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The Bibliophilia Thread

lolololol I could have been in the frying pan! (but the tutor knew it was a typo rather than a genuine thought!)
 
JamesWhitehead said:
I think Double Diamond, along with Watney's Red Barrel led to the founding of CAMRA. Not to preserve them! :pcheers: :puke2: :pthumbsd:

I do still love the old trademarks and signage! :)
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On a CAMRA pub crawl around Mitcham a few years ago, we found ourselves in some kind of prefab pub - it felt like it belonged on a caravan site - which had Double Diamond on tap (perhaps they hadn't finished a barrel since 1970).

For research purposes, I threw myself on the grenade.

It was extremely nasty.
 
LymeswoldSnork said:
On a CAMRA pub crawl around Mitcham a few years ago, we found ourselves in some kind of prefab pub - it felt like it belonged on a caravan site - which had Double Diamond on tap (perhaps they hadn't finished a barrel since 1970).

For research purposes, I threw myself on the grenade.

It was extremely nasty.
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I've never seen DD on tap, this must have been a timeslip.
 
On deadly ground today: Paju ('Book City') home to a few dozen small publishers, many of whom maintain cafés, libraries and museums. By chance I wandered into one that published a book I read about on the BBC a couple of years ago. Purest chance, I only looked at 1% of the total and likely wouldn't have recognised a single other name.

Of course, being possessed of almost no willpower or impulse control, I bought it on the spot. It's a starchy hardback and hard to photograph, but that old BBC article has a generous preview:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39324418

The artwork perfect evokes the aspect of the country I like (clue: it isn't pro-gaming or K-pop).

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lovely. The juxtaposition of the trees, many of them in flower, and the different wee shops is very striking.

Sometimes fate/the universe really wants us to have something :)
 
Bit of a plug here, but my latest bit of writing has been featured in a hardback volume (PILLARS: Circling the Compass) featuring the work of various occult authors. The underlying theme of the volume is the use of the circle within magick. Anyway I was really pleased with how it turned out, the publisher, Anathema Publishing Ltd, did an excellent job!


Pillars.jpg
 
Yithian said:
On deadly ground today: Paju ('Book City') home to a few dozen small publishers, many of whom maintain cafés, libraries and museums. By chance I wandered into one that published a book I read about on the BBC a couple of years ago. Purest chance, I only looked at 1% of the total and likely wouldn't have recognised a single other name.

Of course, being possessed of almost no willpower or impulse control, I bought it on the spot. It's a starchy hardback and hard to photograph, but that old BBC article has a generous preview:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39324418

The artwork perfect evokes the aspect of the country I like (clue: it isn't pro-gaming or K-pop).

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The writing seems to have been changed into matchstick men doing yoga. Was it written by an oriental LS Lowry?
 
This book, Mythical Creatures of the U.S.A. and Canada, was made of unobtanium.

After e-mailing about half the used book stores in Wisconsin (US)--the state where it was written, I figured out it would be easier to find it there--, a copy appeared on AbeBooks--from a Wisconsin seller, but not one that I had contacted. I guess the sellers looking for it made a copy appear on the market.

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With this book, now I have only two expensive nuts to crack. I am refraining to comment on them, to lest someone front-running me.

Edit: backcover included.
 
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FrKadash said:
Bit of a plug here, but my latest bit of writing has been featured in a hardback volume (PILLARS: Circling the Compass) featuring the work of various occult authors. The underlying theme of the volume is the use of the circle within magick. Anyway I was really pleased with how it turned out, the publisher, Anathema Publishing Ltd, did an excellent job!


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I only know Frisvold and Skinner from the authors, but really, the book looks nice.
 
packshaud said:
I only know Frisvold and Skinner from the authors, but really, the book looks nice.
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Yes, the quality of the book is stunning. Since their inception back in 2011 Anathema Publishing have slowly but surely made a very good name for themselves within the occult publishing community. They work to a very high standard, and it won’t be long until they are considered to be on the same level as Starfire Publishing, Xoanon, Fulgur, Theion etc.

Their best work to date is, in my opinion, Entering the Desert (Pilgrimage into the Hinterlands of the Soul) by Craig Williams. Very insightful and original, highly recommended!
 
Yithian said:
In the case of Ladybird books--I'm led to believe--early impressions are not marked as distinct from the actual first batch, but in this case the presence of the errata slip is a pretty concrete distinguishing feature.
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It would be wonderful if the errata for the poisonous mushrooms--in a book for children--was glued to the page where the error occurs.

That is a relic of a bygone era.
 
A beautiful thing has arrived in the post: a 1961 first edition of Perpetua's publication of A Christmas Carol, generously illustrated by the inimitable Ronald Searle (you can see some of his St Trinian's books upthread). It's the perfect marriage of artistic and linguistic style. Dickens, despite his lamentably staid presentation to many a bored schoolboy and girl, being very much of the irreverent, ego-puncturing Merrie England tradition that Searle later worked within.

It's in near perfect condition (one tiny tear to the jacket), and, given that, the price was a steal.

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The gods smile. After three years of searching, I've found a first edition of the second book in the series. They're from 1936 & 1937 and the woodblock prints are truly beautiful.

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Long day, but a nice delivery waiting for me at the end of it. In case the photograph isn't familiar, it's the autobiography of the late Sir Michael Hordern CBE, one of my favourite actors. General reviews suggest that as an autobiography it's a tad unsatisfactory as he is too guarded and passes over his private life on the surface--he also spends rather too long on fishing tales and it's rather short--but those criticisms notwithstanding, the authorial voice rings true. It's neither old nor particularly 'collectible', but I look forward to reading it all the same.

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Here are a couple of the beautiful illustrations from The Badgers of Bearshanks by 'BB' [Denys Watkins-Pitchford]. I've been looking for a fine copy of this book for about a year now, but we're in the region of £150 for a 95-page book, so I'm waiting and hoping to get luckier.

For the moment, I'll admire the pictures. You can almost feel the silence of the quiet in them.

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They are truly very atmospheric, i think the word is, i like them
 
They look like they've been done with scraperboard (something I had a go at when I was a kid).
 
Spookdaddy said:
Here is the first book I ever bought for myself, A Golden Land - pictured next to the most recent. (Actually the latter has been sitting in a parcel at my mums for months while I’ve been away. But, if not strictly the most recently purchased, it is the most recently read):


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I remember very vividly the whole process of buying that first book. I would have been about six years old and very excited that I was making a choice for myself. I was with my mum. It was a winter’s afternoon and already dark outside the shop. The book was on one of those spinning wire racks. The newsagent’s we bought it from had been the stabling for a pub and still had a vaguely agricultural feel about it.

I suppose I bought it around a time midway through the period when the photographs in the more recent book were taken – and it seems quite eerie that I was bumbling about in the same - so close but so far away - world that those oddly mysterious and beautiful photographs were taken.

I’ve always thought that our more recent past – even the one we’ve been through ourselves – is somehow more mythical and ungraspable than a historical past we were never part of. And nothing about those two books, and the feelings they inspire, makes me think otherwise.

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You may (or may not) be interested in Hoxton Mini Press's new publication:

Screenshot 2019-11-07 at 01.58.48.png


https://hoxton-mini-press.myshopify.com/collections/books/products/london-underground-1970-1980

I ummed and ahhed about whether to order that or this:

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https://hoxton-mini-press.myshopify.com/collections/books/products/the-east-end-in-colour-1980-1990

They've made some slight effort to promote it as being thematically linked to the Granick book you have, but despite some superficial similarities, it doesn't really seem to be. PLUS all of the photographs in Tim Brown's book are already available freely online here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/25347284@N04/albums/72157678097536798

[Worth a browse]

Anyway, I opted for the Mike Goldwater's LONDON UNDERGROUND 1970-1980. I have a sentimental attachment to the Tube and I'm a sucker for black and white photography.

There's a generous preview at the first link and a nice BBC article about it here:

https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-50261478
 
Both of those books look totally gorgeous.
 
titch said:
I love books, but to read, my books are covered in pringle crumbs and have greasy, well thumbed pages, I could never have a rare book, I would soon ruin it's value.
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I feel you. Unfortunately I have a couple of scarce books, but they are intended for reading, not for air tight chambers.

Edit: I see you got the latest, proper edition of An Introduction to Parapsychology. Add these books to your pile:

  • Paranormal Experience and Survival of Death by Carl B. Becker;
  • Aristocracy of the Dead: New Findings in Postmortem Survival by Arthur S. Berger;
  • The Folklore of Ghosts, edited by H.R.S. Davidson;
  • How about Demons?: Possession and Exorcism in the Modern World by Felicitas D. Goodman.
 
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Mythopoeika said:
Both of those books look totally gorgeous.
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Everything they publish looks nice and they also have limited deluxe editions of most titles at not-outrageous prices.

The others I have been tempted by (take a look at the site) are 'Funland', which seems to be a collection of contemporary-ish photographs of surviving seaside attractions (I love that slightly run-down decay you get at old resorts), and one (I forget the title) on the Isle of Dogs in the 70s and 80s, just before the big money and the re-development came in. The latter is very much 'a moment in time' and a look at a world that has largely vanished. There are an awful lot of pictures of the 'Old East End', but somewhere like The Isle of Dogs is much less fashionable.

Not all they do is historical, but I'm less interested in current coffee shops and 'hipster-esque' locales.

Edit: Browse catalogue here:
https://hoxton-mini-press.myshopify.com/collections/books

Do I need a book on Launderettes or Dog Shows? No. Would I be happy if you bought them for me? Probably!

Edit: I'll bet this one is fun:

https://hoxton-mini-press.myshopify.com/collections/books/products/drivers-in-the-1980s-photo-book-6
 
packshaud said:
I feel you. Unfortunately I have a couple of scarce books, but they are intended for reading, not for air tight chambers...
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Every book I own is for reading - some just a little more carefully than others.

Yithian said:
You may (or may not) be interested in Hoxton Mini Press's new publication...
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Yup - the London Underground book is on my shopping list. And the promotional email from Hoxton Press inspired me to dig up an re-watch Molly Dineen's, Heart of the Angel - a documentary the watching of which inspires in me a response which which perfectly applies itself to a comment I made earlier on this thread:

I’ve always thought that our more recent past – even the one we’ve been through ourselves – is somehow more mythical and ungraspable than a historical past we were never part of.

Available here.
 
Spookdaddy said:
Yup - the London Underground book is on my shopping list.
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I received it a few days ago and was really impressed.

I've had it off the shelves a few times over tea and spend a lot of time scanning each image for details.

I'd add that some of the best photographs don't appear in the previews printed online.

Nice to see that Stanley Green features in one picture:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Green

Lacking any kind of willpower, I just ordered this one:

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I remember a long day walking around the Isle of Dogs when Docklands was half built and only partially occupied. The place had a very weird atmosphere that I very much enjoyed and that I'm hoping will be rekindled by these coming photographs.

Here's a brilliant site on the place:
https://islandhistory.wordpress.com
 
Yithian said:
I received it a few days ago and was really impressed.

I've had it off the shelves a few times over tea and spend a lot of time scanning each image for details.

I'd add that some of the best photographs don't appear in the previews printed online.

Nice to see that Stanley Green features in one picture:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Green

Lacking any kind of willpower, I just ordered this one:

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I remember a long day walking around the Isle of Dogs when Docklands was half built and only partially occupied. The place had a very weird atmosphere that I very much enjoyed and that I'm hoping will be rekindled by these coming photographs.

Here's a brilliant site on the place:
https://islandhistory.wordpress.com
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Austin 1100, Ford Cortina and a Hillman Minx methinks (I couldn't tell one modern car from another) and I think two cranes made by Stothert and Pitt in Bath. I know little about cranes but my dad worked for Stothert and Pitt for most of his working life as a steel buyer.
 
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