Visit To Read Heeler Bookshop, Echuca

My parents love visiting Echuca.  The historic town is located on the Murray River and is an easy three hour drive from Melbourne.

The town has a rich history and one major draw card are the many paddle steamers that take tourists along the Murray, cruising the border between Victoria and New South Wales.

The town has several antique stores that sell books, as well as the Read Heeler Bookshop.   Full credit to David, the owner of this bookshop, because his store seems to constantly turnover stock, including James Bond novels.

As usual my parents visited this store last week and sent me the following photos:

A book club edition of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" with a really nice dust jacket

Two Triad Girls On Guns covers and a Pan White Series

A first edition Jonathan Cape "Octopussy" unfortunately minus it's dust jacket

And finally another book club edition, this time "Thunderball", again with a really nice dust jacket

The following photo is actually an enlargement of a section of the photo above showing some other books including a Popular Penguins Series of "Casino Royale".  I love looking at books in the background of photos to see what surprises might appear

After speaking to my folks on the phone I asked them to purchase the two book club editions as well as the Jonathan Cape.  David also very kindly threw in the Girls On Guns copy of "Dr No".

So my parents have since returned from their short break and I've added the books to my collection.  I even took a photo of all my book club editions.

And it was then that I realised I'm still missing "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Goldfinger".  I'm not sure how this has occurred.  I've seen so many copies of the book club edition of "Goldfinger" for sale during my travels but never thought to buy a copy because I was so sure I already had it.  Oh well, looks like I've got some more books to collect...

The Great Collectors Heaven Fair 2018

The Great Collectors Heaven Fair took place a couple of weeks ago.  So early that Sunday morning I lined up outside the Malvern Town Hall with tens of other people on the hunt for collectables... in my case James Bond books.

While scouring the stalls I noticed many Bond toys, swap cards and even daybill posters for sale. Fortunately there were three stalls selling Bond paperbacks.  Here's some photos of the books:

Yes, those books are on the floor in the last photo.  But fear not because the Still Life series version of "Moonraker" on the right was in such good condition that I purchased it anyway.  It was a slightly better version than the copy I already had in my collection.

James Bond Box Set Arrives

For some time now I've been searching for a Toby McFarlan Pond "Abstract Art Series" box set published by Penguin in 2004.  A few weeks ago I noticed an unopened set for sale on the internet for a great price.  So I purchased it and today it arrived in the mail.

The seller was located in the US, and despite the set having to travel half-way around the world it was really well packaged and arrived undamaged.  From a rough mental count this is my eighth box set of James Bond novels, but the hunt continues for more...

Weekend In The City

I've just spent a relaxing weekend in the City with my wife.  Although 'relaxing' probably isn't the most appropriate word to use considering we rarely sat down.  We spent one night with some friends, visited the optical illusions ArtVo, walked around the City, ate at some great restaurants and attended the closing night of the Melbourne Comedy Festival.

On Saturday we visited the Astor Movie Market where I saw a few nice Bond items for sale, although I didn't purchase anything.

Yesterday (Sunday) we visited the Dymocks store on Collins Street.  There were plenty of Bond novels on the shelves although no copies of the "Casino Royale" that cross promotes the new Bond novel by Anthony Horowitz "Forever And A Day".  I'll have to keep my eyes open closer to the release date.  It was also good to see some major work being done on improving the store.

We also visited City Basement Books.  They had a Cape hardback version of Gardner's "For Special Sevices" and a paperback Faulk's "Devil May Care".

Finally, here's a couple more snaps of Melbourne...

Etihad Stadium in the Docklands

The Yarra looking toward the lights of the MCG (an AFL game was in progress)

The Town Hall clocktower from our hotel window

Looking toward Bolte Bridge, again in the Docklands

A Sad Visit To Northcote

On Friday afternoon I drove to Northcote to visit a couple of secondhand book stores on High Street; Allsorts Secondhand Books and Brown & Bunting Booksellers.

While I parked the car I noticed a sign on the front window of Allsorts.  As I walked toward the store the sign became more obvious - "For Lease".  Allsorts Secondhand Books has closed.

I couldn't believe it.  Not even a book shelf remained.

I last visited Allsorts back in October last year.  The shop was full of books, and Paul was sitting behind his counter reading, always ready to offer assistance at a moment's notice.

Here's some photos from last October.  I could only find these two Bonds on the shelves.

Allsorts was a great book store.  It had a huge variety of books and they were disorganised enough to offer hope that you might find a gem or two after a bit of book shuffling.  Many years ago I found this Pan misprint copy of "On Her Majestys Secret Service" in this very shop (sorry, I know I've mentioned this book before but I wouldn't have this book if not for Allsorts Books).

Sadly this book store is no more.  But I'm sure every person who visited found a great book or has fond memories.

Here's a few more photos I've downloaded from earlier posts on this blog.  Here's Paul...

And here's a couple of snaps of inside the store...

Thankyou Paul.  I trust you are well and wish you all the best for the future.

As I said I also visited Brown & Bunting Booksellers.  As you can see there were a few Bonds on the shelf and I upgraded my copy of the Triad-Granada version of "Diamonds Are Forever".

Just as a late addition to this blog post, today I found this article published in April 2013 on a site called Weekend Notes about Allsorts Secondhand Books.  It's very complementary

Ferny Creek Collectables And Book Fair - Easter 2018

I have just left the Seventh Annual Ferny Creek Collectables and Book Fair in the Dandenongs and am sitting in my car in the carpark writing this post before returning home.

I arrived at 9am and immediately started browsing among the many stalls inside the hall.  Along with books the stalls also sell trading cards, souvenirs, jewellery, clothes, toys, comics... and I even saw some rear lights from a 1950's car.  Basically you name it it's probably here.

In my hunt for James Bond collectables I managed to find a couple of paperbacks as well as three Ian Fleming - Jonathan Capes, one of which was a "Dr No" first.  I purchased the copy of "Moonraker" shown.  It's a Re-Issued copy from 1958.

Here's some more snaps I took.  The fair continues today until 4pm and then tomorrow from 9am to 4pm.  Happy hunting!