A Sign Of The Times

A couple of weeks ago I travelled to three second hand bookshops, on the continual hunt for more James Bond books to add to my collection.

First was Roycroft Antiquarian Booksellers in Kew.  I hadn't stepped into this store since late last year.  And it was great to see plenty of Bonds on the shelves, but unfortunately there were none for me today.

Next my wife and I travelled to Bradstreet's Books in Hawthorn.  I remember speaking to the woman behind the counter last year and she explained they would be closing due to the building being re-developed.  I didn't realise it would be so soon. Sadly it is no more.

Before...

Now.

Finally, I visited Sinbad Books in Carnegie.  I've been visiting this store for years but never really spoken to the owner, Rashad, until today.

I asked him about the usual pile of Bond paperbacks near the front counter.  All sold.  And looking around the store I could see there was something going on.  The stock in the store was dramatically reduced and several bookshelves were gone.  Rashad explained that after 20 years it was time to shut the doors for good; a sign of the times in the book trade.

So while this store exists today, with plenty of books on sale, unfortunately it won't be for much longer.  

I wished Rashad good luck in his future endeavours, and after mentioning PizGloria.com I gave him a card for my site which he said he was looking forward to visiting.  And with a sad heart I grabbed a couple more photos, including this one of Rashad, before leaving Sinbad Books for the last time.

My Wife Finds A Gem

My wife travelled to Hobart on Wednesday for work.  She had a very busy two days but fortunately for me she had enough spare time during one of her lunch breaks to visit a book store on my behalf.  Cracked And Spineless is one of my favourite secondhand book stores in Tassie and always has a few James Bond books on its shelves.

On the day my wife visited there were several Ian Fleming novels on the shelves.  So she sent me a photo and then a call.

For some reason I didn't receive the photo immediately so she ran through them over the phone. I kept saying "Yep, got that" and "Got that"... But when she mentioned the "Thunderball" movie tie-in and said it was in really good condition I knew it must be great.

So she bought it for me and here it is.  Pan Books, 14th printing, 1965 and looking as square and bright as the day it was published.  The spine is perfect as the book has never been read.  Definitely a gem of a copy, thanks to my fantastic wife.

Ps. Yes, I did check for a copy of the Domino letter but it's absent.  However it was only an after-thought anyway

Brother Finds A "Dr No" Hardback

I received a couple of text pictures from my brother the other weekend.  He was visiting the Mornington Peninsula (here in Victoria) and happened to stop at Frankston where he noticed a secondhand book store.

The first photo he sent was of a number of James Bond paperbacks.  From the spines I could see I had a copy of all of the covers so I didn't need to know more about them.

But my brother had also noticed a Jonathan Cape copy of Ian Fleming's "Dr No" on the same shelf and had sent me a photo of that book alone.

I immediately rang him to find out the price.  He asked the store owner who told him $80.  However the owner then said he'd take $40.  Wow... bargain!

I queried my brother about the printing details.  He told me it was a 2nd edition published in 1958.  He also couldn't find any obvious ex-library markings.  So I asked him to buy it for me.  

I'm not 100% certain the dust jacket is original (it looks pretty good in the photo) but I still think the book is a great bargain regardless.  Now I just have to catch up with my brother, pay him and check out the book myself.  Thanks bro.

City Book Hunt + North By Northwest

I apologise for my tardiness in writing blog entries this year.  It's been a busy year so far and I probably haven't spent enough time on this blog or PizGloria.com.

I did however visit the City a couple of weeks ago with my wife. 

We visited a few stores (including the book stores shown below), had a fantastic Japanese dinner at Fed Square and then attended a stage play version of "North By Northwest".  And I have to say the stage play was brilliant.  I wondered how they were going to do the Mt. Rushmore scenes, the train, the crop duster biplane and the corn fields... and yet they pulled it off remarkably well.  If you ever get a chance you have to see this stage show !

Alright, getting back to the book hunt.  As usual we visited City Basement Books.  Not as many Bond books as usual which is actually a good sign as it means they're making sales.  Looking forward to visiting this store again soon.

We then visited Dymocks.  I was after copies of the Charlie Higson "Young Bonds" with the new Young Bond logo but I already had the copies on the shelf.

Next up we visited Fed Square where the Saturday Book Market was being held.  We both had a look but neither of us found a single Bond novel which was unusual.  Previously there were always plenty of ex-library hard backs for sale.

Finally we visited Hill Of Content and then The Paperback Store but alas there were no Bond books on my wanted list.  So instead we returned to the Arts Centre where we settled down to watch the aforementioned stage play.

First Book Hunt Of The Year

I haven't visited many second hand book stores this year.  So last Sunday my wife and I thought we'd make a visit to one of my regular haunts; Abra Card Abra - Roycroft Antiquarian Booksellers in Kew.  To avoid making the same mistake as us though you should know that Roycroft have changed their opening hours; they're no longer open on Sundays.  We found out the hard way !

We then made our way to Glenferrie Road in Hawthorn where we visited Readings book store.  This store sells new books and I hoped they may have a copy of Charlie Higson's '"Hurricane Gold" with the new Young Bond logo.

They did, however the cover didn't meet to my very fussy requirements.  Looks like my search continues...

 

They did have a number of other Bond related books including these two below.

And while in Hawthorn it's hard to resist Haigh's chocolates just a few doors down.  We bought a bag of freckled chocolate buttons and they tasted great.

Another Young Bond Purchased

Last Thursday night I visited Thesaurus Bookstore in Brighton as it's open till 6pm on weekdays.

A quick check of the Young Adult readers section revealed a copy of Charlie Higson's "By Royal Command" featuring the new "Young Bond" logo.  These books are hard to find in good condition because the covers are easily scratched so I snapped this one up fast.

I now have four books in this Young Bond series featuring the new logo, with just one to go.

Waterstones Trigger Mortis Edition Arrives

I received another copy of Anthony Horowitz's "Trigger Mortis" in the mail last week.

This first edition hardback was excusively released by the UK book store chain Waterstones and has two features which distinguishes it from the standard first edition of the same book: 1) The dust jacket is black instead of silver, and 2) there are extra pages at the back to include a reproduced draft TV treatment by Ian Fleming titled "Murder On Wheels".  Some of this original material by Fleming was woven into the "Trigger Mortis" story by Horowitz.

This is now the third hardback copy of this book in my collection.  The other two are the Goldsboro Edition (which I have written about previously) and the standard hardback.  All of these are UK printings.  I did happen to see several US versions available for sale at Singapore Airport recently but all the dust jackets were damaged around the spine so I decided not to buy one.

Finally, here's the three hard backs together.

Piz Gloria Website Launched Four Years Ago Today

Four years ago today PizGloria.com was launched on the web, and amazingly during those four years the site has had over 12,000 visitors !  In fact in 2015 alone there were almost 4,000 visitors which is 1,000 more than any previous year.  I hope changes made to the site over the last 12 months, including the addition of the Next and Previous buttons to each page, have made the site easier to use and more enjoyable.

As usual here is a brief analysis of the stats below:
- The average number of pages viewed per visit increased to 7 in 2015 from 3 in 2014
- The overall number of pageviews for 2015 was almost the total of the previous 3 years combined (just 12,000 less)
- The average time spent on the site during a visit in 2015 was 3:30 minutes which was 1 minute more on average than 2014.  Only 2012 had a better average with 4:40 minutes per visit/session

Year 1 - Jan 24, 2012 to Jan 23, 2013

 

Year 2 - Jan 24, 2013 to Jan 23, 2014

Year 3 - Jan 24, 2014 to Jan 23, 2015

Year 4 - Jan 24, 2015 to Jan 23, 2016

 

Finally, thanks for visiting both the Collecting Piz Gloria blog and the PizGloria.com website. Your continued support is greatly appreciated.

600 James Bond Paperbacks Reached !

After purchasing a copy of Kingsley Amis' "Colonel Sun" on Saturday, newly reprinted in the UK by Vintage, this book brought the total number of Bond novels in my collection to 600!  An amazing figure if I say so myself and a great continuation novel too.