From the Library

Some time ago, I found a rather nice set of Orion paperbacks of the John Gardner Bonds, all in uniform covers, with subtly differing designs and colourways (see here on the rather excellent Piz Gloria reference site). Well, that's to say I found someone selling 14 out of the 16 in the set. Obviously, I snapped them up (ignoring the fact that I'd previously purchased the box set containing five of them), thinking I'd add the other two at a later date. Actually, the Orion books that I was buying were still available new from Amazon, but I was very happy to do so given that I was paying £3 per book (and they were 'as new') and the Amazon price as £9 per book. However, the missing two were the first two of the Gardner books ( Licence Renewed and For Special Services ). Since the uniform set were published in 2012, the good people at Orion had decided to reissue these two with new artwork - just these two (see again here on Piz Gloria). This makes it substantially har...

If we are to declare a starting point for the autumn publishing season, I think today might be the day. Dashed into Waterstones for a signed copy of Bob Mortimer's new one, and a the new Robert Harris was both signed and half price, picked that up as well. Both were fairly heavily promoted in store. Rather less so was the, also published today, paperback of the latest James Bond book, A Spy Like Me by Kim Sherwood. Had to go upstairs and hunt in the A-Z fiction by author filing to track down the single copy they had in store.

The 'Still Life' series of James Bond Pan paperbacks was the last set of Pan books before paperback publishing rights went to Triad Panther in the late 1970s. Like so many of the Pan sets (apart from the glorious Hawkeys), the set was incomplete, failing to have all of Fleming's Bonds in it. Live and Let Die was missing, as Pan continued to push the movie tie-in version of the book (the Still Life series was published in 1973-4, and the film of Live and Let Die came out in 1973). The series did have one 'bonus', the James Bond biography, written by John Pearson and published by Pan as part of this series in 1975. I found a set online, and couldn't resist snapping it up, especially as the price came out at less than £4 per book. As an even bigger bonus, some enterprising individual decided to complete the set after all and mocked up a still life cover for Live and Let Die, wrapping it around a Hawkey book. Excellent work!

Arrival in the post today from Ebay. A new Pan edition of Live and Let Die. This is one of the ones with the coloured band towards the bottom showing a photo of 'Bond' brandishing a gun. Seven of the books made it into this edition, up to and including Goldfinger. They are often referred to as the 'director' series, as the model for Bond was actually the managing director of Pan books. Nice to know that there are perks of being the boss! Poor effort from me so far, I only have three of this series (Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, and Goldfinger). Still, gives me plenty of excuses to keep searching.

Following in J's footsteps, I downloaded a new investment app at the start of the week and deposited some funds. Disappointingly, I am already down £10. So, I thought I'd try a form of investment offering more immediate and more gratifying returns today, which resulted in ten books for £8.50. That's more like it. Admittedly half of the books are paperbacks of books that I already own hardbacks of, but that's still winning as far as I'm concerned: Carte Blanche - obviously I have the first edition, but with lots of the more recent Bond books I made the error of not buying the paperbacks as they came out. The Word is Murder - I seem to be stuck between getting paperbacks and hardbacks of the Hawthorne series. I have Word in hardback (and now paperback), Sentence in paperback, Line, Twist and Close in hardback (two signed). Maybe it would be easier if I tracked down Sentence in hardback to complete that set, although I will probably end up getting them all in both form...

And so, the history is complete. My pre-order direct from the publisher (with their 40% discount code applied) has just arrived for the fourth box set of the History of Middle Earth. Now that they are all here, perhaps I might be bold and unwrap them! After all, I won't get to play with their reversable covers to try out the more 'traditional' look if I don't. Will be interesting to see if Harper Collins continue with further boxes, as I expect this have probably done reasonable business so far. They could box up some new editions of The Children of Hurin, the Fall of Gondolin etc in a similar style.

Whilst at the bookshop yesterday, we couldn't help but admire the full set of hardback Michael Gillette covers from the 2008 centenary Bond edition. Sadly my collection only stretches to a couple of the paperbacks so far, but I have my eye on that hardback set. See the rather lovely artwork for the covers on Michael Gillette's website here . Excitingly, Ian Fleming Publications have asked Gillette to design an updated set of covers for a new set of hardbacks that are coming out later this year, and the images have just been released on their website here . This time around I will not be missing out. My pre-order is already in for the full set.

J joined me in the office today for the express purpose of a trip to our favourite bookshop, where he very kindly (saved up present) bought me a book for my Bond collection. Whilst there, I also couldn't resist adding to my first edition collection. Dr No is now secured as part of the set, meaning there are only the first five to go (deep intakes of breath, and ongoing panic about increasing prices) ...

It was baking hot yesterday, but I was still in need of a bit of a break and some fresh air at lunchtime, so I did the only sensible thing and went for a browse in some charity bookshops in town. And a fine haul I came back with too - a total of eight for my troubles, and for not too many more pounds than that (perhaps about £11 all in). Amazingly, only two that I've read already - the Michael Lewis and the Osman 3. However, even better, I'm going to claim that they are all new to the collection - both of the previously read books were enjoyed as library downloads on my travels (and whilst I, of course, have a first edition of Osman 3, I now have a full set of paperbacks 1-4 as well).

Today marks the sixtieth anniversary of Ian Fleming's death. Having gone to the Royal St George's golf club (Moonraker) on the 11th, Ian had a heart attack (his second) just after lunch. He died at the Kent and Canterbury hospital the following morning. Fleming's books had received a substantial sales boost in the early sixties, thanks in part to JFK declaring From Russia with Love  to be one of his ten favourite books. However, just as, if not more, important was the start of the wildly successful film franchise, with the first film, Dr No , coming out in 1962. You Only Live Twice , Fleming's 12th Bond book, and the last published in his lifetime, was the first one that he wrote after the film series began and scholars, of course, enjoy reviewing it (and, no doubt, the posthumous Man with the Golden Gun ) for evidence of Connery in Bond. However, Fleming couldn't resist slipping a little reference to the first film in book 11, On Her Majesty's Secret Service ,...