Visit To Dymocks Melbourne

The team at my work had an early Christmas lunch today in the City.  Afterwards I had some time to visit the Dymocks Melbourne store.  

I had a search in the Fiction and Crime/Thriller categories but couldn't find any of the new Raymond Benson, Vaseem Khan or Kim Sherwood novels featuring James Bond characters.  I've heard Kim's second novel from her Double O Series is having a second paperback printing, but it appears the other two novels haven't made it from the UK yet.  

There were still plenty of Ian Fleming novels though, including the latest hardbacks from Ian Fleming Publications which I haven't seen on Australian shelves before.

There were also a couple of film related books about Bond as well as the latest edition of John Pearson's "James Bond - The Authorised Biography".

It's great to see so much Bond on Aussie shelves at the moment with more to come.

And finally, a couple of photos of the soon to be opened Metro tunnel:

Latest IFP Editions Arrive

James Bond is alive and well at Ian Fleming Publications (IFP).   On October 5, 2023 IFP published and re-released three Bond novels.  They were Raymond Benson's "Zero Minus Ten" first published in 1977, Kingsley Amis' "Colonel Sun" first published in 1968, and John Pearson's "James Bond: The Authorized Biography Of 007" first published in 1973.  

I think all the books look great.  They have uniform cover designs, the quality of the books is first class and most importantly it's great to have these three titles in print again.  I'm hopeful IFP will release more titles in the same series.

As an added bonus this copy of "Zero Minus Ten" was signed by the author too with a limit of 250 copies.

On a personal note I have to thank Tim from the great Pan collectors website Tikit.net who sent me these books from the UK.  Thanks mate.  Much appreciated.

The Life Of Ian Fleming

Tonight I unwrapped the last of my birthday presents.

This parcel contained a Companion Book Club edition of John Pearson's "The Life Of Ian Fleming".  First published by Jonathan Cape in 1966 it appears this book club edition was also published the same year.

John Pearson was also the author of "James Bond: The Authorized Biography" which is featured on the PizGloria.com website as a continuation novel.  That book was first published in 1973.

Well that's the end of my birthday gifts from my wife... until next year anyway.

As a postscript to my recent post on paperback cover variations of "Icebreaker" published by Coronet I just wanted to mention a comment made by Kate in the United States who was selling one of the copies.  When I explained to her that the books I had purchased would be travelling to Australia her response was "These were my Dad's; he would have loved the idea of them going to Australia.  Enjoy !".   I doubt she'll see this post however I believe they've gone to another good home.

A Visit To Fully Booked

On Saturday afternoon my wife and I found ourselves in Coburg. And because we had the opportunity we decided to quickly visit Fully Booked in Thornbury.

 

As I entered the store I was immediately greeted by the owners, Rallou and Tadhg.  These guys are easily the most enthusiastic and passionate secondhand book store owners in Melbourne. The store is really well organised, has a huge variety of books and always seems to be have new stock on the shelves. 

I headed to the "SpyFi" section at the back of the store and managed to find four Bond novels; two by Fleming and two by Gardner.  Unfortunately I had them all.

 

I then made my way to the "Bond, James Bond" section in the Film category.  Here I found a really nice copy of John Pearson's "James Bond 007: The Authorised Biography" which I immediately purchased.  I almost bought this same edition in Vancouver back in 2013 but was concerned about the book's weight in my suitcase so I reluctantly had to let it go.  So this copy, with a fantastic dust jacket, was a great find.

Finally, Rallou showed me a phamplet for a book fair in Abbotsford in October.  I'll definitely try to visit this one.  Thanks guys.