Latest Finds!

[robertmammone]

Oct 17, 2010 6:31:42 GMT dem said:

Oct 17, 2010 1:12:41 GMT jamesdoig said:

Just got back from melbourne, which must be one of the best cities for bookshops. Pickings include:

i particularly like the look of him! that's something i've been meaning to ask you, James. what's the general situation with second hand bookshops in Australia? are they relatively plentiful or, as seems to be the case in Britain, disappearing at an alarming rate? * relax, i'm not planning on emigrating *

I'm not James, but as someone who lives in Melbourne, the second hand bookshop situation is pretty good. One big one closed down (end of lease) recently right in the heart of the city, but there are two other decent sized (if over priced) stores in the Melbourne CBD, and if you venture out into the suburbs, there's probably close to another two dozen of varying size/quality that I could think of. Coupled with heaps of charity shops, and you've got some decent cheap sources of books.

[dem]

Thanks Robert, Melbourne sounds wonderful, like London ten years ago before the bulk of the remaindered bookstores and second hand shops mutated into mobile phone outlets and bargain DVD stores. i don't think any of us realised how spoilt rotten we were at the time.

[jamesdoig]

Yeah, that green guy is pretty cool, though I'm not sure what relationship he has with the actual book.

As Rob says, Melbourne is great for bookshops, and always has been - whereas in Sydney most of the CBD secondhand bookshops have gone the way of the dodo. Though I did hear that City Basement Books in Melbourne recently shut its doors, which is a shame.

It's probably true to say that things have dried up over the years - it's harder to find vintage paperbacks from the 50s and 60s, let alone desirable hard backs. Still, you can still jag nice things from time to time.

Charity book stores and fairs and the Sunday markets are still going strong, but again things are slowly drying up.

[robertmammone]

Oct 17, 2010 20:40:20 GMT jamesdoig said:

Yeah, that green guy is pretty cool, though I'm not sure what relationship he has with the actual book.

As Rob says, Melbourne is great for bookshops, and always has been - whereas in Sydney most of the CBD secondhand bookshops have gone the way of the dodo. Though I did hear that City Basement Books in Melbourne recently shut its doors, which is a shame.

It's probably true to say that things have dried up over the years - it's harder to find vintage paperbacks from the 50s and 60s, let alone desirable hard backs. Still, you can still jag nice things from time to time.

Charity book stores and fairs and the Sunday markets are still going strong, but again things are slowly drying up.

City Basement Books - that's the one. Their end of lease sale quickly turned into $1 per book - ended up buying about 60 by the last day.

You're right about older books drying up - apart from a heap of Agatha Christie books in one shop where I catch the train, there isn't a lot about.

James - where did you get the Machen letters book?

[robertmammone]

Oct 17, 2010 18:13:31 GMT dem said:

Thanks Robert, Melbourne sounds wonderful, like London ten years ago before the bulk of the remaindered bookstores and second hand shops mutated into mobile phone outlets and bargain DVD stores. i don't think any of us realised how spoilt rotten we were at the time.

My girlfriend (now wife) and I were in London in 2003 and I was really eager to check the London 2nd hand bookstores out - Oxford St was where I headed. Imagine my dismay at discovering that they were basically stocked with books I could just as easily have got at home! Sigh.

[stephenbacon]

Oxford Street is somewhere I avoid like the plague.

There used to be some good bookshops on Charing Cross Road, though.

[dem]

That was still the case when last i was down there (about five months ago now) but they're disappearing fast. Fantasy Inn went ages ago (burnt down), nearly every remainder shop has vanished bar the legendary Lovejoys, but perhaps the saddest loss of all is Murder One which was also home to Andy Richards' New Worlds (all the horror fiction was down in the basement where it belongs). The Antiquarian bookshops on the side-streets around Leicester Square are still hanging on grimly, but it's a brave or incredibly rich man who'll venture through their front doors. What upset me most on my last visit was that the atmosphere had gone from the place, though i'm hoping i just picked a bad day.

[Craig Herbertson]

Remember Dublin: hundreds of book shops reduced to one. A universal phenomena and the sign of the collapse of most of the good things in life.

[jamesdoig]

The Machen letters came from Flinders Books for $12. Nicolson's Fingers of Fear came from the Kill City crime bookshop.

While in Melbourne I took the opportunity to visit John Loder, the guy who wrote the Australian Crime Fiction Fiction Bibliography. He has quite an astonishing collection of crime - so I was able to handle first editions of books like The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, and the colonial edition of Dracula (which he bought at Grants bookshop for $600). His collection of Australian crime must be second to none with a complete set of Guy Boothby, Paul McGuire, rare B.L. Farjeon, Arthur Upfield etc etc. Quite something to behold.

[robertmammone]

Oct 18, 2010 20:20:38 GMT jamesdoig said:

The Machen letters came from Flinders Books for $12. Nicolson's Fingers of Fear came from the Kill City crime bookshop.

While in Melbourne I took the opportunity to visit John Loder, the guy who wrote the Australian Crime Fiction Fiction Bibliography. He has quite an astonishing collection of crime - so I was able to handle first editions of books like The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, and the colonial edition of Dracula (which he bought at Grants bookshop for $600). His collection of Australian crime must be second to none with a complete set of Guy Boothby, Paul McGuire, rare B.L. Farjeon, Arthur Upfield etc etc. Quite something to behold.

Aah, Flinders Books. Haven't been in either of the city stores for a while nor the one down the peninsula. Overpriced, I've always thought, and as for the attitude of some of the staff...

Still, they do get good stuff in, may have to pay them a visit.

[noose]

Took a visit to The Dancing Goat in Fakenham today - a coffee shop that has a good book store in it's cellar. There was only two shelves of horror books, but was very impressed with what I managed to get a hold of, and only for 50p or a quid each. If you are a sci-fi fan however, you'd be in your element - four shelves worth of mainly NEL titles.

And now, to the books bought today.

BLUE SUNSHINE - Ken Johnson (Sphere 1977)
THE EXPERIMENT - Richard Setlowe (Arrow1982)
THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN - Phil SMith (NEL 1978)
LILY DALE - Paul Tabori (NEL 1972)
THE HAUNTING AT WAVERLY FALLS (1981)
BURNT OFFERINGS - Robert Marasco (Coronet 1974)
DEVIL SOUL - Victor Jay (Belmont 1970)
THE COMING OF JONATHAN SMITH - Harry Ludlam (Arrow 1965)
THE ADVERSARY - Marc Reiss, Barry William (Charter 1979)
AS EVIL DOES - John Tigges (Star 1988)
CHILDMARE - Nick Sharman (Hamlyn 1980)
THE ORPHAN - Robert Stallman (Panther 1981)
NIGHT DEMON - Dillibe Onyeama (Sphere 1982)
MONKEY SHINES - Michael Stewart (Fontana 1988)
THE SOUL OF ANNA KLANE - Terrel Miedaner (NEL 1979)
TIGERMAN OF TERRAHPUR - Errol Lecale (NEL1973)
BLACKTOWER - Miriam Lynch (Four Square 1967)
THE EYE OF THE DEVIL - Philip Loraine (Fontana 1966)
THE BLESSINGTON METHOD - Stanley Ellin (Penguin 1971)

[Craig Herbertson]

Oct 23, 2010 17:12:00 GMT @noose said:

Took a visit to The Dancing Goat in Fakenham today - a coffee shop that has a good book store in it's cellar. There was only two shelves of horror books, but was very impressed with what I managed to get a hold of, and only for 50p or a quid each. If you are a sci-fi fan however, you'd be in your element - four shelves worth of mainly NEL titles.

And now, to the books bought today.

BLUE SUNSHINE - Ken Johnson (Sphere 1977)
THE EXPERIMENT - Richard Setlowe (Arrow1982)
THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN - Phil SMith (NEL 1978)
LILY DALE - Paul Tabori (NEL 1972)
THE HAUNTING AT WAVERLY FALLS (1981)
BURNT OFFERINGS - Robert Marasco (Coronet 1974)
DEVIL SOUL - Victor Jay (Belmont 1970)
THE COMING OF JONATHAN SMITH - Harry Ludlam (Arrow 1965)
THE ADVERSARY - Marc Reiss, Barry William (Charter 1979)
AS EVIL DOES - John Tigges (Star 1988)
CHILDMARE - Nick Sharman (Hamlyn 1980)
THE ORPHAN - Robert Stallman (Panther 1981)
NIGHT DEMON - Dillibe Onyeama (Sphere 1982)
MONKEY SHINES - Michael Stewart (Fontana 1988)
THE SOUL OF ANNA KLANE - Terrel Miedaner (NEL 1979)
TIGERMAN OF TERRAHPUR - Errol Lecale (NEL1973)
BLACKTOWER - Miriam Lynch (Four Square 1967)
THE EYE OF THE DEVIL - Philip Loraine (Fontana 1966)
THE BLESSINGTON METHOD - Stanley Ellin (Penguin 1971)

there's a very good coffee shop in Aberdeen performing a similar function. Can't remember where but somewhere near the centre and the veteran will easily find it on the rounds.

[jamesdoig]

Who was John Tigges? I often see his books but have never bought one - the Book of the Dead seems the most common.

My single purchase this week, for $3:



Leo Margulies, The Unexpected, Pyramid 1961. A collection of stories from Weird Tales. Dem has posted contents elsewhere and I see it's part of a Margulies series of Weird Tales anthologies.

[Craig Herbertson]

Oct 23, 2010 20:47:58 GMT jamesdoig said:

Who was John Tigges? I often see his books but have never bought one - the Book of the Dead seems the most common.

My single purchase this week, for $3:



Leo Margulies, The Unexpected, Pyramid 1961. A collection of stories from Weird Tales. Dem has posted contents elsewhere and I see it's part of a Margulies series of Weird Tales anthologies.

He's also william essex. Seems to have written a fair bit

* Unto the Altar (1985)
* The Immortal (1986)
* Hands of Lucifer (1987)
* As Evil Does (1987)
* Vessel (1988)
* Venom (1988)
* Kiss Not the Child (1988)
* Slime (1988) [only as by William Essex ]
* Evil Dreams (1989)
* Book of the Dead (1989)
* From Below (1989) [only as by William Essex ]
* Comes the Wraith (1990)
* The Curse (1993)
* Monster (1995)

[dem]

Some more stuff about the mighty Tigges here. top blurbs!