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...

Love Found In Mornington

I visited Mornington again a couple of weeks ago and it turned out to be very fortunate.  First stop was the secondhand store Books By The Bay.

After a bit of a wander through the store I found two Bond paperbacks; a copy of Ian Fleming's "From Russia With Love" and a copy of Anthony Horowitz's "Forever And A Day".

Then after speaking to the store owner, Leonid, I was introduced to a Jonathan Cape copy of "The Spy Who Loved Me".  The hardback was a fifth impression printed in 1963.  There was some slight silverfish damage on the back of the dustjacket but that only momentarily deterred me from purchasing it.

And here's some photos of the book at home.

After bidding farewell I then visited Charter House Secondhand Books, but wasn't as fortunate here with the Bond novels.  I will return again though.

Mornington Secondhand Bookshops Visit

Last week I visited Books By The Bay on the Esplanade in Mornington.  Over time I've discovered that this store always has James Bond novels on the shelves and the stock seems to change often.  Today there were nine Ian Fleming titles and six of those were published by Pan Books in the 1960's.  Sure, not pristine copies, but still how could you really complain when they're over 50 years old !  There were also several continuation author titles too so this place is definitely worth a visit if you're a Bond bibiophile.  

There aren't many towns with two second hand book stores nowadays, but Mornington is the exception.  Located on Barkly Street just off the main strip, Chapter House Books sells modern second hand books, many from the U.S..  Unusually there were no Bond novels on the shelves today but I'll be sure to visit again soon.

Finally, while not a second hand book store, I also visited Farrell's Bookshop located on Main Street.  This excellent store sells quality books across a wide range of categories.  I always find an interesting book calling my name on the shelves.

First Book Store Visit In A While

Since the Covid-19 restrictions came into force here in Melbourne I'd resorted to searching for books online (more on that in a future post !).  But as those restrictions are now easing and more businesses have started opening again, I decided to venture outside last Saturday and visit my first secondhand bookstore in several months.

The store was Books By The Bay in Mornington, and while I had copies of all the Bond novels they had for sale it was great to get out there again.

And for anyone curious how I'm going with the Lego James Bond Aston Martin DB5, I've completed Stage 1 with three more stages remaining.   Here's some photos so far:

Missing Aston Martin DBS + Trigger Mortis On Oz Shelves

My Mum contacted me a fortnight ago as she'd read that a real James Bond car was temporarily on display in a building near the City until mid-September.  The car in particular was an Aston Martin DBS's featured in the film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service".

So last Friday during my lunch break I drove to the VACC building to check out the vehicle.  I've seen this car twice before: once at Armageddon Expo 2012 when I also met George Lazenby and the other time at the "Designing 007 - 50 Years Of Bond Style" Exhibition in 2013.  The car is owned by fellow Melburnian, Sigi Zidziunas, and from my recollection of the conversation I had with him in 2013 he's owned the car for several years after importing it from Portugal.  He quickly gained provenance and has displayed the car at a number of conventions and exhibitions. And I have to say... every time I see this car it looks fantastic.

Unfortunately though I wasn't to see it that Friday.  Mid-September arrived a little early and the car had been removed from display on Thursday, September 10, the day before my visit.  I still managed to grab some snaps of the lobby where it was parked just 24 hours earlier.  (Maybe I could just photoshop it in !)

Here's some snaps I took of the same DBS back in 2013 at the "Designing 007 - 50 Years Of Bond Style" Exhibition at the Melbourne Museum.  There were actually two identical DBS's used during filming of the 1969 Bond film but I'm not sure where the other one is located.

Fortunately I was not completely out of luck last Friday.  This English Second Language copy of "For Your Eyes Only" published by Longman in 1982 arrived in the mail.  This is one of several ESL books I've purchased recently.  I think I'm getting close to collecting them all now.

With some warmer weather arriving last Saturday my wife and I decided to drive to Mornington. As well as visiting a few gift shops we also dropped into Farrell's Bookshop.  A great independant book store with a wide variety of new books I was pleased to see copies of  the newly released Bond novel "Trigger Mortis" by Anthony Horowitz on the shelf.  This was the first time I had physically seen the book.

 

 

We also travelled just down the road to the second-hand store Books By The Bay where many Bond paperbacks sat on the shelf but unfortunately I had them all.  Still it was good to pay a visit.

And finally... I noticed this pile of "Carte Blanche" books on a shelf in a local department store.  They were 25% off but considering "Trigger Mortis" has just been released and this book was published in 2011 I'd be increasing that discount.