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Post by helrunar on Feb 22, 2019 16:38:21 GMT
That looks wonderful, Richard. Really quite ravishing. Thanks for the photos.
I wonder if anyone can comment on the "correct" pronunciation of Marylebone. I've always said it "Marley-bone" (to rhyme with "gnarly scone") in my head. A year or two ago I finally looked it up and I found a couple of pronunciations recorded. I believe mine was among them. Perhaps I heard it in one of the old films I love to watch at an early age. Even at age 12 I was obsessed with early 1930s films. Have since graduated to watching mostly 60s and 70s stuff, and watch quite a bit that's filmed and/or set in London, but oddly I don't recall Marylebone being mentioned, offhand.
We've lost so many old bookshops here in Boston. But there are a couple that persist, against all odds. The owner of the metaphysical/esoteric bookshop that's only 2 blocks from my office told me a couple of years ago that he thought this is "a wonderful time to be in the book business."
cheers, Steve
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Post by Swampirella on Feb 22, 2019 17:01:18 GMT
That looks wonderful, Richard. Really quite ravishing. Thanks for the photos. I wonder if anyone can comment on the "correct" pronunciation of Marylebone. I've always said it "Marley-bone" (to rhyme with "gnarly scone") in my head. A year or two ago I finally looked it up and I found a couple of pronunciations recorded. I believe mine was among them. Perhaps I heard it in one of the old films I love to watch at an early age. Even at age 12 I was obsessed with early 1930s films. Have since graduated to watching mostly 60s and 70s stuff, and watch quite a bit that's filmed and/or set in London, but oddly I don't recall Marylebone being mentioned, offhand. We've lost so many old bookshops here in Boston. But there are a couple that persist, against all odds. The owner of the metaphysical/esoteric bookshop that's only 2 blocks from my office told me a couple of years ago that he thought this is "a wonderful time to be in the book business." cheers, Steve A good point, Steve! I'm also curious to know how it's pronounced. Not knowing any better, in my head I always said it exactly as spelled I did that in Poland once with "Wroclaw" and found out it's "Vrats-waf". Sigh...
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Post by Shrink Proof on Feb 22, 2019 17:46:39 GMT
That looks wonderful, Richard. Really quite ravishing. Thanks for the photos. I wonder if anyone can comment on the "correct" pronunciation of Marylebone. I've always said it "Marley-bone" (to rhyme with "gnarly scone") in my head. A year or two ago I finally looked it up and I found a couple of pronunciations recorded. I believe mine was among them. Perhaps I heard it in one of the old films I love to watch at an early age. Even at age 12 I was obsessed with early 1930s films. Have since graduated to watching mostly 60s and 70s stuff, and watch quite a bit that's filmed and/or set in London, but oddly I don't recall Marylebone being mentioned, offhand. It's most commonly "Marly-bun" in my experience. Marylebone is one of the capital's districts and the youngest of London's many railway terminus stations is there (still going strong after a mere 120 years) - it even features as one of the four London railway stations on the "Monopoly" board. My grandfather worked for the railway company that operated trains to Marylebone from the Midlands and the North of England, and he (and all the numerous railwaymen I've ever heard speak of it) used that pronounciation. As far as 60s/70s films go, during that period the station was under-used and at one point was being seriously considered for closure. This meant there was loads of slack time where it could be used for filming without disrupting the (sparse) train schedule, so it was a favoured location. It features as the "Liverpool" station from which The Beatles make their frantic departure for the BBC studios in London in the opening sequence of "A Hard Day's Night", for instance.
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Post by cromagnonman on Feb 22, 2019 18:06:32 GMT
I've always pronounced it Mary LebBun, but then I hail from "sarf" of the river and the Elvish tongue of the folk that dwell behind the Victoria Embankment has always rung right strange with us.
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Post by andydecker on Feb 22, 2019 22:46:55 GMT
Looks like a great shop!
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Post by cromagnonman on Mar 8, 2019 9:28:33 GMT
Was sorry to see the Souvenir Press shop and offices on Great Russell Street lying stripped and bare yesterday after the death of founder Ernest Hecht. The publisher and its distinctive grey gated premises have been a fixture of the street since the mid 1970s after moving there from nearby Mortimer Street.
Now I can't claim that I ever used the shop but Souvenir is a name I will always associate indelibly with attractive well made books usually with striking Mike Codd gouache covers.
Fairly or unfairly its probably best known for publishing all but one of Peter O'Donnell's Modesty Blaise series. Happily the name will live on as an imprint of Profile Books.
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Post by cromagnonman on Jun 10, 2019 19:47:51 GMT
As its been a while since I last posted any bookshop recommendations I thought I'd over compensate by extolling the virtues of not one but two, each conveniently located within five minutes walk of the other down in Rainham in Kent. To be brutally honest Rainham itself doesn't really boast too much else to reward the intrepid explorer (although I do love the fact that it has a story-title-in-waiting promontory called Horrid Hill). Its one of those places you tend to pass through on the way to somewhere more interesting. But hey, two first rate second-hand bookshops in this day and age is nothing to be scoffed at.
The first one you encounter trudging up the steep gradient from the railway station is called Sunburst Books. This is primarily a charity venture with all proceeds supporting the local church. It has quite large premises, extending into a second room and extensive backroom area. It boasts a large and varied stock of both fiction and non fiction. The SF section takes up half a wall although it didn't have too much stock of a vintage variety. That said I did manage to pick up the second and third volumes of the original Shannara trilogy for only £2. So its pricing policy is very creditable.
The second venue is called The Bookmark and is located in the nearby shopping centre. Now this place really is an old fashioned treat. Its smaller than Sunburst and so is more densely stocked which generates a very cosy and agreeable atmosphere. There is a large stock of vintage crime and SF (can't remember the last time I saw so many old Heinlein, Asimov and Van Vogt paperbacks in the one place). For the horror afficianado there is a seperate large section though it isn't boasting quite the same variety at present - though Richard Laymon collectors would be very pleased with it. And I did pick up a nice copy of Lumley's HOUSE OF DOORS: SECOND VISIT. As if to compensate the shop has seperate Zombie Horror and Vampire/Werewolf sections and when was the last time anyone ever saw that.
Really great shops which I for one will be paying return visits to at some point. Really have to patronise these places while they're still there.
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Post by helrunar on Jun 10, 2019 21:01:18 GMT
That sounds like an interesting visit, Richard. I love the name Horrid Hill. It could be written as a fantasy sequel to Nightmare Abbey and Headlong Hall by Thomas Love Peacock.
One of the few used bookshops still open in the area is the Brattle Bookstore, located near Beacon Hill (off of Downtown Crossing) in Boston. The last few times I have been in there, they have had a very well stocked sf/fantasy/horror section with lots of old Ace, Ballantine and DAW paperbacks, in addition to more recent ones. The shop is always full of customers. I think people who are booklovers actually crave the experience of browsing in a real bookshop. There is nothing to compare with it.
Best, Steve
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Post by cromagnonman on Jul 11, 2019 23:00:26 GMT
What do Eastbourne and Los Angeles have in common? On the face of it not very much, I'll grant you. I mean the Wish Tower puppet museum is all well and good insofar as it goes but its hardly Universal Studios or Disneyland. And the shingle of East Sussex doesn't stand comparison with the fine golden sands of Malibu Beach. But when it comes to the subject of second-hand bookshops then each competes with the other on a level playing field. And each has a shop which has long occupied a place on my bucket list of places to visit before I get filed away forever in the eternal joint fiction reserve in the sky.
As yet The Last Bookstore in the City of Angels remains beyond my reach but at least I can now put a line through Camilla's Bookshop in Eastbourne. Has taken a lot of planning to enable me to mount an expedition to the coast but it was well worth it. Camilla's is an amazing experience. The sort of place that would take a week to even begin to do it justice. The books are racked and stacked and piled on three floors. The groaning shelves aren't just double stacked but triple stacked. Negotiating the warren of tottering piles is like penetrating the interior of some vast ziggurat of words.
The SF/fantasy/horror is located on the top floor. Lots of manual labour required to access all of it and time issues prevented from going through it all thoroughly. Maybe if I had done I would have come away with more than the three paperbacks I did. [Denys Val Baker's HAUNTED CORNWALL, Kurt Singer's TALES OF THE MACABRE and a particulalrly fine copy of CAS's XICCARPH.] But a paucity of purchases is no reflection on the shop. Its a cracking venue and Eastbourne itself is a pleasant place to spend a day. Especially when its sunny.
Just a pity Network Rail did its customary utmost to ruin the experience by stranding my train for 45 minutes outside of Polegate due to a malfunctioning level crossing. Wouldn't have been so bad I suppose if the girl sitting opposite hadn't insisted on watching Love Island on her phone at full volume. If ever Hell requires a definition..........
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Post by Shrink Proof on Jul 12, 2019 6:51:24 GMT
Just a pity Network Rail did its customary utmost to ruin the experience by stranding my train for 45 minutes outside of Polegate due to a malfunctioning level crossing. Wouldn't have been so bad I suppose if the girl sitting opposite hadn't insisted on watching Love Island on her phone at full volume. If ever Hell requires a definition.......... My definition of Hell is the shift I did working in a hospital Accident & Emergency Department during which I had to retrieve a mobile phone from the rectum of some young woman who was clearly mentally ill - she kept ranting about being attacked on a train by a deranged cave man. A terrible job, especially as the phone was belting out Love Island at full volume throughout the procedure....
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Post by helrunar on Jul 12, 2019 15:42:11 GMT
Horrifying! Shrink Proof, you NEED to write up a detailed account of that episode and submit it for the next number of Sleazy Reader. Under a nom de theatre of course as you will not want overly excited punters camping out on your doorstep after the thrill they get from reading your story.
Thankfully, I have no idea what Love Island is. It sounds like the depraved love child of Love Boat and Fantasy Island, no doubt by way of the Kardashians... their foulness is a pestilence that seems inescapable in these degraded times.
H.
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Post by helrunar on Jul 12, 2019 15:44:27 GMT
And Richard, Camilla's Bookshop sounds ace! Clark Ashton Smith's Xiccarph is one of my favorite books. I'm so glad you now own a copy.
cheers, Steve
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Post by jamesdoig on Jul 12, 2019 21:22:44 GMT
My definition of Hell is the shift I did working in a hospital Accident & Emergency Department during which I had to retrieve a mobile phone from the rectum of some young woman who was clearly mentally ill - she kept ranting about being attacked on a train by a deranged cave man. A terrible job, especially as the phone was belting out Love Island at full volume throughout the procedure.... That could be turned into a half decent Al Adamson film.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 18, 2019 15:56:37 GMT
Books, Peckham Continuing August world tour of S. London, paid a lightening visit to Bookmongers, Brixton, on Saturday morning. First impression: attractive shop, plenty of stock, but, as mentioned, the 'Horror' shelves are a little lacklustre, the bulk, if not all the books being post-millennial publications in near pristine condition. Finding a copy of Shaun Hutson's The Revenge of Frankenstein among vast swathe of paranormal-romance titles meant I didn't come away empty handed. This morning (Sun.) took the London Overground to 'Books' at 125 Rye Ln, Peckham (opposite Peckham Rye station), but gave up and came home when it seemed as though rain had stopped play for the day. Have have since found out I jacked it in too soon, so will try again during week. Looks like it could well be a place of Vault interest .... Browse the instagram here
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Post by andydecker on Aug 18, 2019 19:13:51 GMT
Sounds like a nice trip. I guess it will be difficult to find pre-millenial books in the future. As the little of horror which was still published outside the small press got incorporated into mainstream lines, it takes effort to single it out. I would be surprised if the second hand business will except in some places survive the e-book in the long view.
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