Visit To Five Adelaide Bookstores

My wife and I are currently on holiday in South Australia.  During our time here we've visited many secondhand book stores.  Here's five we visited in Adelaide:

1) Michael Treloar Antiquarian Booksellers

One of the two gentlemen in the store explained that they currently had no Ian Fleming novels, nor any continuation books.  But they often come across Ian Fleming - Jonathan Capes so I was told to keep checking their website:  https://www.treloars.com

2) O'Connell's Bookstore

This store has the most James Bond novels I've seen for sale in one store in quite a while.  First edition Jonathan Capes, a second edition Pan Books "Casino Royale" and plenty of old Pan paperbacks.  I purchased an unread Still Life series copy of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service".  There is also a wide variety of titles and categories of books for sale.  Here's a link to many of their books:  https://www.abebooks.com/oconnells-bookshop-adelaide/1403738/sf

3) New Morning Books

This store had four Bond novels including two Jonathan Capes.  I didn't check the editions though but they could be firsts.  The owner John has a wide variety of other books available too.  There's no website but there is a Facebook page: 

https://www.facebook.com/NewMorningBooksBackPagesBooks

4)  Imprints Books

As well as stocking new books this store also has a selection of secondhand books at the rear of the store.  Their website is:  https://imprints.com.au

5) Orchard Bookshop

This book store had no Bond novels on the day we visited, however it has a specialised selection of titles over a wide variety of categories which can also be found here:  https://orchardbookshop.com.au/

Worst James Bond Soundtrack Ever

There are many who believe that the unofficial James Bond film "Never Say Never Again" has the worst soundtrack of any of the 007 films.  Even I wonder what the soundtrack would have sounded like had James Horner been involved instead of Michel Legrand.  However, unlike others, I really like Lani Hall's title song for this film.

If you weren't aware, Lani Hall wasn't first choice for the title song either.  Phyllis Hyman recorded another version for this film but it was rejected, and Michel's wife, Lani, recorded her's instead.

A few months ago I purchased a promotional poster for Lani's version of the title song.

Today a copy of this title song on 7 inch vinyl arrived in the mail.  I've been searching for a copy in this format for a while, but the prices always seemed too high.  Fortunately I found a seller in Austria selling a great copy at a reasonable price.

I already have this song on the soundtrack CD which I was planning to photograph and add to this post, but despite a 5 minute search it remains hidden somewhere in my "Bond Room".  Ok, it's not the best soundtrack ever, but in my opinion it does have some redeeming moments including a great title song.

Another City Visit

More than a year ago my wife and her sister bought tickets to "Romeo And Juliet" performed by the Australian Ballet  The tickets were for seats just a few rows from the orchestra pit and the stage.  Covid delayed the performance and then sadly my sister-in-law passed away a few months ago.  So this afternoon I attended the ballet with my wife instead.

Prior to the show we grabbed some lunch in the City, crossing the swollen Yarra River due to the recent floods, and also visiting City Basement Books.

City Basement Books always seems to have a good turnover of books.  

Today they had a hardback copy of "The Politics Of James Bond: From Fleming's Novels To The Big Screen" by Jeremy Black which I have only ever seen previously online.  I managed to resist purchasing it though.  There were also several Bond continuation novels by Robert Markham, John Gardner, Anthony Horowitz and Jeffery Deaver.  No purchases from me today though.

As for the ballet, I've previously seen "The Nutcracker" and "Swan Lake" and to be honest I thought they were meh, but this ballet was fantastic.  I guess it also helped already knowing the story too.  I know my sister-in-law would have loved it too.  Here's a couple of photos I took before the performance:

Book Store Visit And New Addition To The Collection

It's been a while but yesterday I visited Helena's Curiosity Shop in Bentleigh again.  As I entered the store Helena recognised me and said 'James Bond books' and I commented on her amazing memory.  Unfortunately she told me she had no Bond novels at the moment but I still had a hunt through her huge collection of paperbacks and hardbacks just in case.  No luck for me this time but I will be back.

Next my wife and I travelled to the City.  We visited Dymocks and I touched a copy of Kim Sherwood's novel "Double Or Nothing" for the first time.  This book is set in the world of James Bond and features other Double-O operatives.  I now have a new paperback title to add to the PizGloria.com website.

We also visited the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) to attend a Picasso Exhibition.  It was always intended to be a visit accompanied with my wife's sister but sadly it wasn't to be.  At least it felt like she was there with us and we knew she would have liked the art on show.

There were no direct James Bond references in the exhibition however there was a painting titled "Invisible sleeping woman, horse, lion" by Salvador Dali...

that reminded me of the dust jacket designed by Tom Adams for the Robert Markham (Kingsley Amis) hardback "Colonel Sun" published by Jonathan Cape in 1968.

And finally, here's a couple more photos from the Picasso exhibition: