A Visit To The Northern Suburbs

I'm currently sitting in a restaurant with my wife and a friend awaiting our meals after spending a few hours visiting book stores in the City's north.

Earlier today I dropped my wife and our friend in the City for a girls day out before making my way to the book stores.  I started with Sainsbury's Books in Carlton just near Uni of Melbourne.

 

Not a great start though.  As I arrived I could see a green "Auction" sign covered in "Sold" above the overhanging shop eave clearly indicating the two storey book store's fate weeks prior.   And a "Closing Down Sale" sign on the shop-front window had been brazenly daubed in graffiti. 

In the past I had purchased several Bond paperbacks from this store.  It was comprised of small rooms, each containing a different category of books.  The Crime section was in the room at the top of the stairs.  They always had a few Bonds, and despite how well organised the store was I was always optimistic of finding a gem placed on the wrong shelf.

I snapped a few photos today for posterity, and through the window I even noticed a sign above a doorway guiding people to rooms of books now absent.
Fortunately a second Sainsbury's Books store still exists in Camberwell but it was sad to see another second-hand book store closed.

 

The second store I visited was Alice's Bookshop.  I was glad to see this store still open.  As always it was well organised and the staff friendly.  I searched the Crime section and while doing so the girl behind the counter checked the books on the front table and computer inventory without luck.

I did manage to find a copy of Charlie Higson's "Blood Fever" with an embossed cover I'm not 100% sure I have.

On asking about other second-hand book stores in the area the girl directed me to The Red Wheelbarrow.  I'd never heard of this second-hand book store before so off I drove.

 

As soon as I entered The Red Wheelbarrow the guy behind the desk, Paul, stopped his conversation with two other people to ask if I needed a hand.  There were many Bond paperbacks on the shelf and I just wanted to make sure it was Ok to take some snaps of them and the store.  He asked why and when I told him it was for this blog he said "No probs".

 

This is a really neat little store with a wide variety of books.  Paul also directed me to the art gallery at the back of the store.  I've never seen a gallery in a second-hand book store before.

 

No new books for my collection today however I did discover a book store I never even knew existed.

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And now for some more photos I snapped today:

 

The Red Wheelbarrow book store is just a few hundred metres from the discontinued Inner Circle Railway line.  Above are remnants of an old railway crossing.  The land reserve has been converted to a shared walking/bike path.

Graffiti on the side of an apartment block on the other side of the road. 

A view of Kay Craddock's Antiquarian Bookseller store in the City while waiting to pick up the girls from the theatre. Unfortunately I didn't make it in time to pay it a visit. 

 

Another Financial Bond

Last week I posted an entry about a finance magazine one of my workmate's had received in the mail that included some photos of Sean Connery as Bond. The article discussed financial bonds, thus the link.  Now strangely in the same month I've found another finance magazine with a link to Bond.  This time the cover of "Self Managed Super" (Issue 007 nonetheless!) features one of the most famous Bond motifs... a scene from the opening gun barrel sequence.  Here's a photo of the cover:

Ps.  I've checked the entire magazine and there's no acknowledgement of copyright of the cover image.  That seems strange.

A Visit To Camberwell Market

On Sunday I visited Camberwell Market with my wife to check out a Bond paperback.  I knew I'd probably already have the book but I had to check it out anyway.  So I arrived with fingers crossed !

The week before I'd visited Sainsbury's Books in the same suburb.  I checked out the well stocked shelves but unfortunately found only one Bond - "Carte Blanche" by Jeffery Deaver. 

 

As I was leaving I got chatting to John behind the counter.  After a few clicks he checked the store inventory on the computer and then told me they definitey had no Bond hardbacks in stock. 

John then told me he thought he had a Bond paperback for sale.  I was a bit confused, but he explained he had a stall at the local market every Sunday "rain, hail or shine" and thought there was one in a box.

So on Sunday we visited the market.  We walked up and down each of the long isles, weaving through the large crowds looking for John's stall.  After 15 minutes we found it and I said "Hi" to John again.  He found the Bond book in one of his boxes and while my crossed fingers hadn't worked I still snapped a photo.  I also took a photo of John and his stand.  As you can see he has plenty of books so be sure to check out his stand sometime.

I also snapped this photo as I was leaving of another stall selling books.  There were plenty of other stalls selling books too.

Yarragon Book Fair & Red Door Book Shop Again

Today my wife and I attended the annual Book Fair in Yarragon, as we have for the past three years.  This year we were also accompanied by her parents for the hour-and-a-half drive to the small country town situated on the Princes Highway.

When we arrived it wasn't hard to notice the fair was on, so after an early lunch at a bakery cafe on the main street we made our way by foot to the hall.

Inside as usual there were hundreds of books for sale with prices from $1 to $4 each.  All books were second-hand or remainders and the majority were in great condition.

Unfortunately we found no Bond paperbacks or hardbacks in the main hall, however while in the adjoining building containing almost as many books my wife noticed two copies (shown below) of Sebastian Faulk's "Devil May Care".

We also discovered what happened to all those copies of Dan Brown's novels that were highly popular back in the noughties!

After spending over an hour in the book fair we found no Bond's to purchase, however in total we bought 11 reading books at $1 each.

Then it was time to visit Peter at the Yarragon Book Shop.  We walked past the old steam train as we made our way to his store...

... and then to our dismay we discovered it was gone.  Yarragon Book Shop is no more.

Here's a photo of the store just a year ago.  And this is the blog entry I wrote at the time.

We made our way back to the car and on our journey home stopped at the Red Door Book Shop in Warragul.

Wayne was behind his counter covering a dust jacket with plastic film as I entered the store.  He imediately asked if he could help and when I mentioned Bond he smiled as he recognised me and asked how the PizGloria website was going.  His store is so well organised and well stocked and he is also very knowledgeable about books.  We talked about the Yarragon book fair, Yarragon Book Shop, books and Bond and then he apologised because he didn't think his Bond stock had changed since last visit.  I had a look anyway and snapped these photos:

 

He was right, no new Bond books in his store, but it was great to briefly catch up with Wayne again.  I bid him farewell and told him I'd be back again next year. 

And if you're travelling along Princes Highway past Warragul don't forget to visit this great second-hand book store.  It's just on the left as you enter the town with the tall red door, has a big selection of titles all reasonably priced, and a friendly Wayne behind the counter.

Financial Bond

A copy of the financial magazine "In The Black" landed of one of my workmate's desks today.  And after Sharon had flicked through a couple pages she said she'd found an article I might be interested in.  Now I'm not normally one to pick up magazines about finance but the article she pointed out was about financial bonds, and accompanying the text were some photos... of Sean Connery as Bond.

Now I know we've all seen photos of James Bond in a book, magazine or on TV where there was little relevance to the character himself (in this case the only link was the word "bonds" and "Bond"), however this article featured three photos of Mr Connery.

So I was wondering, as three photos were included in the article, does this mean stills from early Bond films are now cheaper to purchase as stock images? Perhaps there was an offer at the time: buy one... get three?  Or finally is there a Bond fan at the "In The Black" offices?  Regardless the article got my attention.

Here's some photos:

U.S. Copy Of Solo Arrives

I received another copy of William Boyd's "Solo" in the mail today.  This edition, published by Harper Perennial in the U.S., is the fourth copy of "Solo" I own in paperback form.  It's also the first addition to my collection in several months.

Free Trip To Piz Gloria

Recently I was contacted by a James Bond fan after he visited the PizGloria.com website.  Tony told me he enjoyed the site, and also that he has been a Bond fan since first seeing the movies and reading the books as a teenager.

Last year he travelled to Europe with his wife and while there visited Schilthorn and Piz Gloria.  Fortunately for us he took a video of his trip and has just added it to YouTube accompanied by his own music.

With Tony's kind permission I have added the clip below.  So sit back, click on the play arrow below (or here), and get ready to travel the cable car to Piz Gloria (for free).

Apologies

Apologies for not adding any entries to this blog recently but my wife and I are currently enduring house renovations.  If you're interested here's a photo of our house from a couple of weeks ago.  As our roof is being modified I decided to move my books into plastic containers to keep them safe.  Consequently that, along with my wife's enforcement of budgetary constraints, has led to very few Bond paperback purchases lately.

There was one recent book purchase though.  I managed to find a Jonathan Cape first edition of "Colonel Sun" by Robert Markham.  Unfortunately the dust-jacket has been attacked by silverfish but the book itself is in great condition and the price was too good to refuse.

Artistic Licence Renewed Field Report

A few weeks ago the great website Artistic Licence Renewed asked if I would consider submitting a Field Report.  The question was a no brainer and I immediately replied yes.

I was sent a list of standard Field Report questions followed by one specific to PizGloria.com: "What do you consider to be the ten most collectable (paperback) covers?".  It took me a while to whittle my list down to ten and I'm sure not everyone would agree with my cover selections, but the list is on the Artistic Licence Renewed site now for all to see.

"Solo" Purchased

This weekend I purchased a copy of the new edition of William Boyd's novel "Solo" for my collection. My wife and I travelled to a number of new book stores before we found a suitable copy on the shelves of the Dymocks City store.

 

Following a tram down Chapel Street on our way to Dymocks.  Unfortunately the copy in this store had a slightly bumped spine.

Similar covers just a shelf apart.

The copy of "Solo" I purchased in the City.

A couple more photos of the Dymocks City store.

An in-store promotion for another William Boyd novel.

New Edition Of "Solo" Available

While shopping with my wife today I visited a Dymocks Book Store.  There I discovered the latest edition of "Solo" by William Boyd, published by Vintage Books, available on the shelves.  Unfortunately I'm a very picky collector and couldn't find a copy without a bumped spine so another addition to my Bond bookcase will have to wait. Hopefully I can find a good copy soon but for now here's a photo of the book on the store shelf.  Like the cover.