European Vacation - Ireland - Dublin

My wife and I have just kicked off our European holiday which will include four countries in five weeks.  We're also stopping in Singapore on the way home for a couple of nights.

First stop is Dublin.  To get to know the city we took a hop on-hop off tour which obviously, being Ireland, included a lot of literary locations and birth places.

Near the end of the tour we hopped off at The Winding Stair on Ormond Quay Lower.  They had a small section of second-hand books but no Bonds.

We then walked over the River Liffer via the Ha'penny Bridge to Oxfam Books on Parliament Street.  The staff inside were very helpful but unfortunately no Bonds here either.  They did direct me to other book stores though.

Next stop was The Gutter Bookshop also in Temple Bar.  This store sells new books.

We then made our way to Connelly Books on Essex Street.  This is in The New Theatre.  They have a small selection of second-hand books but again I couldn't find any Bonds.  They seem to be very popular here in Dublin.

We then went for a longer walk and somehow ended up at Ulysses Rare Books on Duke Street.  They currently have no Fleming's in stock but the store looked great and the staff were very helpful.  They also directed me to some other book stores.

Hodges Figgis sells new books and is just around the corner from Ulysses Rare Books on Dawson Street.  They had heaps of Bond's in stock including a copy of the just released Young Bond novel "Red Nemesis" by Steve Cole, along with all the other books in this series.

On Grafton Street we walked past Dubray which sells new books.

We also saw Eason which sold new books too.

And finally we made our way to the George's Street Arcade where Stokes Books can be found.  They had lots of second-hand books but unfortunately no Bonds.

While travelling around Dublin I also took a few photos.  Here's some of them.

I also noticed this Bond related advertisement too...

"Silverfin" Special Edition Arrives

I recently purchased a copy of "Silverfin" by Charlie Higson from John Cox of "The Book Bond" fame.  John is currently selling a number of books in his collection.  The book arrived in the post today.

This copy of "Silverfin" has "Special Edition" printed on the back cover.  The book was published in 2006 by Miramax Books (Hyperion Paperbacks) in the US.

John also included a couple of other Bond related cards in the package too which was very kind of him.

South Australian Holiday - Part 2 of 2

As mentioned in my last blog entry my wife and I visited South Australia in October of last year.  After visiting Adelaide we then spent a few days on Kangaroo Island (KI).

On our way to catching the ferry to KI we first stopped at The Book Room in Myponga. Ian has been running this store (next to The Spare Room) since March 2016.  There's plenty of books for sale so it's a great place to pickup a holiday read prior to travelling to KI.  On this day I picked up these three Ian Fleming Great Pans which were in excellent condition.

Next stop was Yankalilla Book Exchange, another book store to pick up some great holiday reading.  Plenty of books in the back room but on the day I visited there were no Bonds.  It's good to see a book exchange still around.  I don't see many of these in Melbourne anymore.

We continued on toward Cape Jervis and easily made it in time to catch the ferry to KI.

 

 

We spent two nights on Kangaroo Island and found it very relaxing.  There are so many beautiful sights it would have been easy to have spent a week there.  The weather was great too.

 

 

 

After returning from KI we spent another night in Adelaide before beginning the drive home.  First stop was Chapter Two Books in Stirling, the Adelaide Hills.  It's a nice little store with quality books.

Just a few minutes walk away is The Book Shed.  This "shed" contains a huge range of second hand books.  They're all really well organised on aisles of shelves that seem to go on forever.  This is the second time I've been here and every time I walk in I have to remember I'm not in a library !

Here's a snap from the car as we were driving home via the Western Hwy.

On our way from Melbourne to Adelaide we passed Ararat Books And Collectables but didn't have time to stop.  However on our return journey, with a little more time up our sleeves, we were able to stop and take a look inside.  Marion, the owner, wasn't there at the time but her husband was.  We spoke for a while about the many books (and records) they were selling, and I bought two books: a Jonathan Cape "Thrilling Cities" by Ian Fleming with a really nice pink spine, and "The Man Who Saved Britain" by Simon Winder.  If you're travelling between Melbourne and Adelaide anytime in the future be sure to allocate time for a stop at this store in Ararat.  It may prove very worthwhile for you too.

Our trip to South Australia was five months ago now but my wife and I still talk about it often.  If you ever go to Kangaroo Island, don't stay for just two nights.  It deserves at least three... no four nights.  And Adelaide is a book collectors delight.  I highly recommend visiting all the stores mentioned in this and the previous blog entries too.

BTW: If you're interested this wasn't our first trip to South Australia.  Here's a blog entry I wrote in September 2012 about our first visit.