Here are three books I bought in Austin-area Half Price Books stores. (The books I bought over Thanksgiving week in the Metroplex will be coming later.)
Posts Tagged ‘Books’
Library Addition: Three Half Price Books Purchases
Wednesday, December 7th, 2022Library Addition: First Edition of Quentin Tarantino’s Cinema Speculation
Tuesday, December 6th, 2022Another Amazon purchase, one that came in as a first edition and blessedly free of of damage!
Tarantino, Quentin. Cinema Speculation. HarperCollins, 2022. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Non-fiction book about the films Tarantino saw as a child in the 1970s, from Dirty Harry to Taxi Driver. Seems pretty interesting.
One interesting thing about the book physically is that the cover has that rough texture that’s been all the rage recently…except the black and white photo of Steve McQueen and Sam Peckinpah on the cover, which is smooth. I’d never seen a book with two different textures combined like that before.
Library Addition: Deluxe Edition of The Lord of the Rings
Monday, December 5th, 2022I rarely make impulses purchases, but I saw this listed from a small press publisher’s regular email at $250, and when I went to the product page to get a better look at it, there was a small notice declaring that fulfillment would be done by Amazon. Well, then, why not just buy it from them?
Taking a look on the Amazon page for the book, they were selling it at $150, so I went ahead and bought it.
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings Illustrated Deluxe Edition. William Morrow, 2021 (stated; actually published October 2022). First edition hardback thus, a Fine copy in a Fine slipcase (with a cutout for the eye of Sauron on the book itself), sans dust jacket, as issued, with oversized folding maps of Middle Earth and Gondor/Mordor, cardstock reprint of The King’s Letter (from Aragon to Samwise) in silver tengwar on one side with a en English translation on the other, “Leaves from the Book of Mazarbul” in a waxpaper envelope, and the rear shrinkwraped book description laid in. A sturdy, gilt-edged omnibus edition containing all three volumes, with Tolkien’s own artwork and Middle Earth language calligraphy as full page color plates.
Even the box it ships to you is way too cool to throw away:
And the map pattern continues all the way around the box.
It’s a very attractive production, and if you’re interested in it, Amazon has now lowered the price to $140.01.
Library Additions: Three Gene Wolfe Critical Companions
Wednesday, November 30th, 2022Three Michael Andre-Driussi critical companions to Gene Wolfe works, all bought from Amazon (the only place they’re available; click on the hyperlinks to buy them there).
Counting chapbooks, I now have 14 Andre-Driussi books on Gene Wolfe…
Library Addition: Signed First of Stephen J. Cannell’s White Sister
Friday, November 18th, 2022I was looking through a bookseller list of signed books when I saw Stephen J. Cannell’s name. “Huh, the Rockford Files guy! I wonder what signed firsts from Stephen J. Cannell are available?”
Turns out a lot, some of which are available quite cheaply. (Hypermodern mystery firsts are doing much worse, on average, than hypermodern SF/F/H firsts right now.) This was available online as one of the cheapest signed firsts, and it turns out it’s the only one of his books (he did a whole series of Shane Scully mysteries) that had its own entry on Wikipedia, and the plot sounds interesting, so I picked it.
Cannell, Stephen J. White Sister. St. Martin’s Press, 2006. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed and dated (“9/12/06”) by Cannell. Bought off the Internet for $5.
Library Additions: Two Signed Tim Powers Firsts+
Wednesday, November 9th, 2022Three books, including two signed Tim Powers firsts.
Library Addition: A Little Jasmine Book of M. R. James
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2022Another book in the Borderlands Little Book series:
James, M. R. (edited and illustrated by Stephen R. Jones). A Little Jasmine Book of M. R. James. Borderlands Books, 2022. First edition hardback, #462 of 500 copies signed by Jones, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued. Six tales from the master of the ghost story, plus some nonfiction pieces from James, Jones and others, including a select bibliography.
I will have a small number of copies available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog (currently in progress).
Library Addition: Lettered Edition of F. Paul Wilson’s Sims Book 5
Wednesday, October 26th, 2022This one of those “what the hell” lowball bids that won. F. Paul Wilson is a writer I collected some early work of (The Keep, etc.), but hadn’t really kept up with. This is the final book from that UK dealer sale.
Wilson, F. Paul. Sims Book 5: Thy Brother’s Keeper. Cemetery Dance, 2010. First edition hardback, letter R of 26 lettered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and a Fine traycase. Bought from a notable UK dealer for £52.60.
I think this is the only non-Lansdale lettered edition I have from Cemetery Dance.
Halloween Horrors: The Book of Cosmic Horror
Tuesday, October 25th, 2022If you like some Hieronymus Bosch, maybe you’ll enjoy this freaky medieval book of prophecy.
With a nod to H. P. Lovecraft.
Library Additions: Four Clark Ashton Smith, Three Arkhams, One Signed
Monday, October 24th, 2022One of these came over from the same UK book dealer as the last few purchases, the other three came over in a Heritage Auctions lot I won from the Gary Munson Collection. Which was a surprise, since I hadn’t won a Heritage lot since 2016!
Note: The bright white spot at top is merely a reflection off the Mylar dust jacket protector.
I will have more Clark Ashton Smith and Arkham House books available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.