Books

[Yaddo 42]

Some of the Discworld books deal with dragons, mostly ones where Sam Vimes' wife appears since she cares for swamp dragons. The one where a swamp dragon in a box with a mirror was used as an explosive device/time bomb was pretty cool.

Started Rumpole of the Bailey the other day, needed something fun after the Zappa bio. Maybe another Discworld or a Flashman book next. Then either a history book or time for some serious literature again.

I want to get back into the Aubrey/Maturin books by Patrick O'Brian, I have several waiting to be read, but I'm not reading at the pace I want to lately. My mind is other places, real life intruding among other things, so I'm going to keep it light for the next couple of books.

But those Doc Savage reprints I found are kinda tempting.......

[Ash]

I used to work for a company that did inventory counts for local businesses.

One time, we inventoried a Waldenbooks and I noticed a series of books that dealt with the alternate reality of Hitler & Nazi Germany winning WW2 and what life would be like now under Nazi rule.
They were in the Fiction section.
There were several of these books there...all different but written by the same author.

Does anybody remember what book series that was and who wrote it?
I've been wanting to pick a few of them up.

[Derf]

I used to work for a company that did inventory counts for local businesses.

One time, we inventoried a Waldenbooks and I noticed a series of books that dealt with the alternate reality of Hitler & Nazi Germany winning WW2 and what life would be like now under Nazi rule.
They were in the Fiction section.
There were several of these books there...all different but written by the same author.

Does anybody remember what book series that was and who wrote it?
I've been wanting to pick a few of them up.

I can't swear to it, Ash, but David Weber might be the author you're looking for. He has written several alternate history novels. I haven't read any of his stuff, but I have read the blurbs, and they sound kind of interesting.

[Yaddo 42]

Robert Harris wrote an excellent alternate history about the Nazis winning WWII, Fatherland. The Nazis conquered western Europe, negotiated a truce with President Joseph Kennedy, and had a never ending conflict on the Eastern Front where trouble makers were disposed of as cannon fodder. There was a drab cable TV movie with Rutger Hauer and Miranda Richardson made from it.

Don't remember if there were sequels, but Harris wrote other historical thrillers some set in WWII. I know one dealt with the Enigma encoding machine.

[Susan]

Well I got some new ones in the past month at Half Price Bookstore:

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN
ROSEMARY'S BABY
THE STRANGER BESIDE ME
HELTER SKELTER
BOYS LIFE (or something like that)
THE GIRL NEXT DOOR
ANDROMEDA STRAIN
EARTH ABIDES (read it - just love it)

Here's something interesting. I love buying enscribed books, not grafitti but books with messages written in them. Earth Abides had an interesting message, you sorta wonder about the people back in 1980 who read it - who they were to eachother. Anyhow, I also love OLD books, the feeling of others who have read through it. So I decided to choose the older looking Rosemary's Baby book over the new one.

I got home and it was without a jacket, clean looking, not a single tear, stain, fold, writing, scuff or anything - very nice! I looked inside and noticed "First Edition" - cool! Then down below..."First printing". huh? After some interest searching I found out I have the random house first edition/first printing of Rosemary's Baby, without dust jacket I have no idea of the value. But it's definately not a book club edition.

I've seen it range between $40 to over $400 on the net.  ($40 was a crappy copy with writing and a ripped jacket. WTF) I tried emailing a dealer who insisted the jacket makes books more valuable. My book is pristine! I guess i'll never know the real value, if any - only that it must be more than the $7 i paid. Kinda cool!


But now i'm scared to read it, i might decrease the value with my improper reading habits. 

[Yaddo 42]

Cool find. If I had the money I'd like to collect rare books, but obviously I don't.

The only ones I have I think might be worth something are my copy of All I Need Is Love by Klaus Kinski. It's the version that was recalled due to lawsuits or threats of them and reissued as Kinski Uncut but it was actually. I read that he sold the English publishing rights when he contractually couldn't I also read his daughter supposedly threatened legal action if he didn't remove things about her. Not sure if any of this is true. I found my copy at a remainder store we had in the area for about $3.50. I've seen it listed for $125 to $450 online. The dust jacket has seen some wear but elsewise it's in fairly good shape.

The other rare book I have is Amazons by Cleo Birdwell - really it's by Don DeLillo writing under a pseudonym, he later disowned the book and apparently won't discuss it. Signed copies are very valuable, mine isn't. I found it a few months ago at the local friends of the library bookstore for a whole dollar. Those dear sweet ladies had it stocked in the biography section, it's a novel written as a memoir of the first female member of the NHL.

About the only other books I have that might be valuable are a copy of The Wandering Jew by Eugene Sue inscribed with the date 1899, an early 20th century English copy of Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne inscribed around 1913, or a hardback copy of The Colour of Magic by Terry Prachett. It appears to be a US first edition, no dust jacket but in great shape. However I know the British first editions of his early books are the ones worth the bucks.

[RCMerchant]

Wow...along with a few vhs tapes...I made a killing on some old paperback books at theflea market! They were 25cents apiece...or 5 for a dollar!
.The STEPFORD WIVES by Ira Levin-1973 edition"NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE!"
.ROSEMARY'S BABY-1968 edition ...from the backcover..."Now a major motion picture directed by Roman Polanski and starring Mia  Far row and John Cassavettes A William Castle Production"
.DANDELION WINE by Ray Bradbury-1976 ed.
.EVA and ADOLF by Glenn B.Infield-1975 ed. Bio of history's bizzare lovebirds
.FANTASTIC VOYAGE-Noveliztion of the cool-ass movie by Isaac Asimov-1966 ed.
.the STRANGE and the SUPERNORMAL-by Pauline Saltzman-1968 ed.One of those oddball "occult/paranormal" books that were so popular in the 60's and early seventies...I got a ton of those laying around here...
.50 GREAT HORROR STORIES-edited by John Canning-1973 ed.-Big,fat paperback of collected weird stories...all "true",of course...cool grim reaper type guy holding some chicks head and a hangman's noose on the cover.Had this one as a kid.
.DRACULA-Bram Stoker-1971 Scholastic Books ed. Yeah...I have a few copies of Dracula laying around...but this one has got a neat painting of BELA on the cover,so...

And,best of all...(to me,at least...)
.the BEST from FANTASY and SCIENCE FICTION (fith series)-edited by Anthony Boucher-1956 ed!!!!WOW!  An old  scifi comp,with those cool ,far out 1950's style covers...aweird robot/alien type on a strange world,next to some cubist style rocket ! Inside...stories by Arthur C.Clarke,Shirley Jackson(!),Charles Beaumont(!!!),L.Sprague De Camp,Richard Matheson,and more more!!! Too cool.
..6 from WORLDS BEYOND-edited by T.E.Dikty-1956 ed.!!! Another farout,old sci fi comp,featuring the usual suspects plus Robert Bloch!!!AND a cool as hell cover painting of a half nude girl,a giant brain,odd lab eguipment and a big oversize Atom! YAY!

plus....I just won 2(count'em)2 Famous Monsters mags offa ebay for an unbelievable $8.00!!!  #'s 99 and #93...I bid $5.50 and WON! $2.50 p+h!

           

   How many video boxes have had this SAME "Tales from the Crypt " skull on the box?

[rebel_1812]

I recently bought two books The Iliad and Closing Time.  One is obvious a classic, the other is the sequel to Catch-22 which is one of my favorite books.

[Zapranoth]

I have been re-reading Neal Stephenson's _Cryptonomicon_, which is explosively written and unstoppably funny.

And full of interesting geek appeal, in terms of the science and cryptography.  :)

[sideorderofninjas]

I used to work for a company that did inventory counts for local businesses.

One time, we inventoried a Waldenbooks and I noticed a series of books that dealt with the alternate reality of Hitler & Nazi Germany winning WW2 and what life would be like now under Nazi rule.
They were in the Fiction section.
There were several of these books there...all different but written by the same author.

Does anybody remember what book series that was and who wrote it?
I've been wanting to pick a few of them up.

Harry Turtledove has doen quite a bit of alternate history. 
In the Presense of My Enemies had Germany ruling England in the 1960s. 
The Balance series had an alien race appear in the middle of WW2 to invade Earth.  That gets most of earth united to battle the more technologically advanced aliens. 

[flackbait]

Catch-22 which is one of my favorite books.

Right On!

I just got done reading Nam-a-rama. This book is like Catch-22 meets Full Metal Jacket. It is a very funny, but yet very weird novel.

[BeyondTheGrave]

Right now reading Burning Britain: History of UK Punk 1980-1984 by Ian Gasper.

[Yaddo 42]

Catch-22 is one of my all time favorites. I gave up on Closing Time, came across as less clever than Heller seemed to think it was, also the characters were like pale shadows of their old selves, but that may have been intentional since they were old men.

I'm currently reading If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino. Very clever novel about a Reader trying to read a certain book and getting derailed and misdirected for various reasons, and we the real readers also get to read chapters of the various books he winds up with. Very much like a Charlie Kaufman film, very meta to use an overused term. Shows an enormous amount of talent to write so many dfferent chapters in varying styles and genres, each interesting and intriguing in it's own way.

As a plus, I told a girl I've been talking to about how much I liked it and why, and she was intrigued enough to want to check it out. I may pick up a copy for her. Which is like something out of the book, since the Reader encounters a woman in his question for these books. He wants her as well as the original book (later on the others).

Me, I just want to give a cool book to a cute girl and see if anything develops. The situation, that is, the girl is plenty developed already.

[RCMerchant]

 Went to the flea market yesterday...got books!
.BURNT OFFERINGS-by Robert Marasco...Back cover has a cool pic from the movie of Karen Black, the kid, and Oliver Reed standing in the doorway of their new home.
.2 Robert Heinlan books...METHUSALAH's CHILDREN(1962 ed.) and ASSIGNMENT IN ETERNITY
.a 1951 ed. of DAY OF THE TRIFFADS by John Wyndham
.Boris Karloff ppresents More Tales of the Frightened-Yeah...it's a kid book...but a cool cover anyway!
.GHOST STORY-by Peter Straub!
.2 of those Ghost /occult type books popular in the 60's and 70's...VOICES of the DEAD by Suzy Smith andthe SECOND GHOST BOOK by Lady Cynthia Asquith (?)
.BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE-by Dee Brown-had read this before...one of the best books I have EVER read!
.Rod SERLING's NIGHT GALLERY-Yup...just like the TV show!
.and...the find of the day...a 1960...ist edition of Stories of the TWILIGHT ZONE!!! -the back cover says-'A strange and unusual talent is Rod Seling,the bright young star on the literay horizon, who is already famous for his hit television series Twilight Zone.He can take a hard reality,add a dash of nonsense or a twist of nightmare,and come up with a short story or TV play guarrented to thrill or amuse you, shock you or shake you up."
      " WATCH ROD SERLING'S EXCITING SERIES the TWIGHLIGHT ZONE EACH WEEK on the CBS TELEVISION NETWORK!"
 It's gotta cool pic of Rod sitting near his typewriter with a ciggertte and a cup of coffe on the cover too! 

     

[indianasmith]

quote author=sideorderofninjas link=topic=112474.msg144516#msg144516 date=1179896107]

Harry Turtledove has doen quite a bit of alternate history. 
In the Presense of My Enemies had Germany ruling England in the 1960s. 
The Balance series had an alien race appear in the middle of WW2 to invade Earth.  That gets most of earth united to battle the more technologically advanced aliens. 
[/quote]

I LOVE Harry Turtledove's books!  But the best series yet is a six book set based on the premise of the South winning the Civil War in 1862, permanently dividing America into TWO very hostile countries.  He then plays that timeline forward into World War I and now World War II.  As a historian myself, I find his unfolding of events highly plausible.  Makes you very glad the right side won!! I think the first book in this series is called "How Few Remain", followed by "The Great War: American Front."  I HIGHLY recommend this series.