ANZAAB Melbourne Rare Book Fair 2019

Two book fairs in two days; my wife and I have certainly had a busy weekend book hunting.  Following the Yarragon Book Fair yesterday, we attended the ANZAAB Melbourne Rare Book Fair at the University of Melbourne this afternoon.  This is the 8th time this book fair has taken place, but our first visit.

I'm not sure what I expected at this book fair, but it was totally different to the reality.  Walking around Wilson Hall I was surprised to see so many stalls from book stores I have visited during my travels around Australia.

Grant's Bookshop had a stall.  I've followed Grant's from their original store in Prahran to Armadale and now Cheltenham.  They had these three Fleming titles for sale, although I'm sure there are more at their warehouse.

Kookaburra Books, a store I have visited many times in Hobart, had the most Fleming titles for sale.  If only I had some spare cash lying around !

Astrolabe Booksellers, also from Hobart, had a stall too, as did Kay Craddock, Peter Arnold Rare Books and Sainsbury's Books, Michael Treloar, but they had no Fleming titles today. 

A book store I hadn't heard of before, Somerset House Books, had these two Flemings for sale.  "The Man With The Golden Gun" was an excellent copy (2nd edition) but I had to let it go.

It was also good to see a few international book sellers at the fair.  One was Peter Harrington, whose book store I believe I visited in London back in 2013.  I say 'believe' because there are a number of Harrington's in the family who own book stores so I'm not certain it's the same one.  They had no Flemings today either, although they did have this AU$9,750 paperback of Harry Potter's first adventure for sale.  Wow !  I mentioned Jon Gilbert, the Fleming book expert, but the woman at the stall said he wasn't linked to their store.  I'll definitely have to visit Peter Harrington next time I'm in London.

 

I discovered so many Australian book stores today that I hadn't heard of before, the fair turned out to be a real eye opener and a great experience.  If you're in Melbourne this time next year I definitely recommend a visit.

Here's a photo of the City between two buildings at The University Of Melbourne as we were leaving.

And here's a photo of Coventry Bookstore in South Melbourne which we visited on our way home.  A great little bookstore selling new and interesting books.

Yarragon Book Fair 2019

My wife and I attended the annual Yarragon Book Fair today to help raise funds for the Country Fire Authority.  Every year we make the hour-and-a-half drive to the small town in Gippsland on the hunt for James Bond novels.  My wife's parents and sister also travelled with us to stock up on their year's worth of reading.  With paperbacks selling for $1 and hardbacks for $2 how could anyone not find a bargain !

There was heavy rain on the roads so we took the drive cautiously, concerned the wet and cold weather could affect one of the town's biggest weekends of the year.

But when we entered the hall we were pleased to see so many people had also safely made the same journey for such a good cause.

As usual there were two large rooms filled with thousands of books...

and in amongst them we managed to find the following Bond novels:

There were also these two books which I purchased.  As seems to be the norm nowadays I already own these covers but they were in such good condition I could hardly refuse to bring them home.

After scouring all the books we then had a delicious lunch at the local pub.  I also couldn't resist grabbing a piece of carrot cake from the bakery.

So another great day at Yarragon, and for anyone interested the fair continues tomorrow until 5pm.

Port Douglas Again And Cairns

Whileaway Bookshop & Cafe in Port Douglas sells new books within a pleasant cafe atmosphere.  When my wife and I visited this store late last week we'd only just returned from a cruise to the Great Barrier Reef so didn't have time for a coffee or cake.  But there were plenty of customers which was great to see in a bookshop in a beachside town.

A visit to Cairns before flying back home on Sunday allowed us to also visit Sue's Book Exchange.  The store is huge, well organised with thousands of second-hand books.  I spoke to the friendly woman behind the counter (Sue ?) who explained that she's encountered plenty of James Bond books over the years but recently found they've become more scarce.  So no Bond books from my visit on this day.

The last book store we visited on our Winter break was Gemini Books just out of Cairns.  The woman inside explained that she'd been operating the store for almost 30 years and wasn't aware of any Bond novels amongst her second-hand stock.  We both had a quick look, and while we couldn't find any Ian Fleming novels we did manage to find the John Gardner title shown below.  This store was also really well organised with a wide variety of books.  Definitely worth a visit if you're visiting Far North Queensland.

My wife and I are back home now in Melbourne.  The average temperature in Port Douglas was 27C while here it's around 13C; quite a shock to the system !  So here's a final look at sunny Port Douglas during our week there:

 

A beach in the Daintree National Park

Another view of Four Mile Beach at Port Douglas

Feeding fish at Agincourt Reef

A friendly (and loud) bird at a cafe in the Daintree National Park

Kookaburra

View of coral at the Agincourt Reef

Wallaby with joey

Cape Tribulation in the Daintree National Park

Mossman River in Mossman Gorge.  It's freshwater so allows swimming with no chance of crocs

Coconut on the beach at Port Douglas 

ComicCon Melbourne

Last Saturday I visited ComicCon Melbourne on the hunt for James Bond stuff.  Perhaps because ComicCon is primarily a comic/superhero/anime type event, or maybe as it's been a while between Bond films, there were very few Bond items or "merch" available for sale.

I managed to find these Corgi Bond vehicles at one stand...

While at another stand I found this Corgi Lotus Esprit.  You may notice in the background (top-right) some Gilbert plastic Bond figures from the 1960's also available.

Hopefully after Bond 25 is released at the cinemas there will be more Bond items for sale at next year's ComicCon. Until then here's some non-Bond photos from the event: