Gene turned 82 today. Hopefully he’ll be at the San Antonio Worldcon. I also look forward to reading his book The Land Across later this year.
I also hope to have a bit more Gene Wolfe-related content later in the week.
Posts Tagged ‘Books’
Happy Birthday, Gene Wolfe!
Tuesday, May 7th, 2013Massive Science Fiction Piracy at BookOS.org
Tuesday, May 7th, 2013Good news, everyone! There’s a new website called BookOS offering millions of free books to download!
Bad news, everyone! It’s a pirate site that most likely hasn’t obtained any e-rights for any of the millions of copyrighted works they have available!
Who are they pirating? Well, they have around a hundred works by Howard Waldrop that I know they haven’t bought e-rights for (because I asked him), and they have hundreds of works by:
And that’s just a random handful of writers I know that I checked on (plus Harlan Ellison, whom I’ve met, and who I know has some good lawyers). I’m sure there are hundreds of others.
Perhaps the folks at SFWA might sit up and take notice. And if your work is being pirated, you might want to write support@bookos.org and ask them to pull it down.
(Updated: Good news, everyone! Support@bookos.org wrote back to say the Waldrop has been removed, and now there’s a notice saying “Link deleted by legal owner.”)
Library Additions: Jack Vance’s To Live Forever
Tuesday, April 30th, 2013I continue to close in on my complete Jack Vance hardback first edition collection.
Vance, Jack. To Live Forever. Ballantine books, 1956. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy in a Near Fine- dust jacket with slight spine fading and tiny (1/32″) chipping at head and heel. Signed by Vance. Currey (1978), page 500, A1 (dark blue) binding. Hewett, A4ab.
Very nice copy of this early Jack Vance novel, and a middling difficult Ballantine hardcover.
Library Additions: Signed True First of Lauren Beukes’ The Shining Girls
Monday, April 29th, 2013From the “Distant Stations Heard From department, here’s something that might be hard to come by in the future:
Buekes, Lauren. The Shining Girls. Umuzi (South Africa), 2013. First edition hardback, #224 of 1000 copies signed and numbered by the author, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, new and unread. Precedes both UK and U.S. editions.
A few notes:
I think this is the first South African book I have in SF library. Not sure how many of those thousand will make it up and over across the pond…
LANDBOAT!
Wednesday, April 24th, 2013Or should I say, L.A.N.D.B.O.A.T. Imagine someone entering the Bulwer Lytton contest trying to win the Men’s Adventure category, but instead of a single sentence, you get an entire chapter.
Grid sat backwards on the bike, slinging Lily onto the seat in front of him like a sack of hamburger meat. Brick grimaced. He knew she was a prime cut of USDA Choice Angus steak. He wanted to put her in his mouth and taste her juices. But the steak would have to be for desert, because the main course was revenge. And that meal was about to be served. Cold. Like a chef salad or some other cold entrée.
It’s pretty much all like that. It comes from Blood & Tacos, a site that celebrates Men’s Adventure.
(Hat tip: Karl Rehn.)
Prices Realized on SF Books in Heritage Auctions’ April 10 Offering
Thursday, April 11th, 2013As a followup on my previous auction post, here are the prices realized on the items I highlighted in yesterday’s Heritage book auction. All prices include buyer’s premium:
Preview: SF First Editions in Heritage Auctions’ April 10th Offering
Monday, April 8th, 2013Heritage Auctions has another signature book auction coming up on April 10, and there are several interesting SF/F/H first editions up for offer. Here’s a preview of a few:
Plus a few other miscellaneous SF items. However, the main strength of the auction overall is a number important scientific first editions, a signed first of ian Fleming’s Moonraker, etc.
Bookshelf Porn
Wednesday, March 27th, 2013Panorama from the Benediktinerstift Admont Bibliotek and Museum in Austria.
I could look at this for a long, long time…
Dispatches From Other Outposts of Bibliomania
Monday, March 25th, 2013My own bibliomania is well documented. But every now and then I stumble across instances of bibliomania in others. Some are completely orthogonal to my own, while others have some overlap.
One with a bit of overlap is Awful Books, the page of a collector who has a fair amount of science fiction, fantasy, and horror works. However, Mr. Awful (the owner’s name is not readily apparent on the website) seems to be interested far less in the writing content than the physical quality and presentation of limited and ultralimited editions, which he details and reviews with copious pictures.
And here’s his own collection of limited editions. Including not only comics and artbooks I would never contemplate buying, but even Danielle Steel limited editions (“I bought for a song on eBay [about $15.00 each]”).
And while I’m not a big fan of post-first edition limiteds, I must admit that Hill House lettered edition of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods is off the charts. (“Yo dawg, we heard you like traycases, so we created a traycase to hold your traycase.”)
Another example of bibliomania a little more closely aligned to my own madness preferences is Mike Berro’s Vance Tracker. “This page is dedicated to tracking the location of every special edition of books by Jack Vance. Primarily limited editions, but also rare trade editions, uncorrected proofs, and manuscripts.”
I’ve corresponded with Mike for well over a decade on our shared bibliomania (for Vance and others), and he was one of the driving forces behind the Vance Integral Edition. The tracker is well worth looking at if your Vance bibliomania pegs at “fanatic.”
Library Additions: Thomas Ligotti’s The Agonizing Death of Victor Frankenstein
Tuesday, March 19th, 2013Another interesting library addition:
Ligotti, Thomas. The Agonizing Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein & Other Gothic Tales. Silver Salamander Press, 1994. First edition hardback, number 116 of 125 hardback copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, with small black and white art plate laid in. Bought for $200, marked down from $400, from the Half Price Books on 183 with their 50% off coupon (I showed up when the door opened). Probably the rarest Ligotti hardback. (Evidently the hardback state of The Silver Scarab Press edition of Songs From a Dead Dreamer is spurious; proof yet again you can’t completely trust Chalker & Ownings.)
