Books! Help! Books!

 Oh, dear God. 

I spent rather a lot of money on books. Also DVDs, but mainly books.

I don’t know what kind of stress tests they do on carrier bags to make sure the handles can handle it, but they clearly had me in mind when they designed them.

A couple random thoughts before I go over the purchases: it is always worth sticking your nose into a charity shop; ditto those odd little places that describe themselves as antiquarian shops; Guernsey is a lot of fun; never pass by a London street market without poking your nose in; good things come in messy packages.

To begin.

The Mystery of the Blue Train and The Secret Adversary, both Agatha Christie, republished collectables in the style of the original publishing. I remember picking up a copy of Murder on the Orient Express a while ago in a similar format, but this is the first time I’ve seen anything quite like it.  I originally thought this was a new series, but having researched a bit I think this must be an old boxed set that someone broke up and started selling in second-hand shops. Possibly more than one boxed set. I saw these for sale in at least two different London stores.

Very, very pretty. Worth picking up as props for a Bookhounds game. Moderately pricy at 25 quid a pop, but not insane money. The set is 26 novels and I don't know which ones were picked for the collection - Christie published 74 novels, after all - but it's a pretty broad group, including folks like Parker Pyne as well as Poirot. If they're available in second-hand shops, they must be on ebay and similar. Picked up at Boom Cat Books, Camden Market.

The Tao of Igor, collected Dork Tower by John Kovalic. I already had most of these in comic form but never knew how it ended. Now I do! Picked up at Orc’s Nest.

Black Chrome (Cyberpunk) and Cthulhu City (Trail) both picked up at North London’s shining star, Leisure Games. I haven't had a chance to read either yet but Cthulhu City is just my cup of arsenic. Looking forward to it!

Death of Mr. Dodsley, one of the British Library’s crime collection. These are usually fun but there’s an added bonus: the victim is a bookseller and the story involves a lot of book lore. Bookhounds players/keepers, take note. I read this within a day or so of purchase and highly recommend. Picked up at the Lexicon in Guernsey.

Fracture, picked up at Blackwell’s, Oxford. Quick word about Blackwells: they have outposts all over the country but, for my money, if you want anything interesting or academic you need to go to the Oxford shop. That's easier to do now the Elizabeth Line is working, which wasn't the case when I was last in the UK. This is a history of the 1920s-30s and it covers absolutely everything. I really do mean everything. Ordinarily this sort of thing focuses on, say, the UK, or US, and has one particular topic in mind. This covers the whole schmeer, from astrophysics to Marlene Deitrich, across Europe and North America. Anyone who wants to know more about the world according to Call or Trail of Cthulhu needs this book in their library.

The Saint Sees It Through, Leslie Charteris, 2nd edition with the original jacket. I have a weakness for this sort of thing (see also the Agatha Christies mentioned above). I’m not a huge Saint fan but if you want to know how to write pulp, this is a great starting point. Beware period views on race and sexuality. Picked up at my uncle’s second-hand place in Brighton, Raining Books on Trafalgar Street, within easy walking distance of the train station. My uncle’s a great bloke; organization is not his strong suit. 

The Ingoldsby Legends. Picked up at Curiosities, an antiquarian shop in Guernsey. It’s often worth your while poking your nose in that sort of place, particularly in somewhere not often frequented like Guernsey. You never know what might be hanging around. This is the 1898 Richard Bentley edition, with illustrations, and is a collection of all three books. The originals would have been published in the 1840s as single volumes. Comic ghost stories and verse. I'm not a huge fan of comic verse - it goes on a little long and I find it wearisome - but the stories are entertaining Gothic and might give you inspiration for your own tales.

The Bailiwick of Guernsey by CP Le Huray. part of the King's England series, published 1952. Picked up in a Guernsey charity shop. Interesting, detailed, a little dry. Since it's immediately post-war it does cover the German invasion but not to a great degree. Judging by the frontispiece this was one of a series that covered the whole of the UK; if you have a particular interest, it may be worth seeking out some of the others. 

Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell. I used to have a copy of this but I’ve no idea where it went. Very pretty edition with what looks like a period-ish cover. Again, the sort of thing worth using as a prop in a Bookhounds game. Picked up at Boom Cat Books, Camden Market.

The Warriors, Sol Yurick. Bet you didn’t know there was a book on which the film was based! The film bears almost no relation to the book bar the central premise, but that doesn’t mean the book isn’t fun. It’s gritty and reality-based, rather than the knockabout free-for-all the film becomes. Picked up at Foyles.

The Cliff House, by Christopher Brookmyre. I’m a huge fan and have pretty much all of his stuff. This is a new one on me. Picked up at Foyles.

I Am Not A Number by Alex Cox.  The Prisoner: an explanation; pretty detailed. An interesting piece. Workmanlike writing style but he covers all the bases and gives the reader a clear idea of what happened and why. Not a must-have, but if you enjoy the Prisoner it's worth considering. Picked up at Blackwell’s, Oxford.

Occult London, by Merlin Coverly.  Picked up at Foyles. I haven't read it yet so I can't say how good it is, but it has some strong selling points. First, it covers a broad timeline from the Elizabethan period to the modern day. Second, one of its appendixes is all about occult bookstores in London. Bookhounds players/keepers should at least consider this one; whether or not you purchase is up to you.

Quatermass II, Nigel Kneale. This right here is why you should always pay attention to London street markets. I’m sure this needs no introduction. Found on my last day, Rare Books and Curios, Greenwich Market. On a side note, if you want a decent pint and don’t want to end up in a tourist pub, I recommend the Plume of Feathers on Park Vista. It’s a short stroll from the market proper, near Greenwich Park. Atmosphere’s good.

DVDs: as you ought to have learned by now, streaming only works so long as the service provider is willing to let you keep streaming. Things you thought you bought vanish in a heartbeat. Picked up mostly at Fopp, Timeslip in Brighton, and Music & Video Exchange in Greenwich. I’m basically filling in gaps in my collection at this point.

Among them:

Conan the Barbarian

28 Days Later

The Crazies (remake of the Romero original, picked up because it has Timothy Olyphant)

The Day of the Triffids

Prince of Darkness I first saw this on the big screen at the Greenwich Picturehouse years ago, before COVID. Definitely worth seeing on the big screen if you can manage it - but I'd say the same for all Carpenter films.

An American Werewolf In London

The Haunting (I used to have a copy of this but it died, so here's a replacement)

Snatch

Full Metal Jacket

That's it for this week. Enjoy!

London Booty

I'm back!

For the first time in my life I have jet lag. I can't blame the climate, as I had the same problem flying over as I did flying home. I have no idea how this happened. I've always been lag-free. I suppose this is one of those things that goes wrong with age, he says clutching a shawl around his shoulders and sipping tepid tea for fear of excess excitement.

This time out I thought I'd talk about the haul of books and DVDs brought home from faraway places. For those of you wondering what peculiar artifact this Digital Video Disc might be, it's a cinema format I find very useful, for two reasons. First, it's still the most reliable way to find odd, old, and cult cinema, and there are some temples where they might be found. Like Fopp in London within striking distance of the Orc's Nest, Music & Goods Exchange in Greenwich, and Timeslip on Trafalgar Road in Brighton. Second, it avoids the Foreigner Problem.

For those of you who don't have to put up with the Foreigner Problem, allow me to elucidate.

If you happen to live in a place like Bermuda, overseas vendors don't know what to do with you, but as you're a Foreigner they treat you like a peculiar, simple-headed soul. Someone who doesn't appreciate the good stuff. Someone whose first language probably isn't English. Someone you can overcharge for postage.

So if you're, say, an American service provider offering online movies, you certainly don't offer the full rate of programs to Foreigners. You short the bill, and if the series happens to be, say, Japanese anime, you offer subtitles in Spanish. Only Spanish. Because Spanish is what they speak in Foreign Parts. Portuguese would be better, but quel dommage! It's improved over the years, but this is what put me off online services for a very long time, and even now I'm dubious about a so-called service that can be withdrawn at the vendor's discretion. If I buy a movie, it's mine. It's not some peculiar form of rental.

So despite the climate being ruinous to discs, I still purchase DVDs. How ruinous, you ask? Our humid salt-laden air often kills DVDs within months. The outer skin of the disc separates ever so slightly, leaving the smallest of cavities, something you can't see with the naked eye. Then condensation builds up, the tiniest beads of water. Mold loves water. All it wants is water and darkness, and there's not much light inside a DVD case. When it's not mold, it's rust. I remember tape decks being much the same - you could see the rot spread, little greyish fingers of death. I've seen DVDs practically transparent, patched like a pinto pony. The lifespan of a disc depends on its quality. Your average HBO box set, manufactured by the lowest bidder, might die within a few months, maybe a year. A BFI high quality issue might last decades.

There are ways of solving the problem but I shan't go into them here. This isn't Technology Corner.

The list of books is short, but that only means I'm not including books bought as Christmas presents for other people. I'm not some animal.

London Cameos by A.H. Blake, Herbert Jenkins publisher, 1930. Purchased at Greenwich market.

Markets are very hit and miss. You can find treasures; more often you find junk. It's like prospecting for gold, with about the same success rate. "Surely there is no city in Europe that is as rapidly obliterating all the footsteps of the past as London," writes Blake. Just a moment there, Blake, old son, there's a Herman Goering on the line for you. Blake's done a brilliant job of collecting what amounts to a ton of scenario hooks - A Picturesque Inn, The Bell of Doom, to name but two of several score. I look forward to devouring them at my leisure.

Victorian and Edwardian Prisons by Trevor May, Shire Library, 2006. Purchased at the Museum of London Docklands.

I'm not going to spend much time describing this one. You can work it out from the title. However if you ever want source material for a UK game I highly recommend anything Shire publishes. It's always informative, packed with useful detail and evocative illustrations. Writers take note.

Folklore of Guernsey by Marie De Garis, originally published 1975, reprinted 2014 by La Societe Guernsesiaise. Bought in Guernsey.

You'd be forgiven for thinking, as you peruse the bookshelves, that nothing much happened in Guernsey until Hitler invaded. There's a few tomes on fishing and forts, then Whallop! Germany calling, and suddenly there's books by the dozen. Guernsey was the only part of Britain ever to be captured by the Nazis, and they left behind some calling cards, the odd gun emplacement, a well-stocked Occupation Museum. However I was surprised not to see more books about this dolmen-haunted island's history and folklore. The island's seen human habitation since before the birth of Christ and its archaeology is fascinating - yet so much of it has been dug up, used for building material or just thrown away to clear a farmer's field. I love books like this Folklore, and ate it up while waiting for Aurigny to wind up the rubber bands that power its aircraft's engines. I shall have to do something with this material.

Guernsey as it used to be, a tour of the town in Victorian times by George Hugo, originally published 1933, reprint 2017 Blue Ormer.

Yes, I shall definitely have to do something with this material.

Vampire the Masquerade by Ken Hite and others, World of Darkness. Bought at Orc's Nest, London.

I went over with one eye on this and another on The Fall of Delta Green, which no doubt made for a peculiar facial expression on my part, but thankfully I didn't have to see it myself. There was no way I was buying both. Leaving aside the cost - this one item makes up about a fifth of my book budget - there was no way both would fit in the suitcase, not with everything else that had to go in. Read it on the plane, need to read it again. Mechanically it's not a million miles away from the version I played at Uni, but there are significant differences. Culturally it's a whole other universe away. This is Vampire for the 21st Century, and it looks hellishly entertaining.

The Vampire, by Nick Groom, Yale Uni Press 2018.

Yes, it's a new history of your friend and mine. Yes, it's very, very good. Highly recommended. Am still reading. Go away. Shoo! Still reading … Depending on my Shoggee I might have to get someone this for Christmas.

Dogs of War, by Adrian Tchaikovsky, first published 2017, this edition 2018 Head of Zeus.

Adrian's been a mate since university, and he kindly gave me this. It's a near future dystopian sci-fi in which bioform weapons are used in place of robots, because the robots can't be trusted. Rex is a Good Dog, leader of his squad, but he's beginning to wonder whether he's really such a Good Dog after all, and if he's not, what to do about it. What fascinates me is that it's as much about international, human rights and war crimes law as it is Big Guns Go Bang; it takes a lawyer's mind to pull that one off.

The DVD list includes:

Lucky Luke 2009, French. I loved this Western gunslinger comedy comic when I was young. Can't wait to see the big screen adaptation.

A Private Function 1984, a British comedy of manners about a roast pig dinner gone awry.
 
Thief 1981, in which expert bandit James Caan wants to settle down, but the mob prefer him out on the streets working for them.

Arsenic and Old Lace 1944, and if you don't know what this is you should be ashamed of yourself. Fun fact - this is based on a 1941 stage play in which Boris Karloff played the monstrous Brewster played in the film by Roger Massey. The film was being shot at the same time Karloff thrilled audiences on Broadway.

Watership Down 1978, animated. I remember watching this when I was a kid. I have young nieces. I see no reason why their childhood shouldn't be blighted too. ;)

Big Trouble in Little China 1986, and how could any sane soul resist this film? I won't ask if you know it - but when was the last time you saw it?

The Monster Club 1981, a horror triple bill with Vincent Price, Donald Pleasance and John Carradine.

Ray Harryhausen, the Special Effects Titan 2011, documentary about the man who made stop motion movie magic possible, from Jason and his Argonauts to tentacled horrors tearing apart the Golden Gate bridge.

That's it for this week. Enjoy!