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Post by dem bones on Oct 7, 2020 18:03:47 GMT
Small Vaultish bonanza at the Vinnies store in Woden - all a buck except for The Road. Looks like a very big small Vaultish bonanza to me! Are the local bookshops back operating as normal now, James? The Gerald Suster looks like a cracker! Some people have all the luck in the world! They always do. Still haven't seen any of his erotic fiction, but of the horrors, The Offering is the one I've fondest memories of after the incomparable The Handyman. He really was a class act.
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Post by jamesdoig on Oct 7, 2020 20:32:06 GMT
Which one did you see? The one that has been reprinted by Valancourt is certainly not to be despised!
It was the NEL edition - white cover with a couple of cockroaches on it - not very inspiring.
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Post by jamesdoig on Oct 7, 2020 20:35:23 GMT
Are the local bookshops back operating as normal now, James? It's been all good for a few months now. Only one casualty - the Beyond Q bookshop, but he would charge like a wounded bull anyway.
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Post by jamesdoig on Oct 19, 2020 19:40:53 GMT
$3 each from the junk shop: This one has a story by the great man, Johnny Mains: Went back and picked this up for a buck at the Woden Salvos:
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Post by helrunar on Oct 19, 2020 20:21:43 GMT
I love the cover of that Holmes redaction assemblage. Sherl looks like he's ready for a hard night's hustling down in Earls Court.
You find the best stuff. I see the most banal material whenever I peruse cheap used book shelving here in the environs of Cambridge, Massachusetts (only about an hour's drive away from historic Whitewood... do tell the Innkeeper, Mrs Newless, that I sent you!)
H.
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Post by johnnymains on Oct 20, 2020 6:55:52 GMT
Ah, I hope you enjoy, James. That was written during a very severe chest infection where antibiotics didn't work and I was on some heavy-hitting steroids. Somehow got it in on deadline day which was amazing in itself because by the end I was pretty much a walking corpse. However, saying that, it's one of the rare stories that I've written that I rather enjoy re-visiting and the imagery is rather grim and dreamlike in parts. Let me know how you get on with it x
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Post by jamesdoig on Nov 19, 2020 20:10:19 GMT
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Post by andydecker on Nov 20, 2020 8:42:10 GMT
2,50 for Linda Lovecraft 2? Did you win the lottery too on that day? Unbelievable.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 20, 2020 10:43:08 GMT
2,50 for Linda Lovecraft 2? Did you win the lottery too on that day? Unbelievable. For a book that was reputedly pulped on instruction of the Obscene Publications Squad, it seems a suspiciously high number of copies survive.
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Post by jamesdoig on Nov 20, 2020 21:24:53 GMT
2,50 for Linda Lovecraft 2? Did you win the lottery too on that day? Unbelievable. For a book that was reputedly pulped on instruction of the Obscene Publications Squad, it seems a suspiciously high number of copies survive. It's the 2nd copy I've picked up - no doubt pulped to Australia. You Brits sent all your garbage down here, but it eventually came good.
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Post by jamesdoig on Nov 25, 2020 20:32:39 GMT
Bit of a haul from Vinnies - paperbacks $1, hard covers $2: I haven't read an Agatha Christie for 40 years, but couldn't resist the great cover. It was recently adapted for tele, not entirely successfully I thought: Pretty standard anthology for kids: First time I've seen a PS Publishing title at a charity shop - certainly nicely produced:
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Post by helrunar on Nov 25, 2020 21:04:01 GMT
Nice haul, James! Always a treat to see what you've found.
There was a film version of that Christie novel that was done for UK television in the 1990s. I thought it was a good film but don't recall much about it.
The more recent "adaptations" of pretty much anything the BBC does just seem to be original (though highly derivative) scripts that have only the title of the "source material" in common with any of the proceedings shown.
cheers, Steve
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Post by andydecker on Nov 25, 2020 21:51:05 GMT
The more recent "adaptations" of pretty much anything the BBC does just seem to be original (though highly derivative) scripts that have only the title of the "source material" in common with any of the proceedings shown. cheers, Steve I wouldn't go that far. It depends on the adaption. Some are actually better as they eliminated things that don't work any longer. The more sound the plot is, the less re-written it is. Of course relationships and characters are more often then not new. The two female teachers living together are lesbians of course and so on - if it makes sense in the context of the time or not. For every bad one there is a good one. And then there were none aka Ten little Indians was bleak and suspenseful, also they kept the dark ending. This is recommended. Murder in the Orient Express with Suchet for instance didn't work for me, but that was more a problem of missing continuity - Poirot as a devout catholic which he wasn't in x episodes before - and the pressure to find alternative scenes to the Lumet movie to make it different. But it was at least interesting. The Labours of Hercules though just took a few ideas from the source material and invented a new tale. But it was a splendid gothic movie - murder in a snowed in chalet in the swiss alps. A lot of fun.
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Post by Dr Strange on Nov 25, 2020 22:45:40 GMT
I thought the recent (was it really only this February this was on?) 2 part BBC adaption of The Pale Horse was OK - if a bit confusing in its conclusion. I think there was some grumbling about it straying too far from the original story, but I think this was mainly because it left open the possibility of some actual supernatural goings on - which was one of the things that I liked about it. It also had a very dark tone throughout, though I am not sure that I actually understood the ending at all.
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Post by helrunar on Nov 25, 2020 23:32:17 GMT
Thanks, Andreas. I haven't seen any of them--I just go by what people write when they review these things. The only recent one I did watch was an adaptation of an MR James story last Xmas; it came off more as an update of a Monty Python skit. Maybe they got the wrong Monty when they were working on it. I'm sorry, THAT is a very feeble joke.
The only way to see any of these would be to update to a streaming service. If I ever retire (which would be years from now and who knows if it will ever happen), I will consider that. As it stands, there is really no point because I just don't have that much time to watch anything. BUT if I ever get such a thing installed, I'll ask you for recommendations. Your reviews are always deft and tell me exactly what I need to know about a work.
Today, on my way to my annual physical exam from my Dr (clean bill of health) I was quite pleased to find cheap used DVDs of the 1960 Vincent Price film of House of Usher, plus Tom Baker's first Dr Who story "Robot" (which is great fun).
cheers!
Steve
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