I grabbed a signed first at a price I could afford.
Collapse is another obscure Japanese Shoegaze band. Or maybe not so obscure, since they already have ten albums and EPs out. Their earlier songs seem more My Bloody Valentine-influenced, but their later stuff seems a bit more Dreampop with a noisebed base, maybe Tokyo Shoegazer by way of The Cherry Wave and Civic with a soupcon of Asobi Seksu thrown in. Here’s “Path.”