From the Library

Lazy Sunday including lunch at the Cheese Room for N and me and a general wander along Rochester High Street. Oxfam bookshop came up trumps with ten at £2.49 each, seven of which were old Asimov paperbacks to add to the collection. I have a few box sets in the same format (Foundation trilogy, Early Asimovs) purchased in the early 90s from a second-hand bookshop not far along the road from the station in Oxford. I think I might have paid £10-15 per box set for them, certainly an astronomical amount of money at the time, but I am very glad that I did.

J and I had an enjoyable trip out today. After parking at the O2, and dodging the crowds (some in costume) attending the League of Legends World Championships we tubed it to South Kensington and walked down to the King's Road to Chelsea Town Hall for what turned out to be a pretty decent book fair. Lots of familiar names there, and certainly lots of good books. We kept spotting Michael Bond books (maybe brought out in anticipation of the new film) and there seemed to be lots of le Carre about. I was tempted to buy a couple from Neil Pearson. He had a signed copy of A Trick of the Light (Sebastian Faulks's first book), but it wasn't in the best condition. Mind you, I've just had a quick look on Abe and both of the signed ones on there are more! He also had an inscribed Licence Renewed, but I thought I should stick with Jon for stuff like that (plus I already have an unsigned one). Anyway, I was very happy with my purchase, a signed fine (bordering on mint if you ask me n...

As I mentioned in this post , I made sure to get my pre-order in early for the new hardback edition from Ian Fleming Publications, with the new Michael Gillette covers. Most of them arrived whilst we were on holiday, but two were missing. After a brief email exchange with their customer-service team, the mistake was rectified, and the missing (last) two have appeared to complete the full set. Marginally disappointing that they couldn't spring for dust jackets, but a fine set nonetheless and a worthy addition to the collection.