Fosters - Australian for Beer, McCullough- New South Walesian for Literature

Two of my favorite authors are Morris West - The Shoes of the Fisherman, et seq - and Colleen McCullough who had many of her books made into big- and small- screen productions. For example:
    * Tim - movie,  1979 with Mel Gibson and Piper Laurie
    * The Thorn Birds - TV miniseries, 1983 with Richard Chamberlain
    * An Indecent Obsession -  movie in 1985 starring Gary Sweet
    *  Rome - miniseries HBO. With Kevin McKidd

Do You Know the Way to Sanjulian ?

Robert E. Howard's heroic fantasy is highly collectible - you know: Conan the Arnold before he became Guvuhn Ore, and when he couldn't speak English a little. Although Frank Frazetta did much of the cover art for the paperbacks, we found one of the Bran Mak Morn books today, with cover art by Manuel Pérez Clemente.

The When of Book Clubs

We were on the road yesterday, and Barbara asked me about the origin of Book Clubs, since we do carry some book club editions in our store. She again won the game of “Stump the Chump,’ but as usual, I prevailed, and offer you the following not-so-trivial information about the last club standing, Book-of-the-Month Club:

Why Don’t You Buy Books in your Store ? Part III

Now we get to the aggravation of buying books in the store, and the questions that usually arise  from doing so:

Why Don’t You Buy Books in your Store ? Part II

We tend to buy the first few books written by significant authors of fiction. Think Stephen King. His first few books are scarce in collectible condition, and highly desirable. His last 7,853 books are word-processing on paper. Same with James Patterson.  Same with most popular fiction authors who write with a collaborator. But… and there’s almost always a “but” in the book business, and some people even think that it’s me - some authors just keep getting better, and some who write in collaboration write better together than individually.

Why Don’t You Buy Books in Your Store ?

We’re often asked that question, usually in a really snotty tone of voice. We’re a small store, about 1000 square feet, and have to be very discriminating in what we choose to offer to our customers, thence our motto “Books of Worth in All Genres.” Our colleagues in the Valley have stores that are twice the size of ours, but they carry huge selections of mass market paperbacks. We don’t. Other bookstores in town acquire their inventory from people who want to dispose of their books, either for cash, or for store credit, or a combination of both. We don’t. We hand select each and every book that we choose to stock based on these criteria:

It’s Time to Cook

The year-end holidays - for us here at Greyhound’s Books these start on the 4th of July - are a great time for cooking. And be truthful, some of you who don’t cook will buy prepared food for the Groaning Boards that you will grace.

Welcome to America - Now Speak English

We are a simple people here in the USA, and tend to avoid Briticisms - Smith and Smythe are pronounced exactly the same over there, but not here unless you’re a pretentious twit - and other foreign pronunciations in our daily discourse.

An Old Friend Came By...

for his annual visit to our store. As I've said many, many times, the best reason to be in the book business is the customers who educate the bookseller. Our friend has started a new collection - fine or beautiful bindings. so, we nattered on for a while, he found some interesting pieces in our store, and, as usual, I forgot to tell him about another wonderful collecting opportunity. I canvassed our colleagues at Amber Unicorn and Plaza Books, and they had no samples in stock, just like us. However a Google search will provide you some wonderful examples of:

I Hate Christmas !

Because... I get all philosophical at the holiday time of year, and when I get philosophical, I get even more boring than usual. This Christmas season we've garnered many kudos from our customers because of the quality of our stock in trade. We also, just this morning, got an e-mail detailing the January Las Vegas Bookmans Guild meeting. Which set me off, and inspired the following screed:

A Christmas Present

Most of us have had the rather dubious pleasure of having unacceptable customers in our stores, and we on the Western Slope have managed to 86 most of them. Our esteemed colleague, Ann Devere had an encounter with one of our 86ees, which resulted in the following review posted on Google. Be warned, dear reader, this is an early Christmas gift for all the Bookmen in town, and in view of Ann's almost unlimited patience, an especially good gift for her! The solecisms and  errors in the text below were committed by it's original writer. By the way,if you have frequented Plaza Books, I would encourage you to provide your own review.
Review Plaza Books Here

Unaccustomed as I am to...

follow blogs, I found this one to be quite worthwhile

Explorer's Blog

Man Does Not Live By Books Alone

M. C. Beaton, AKA Marion Chesney has written a charming series about a lazy, Scottish village policeman who would rather remain in his hamlet than be promoted and have to move to the city.

One of Our Contributors Provided This

She chose to send me this e-mail rather than posting it, 'cause she knows we like historical mysteries. Now If I can get her to make these postings on her own, it'll save me doing it. But the info is inter:
Five Mysteries

And the Answer Is...

"Who Am I" Answered

We Do It All Here On the Western Slope of the Valley

Our esteemed colleagues at Amber Unicorn Books are the local specialists in cookbooks. We're behind them so far, but Myrna can feel my hot doggie breath on her neck as we increase our cookbook holdings. We're the First- Number 1 - to offer you a recipe, though. From Publishers  Weekly  What's Cookin' ?

Another Comic Book Article

This is not very upbeat, but worth reading Disheartening News

Even Comics Need Love !

Our friend, and contributor to this blog, Zac Carter, is one of the comic book - he calls them "graphic novels" - mavens in the Valley. In honor of his return to Las Vegas, I've posted this link  Comic Book Poopies for those of you who might be interested in non-books.

Something for Everyone 3

There are mysteries for everyone, almost. I haven't been able to find anyone who writes about transgendered folks, but there are many Gay and Lesbian mystery series, to wit:

Something for Everyone 2

Christmas is coming. I just wanted to let you know that if you aren't already sufficiently stressed. Although Santa Claus is a mystery to some of us, there is one truly excellent Christmas mystery that everyone should read, even though it's set in England. You may have to pay full price -gasp - in a new bookstore - heart clutch - and probably find only a paperback copy, but whatever you have to pay for R.D. Wingfield's "Frost at Christmas" is worth it. There are very few in the series, but A&E has done a TV series, now available on DVD,  that captures Frost perfectly.

Something for Everyone 1

Thanksgiving is tomorrow,  so we'd like to recommend some mysteries featuring Indians. Yes, Indians. No PCBS here. Most are set in the Southwest, but that's OK.The big three are

BookThink's Top 10 on E-Bay for October

Top 10 for October

Up In the Air, Junior Birdmen

We have a fairly good selection of  cosmology and astronautics, including astronaut-signed pieces, even the common Mormon astronaut title - a $ 15.00 book. For those who  like these, and conspiracy studies, the pieces below could fit into your collection:

Who Was I ?

One of my participants in the last offering of Bookstore 101 was in yesterday. She's interested in stocking a large selection of woman's studies books, and brought me one on a Hollywood star. I mentioned to her that the book could fit into two genres in her store: movies, and woman's studies. It hadn't yet occurred to her that if she had two copies, she could stock one in each section and still be true to her chosen business model.

Ephemera Lives !

In Bookstore 101, I talk about ephemera being an interesting adjunct to a bookstore's regular stock, but what is it ?  Simply stated, it's paper goods other than books, and includes brochures, maps, monographs, catalogs, and just about any other printed material that you choose to label as "ephemera," since it's your house, and your rules. 

What a Weekend !

My esteemed colleague, Myrna Donato, also known as Amber Unicorn Books, and I had the great pleasure of participating in the culinary activities of Vegas Valley Book Festival ( vegasvalleybooksfestival.org ).  In one of last week's posts, I mentioned the Publishers Weekly website, and sure enough, this morning the followin article showed up in my e-mail on the best twenty-five cookbooks of 2010:

The Printed Book Is DEAD ! Or, is it ?

You can also subscribe to this interesting site. Thanks to Myrna Donato, Amber Unicorn Books, Las Vegas, Nevada, for pointing me towards this article. 

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/20101101/45015-how-e-book-sales-compare-to-print--so-far.html

Know Anybody Named Chapman?

Other than Johnny Appleseed, ne  John Chapman, anyone named Chapman was probably a bookseller of “penny histories,” or “chapbooks” which were the most-printed books in England during the 18th Century !

Another Mostly Worthwhile Site for Book Topics

You can even subscribe for yourself. Enjoy !

Who do You Want to to Be Like ?

There is a huge difference between being a bookseller and being a Bookman - a term that applies equally to men and women. For example, most Internet book dealers are book sellers, dealing in a commodity, not the invaluable resource book truly are. That’s why customers quite often do not get the book they ordered on-line: they usually get a book in lesser condition, or a book that is not the listed edition, or a book that’s completely different from the one they purchased.

Professional Reading - Gasp - NOT in a Book

There are many resources for both the neophyte bookseller and the professional bookman. For a Luddite like me, it's hard to recommend internet resources, but not anywhere near as hard as it was 20 years ago. One of the better sites is in the link below. The content is not always stellar, but there usually is at least one article worth reading and absorbing, plus you can get your own e-mail subscription.  Enjoy, at least, the article on Better World
Books !

http://www.americanaexchange.com/NewAE/aemonthly/aemonthly1.asp

Billy & Betty Blackberries

 Friend and local author Steve Grogan sent me this about on-line booksellers. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to mention it during the Tuesday night session of Bookstore 101, but here's a link to an extremely interesting article.

http://www.slate.com/id/2268000/

Parlez Vous French ?

We derive many literary terms from the French equivalent - it's just to add a large degree of snootiness to book-speak - but, unfortunately, these terms also provide an excellent shorthand to convey somewhat complicated ideas, dammit !  Here are a few for your delectation, minus their diacritical marks:

Super Mario

How trite. How hackneyed. An offer you can’t refuse unless you want a horse’s head in your bed, your knee caps shot off, a cement overcoat or boots, or a final ride in the trunk of a Cadillac.  Mario Puzo’s  first two novels,  Dark Arena, 1955, and The Fortunate Pilgrim, 1965, had good reviews, but were not financial successes.

No Half-Nelsons Here !

Many authors have one book in their souls, but continue to write. Nelson Algren was not one of them  Our Full Nelson won the very first National Book Award in 1950 for TMWTGA.  Perhaps the award should have been shared with Simone de Beauvoir, the French writer and philosopher, with whom Algren enjoyed a torrid love affair in South America throughout 1949.  His two big ‘uns were made into movies - not so unusual during the 1950s - with big stars: Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak in "The Man With The Golden Arm," and Laurence Harvey, Jane Fonda, Anne Baxter and Barbara Stanwyck in "A Walk On the Wild Side."  He also wrote a now rather scarce book of interest to fans of Hemingway: Notes From A Sea Diary  subtitled  Hemingway All the Way, an excellent collection of essays and hilarious anecdotes about his experiences at sea and his meeting with, and support of,  Ernest Hemingway. These books are highly collectible, but, as usual, condition is everything:

- The Man With the Golden Arm.   Doubleday, 1949  1st Edition.
A near fine condition book in a near fine dust jacket:  $125.00 - $150.00

 - The Man With the Golden Arm.   Doubleday, 1949  1st Edition. A fine condition book in a near fine   condition dust jacket. Inscribed by the author:  $1700.00   Vive la differance !

- A Walk on the Wild Side. Farrar, Straus and Cudahy,  1956  1st Edition. A fine condition book in a near fine condition dust jacket:  $100.00 - $150.00
- A Walk on the Wild Side. Farrar, Straus and Cudahy,  1956  1st Edition. A fine condition book in a near fine condition dust jacket. Signed: $200.00 - $250.00
- A Walk on the Wild Side. Farrar, Straus and Cudahy,  1956  1st Edition. A fine condition book in a near fine condition dust jacket. Inscribed, and accompanied by his  usual drawing of a cat:  $300.00 and up

-Notes From A Sea Diary: Hemingway All the Way. G.P. Putnam’s, 1965   1st Edition. A fine condition book in a fine condition dust jacket.  $ 25.00 - $65.00

Algren’s first novel, Somebody In Boots, was published in 1935 by Vanguard Press. It will cost you between $500.00 in barely collectible condition to over $12,000 for a signed, cat-drawing-enhanced copy. If you find or buy one, please let me touch it. Just once. Please !

Long Live The King - of Smut !

Harold Robbins was a joy to your mother and father, or maybe even to your grandmother and -father, because he brought dirty books out of the closet and onto their nightstands in the late 1940s and throughout the 50s and 60s. He styled himself as a Jewish orphan raised in a Catholic boys’ home, when in fact he was a nice Jewish boy, ne Harold Rubin, raised by his pharmacist father and stepmother in Brooklyn. It is true that he was a supreme hedonist, a skirt chaser and catcher, a coke head, and a gambler. It’s even true that he gambled with Aristotle Onassis. But, what can you expect from an individual who sold over 750 million books ? And liked the finer things of life ?  Although it’s been said that he - like so many others - squandered his talent by writing what he did, the orgies at his mansions in Beverly Hills, Acapulco, and France, added to his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame must have been a small compensation for the criticism.

Mark Your Calendars. NOW !

And join Greyhound's Books on November 7. We too will be showing a sample from our selection of cookbooks, probably right beside Amber Unicorn's offerings
 
http://vegasvalleybookfestival.org/feasting-on-words/

Captains Courageous

Military fiction series is a genre that drives collectors absolutely mad. There are so many great series, so many mediocre series, and, alas, some really crappy ones. Two of the very best involve Captains - one naval, one ground forces - both  set during the Napoleonic Wars, both written by British authors, and both  having a reverse character development.

Bang Bang. Chitty Chitty

Is Ian Fleming Sean Connery ? Is Sean Connery Ian Fleming ? Is Sean Fleming Julie Andrews, or Dick Van Dyke ?  It doesn’t really matter, because Jack Kennedy read the James Bond books and made Fleming millions of dollars in the United Kingdom, the United States, and worldwide.

Every bookseller in the world loves completeists  - collectors who seek out every edition, printing and variation of every book that their favorite author ever wrote. For Fleming collectors, this is not an insuperable task, but it is a costly one. The first three James Bond books are the killers:

Catalogs are Dandy, but the Internet is quicker !

My apologies to Ogden Nash for the paraphrase !

Here are some interesting internet sites to do research on, and to learn from:

Science Fiction Artists III

Chesley Bonestell (1888-1986) inspired an entire generation of astronomers, artists, writers, engineers and visionaries with his remarkable paintings. Living to the age of 98, he saw the entire scope of manned flight, and himself influenced mankind's push into outer space.Trained as an architect, Bonestell (pronounced BONN-i-stell) lost his first painting of Saturn in the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. Later, as Hollywood's highest paid special effects artist, he worked on such classics as the original “Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “Citizen Kane” through the 1950's “Destination Moon” and “War of the Worlds.”

Science Fiction Artists II

Frank Frazetta   (1928 - 2010) was a versatile and prolific comic book artist who, in the 1940s and ’50s, drew for comic strips like Al Capp’s “Lil’ Abner” and comic books like “Famous Funnies,” for which he contributed a series of covers depicting the futuristic adventurer Buck Rogers.
A satirical advertisement Mr. Frazetta drew for Mad magazine earned him his first Hollywood job, the movie poster for “What’s New Pussycat?” (1965), a sex farce written by Woody Allen that starred Peter Sellers. In 1983 he collaborated with the director Ralph Bakshi to produce the animated film “Fire and Ice.”

Science Fiction Artists I

Recognized as the most prolific and popular Science Fiction artist worldwide, (Frank) Kelly Freas illustrated stories by some of Science Fiction's greatest writers: Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, A. E. Van Vogt, Poul Anderson, and Frederik Pohl, to name just a few. Nominated an unprecedented twenty times, Freas was the first to receive ten Hugo Awards (World Science Fiction "Oscars) for achievement in the field as Best Professional Artist.

Notes from last night's Bookstore 101 Session 2

We discussed book identification, with an emphasis on differentiating between publisher's and book club editions of hardbound books. As usual, I cautioned the participants that "book club" does not necessarily mean "bad book to buy." Bookthink.com sends out a monthly electronic newsletter, and the article below comes from one of their editors. This copyright article re-published by permission:

Exceptions to the Rule:  The Science Fiction Book Club

Was Dexter Sinister ?

Timothy Dexter, born in Malden Massachusetts, was a rather strange, but strangely successful individual. His autobiography, A Pickle for the Knowing Ones, or Plain Truths in a Homespun Dress was one sentence long, and that sentence contained no punctuation marks. A 4th edition of the pamphlet (1848) currently sells for $ 75.00 - $ 350.00, but  you could read this masterwork in a new edition for $15.00 - $ 20.00. Not the first book we would recommend you buy. Or read.

Dead Wood ?

Believe it or not, Ed Wood, known for his movies Plan 9 From Outer Space, Glen or Glenda, and Monster of the Wood, wrote  books that were every bit as bad as his movies. Killer in Drag, is the story of a transvestite assassin who tries to find a sugar daddy to pay for his sex-change operation. Just think, trees died for this!

Here I Am, Take Me or Leave Me !

When the old Polish bookseller in Boston approached my father about "teaching the boy the book trade, because he's kind of smart," I was thrilled. I would no longer have to ask for an advance on my weekly one-dollar allowance to buy my Earl Derr Biggers' "good Chinaman" books or my Sax Rohmer "heathen Chinee" reading matter. What did I know ? I was thirteen years old, learning a trade, and getting paid in books. And all I had to do was work at learning about books. My mother and uncle were hand bookbinders, my dad a hand compositor, and I had learned to run a letter press at age nine, so at least the smells were familiar, and pleasant. I didn't know then about the duck bread. The first day on the job - a Monday after school - I went to Tony's book store and received five dollars. In change. My instructions were clear and simple: "This money is for books and car fare. Bring me back three feet of good history by Friday night, and walk as much as you can. Go to the junk shops and churches. Look for books. Don't argue about price. We'll work a little when you get here on Friday." With a few improvements, that's been my life for the last fifty years.

We Can No Longer Recommend First's Magazine

First's Magazine has been having problems with their guest authors for some time now, and I've generally ignored them. However, the errors contained in this month's issue are so egregious that I am compelled to advise against subscribing, reading, or recommending the magazine any more.  Greyhound's Books has been advertising in the magazine for quite some time, but will do so no longer. An article by an individual named Evan Klein is extremely poorly  researched and misleading as he  feebly attempts to provide values of the science fiction Hugo Award winners. Below are some examples, with 3 prices from reputable dealers, and Klein's guesses:

A Link You Might Have Been Missing

 Gee, there are other good blogs out there !

www.themysteriousbookshop.blogspot.com

A Book for All Places, or A Place in a Book

I was reading Nicholas Basbanes’ Every Book Its Reader, and came across a term I’d never heard of before:  Commonplace Book. Thence this bit of information that you might find to be of worth, and worthwhile doing for yourself.

You can’t tell a book by its cover, but maybe the title would help - or not !

You may not be able to find these in the Valley's bookstores, but you might, so here are reasonable RETAIL prices for these most interesting titles. Christmas gifts, anyone ?

Warfare in the Enemy’s Rear  O. Heilbrunn 1963  $ 20.00  -  $ 40.00
Selected Themes and Icons from Spanish Literature: Of Beards, Shoes, Cucumbers, and Leprosy 
            John Burt  1982     $ 200.00  -  $ 250.00
 What do Bunnies Do All Day ?  J. Mastrangelo 1988   $ 2.00  -  $ 8.00
 The Romance of Proctology  C. Blanton  1938   $ 200.00  -  $ 250.00
 How to Become a Schizophrenic  J. Modrow  1992  $ 20.00  -  $ 30.00
 Teach Yourself Alcoholism  M. Glatt  1975  $ 30.00  -  $ 50.00  (Paperback)
 Nasology; or Hints towards  a Classification of Noses  E. Warwick  1848 
        $ 200.00  -  $ 250.00
 Not Worth Reading  G. Arthur  1938  $ 40.00  -  $ 100.00

Book Facts From History

Homer’s Odyssey contained the earliest instance of a plot flashback.
Xu Shen’s Explaining Words, Analyzing Characters - 100 A.D. - is the first dictionary.
Harn Darn Jun’s Forest of Jokes  - 200 A.D.. - is the first joke book.
The Memoirs of Aratus of Sicyon - 213 B.C. - is the first autobiography.
The longest word that The Bard ever used is: honoroficabilitudinitatibus.

Timelines are always fun !

- October1809  Diedrich Knickerbocker disappears in New York.

One Lump or Two ?

The Grand Vizier of Persia spent a lot of time on the road, or the sand, if you will. He traveled with his 117,000 volume library, and kept it properly organized by training his camels to walk in alphabetical order ! Try that with cats, if you will.

Mysteries solved !

Erle Stanley Gardner learned quite a bit about writing from his reading of “The Youth’s Companion,” a magazine published in the 1930s, by Perry Mason & Company.

Robert B. Parker, author of innumerable mediocre mysteries about Boston PI Spenser pictured his main character as a tough guy who is a knight in shining armor, and named him after the poet Edmund Spenser.

Mickey Spillane, whose wives' charms - read ass- appear on the jackets of many of his books, drew a comic strip featuring detective Mike Danger, that no publisher was interested in. He decided to write a novel, and changed Mike’s surname to Hammer, after Hammer’s Bar and Grille, one of Spillane’s hangouts.

Arthur Conan Doyle, after christening Mr. Holmes as Sherringford, re- baptized him as Sherlock, after a famous violinist of the time, Alfred Sherlock, thence the pervasive droning violin.

John D. MacDonald started writing the wimpy Travis McGee - oops, that’s Dallas McGee,  novels in 1962. Before Dallas appeared in print, President Kennedy was shot in Dallas, and Dallas became Travis, perhaps unwittingly maintaining the Texas connection.

For the Mathematician

If there are ten books on a bookshelf, they can be arranged in 3,628,800 different ways.
If we still lived on the East Coast, it would give us something to do during the winter.

I Still Love Lists

To follow up on the Random House/Modern Library article, I thought you might like to see another list - known as "opposing views from questionable spokesmen & women." On July 21, 1998, the Radcliffe College Publishing Course compiled and released its own list of the century's top 100 novels, at the request of the Modern Library editorial board. Notice the politically correct nature of some of the choices:

The Wonders of Blogging

I know I get a weeeeee bit long-winded, or electroned, so, I've just modified the blog to put in a break,

I LOVE Lists

Random House, publisher of the Modern Library series of books stirred the book business pot in 1998 by making a list of the top 100 books of the 20th Century. After the "100 Best" story first broke in The New York Times on Monday, July 20, 1998, all kinds of opinions about the list - and theories about the Modern Library's purpose in concocting such a contest of sorts - emerged. According to Random House, the goal of the "100 Best" project was to get people talking about great books. And they succeeded beyond their wildest imaginings -- more than 400,000 avid readers rushed online to cast votes for their favorite books and the students of the Radcliffe Publishing Course quickly responded with a rival list.

Random House also conducted two other polls - one for best non-fiction published in the English language since 1900, with a total of 194,829 votes cast. The readers' poll for the best novels published in the English language since 1900 had 217,520 votes cast. I love lists, especially when they provide great hints for great reading. Here's the Random House lists:

Some Bestsellers Aren't So Bad

Being a bestselling book doesn't mean that the book is worthwhile. Since the World started in 1943, when I was born, I though that you might like to see what sold in that most fateful of decades. Some of them are still really good reads. Enjoy !

Cheap Reads Worth Having

Many of our customers want to have a library of worthwhile books that look good too. If you're on a strict budget and a literature reader, we would suggest to you the Reader's Digest -insert a very loud scream here - "The World's Best Reading" series. These are serious literature, not abridged, have credible translations of foreign literature, and extremely high production values - colorful, excellent bindings and illustrations - plus they include a four page biographical insert on the author. They're built to last, and considering the books' quality, could even become heirlooms. And, they're quite reasonably priced on the used market.

Gastronomy is not "Rumbly in the Tummy"

Even though Winnie the Pooh might say so. One of our colleagues is also a Chef - a real chef, not just a cook. Another of our colleagues has the best selection of cookbooks in Las Vegas, but we're running hard after her, and gaining. When we put our snob suits on, we refer to cooking books as "Books on Gastronomy."
I'm a plain, home cook, and very much enjoy reading, as do all other cookbook collectors, cookbooks. There are two wonderful magazine hardbound annual editions that are just the thing for those of us who don't like their food to look like somebody put their fingers all over the minute portions of whatever current weird veggie disguised under an Italian version of its name, or some strange fish name that most of us know as tuna fish. We recommend:

The Taste of Home annuals, and
The Cook's Illustrated annuals

if you cook like me. If not, we still recommend them. Buon Appetito !

Absolutely Amazing Technique - and Writing

Why would I evidence ANY interest at all in a current mystery author, especially one who writes noir, or hard-boiled mysteries ? Because Charlie Huston has a great hook: the way he writes dialog. No “Jack said,” “Mary responded,”, no he-said-she-said. He uses long dashes, not “-” or “--” but ¼ inch or 3/8 inch dashes. And it works, dammit. All prices below are for fine condition first editions in fine condition dust jackets, as available. However, I expect that one of the major book clubs will publish a 3-in-1 fairly soon, and this should be the first hardbound edition, thus.

Phil the Idiot & Another Idiot !

I do buy books for my collections, upon occasion, off the Internet. The Internet Idiot below listed a book I wanted, so I tried to buy the book below:
Ghost Brigades First
Edition. Hard Cover. New/As New.

The book arrived, and it was not right.

Here’s the e-mail exchange that I had to go through:

Internet Idiots - One of Many

We do not sell on line - I'm too lazy, like the education customers give us, and want our clients to be able to handle the books before they buy them. There are, unfortunately, a large number of idiots out there on the Internet who are selling books, but not necessarily the ones they advertise for sale. Which of these dealers would you buy from ?

The Internet Idiots.
Which dealer would you buy from ?