Oh man that is a huge bookstore, I absolutely love it! It's almost a historic and unique investment in culture. As much as people consider paper books a 'depreciating' / old asset, I bet that entire collection increases in value each day as they become more and more rare.
Also regarding the fact that that prolific author only has 4 reviews on Goodreads and no wikipedia page, I've been reading Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, with over 16 million copies sold and one of the 10 most impactful books ever, and the Wikipedia article for the book is okay but nothing what I would expect for a book of this caliber. So I'm going to write a review on my blog about the book and also I have been editing the wikipedia page for it in order to beef it up a bit.
Dear Charlie: Your Bookseller’s Register #2 post provided a great trip down memory lane – and reinforces my opinion that that Not Everything is Found on the Internet. Long-ago O/P books, the unusual, and the less-homogeneous, are rare.
Aeons ago, I wanted to source a 1935 light fiction title penned by Noel Langley (author of ‘The Land of Green Ginger,’ amongst others). The title I sought was ‘Cage me a Peacock,’ – first read after hearing it once as a BBC radio play, its brilliant dialogue recalled as laugh-out-loud for devotees of ancient Greece and Rome. (Classical historians *do* like odd off-beat humour – honest!)
A second-hand book shop had recently opened in an adjacent town. The bookseller was a trifle bemused, but I left a card and he promised to call if the novel was traced. Later the same day he phoned excitedly to announce a box had come in from a local estate, and – guess what? A whole collection of Langley’s works, inc. a 1st edition of the ‘Peacock’ title, and did I want the set? No, just that one – but how likely was that to happen? I’d say the odds weren’t promising. My most serendipitous book-hunting find, bar one.
At present, Jeff B.’s huge online emporium has the 1960 orange Penguin paperback, and details the novel’s background, but my experience was BC (Before Computers), pre~ today’s intergalactic biblio sites.
As to bindings: h’m. Having worked in publishing, I own to a slightly jaundiced opinion of the so-called ‘Perfect’ binding for p/bs. It’s okay when newish, albeit doesn’t always lie flat, but many in my collection are falling apart due to the glue perishing – possibly not so perfect? On the other hand, my dislike of modern PODs, (print-on-demand volumes) is unprintable. The faintly ultraviolet gutter is spooky. ...
Alas, in the vein of archaic pre-CD vinyl LPs, while some twentieth century sci-fi dust jackets are legendary, cover art and DJs aren’t what they were.
PS: I see the vast ‘intergalactic emporium’ has the Maybury title listed. (Naturally, I Googled it.) It’s priced at £45 sterling, (Ace books, June, 1978) but doesn’t depict the more appealing p/b artwork. (Abe has the H/B and p/b, all bindings, different DJs and prices.)
Looking forward to the day I get to visit your family's bookstore! Surprised though your ode to the paper back didn't mention the Vademecum. I was always under the impression those were not hardbacks and the predecessor to the paperback?
This is why I love Little Free Libraries too!
Oh man that is a huge bookstore, I absolutely love it! It's almost a historic and unique investment in culture. As much as people consider paper books a 'depreciating' / old asset, I bet that entire collection increases in value each day as they become more and more rare.
Also regarding the fact that that prolific author only has 4 reviews on Goodreads and no wikipedia page, I've been reading Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, with over 16 million copies sold and one of the 10 most impactful books ever, and the Wikipedia article for the book is okay but nothing what I would expect for a book of this caliber. So I'm going to write a review on my blog about the book and also I have been editing the wikipedia page for it in order to beef it up a bit.
Dear Charlie: Your Bookseller’s Register #2 post provided a great trip down memory lane – and reinforces my opinion that that Not Everything is Found on the Internet. Long-ago O/P books, the unusual, and the less-homogeneous, are rare.
Aeons ago, I wanted to source a 1935 light fiction title penned by Noel Langley (author of ‘The Land of Green Ginger,’ amongst others). The title I sought was ‘Cage me a Peacock,’ – first read after hearing it once as a BBC radio play, its brilliant dialogue recalled as laugh-out-loud for devotees of ancient Greece and Rome. (Classical historians *do* like odd off-beat humour – honest!)
A second-hand book shop had recently opened in an adjacent town. The bookseller was a trifle bemused, but I left a card and he promised to call if the novel was traced. Later the same day he phoned excitedly to announce a box had come in from a local estate, and – guess what? A whole collection of Langley’s works, inc. a 1st edition of the ‘Peacock’ title, and did I want the set? No, just that one – but how likely was that to happen? I’d say the odds weren’t promising. My most serendipitous book-hunting find, bar one.
At present, Jeff B.’s huge online emporium has the 1960 orange Penguin paperback, and details the novel’s background, but my experience was BC (Before Computers), pre~ today’s intergalactic biblio sites.
As to bindings: h’m. Having worked in publishing, I own to a slightly jaundiced opinion of the so-called ‘Perfect’ binding for p/bs. It’s okay when newish, albeit doesn’t always lie flat, but many in my collection are falling apart due to the glue perishing – possibly not so perfect? On the other hand, my dislike of modern PODs, (print-on-demand volumes) is unprintable. The faintly ultraviolet gutter is spooky. ...
Alas, in the vein of archaic pre-CD vinyl LPs, while some twentieth century sci-fi dust jackets are legendary, cover art and DJs aren’t what they were.
PS: I see the vast ‘intergalactic emporium’ has the Maybury title listed. (Naturally, I Googled it.) It’s priced at £45 sterling, (Ace books, June, 1978) but doesn’t depict the more appealing p/b artwork. (Abe has the H/B and p/b, all bindings, different DJs and prices.)
Looking forward to the day I get to visit your family's bookstore! Surprised though your ode to the paper back didn't mention the Vademecum. I was always under the impression those were not hardbacks and the predecessor to the paperback?
This is so cool Charlie. I love bookstores, and loved reading behind the scenes of your bookstore.
I love this section and want more posts about your bookstore