More James Bond Collectables

Here's some recent additions to my James Bond collection.

The first is a 7 inch vinyl single of Rita Coolidge performing "All Time High".  This was the theme song for the 1983 Bond film "Octopussy" starring Roger Moore and Maud Adams.   Last November I purchased a 7 inch single of the rival (non-EON) Bond film from the same year, "Never Say Never Again" performed by Lani Hall.  I'm very pleased to now have both of these singles in my vinyl collection.

The second addition is a dust wrapper for the UK book club edition (BCE) of Ian Fleming's "Thunderball" published in 1961.  Another Australian Bond collector had this dust wrapper for sale and I quickly snapped it up.  I have several BCE copies of "Thunderball" however one was damaged by silverfish a few years ago, so now I have a replacement copy.  Hopefully silverfish won't damage this wrapper as well.

New Secondhand Bookshop Open

It's not uncommon for me to write about an oft visited book store that has just permanently closed.  So it was great to recently discover a new secondhand book shop in Prahran.

Snailfish Independent Book Store on Greville Street, just off Chapel, has been trading for a few months now.   I spoke to the owner, Nathan, and he was very enthusiastic about his books and business.  He explained that he plans to concentrate on stocking political, art and fiction titles while also saving books from ending up in landfill.

After a brief chat I had a wander through the two rooms of book shelves.  I managed to find two Ian Fleming titles, a nice Pan Books - Raymond Hawkey series copy of "Thunderball" from the 1960's and a 2019 copy of "Casino Royale" from Arcturus Publishing Group. 

I wish Nathan every success with Snailfish and I plan to visit again soon.

Christmas Break Book Hunt

During the warmer weather around Christmas my wife and I like to head to the beach for a day-trip when we can.  The Mornington Peninsula has some of the best beaches in Victoria and the town of Mornington is one place we always like to visit.

There are three book shops in Mornington.  Farrell's Bookshop, an independent general book store selling new books, and two secondhand book stores; Chapter House Books and Books By The Bay.

Last time we visited Chapter House Books there was a sign on the front window that read "Business For Sale".  On this visit I was pleased to see the sign gone and the store full of customers.  As always the store was well stocked and neatly organised but sadly no books for me.

Next we visited Books By The Bay but again it was closed.  We always seem to pick the wrong day to drop by.

For lunch we drove to Hastings where we stopped by a busy op-shop.  They had a couple of Bond related titles too.

Then we called by the Tyabb Packing House Antiques.  Unfortunately it turns out the entire book section has gone.  They used to have a designated section just for Bond titles but alas no more.

On our return trip to suburbia we stopped at a large Vinnies op-shop in Moorabbin I'd read about on-line.  And as the review had promised the place was huge and there were heaps of books.  I found a few Bond adventures but no luck as I had them all.  Still, I will return with fingers crossed next time.

No new additions to my collection from this book hunt, however the beach we visited on the Mornington Peninsula was too nice not to include a few pics here...