Library Additions: Various Interesting Books Bought on Sale

August 12th, 2013

Unlike the Zelazny or Bradbury book acquisition posts, the only common theme among these books is who I bought them from and why. The who, in this case, is Cold Tonnage Books in the UK. The why is that they had a 40% off sale if you bought more than £500 worth of books. I saw this as a chance to pick up several important first editions cheaper than I would have been able to otherwise. So this is a mixture of first rate titles in areas I collect, valuable firsts too cheap to pass up, signed, pristine copies of some relatively cheap books, and a few odds and ends.

  • Aldiss, Brian. Moreau’s Other island. Jonathan Cape, 1980. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Aldiss on the front free endpaper.
  • Aldiss, Brian. This World and Nearer Ones: Essays Exploring the Familiar. Weidenfield and Nicolson, 1979. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket.
  • (Aldiss, Brian) Aldiss, Margaret. Item Eighty-Three: Brian W. Aldiss: A Bibliography: 1954—1972. SF Horizons, (1973). Chapbook, Fine. Non-fiction.
  • Asimov, Isaac. Nine Tomorrows. Doubleday, 1959. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Near Fine dust jacket with moderate wear at heel and slight wear along folds. A very nice copy of this important Asimov short story collection. Currey, page 19. Replaces an Ex-Lib copy in my library.

  • Brackett, Leigh. The Sword of Rhiannon. Boardman, 1955. First hardback edition (“First published in Great Britain, 1955″, as per Currey), a Fine- copy with slight bend at head and heel and foxing to interior gutters, in a Very Good dust jacket with 1/4” of wear rubbing/chipping (dust jacket is present, but image has been worn away) at head, a similar, smaller amount of wear at heel, a shallow chip with associated wear at top rear, and crease along front cover spine join running the entire length of the jacket, and wear along extremities; despite all that, the rest of the jacket is quite bright and attractive. Currey, page 53. Cawthorn & Moorocock, Fantasy: The Hundred Best Books 75. A fairly uncommon book these days.

  • Ellison, Harlan. All the Lies That Are My Life. Underwood/Miller, 1980. First edition hardback, one of 400 unsigned trade hardcover copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Chalker/Owings, page 432.
  • Ellison, Harlan. Harlan Ellison is Watching. Underwood/Miller, 1989. First edition hardback, #46 of 600 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and slipcase. Chalker/Owings, page 440.
  • Ellison, Harlan. Stalking the Nightmare. Phantasia Press, 1982. First edition hardback, #240 of 700 signed hardback copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and slipcase. Supplements a copy of the trade edition. Chalker/Owings, page 340.
  • (Leiber, Fritz) Morgan, Chris. Fritz Leiber: a bibliography, 1934—1979. Morgenstern, 1979. Chapbook original, one of 1000 copies, a Near Fine+ copy with spots of age darkening to cover.
  • Moorcock, Michael. Sailor on the Seas of Fate. Quartet Books, 1976. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with a chip out of the corner of the front free endpaper, in a Fine dust jacket. Currey, page 372.
  • Roberts, Adam (as A. R. R. R. Roberts). The Soddit, or Let’s Cash In Again. Gollancz, 2003. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by Roberts. Parody of The Hobbit.
  • (Simak, Clifford D.) Becker, Muriel R. Clifford D. Simak: a primary and secondary bibliography. G. K. Hall, 1980. First edition hardback, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued. Non-fiction. I do wish the books were separated from the short fiction listings…
  • Smith, Edward E., Ph.D. Skylark Three. Fantasy Press, 1948. First edition hardback, one of 500 subscriber copies with a signature page inscribed by Smith bound in: “To Hugh F. Henry—/Three in a row — Hot dog!/And thanks a million for/the compliment./Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.” (Doc Smith had marvelously clear handwriting), a Fine- copy with a tiny bit of crimping at head and heel and faint foxing to gutters, in a Near Fine dust jacket with slight rubbing to top 1/2″ of front, slight edgewear at head, and slight dust soiling to rear cover. E. E. “Doc” Smith is someone I only pick up as a target of opportunity, but I couldn’t pass up a chance to pick up a very attractive example of one of the Fantasy Press subscriber copies for one of their most popular writers for approximately $150 after sale discount.

  • Turner, Gary, and Marty Halpern. The Silver Griffith. Golden Gryphon, 2003. First edition hardback, #34 of 100 numbered copies signed by all the contributor, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, in slipcase.
  • Vance, Jack (as John Holbrook Vance). The Deadly Isles. Bobbs-Merrill, 1969. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with a tiny bit of crimping at head and heel in a Fine- dust jacket with a few bare traces of dust soiling and a tiny bit of rubbing at extremities. Overall a beautiful copy of this Vance mystery. Currey, p. 497. Hewett, A33.

  • Also a signed first of Iain Banks A Song of Stone that came in with a couple of dust jacket flaws; I’ll end up marrying the signed book to my existing pristine dust jacket…

    Preview of My Story in Rayguns Over Texas

    August 11th, 2013

    Editor Rick Klaw has been previewing one story a day from the forthcoming Rayguns Over Texas anthology due out at LoneStarCon3, and today he’s previewing my story, “Novel Properties of Certain Complex Alkaloids.”

    First hit’s on me…

    Shoegazer Sunday: Highspire’s “Glacier”

    August 11th, 2013

    After meaning to for a while, I finally picked up Highspire’s Aquatic, which is definitely a strong Shoegaze album. Here’s “Glacier,” my favorite track off it.

    Library Additions: Three Interesting Ray Bradbury Chapbooks

    August 5th, 2013

    I recently picked up three Ray Bradbury chapbooks, two signed stapled chapbooks from Heritage Auctions, one bound in decorated boards from Half Price Books. One is pretty well documented as a first edition. However, the other two, being for the scholastic market, are not.

  • Bradbury, Ray. Collected Short Stories. Petersen Publishing Company (The Great Author Series), 2002. Presumed first edition hardback (no additional printings listed), a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, presumably as issued. 96 page book which collects three stories (“The Other Foot,” “The April Witch,” and “The Veldt”), reading comprehension questions, and a biography. Not to be confused with the much larger The Stories of Ray Bradbury, which I also have.

  • Bradbury, Ray. The Dragon. Footsteps Press, 1988. First edition chapbook, #72 of 300 signed, numbered copies, Fine. Has affixed wrappers with a transparent blue Mylar window (there were evidently also red and yellow window variants).

  • Bradbury, Ray. The Veldt. The Perfection Form Company, 1982. (Possible) First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy in stapled wraps, inscribed by Bradbury on the cover. Reading comprehension questions at the back.

  • I’m not aware of a comprehensive Ray Bradbury bibliography out that, or I would no doubt own it. Does anyone know if The Veldt and Collected Short Stories are indeed first editions of those works or not, or how I would tell?

    Shoegazer Sunday: Alcian Blue’s “Carousel”

    August 4th, 2013

    Better late than never, here’s the now-defunct Alcian Blue with “Carousel”:

    Can’t Sleep, The Clown Will Eat Me

    August 1st, 2013

    Via Gardner Dozois’ Facebook comes news that it’s International Clown Week. I don’t suffer from Clownophobia, but I’ve known people who do.

    So let’s take this moment to remember Bart Simpson’s awesome bed:

    Alice Cooper even did a song:

    And speaking of bed:

    Maybe International Clown Week exists to remind us it’s just three months until Halloween…

    Ode to Joy Played on a Theremin in a Matryoshka Doll

    July 31st, 2013

    “The players here are using devices called Matryomins. They’re single-oscillator theremins that happen to be contained inside a matryoshka doll.”

    167 of them.

    Shoegazer Sunday: Belle and Sebastian’s “Sleep Around the Clock”

    July 28th, 2013

    Here’s another “Is it Shoegaze or not” entry, with Belle and Sebastian’s “Sleep Around the Clock,” which is more bouncy retro low-fi pop, but there’s enough of a shoegaze tinge to it (a little like Black Tambourine) that I’m throwing it in here.

    Plus I like the sciency theme of the video. So there.

    Restaurant Review: July 27, 2013: Prima Pizza Pasta

    July 27th, 2013

    (Here’s a restaurant review in route to its place on http://www.sdclog.net/.)

    Prima Pizza Pasta
    6001 W Parmer Ln (the same corner as the HEB)
    258-5700

    Once upon a time, this space was a CiCi’s pizza. And it closed. How hard can it be to make a profit at a pizza place when your primary ingredient is cardboard?

    So I was somewhat skeptical when new pizza place went in there. Though situated at a semi-major intersection at Parmer and McNeil, it’s as far as you can get from the center’s anchor store (HEB) and still be in the same center. So how good could their chances be?

    After more than a year: So far, so good. It really helps when you serve excellent pizza.

    Things started off right with the garlic cheese bread, which was excellent; a fellow diner said it was better than that served at Reale’s, which is high praise indeed. Also good were the free rolls. (Alas, the calimari remains nothing to write home about.)

    The pizza itself remains excellent, an exemplary example of the new York style soft thin-crust pizza; I’d have to compare it back-to-back with Reale’s to see which I prefer. In fact, I like the pizza so much that I frequently pick up a slice or two on Fridays. At some point I also want to try some of the non-pizza dishes, which have received a fair amount of praise from fellow diners. And the service from our waitress was also excellent, with many an preemptive soft-drink refill.

    If you like pizza and live anywhere north, you should definitely make an effort to check out Prima. So far they seem to have remained undiscovered, and have plenty of uncrowded seating to enjoy some delicious Italian food.

    Hollywood Auction Alert

    July 27th, 2013

    Hollywood auction house is having another big auction of film memorabilia, including a few interesting SF-related items:

  • The fourth issue of the fanzine Imagination, which includes Ray Bradbury’s first published story.
  • Willis O’Brien’s very shoggothian concept art for an unproduced film called The Bubbles, featuring “bubble-like creatures in Baja, California that devour everything in their path.”

  • Electrodes from both the James Whale Frankenstein and Young Frankenstein.
  • A diving helmet from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
  • Concept art from Forbidden Planet.
  • Charlton Heston’s torn Planet of the Ape pants, plus ape masks.
  • Props from Alien and Aliens
  • A bunch of Star Wars posters and props.
  • Lots of The Nightmare Before Christmas props and sets.
  • Some Matrix stuff, both from the good one and the crappy ones.
  • That farking annoying robot from The Black Hole.
  • Frank’s bunny mask from Donnie Darko.
  • Enough stuff from The Wizard of Oz. and The Sound of Music to start your own museum.
  • Plus Bruce Lee’s nun-chucks, Conan’s sword, the Terminator’s gun, Jason’s machete, Maximus’ axe, Legalos’ arrow, Indiana Jones’ whip, Jack Sparrow’s sword, Captain Kirk’s phaser, a Ghostbusters proton pack, The Comedian’s pistols, Freddy Kreuger’s fingernails, Rambo’s knife, James Bond’s gun, and Scarface’s “little friend.”

    The auction is online in a “Flipbook” format, evidently invented because HTML was insufficiently annoying.