A trip to Waterstones turned out to be rewarding. Wasn't expecting to find Gabriel's Moon. I thought that publication wasn't due for another couple of days, so pleasantly surprised to grab my signed copy. According to Wikipedia (not updated for Gabriel yet), Boyd has written 18 novels plus 5 collections of short stories. I think I am only missing two each of the novels and short stories. Sadly not all in first edition (about half).
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...
