The Book Buying and Collecting Thread

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  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    I don't think anything can replace the excitement as a young boy of getting my hands on a new ( to me at least ) Bond book. They made a big impression on this 12 year old. :)
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    yeh that's probably the best looking of recent printings, I find many of the others in recent years to be very generic looking.

    the illustrated Folio Society editions some folks have been discussing look to be magnificent, but that's a different sort of price range.
  • Mr SnowMr Snow Station "J" JamaicaPosts: 1,736MI6 Agent
    Gymkata wrote:

    I bought this set: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140911537/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    I dig the retro look, and the price honestly could not be beat.

    Kudos to you Gymkata and half your luck! Unfortunately (in the sense my Ian Fleming collection is all over the place) I have read all the Bond (Fleming) novels except TSWLM. You're dead right, that retro collection looks fantastic. Best price I could see on Amazon UK was about 113pounds yet on the US Amazon website it was only $38.00US - what an absolute steal. Tempted to buy the set just for show. -{
    "Everyone knows rock n' roll attained perfection in 1974; It's a scientific fact". - Homer J Simpson
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    Gymkata do you know what the 14 titles are?
    for a genuine Bond-fan these 14 titles should be tattoo'ed in the brain.
    All my other brain-cells are structured around the memorization at an early age of those 14 titles.
    Like if I go in a church and look at the Fourteen Stations of the Cross, I am trying to correspond those images with Fleming's 14 titles.
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    :007) :007) :007)
  • Mr SnowMr Snow Station "J" JamaicaPosts: 1,736MI6 Agent
    Gymkata wrote:
    The set is legit. The box was wrapped in clear plastic (not sure if it was 'new') and showed some wear and tear, but the books all look brand new/unread. It's a heck of a deal if you don't mind a slightly beat up box.

    Appreciate the follow up Gymkata. You'll know if the books have been read and by the looks of things I very much doubt it. Don't worry too much about the box; it's just a box that will most likely end up in the recycle bin or wherever. Wear and tear can happen for many reasons.

    Display these proudly in your bookshelves and most importantly enjoy the books - you're in for a treat. -{
    "Everyone knows rock n' roll attained perfection in 1974; It's a scientific fact". - Homer J Simpson
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Have fun Gymkata -{ you have a world of adventure ahead of you. ;)
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    oh and Gymkata you know we all liked your chronological sequence of film reviews.
    Here's a link to the What are you Currently Reading (that's Bond related)? thread.

    It would be cool to not only have a matching set of the books, but have a matching slipcase to house them all. Damn, now my life is once again incomplete!
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    so I went to the Pulp Fiction collectors show yesterday. I'm presently between positions so didn't actually buy anything, though was tempted by two James Cain titles I'd never seen before (Sinful Woman and The Root of His Evil). Dude wanted $20- a piece, so my James Cain collection is still incomplete.

    One table had lots of Modesty Blaise's, I think multiple copies of all the titles except Cobra Trap (which is the one I need). If I'd reviewed my collection I could have probably upgraded a few volumes. One table had three long rows of nothing but Philip K Dick, vintage paperbacks from the 50s and 60s, multiple cover variants of most titles, alphabetically arranged even from Clans of the Alphane Moon through to the Zap Gun!

    Half the tables were old Pulp magazines, Black Mask, Weird Tales, that sort of thing. Others were vintage paperbacks, lots of Mickey Spillane, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E Howard. One table was all old Warren horror comics (Famous Monsters of Filmland, Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella), another had obscure MAD magazine imitations I'd never seen before, as well as several of Harvey Kurtzman's later titles (Trump, Humbug, and Help!). But there weren't as many comics as I would have liked. Some homemade dvd's of old film serials. Lots of tattered old fanzines from before the internet era, when geekdom required more dedication.

    As for Fleming: not nearly so much as I'd have hoped, but there were lots of the 60s PANs and Signets, including Thrilling Cities and Diamond Smugglers. A Signet ...Golden Gun where the hype text on the front assured buyers it had been the "biggest selling Bond hardcover ever" (that must have fooled a few suckers). Roger Moore's book about filming LALD. An original hardcover of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang volume III (but not the first two volumes).
    Most interesting was a hardcover of Amis's The Book of Bond. The seller wanted $150- !!!
    I've got that in paperback, but the hardcover is a completely different thing, its more like a work of Pop Art, square shaped, with colourful stylised graphics on every page, and hidden underneath the dust jacket is a completely different title, to fool the other spies!
    220px-BookOfBond.jpg
    Future me is going to be kicking past me for not having his priorities straight, and rationing money to buy stupid groceries instead.

    Since this is the Book Collecting thread, I thought fellow Book Collectors would like a report, because it was certainly a cool event, even for a penniless browser!
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,030MI6 Agent
    Thank you for your report CP it takes me back to my bookselling days and book fairs were great fun meeting lots of avid collectors. It seems as if prices remain healthy and with the decimation of used bookshops it seems that book fairs are the only place to actually get to view collectable books nowadays. I did try online selling at one point through eBay but gave it up it as it just wasn't for me, the interaction between seller and buyer is something magical that cannot be duplicated through the internet.
    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,644MI6 Agent
    I think this must be the condition that I have when it comes to books. Now I finally have a word for it - "Tsundoku"!

    https://www.treehugger.com/cleaning-organizing/tsundoku-practice-buying-more-books-you-can-read.html
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • IanFryerIanFryer Posts: 327MI6 Agent
    so I went to the Pulp Fiction collectors show yesterday. I'm presently between positions so didn't actually buy anything, though was tempted by two James Cain titles I'd never seen before (Sinful Woman and The Root of His Evil). Dude wanted $20- a piece, so my James Cain collection is still incomplete.

    One table had lots of Modesty Blaise's, I think multiple copies of all the titles except Cobra Trap (which is the one I need). If I'd reviewed my collection I could have probably upgraded a few volumes. One table had three long rows of nothing but Philip K Dick, vintage paperbacks from the 50s and 60s, multiple cover variants of most titles, alphabetically arranged even from Clans of the Alphane Moon through to the Zap Gun!

    Half the tables were old Pulp magazines, Black Mask, Weird Tales, that sort of thing. Others were vintage paperbacks, lots of Mickey Spillane, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E Howard. One table was all old Warren horror comics (Famous Monsters of Filmland, Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella), another had obscure MAD magazine imitations I'd never seen before, as well as several of Harvey Kurtzman's later titles (Trump, Humbug, and Help!). But there weren't as many comics as I would have liked. Some homemade dvd's of old film serials. Lots of tattered old fanzines from before the internet era, when geekdom required more dedication.

    As for Fleming: not nearly so much as I'd have hoped, but there were lots of the 60s PANs and Signets, including Thrilling Cities and Diamond Smugglers. A Signet ...Golden Gun where the hype text on the front assured buyers it had been the "biggest selling Bond hardcover ever" (that must have fooled a few suckers). Roger Moore's book about filming LALD. An original hardcover of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang volume III (but not the first two volumes).
    Most interesting was a hardcover of Amis's The Book of Bond. The seller wanted $150- !!!
    I've got that in paperback, but the hardcover is a completely different thing, its more like a work of Pop Art, square shaped, with colourful stylised graphics on every page, and hidden underneath the dust jacket is a completely different title, to fool the other spies!
    220px-BookOfBond.jpg
    Future me is going to be kicking past me for not having his priorities straight, and rationing money to buy stupid groceries instead.

    Since this is the Book Collecting thread, I thought fellow Book Collectors would like a report, because it was certainly a cool event, even for a penniless browser!

    A late reply. I know but that's the very edition of The Book of Bond I used to borrow from my local library (where I now work) when I was a kid.
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    Most interesting was a hardcover of Amis's The Book of Bond. The seller wanted $150- !!!
    I've got that in paperback, but the hardcover is a completely different thing, its more like a work of Pop Art, square shaped, with colourful stylised graphics on every page, and hidden underneath the dust jacket is a completely different title, to fool the other spies!
    220px-BookOfBond.jpg
    Future me is going to be kicking past me for not having his priorities straight, and rationing money to buy stupid groceries instead.
    IanFryer wrote:
    A late reply. I know but that's the very edition of The Book of Bond I used to borrow from my local library (where I now work) when I was a kid.
    Maybe they have a secret room of de-circulated library books everybody else has forgotten about and its still in there somewhere?
  • IanFryerIanFryer Posts: 327MI6 Agent
    It probably went in a booksale long, long ago. These days many libraries sell on their old books to a company called Betterworld, who buy them by weight and sell them on Amazon.
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,644MI6 Agent
    As this thread's creator I have been remiss so I thought that I would revive it after a fairly long hiatus as it is still a keen interest (and indulgence) of mine. Here's an interesting interview with John Cleese that I found today and I thought I'd share it here:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/03/books/review/john-cleese-by-the-book-interview.html
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
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