Melbourne Book Market At The QV

According to a recent survey the Queen Victoria Market has become the top attraction of tourists visiting Melbourne.  Last Sunday my wife and I visited Shed A at the QV where the Melbourne Book Market takes place over the Summer months.  While exploring each of the book stalls we managed to find a number of Bond novels but unfortunately there were no new ones for my collection.

Here's some photos of the book fair anyway:

The QV Melbourne Book Market is on every Sunday until April 14, from 10am to 4pm, and is well worth a visit.

And finally, on a funny note I noticed this ad for a clothes washing detergent at the local supermarket yesterday.

"Diamonds Are Forever" Arrives

Yesterday I received this copy of "Diamonds Are Forever" in the mail.  It was published by Hutchinson in 1989.  I already have a copy in my collection however as these type of books are used for educational purposes my original copy was ex-library and so a bit worn. When I found this new copy available on-line at a very cheap price I thought I'd buy it as a replacement.

I have a number of educational books in my collection I'd like to replace due to their covers being badly creased or laminated, so this is just the start.  I'll try and scan this cover and add it to PizGloria.com as soon as possible.  Please click here to see other Ian Fleming titles published by Hutchinson.

Visit To Howard Bolton Bookseller

Yesterday I made a visit to Howard Bolton Bookseller in Northcote.

On entry I found Howarf standing on a ladder organising some books on a high shelf.  He immediately recognised me, smiled and said "Hi".

After he descended he asked about how the PizGloria.com website was going and showed me a copy of "The Man With The Golden Typewriter" for sale, displayed in his glass front counter.

Obviously I took a look at the Fleming section of his books and took this photo.  Unfortunately I had all the books this time.

It was only a quick visit but it was great to catch up with Howard again.  No luck this time but I'm always optimistic of picking up another book on my next visit.

Piz Gloria Website Launched 007 Years Ago Today

Today is the 007th anniversary of the launch of PizGloria.com.  Oh how time flies !  It seems like only yesterday I was sitting in a restaurant with my wife explaining to her what I imagined my website would look like, but not knowing how I'd go about creating it.  Somehow I jumped that hurdle and got a website up.

A quick visit to Google Analytics reveals the following statistics about PizGloria.com:

- During the last seven years there have been 20,478 visitors

- Almost 210,000 pages have been viewed

- The average visitor spends 3:22 minutes on the website

- On average each visitor views 6 different pages during their visit (this is a weird one because it's pages per session and each visitor has 1.71 sessions per visit)

I'm so pleased that people are still visiting my website and using it as a reference for their own James Bond collections, or just because they are curious.  I still have ideas on how I can improve the website.  Adding the "Tour Covers By Publishers" buttons last year was a start but there's more I'd like to do if I had the time.  However at the end of the day it's the book authors (especially Mr Fleming), cover artists and publishers who deserve the most gratitude, because it's their hard work on display here and I am just a mere collector.

Thankyou everyone for taking the time to visit both this blog and the PizGloria.com website. Your continued support is greatly appreciated.

Cheers Baz

Congratulations Fully Booked On 16 Years !

No visit to Thornbury is complete without a visit to the secondhand book store Fully Booked.  This store always has a wide variety of books and new stock every visit.  So when I was in the area today I knew I had to quickly drop in and see how Rallou and Tadhg, the two owners, were travelling.

As I entered the store both were standing behind the counter, smiling and chatting to a customer.  They greeted me with a smile as I said "Hi" and made my way to the "Spy Fi" section near the back.

 

There I found the following James Bond novels for sale...

In the movie section I checked out their large Bond section which included a few titles I'd not seen on Australian shelves before.

After perusing the books I returned to the front of the store.  There I had a chance to chat with Rallou and Tadhg myself and during the conversation they disclosed that today they were celebrating the store's 16th anniversary.  So again I'd like to give a huge congratulations on their first 16 years, and well wishes for many more.  Well done guys !
R

Autographed Photo

I know there are a lot of James Bond fans out there who dislike the film "Never Say Never Again", however I personally enjoy it.  My only reservations are (1) the slow underwater ending (obviously "Thunderball" also suffers this same fate) and (2) the lack of the official James Bond theme music (however I do like the Lani Hall theme song).

So I was rapt the other day to purchase and then receive this photograph signed by Barbara Carrera.  Fatima Blush is definitely one of my favourite villians of all the Bond films and I especially like this shot with Kim Basinger and Sean Connery.

Finally, if you're reading this and your occupation is to authenticate autographs please don't tell me this signature is a fake.  I'd be very disappointed !

Melbourne Movie Market - Astor Theatre

A couple of weeks ago I visited the Astor Theatre in St Kilda for the Melbourne Movie Market.  The indoor market has numerous stalls selling film related items and has existed for around two years.  Last December my wife and I even held a stall there.

But this Saturday I was there purely as a potential customer, on the hunt for Bond.  There were over 20 stalls and I managed to find two Sean Connery signed photos, a "You Only Live Twice" film programme, model cars, two laser discs and a VHS tape.

However the only thing I purchased was this daybill of "Moonraker".  This is the second daybill of this film I own, however the other has a white border.

The Melbourne Movie Market seems to occur at least twice a year so if you get a chance I definitely recommend the $5 entry fee to visit.