Mornington Lions Book Fair

This afternoon my wife and I visited the Mornington Lions Book Fair.  It's an annual book fair but our first visit.  

We arrived an hour before the doors closed for the day, but there was plenty of time and apparently we missed the crowds.  

The first thing we noticed was how amazingly well organised the book fair was.  There were hundreds of books in the brightly lit hall and large alphabetic letters on the trestle tables to separate the books by author's surname.  My wife and I found a number of James Bond novels or books around the character:

And I ended up purchasing these two hardbacks for $2 each.

My wife also picked up a few books and considered purchasing this title.  I'm not sure if I should be concerned !

The Mornington Lions Book Fair continues tomorrow until 4pm.  And as you can see there are plenty of Bond novels still available for anyone contemplating a visit.

Yarragon Annual Book Fair 2022

After two years absence (due to the global pandemic) the annual Yarragon Annual Book Fair returned this weekend.  My wife and I, along with my parents-in-law and sister-in-law travelled to the small Gippsland town to browse the second-hand books being sold to raise money for the local fire brigade.

On entry to the hall we were all amazed by the number of people who had also made the same journey.

My wife and I perused the many boxes of books and found the following Bond novels...

As I'm a little OCD I decided to group all the small Bond novels together in case another Bond collector decided to visit the book fair.  I only noticed the accidental position of "Never Say Never" above them when I was taking the photo.

No new Bond novels to add to my collection today however I purchased the following three unread paperbacks that were a bargain at just $1 each to add to my doubles box.

The book fair continues tomorrow, and in one years time I will return as optimistic as ever.

Ian Fleming Pan Books Variant Cover... Not !

Near my work is a small fashion pop-up store where the owner has generously placed a small box of books outside on the footpath for anyone to take for free.  I've already picked up a 1960's paperback copy of "For Your Eyes Only" similar to this one earlier this year.

Yesterday as I walked past and had a quick peruse through the box, as is my rutual, I noticed a black spine with the yellow Pan Books logo.  Immediately I thought it might be a "Colonel Sun" paperback as that is the only Bond paperback I could think of with a matching spine.  The corner of another book lay on top however I glanced the name "Fleming" and was excited.  I shuffled the books around thinking perhaps I'd found a variant Ian Fleming cover... and then uncovered this spine (Note: I moved the book for this photo):

And here's a photo of the cover:

Sadly no mystery Ian Fleming Pan Books variant today !

Malvern Toy Fair & Book Hunt

This morning I attended the Malvern Vintage & Modern Toy Fair.  Lots of action figures, lots of Star Wars, lots of toy cars... but unfortunately not much James Bond.  This is all I could find:

Sadly nothing grabbed my fancy.

Afterwards I visited Lobos Collectables in Thornbury where I noticed this "Diamonds Are Forever" lobby card.  Not sure if it's from 1971 but I thought it was good value for $15.  It was a difficult decision but I decided against buying it.

The real reason I visited Thornbury was to visit Howard Bolton Bookseller next suburb along in Northcote.  It was my first visit in about a year. 

As soon as I opened the front door Howard was behind his counter cheerfully greeting me.  And his store looked great.  

As usual he had some fine condition Bond paperbacks on his shelves.

I decided to buy two paperbacks.  The Pan "You Only Live Twice" is a paperback 1st and the Triad Panther "Colonel Sun" was in great condition.  Both books look unread.  They will go into my box of paperback doubles.  

I noticed as I was leaving there was a box set of Penguin Ian Fleming titles.  I didn't take a photo but it was this set (which I already have).  I don't see this set available for sale on shelves very often.

Finally I returned to Thornbury to visit Fully Booked.  

I was ready to be met Rallou and her husband Tadhg behind the counter however I forgot Full Booked isn't open on Sundays !  I managed to grab these photos anyway:

I will return to Fully Booked some time in the near future, on a day that does not start with the word "Sun".

Warragul Book Fair 2022

My wife and I have just returned from Warragul in Gippsland.  Warragul, located 100km from Melbourne on the Princes Highway, is primarily known for its dairy produce.  However today we visited for the annual book fair held by the Lions Club.

Entry was gold coin donation with all money going to the local hospital and the Lions Club.  Walking into the hall was a strange feeling due to the lockdowns over the last two years cancelling these type of events.  So it was great to finally have an event like this back and be amongst people and books again.

My wife and I scoured all the tables of books and the only James Bond novel we found was this copy of "Carte Blanche" by Jeffery Deaver.

The Warragul Book Fair continues tomorrow (Sunday).  And in two weeks time (April 9 and 10) the next town along, Yarragon, will also be holding their own book fair to raise money for the local country fire brigade.  We'll be going to that one too and hopefully we'll see you there.

"Licence Renewed" 40th Anniversay Edition

John Gardner's first James Bond adventure "Licence Renewed" had it's 40th anniversary last year and Orion Books celebrated the event by republishing the novel in paperback form.  It also included a new introduction by M. J. Arlidge.  Here in Australia the paperback was said to be available last year in late November however due to the global pandemic and international freight issues I have only just managed to acquire a copy two months, and a new year, later.

I ordered the book through my closest Dymocks Bookstore.  This store shut its doors a few years ago but has since re-opened in a new location near the Rivoli Cinema in Camberwell and I was very happy to spend my money there.  I hope this new store does well.

Something I've never noticed before is how much thicker "Licence Renewed" is compared to the previously re-published Gardner novel "For Special Services" two years ago by Orion.  Here's some photos:

I'm hoping Orion Books continue this John Gardner series of Bond adventures with "Icebreaker" later this year.  No news yet but fingers crossed.

Licence To Thrill

I visited an Op-Shop over the weekend and while rifling through the books I came across a copy of "Licence To Thrill - A Cultural History Of The James Bond Films" by James Chapman.  

I purchased a copy of this paperback when it was first released however this copy is the New Revised Edition.  The other compelling reasons for buying this copy was that it was in great condition and the price tag was just $4.

I also purchased another item from the same store; a copy of "Fawlty Towers" re-mastered on DVD, again for $4.  Ok, at first this doesn't seem Bond related... until you consider the fact that John Cleese appeared in a couple of Pierce Brosnan' Bond films.  I wonder if Cleese would have been better playing "R"/"Q" as Basil Fawlty instead of the comedic character he was forced to portray ?  I guess we'll never know

Piz Gloria Website Celebrates 10th Birthday

Today marks the 10th birthday of PizGloria.com.  There have only been a few additions to this website over the past year but I'm pleased that the website is still visited and referenced by book collectors and James Bond fans alike.  Hopefully with the release of Anthony Horowitz's new Bond novel "With A Mind To Kill" in May 2022 and perhaps another John Gardner reprint ("Icebreaker" ?) there's still more paperbacks to be added.

Some quick stats from Google Analytics about PizGloria.com over the last 10 years:

- There have been 45,601 visits

- Each visitor on average views 6.01 pages (that's 274,062 total page views over the years)

- The average time a visitor spends on the website is 3 minutes and 7 seconds

- The bounce rate is 54.93%.  This is the rate at which visitors leave the website without interacting (I imagine they've found my website and realised it's of no interest to them or they don't have any spare time at that moment to have a look).

I'd like to say thankyou to everyone who has supported my website, visited the website or been in touch with me over the 10 years, and I hope you visit again soon,

Cheers Baz