South Australian Holiday - Part 1 of 2

Back in October of last year my wife and I drove to South Australia for a short holiday.  The trip took 8 hours and when we arrived in Adelaide there had been a major storm the night before and the power to the City had only just been restored.  Fortunately during our entire holiday we didn't encounter any of this bad weather so we were very lucky.

Our hotel was located just near Rundle Mall which had plenty of fine shops for my wife to visit.

While walking around this beautiful City we visited Adelaide Central Market.  This is the location of Central Market Books and the owner's name is Barry.  I spoke to him for a while and then checked out the James Bond books on his shelves and ended up purchasing two.  One was "Ian Fleming: The Man With The Golden Pen" by Richard Gant.  I'd seen this book before but I didn't have this particular copy.  The second book was a Pan copy of "You Only Live Twice" by Ian Fleming covered in the rare movie tie-in dust wrapper.  The wrapper wasn't in great condition but still a great purchase none-the-less.

We then continued walking around the busy market and came across another second-hand book store named Adelaide's Pop-Up Bookshop. The owners were really nice and very informative.  I ended up purchasing a Pan Books "Casino Royale" by Ian Fleming (second edition) and a Jonathan Cape copy of "The James Bond Dossier" by Kingsley Amis.

Leaving Central Market we then made our way to Michael Treloar Antiquarian Booksellers.  This is a really well maintained book store with lots of rare books.  I spoke to one of the gentleman behind the counter and was informed that the only Fleming they currently had on their shelves was a Jonathan Cape first edition of "You Only Live Twice".   It was a nice copy but I let it go.

Just five minutes walk from Michael Treloar's store is Adelaide Booksellers.  On entering the doorway there are stairs to the right which lead down to a subterranean basement.  The store is really clean and well organised, however there were no James Bond books on this visit.  And as is the owner's prerogative, on asking if I could take some photos of his store he replied "No", so I could only take these photos below.

New Morning Books is only a short walk from Adelaide Central Market and is well worth a visit.  There are loads of books, all well priced and the books cover a huge range of subjects.  I managed to find the three James Bond novels shown below.  This is definitely the type of store where anything could be lurking in a wrong spot on a shelf so it took us a while before we finally left.

A photo of central Adelaide including the tram to Glenelg.

Our walk in Adelaide literally went full circle.  We ended up at the Antique Market directly over the road from the Central Market where we'd started.  As usual there were a lot of books in the back room (somehow this store is linked to Michael Treloar's store I believe) and I ended up purchasing this really nice copy of the Pan movie-tie in of "Dr. No" from 1962. 

There ended our book walk of Adelaide.  I've got to say it's a great city to visit.  It's very quiet, relaxed and has some interesting old architecture.  

My wife and I then drove to Kangaroo Island and visited some other towns and second-hand book stores in South Australia which are detailed in Part 2.

More Model Cars + Making Of Spectre Coffee Book

Since my last post I've received three more model cars in the mail.  The cars were released for the James Bond Car Collection part-works series several years ago.  I think they look great, especially with the dioramas.  This completes my purchase of all six model cars that were released in this series for "On Her Majesty's Secret Service".

I also made a visit to the City last Sunday to pick up a copy of the hardback coffee book "Blood, Sweat and Bond" featuring behind the scenes photos from the most recent James Bond film "Spectre".  The book was published by DK in 2015 and curated by Rankin.  For some reason this Bond book is quite difficult to find on shelves here in Oz, so Robinson's Bookshop at the Emporium store in the City had to create a special order.

And finally an interesting photo taken from the third level of the Emporium looking outside:

OHMSS Model Car + Bookstore Visit + Turkish Book

Three James Bond connected events this week.  First was the arrival of a 1:43 scale model car in the mail; Irma Bunt's Mercedes from "On Her Majesty's Secret Service".  This car first appeared as part of the James Bond Car Collection, a part-works magazine series released a few years ago.  I think the car looks great, especially with the snow diorama in the background.

Next was a visit to the the secondhand book store Merchant Of Fairness in Balwyn.  No books for me today but it was great to visit.

Lastly I received a Turkish language copy of Ian Fleming's "From Russia With Love" in the mail.  This becomes the twelfth book I own in this series published by Tay Yayinlari with cover images by Aslan Sukur.  I really like this series featuring Roger Moore likenesses on each cover.

Triad-Panther Box Set Arrives

I recently purchased this box set of Ian Fleming - James Bond paperbacks published by Triad Panther in 1978.  The six paperbacks contained in the set are: "From Russia With Love", "Goldfinger", "You Only Live Twice", "Live And Let Die", "The Man With The Golden Gun" and "Octopussy" which are all part of the Girls On Guns series.

I've always wanted to create a new page on PizGloria.com to display James Bond Box Sets but was reluctant because I didn't own any sets published prior to the 2000's.  So after this purchase I'm hoping to finally add a new page soon.

There are several box sets I'd still like to acquire so I'll be keeping my eyes open for them at an affordable price.  Hopefully you'll see another one again on this blog soon.

Piz Gloria Website Launched Five Years Ago Today

It's party time here in Oz as PizGloria.com was launched five years ago today.  During that time there have been over 15,800 visitors which is really pleasing.  The number of visitors in 2016 (3,380) is slightly less than 2015 (3,995) however I made several significant changes to the site in 2015 and the film "SPECTRE" was also released in cinemas, two reasons I attribute to the slightly lower patronage in 2016 but still great numbers nonetheless.

As usual here is a brief analysis of the stats below:
- The average number of pages viewed per visit has remained almost the same with 6.84 in 2016 compared to 7.06 in 2015
- The overall number of page views for 2016 was almost 40,000 which is less than 2015 when there were over 46,000
- The average time spent on the site during a visit in 2016 was 3:00 minutes which is half a minute less than 2015.  In 2012 the average was 4:40 minutes per visit/session

Year 1 - Jan 24, 2012 to Jan 23, 2013

Year 2 - Jan 24, 2013 to Jan 23, 2014

Year 3 - Jan 24, 2014 to Jan 23, 2015

Year 4 - Jan 24, 2015 to Jan 23, 2016

Year 5 - Jan 24, 2016 to Jan 23, 2017

So in summary I'd once again like to thank everyone who has taken time to visit both the Collecting Piz Gloria blog and the PizGloria.com website. Your continued support is greatly appreciated.

Rare Hardback Arrives

A couple of weeks ago I noticed a copy of Christopher Wood's "James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me" for sale on the web.  I've been searching for this elusive hardback for years.  So when I found a copy available and read that the book was a 1977 First Edition - Jonathan Cape, NOT ex-library, and the price was just over AU$300 I immediately went about the process of purchasing it.

Today the book arrived in the mail.  It's not perfect but for such a rare book I'm very happy with it.  Plus it's great to finally have it on the shelves between Fleming, Markham and Gardner.

Secondhand Book Store Visit

I'm just on my way to the beach with my wife and sister-in-law on a beautiful Summer's day here in Melbourne.  And as we got closer to the beach I thought it might be a good idea to quickly drop in at Bound Words in Hampton.

Unfortunately no books for me today but what a fantastic day for a visit !

I hope everyone has a safe and prosperous New Year filled with plenty of great Bond items to add to their collection.

Terence Mountain Responds

Recently I sent a couple of questions to the actor Terence Mountain and was stoked when I received a response.  Terence, or Terry as he prefers, has appeared in many films and TV shows including "The Avengers", "The Saint", "Where Eagles Dare", "Lassiter" and "Biggles", as well as two consecutive James Bond films; "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and "Diamonds Are Forever" (if only he'd given Mr Lazenby the same advice !).  Here's a photo of him in action during the pre-credit sequence of "OHMSS" with George Lazenby:

 

Baz - "Hi Terence, I was just curious how you're feeling about all this renewed interest in OHMSS almost 50 years after it premiered ?"

Terry - "Hi mate, thanks for your views. O.H.M.S.S. 1969 - (I feel) so lucky to have played in this film."

Baz - "And back in the 70's and 80's did you ever think that one day in the future this film would get the credit it deserved as one of the best films in the Bond series?"

Terry - "oo7 George Lazenby was great to work with.  Great experience.  Great fun.  And to think I still get invites to events. So lucky."

Baz - "Thanks heaps.  Much appreciated."

Terry - "Ok mate, my pleasure.  Thank you again for your message.   Regards and best wishes for Xmas, Terry Mountain"

And finally, here's some photos of Terry at the official opening of the 007 Walk Of Fame on July 31, 2015 at Piz Gloria, Schilthorn in Switzerland.

Attack on Piz Gloria - Part 2 !!!

Terry with Sylvana Henriques who played a Bond Girl in "OHMSS"

George Lazenby with his 007 Walk Of Fame photo

 

Terry with his 007 Walk Of Fame photo

Booktalk Cafe In Richmond

My wife and I travelled to Richmond on Saturday to visit Booktalk Cafe.  We drove along Swan Street but couldn't see the familiar blue sign hanging from the awning out the front.  Here's some photos of the store I stole from the web (Dixon's Recycled website) as I couldn't find any I'd taken myself.

And here's a photo of the inside of the store (again stolen from the web - NZ.PinInterest).

So when we parked and started walking and reached 91 Swan Street we found a different book store; Avenue Bookstore.  It turns out Booktalk Cafe, which was both a cafe and a secondhand book store, closed six months ago.  And now a new book store selling only new books has opened instead.

Sadly it seems we've lost another secondhand book store here in Melbourne.  But good luck to the owners of Avenue Bookstore.  I hope you do well and last a long time.

"Strike Lightning" Released In Oz

The third Young Bond novel written by Steve Cole titled "Strike Lightning" has been released in Australia.  The book is published by Red Fox and I really like the uniform covers designed by BlackSheep-UK.  I have titled this series of covers the Red Fox series.  Strangely the copy of "Shoot To Kill" shown in the link is still not available here in Oz with this copy purchased in Singapore by a friend.

I purchased this copy of "Strike Lightning" from Dymocks in Camberwell which is a regular haunt of mine.

Mountains Of Books Bookfair This Weekend

I'm currently sitting in a warm sunlit car having just scoured all twelve book stalls at the annual Mountains Of Books Bookfair in Ferny Creek, The Dandenongs.

 

There are hundreds of books on a wide variety of subjects for sale and when I arrived at 10am there were already plenty of like-minded people checking them out.

I managed to find several James Bond books for sale.

The book fair is open this weekend from 10am til 4pm.  I purchased two books - a 1964 hardback edition of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" by Ian Fleming with a nice dust jacket and also a non-Bond related non-fiction book - "Thylacine" by David Owen, which will soon become my bedtime reading.