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Thrilling

When they first came out, I bagged a set of 14 new paperbacks from Ian Fleming Publications of the novels and short stories, but I didn't originally get the other two for the full set. I did pick up a copy of 'The Diamond Smugglers' a little while later, but it has taken me until today to find a copy of 'Thrilling Cities'. Partly, I suspect this is a reflection of more limited demand (more people likely to want to read Casino Royale) but also more difficult to track down in the bookshops. However, there was one (still with the '1') waiting for me in Waterstones today, so I claimed it. Amazingly, despite the rapidly growing collection, this is my first copy of this title.



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Thrilling

During our visit to Boston last week, I picked up a copy of Ian Fleming's Thrilling Cities at the Harvard Bookstore in the recently published William Morrow imprint. Given that it was written more than a lifetime (in Fleming's case) ago, it is remarkable that it is still in print, particularly given some of the views espoused within it, combined with the 'incidental intelligence' telling readers where to find five-star hotel rooms around the world for around £15 per night. Still, when there is a new run of the 14 Bond books, it seems like publishers know that if they tag on copies of this and the Diamond Smugglers, there will be enough nutjob Fleming completists (like me) to make it worth their while. The only challenge for the bookstores is to know where to shelve it to attract sales. Should they deliberately misfile it at put it with the Bond books, or do they take a chance of it languishing in what can be fairly haphazard travel sections. Thankfully the Harvard store...
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Five

Saturday trip to an Oxfam bookstore and could have come away with more, but thankfully I managed to get online (via N hotspotting me) and so avoiding buying a bunch of duplicates. Pleased to spot the two Rivers of London novellas. I thought that I was doing well with getting these, as this brings me up to nine, but it turns out that I am a tad out of date as we are up to 16 now. Oh well, I will keep plugging away. As for the Jane Gardam, loved Old Filth and have started to pick up her books when I spot them. This is one of her earlier novels, and was nominated for the Booker, so much hope. Lee Child - 20 short stories - they will get devoured! A Sebastian Faulks paperback. I have the first edition, but now I have a reading copy too which was missing from my paperback shelf, as evident from the photograph. I've just finished his 'Fires Which Burned Brightly' which, as a series of essays, I picked up and put down over a quite a while. More of that another time.   
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Heritage

After some fun and games with setting up an account (which J managed to figure out whilst I was otherwise occupied with a somewhat important prior engagement), we enjoyed participating in a Bond auction that was taking place in the US. We bid on about a dozen lots and were ultimately successful with four. We are now waiting to see how much is going to be added to our purchase prices for handling and international shipping costs ...! For the time being, here's a little clue as to what was purchased.
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