Latest Finds II

[andydecker]

Jan 4, 2023 18:34:34 GMT helrunar said:

Maybe the lesbian sex scenes in the Xena book help make up for the banal writing? I've been told that Xena was really all about lesbian sex between Major Xena and her "sidekick," a rather unkind way of describing one's bunk partner.

cheers, Hel

Nah, won't happen. The show used this only as subtext - it was produced in a time when those still worked - and later as innuendo to keep the ball rolling. They never put it on the screen.

I was quite a fan of the show back then, aside from the silliness and the often painful comedy it could be surprisingly mean and brutal. In a good way. :-) But the constant traipsing around the topic became wearisome at the end.

I also have one of those novelizations, which was family friendly in every regard. Strangely the Xena novelizations never managed to be good. A pity considering how rich the material was. I once read a fantasy novel by some Alex Marshall A Crown for Cold Silver which used a Xena like character for a heroine, only much older and meaner. It was one of the few times someone made the concept much more complex than the usual girls in chainmail.

[dem]

Jan 4, 2023 19:29:42 GMT andydecker said:

Jan 4, 2023 18:34:34 GMT helrunar said:

Maybe the lesbian sex scenes in the Xena book help make up for the banal writing? I've been told that Xena was really all about lesbian sex between Major Xena and her "sidekick," a rather unkind way of describing one's bunk partner.

cheers, Hel

Nah, won't happen. The show used this only as subtext - it was produced in a time when those still worked - and later as innuendo to keep the ball rolling. They never put it on the screen.

I was quite a fan of the show back then, aside from the silliness and the often painful comedy it could be surprisingly mean and brutal. In a good way. :-) But the constant traipsing around the topic became wearisome at the end.

You're right. Plenty of mild/ not-so-mild bondage titillation, but not sure the "lesbian sex scenes" amounted to anything raunchier than a kiss, and that after about 1000 episodes. I liked the show, too, but not sure I really wanna do this book which looks too flimsy even for someone who reads Partridge Family tie-ins.

[helrunar]

Honestly, I was joking about the lesbian sex scenes, though evidently the joke failed to carry through in my poker-faced delivery.

I tried watching a Xena episode once. It all just seemed so plastic and limp, though Lucy Lawless in the title role was quite energetic and I found her to be an excellent actress in other roles subsequently.

H.

[dem]

Sunday market returned this morning. No Xena & Gabrielle, worst luck, no horror fict, either, but a copy of Walter Lord's A Night To Remember (Longmans, Green & Co., 1956), and these will keep things ticking over.

Peter Haining - The English Highwayman: A Legend Unmasked (Robert Hale, 1991)

Blurb:
The clatter of hoofs. The dark night, like a cloak, envelopes the unsuspecting wayfarer.

Suddenly, out of the gloom rides ... the highwayman! Legendary and elusive, these masked figures continue to capture the popular imagination, combining crime with an aristocratic flamboyance.

In this informative book, Peter Haining conducts a historical survey of these ‘English outlaws’ who flourished in an era of social and political upheaval, and were eventually crushed by the punitive machinery of the law. From the Royalist captains Hyde and Howard to the pragmatic thief-taker Jonathan Wild; from Moll Cutpurse to the wicked ladies of the silver screen; and from London to York with Swift Nicks and Dick Turpin, The English Highwayman follows the colourful careers of the Famous — and infamous — "gentlemen of the road".

An adventure story and a social history, this book will appeal to rebels and scholars alike.

Upgrade on pre-tortured-to-death copy festering on the shelves of shame. Details

Paul Groves & Nigel Grimshaw [ed.] - Call to Action: Six Plays to Read or Record (Edward Arnold, 1980: originally 1973)

Dave and the Dog
A Fairly Happy Ending
The Mistake
Grandfather Clock
Ghost Train
Foiled Again

Companion volume to that which includes an adaptation of The Demon Barber, Cinderella, et al.

Finally, my own copy of the masterpiece that is;

Peter Ackroyd London: The Biography (Vintage, 2001)

[andydecker]

Jan 8, 2023 12:54:09 GMT dem said:

Finally, my own copy of the masterpiece that is;

Peter Ackroyd London: The Biography (Vintage, 2001)

Back when I had to research the history of Paris I also got this. It was not quite what I expected

[jamesdoig]

Picked this up from the Argyle Book in Goulburn the other day for $10. Lovely Paper Tiger book of Richard Powers cover art:

[jamesdoig]

Couple of recent acquisitions. Picked this up at Berkelouws in Sydney for the princely sum of $75, but it's a Centipede Press volume so picked it up. Did anyone watch del Toro's Nightmare Alley, which seemed to disappear without trace?



Picked this up at an independent bookstore in Melbourne the other day for $34.99:



A friend gave me a copy of this:



And picked up this Zebra paperback for $2:

[helrunar]

Those are all interesting--great scans as always!

A few people I know did see the remake of Nightmare Alley and reported good things about it. I really liked the original 1940s film and didn't feel moved to go see the attempted revisit.

H.

[jamesdoig]

From the junk shop for $2 - has some nice wrap around art:

[jamesdoig]

The Lifeline Bookfair is here again, this one billed as the biggest one yet. Iwas a bit disappointed by the pickings, but here are a few things of Vaultish interest. This was a buck, novelisation of the Hammer flick:





$2:



$3, the late, great John Pelan:



$2:


$2:


$5, combines a few Dark Horse horror anthologies:


$5:


$2 each:


$3:


$2:


$3:


$2:


$2:


$1:


$3:


Looks like litereary ghostlies, for $5:

[helrunar]

Great scans. That's an amazing price for a Hammer tie-in paperback, especially one of such an august age.

cheers, Hel.

[jamesdoig]

Day 2 and some crabbies came up for air for a buck each:



Never seen so many Conan paperbacks - here are a few for $2 each:



Another REH, this a collection of his horror stories:



Cthulhu mythos for $2:



Falling Angel for $3:


Always lots of these Grafton editions - this one has a great cover, for $3:

[dem]

Feb 11, 2023 20:18:11 GMT jamesdoig said:

Day 2 and some crabbies came up for air for a buck each:

Wow, a two-dayer. What's the attendance like, James, in terms of numbers/ make-up? Do they issue a programme? I'm not sure what's happened to the London Pulp & Paperback Fair post-covid.

Some marvellous finds among that lot!

[andydecker]

Feb 11, 2023 20:18:11 GMT jamesdoig said:

Day 2 and some crabbies came up for air for a buck each:

Again some great finds, James. The Derleth-Grafton is new to me, and you are right, it is a fabulous cover.

[helrunar]

Those prices are fabulous. The Guy N. Smith covers make me smile because they're so funny. Grouchy crabs staggering on in their quest to eat the Universe.

It would be very interesting to hear more about this event. I've never attended one here in the US. I doubt that one could find prices like that here, but what do I know.

cheers, Hel.