Paperback Exchange Pickups

     I had a few minutes to myself, so I decided to go to one of my regular haunts, The Book Rack in greater Fort Myers. This place is just a diamond in the rough. If they don't have something you are looking for, than it does not exist. The owner is nice, has no idea what's on the shelf, and most every thing is .50 cents to 1.50, tops.

     This was just one small crowded section I took a picture of. I documented all the sci-fi/fantasy shelves and book cases in this post for those who are interested. Easily 10,000 books in the genre I shop in, with more piled up in boxes. You better not be in a rush to find anything when you come here! I spent a good hour reading, unpacking boxes, moving things around and found a few things I did not have that I thought were worth taking home with me. Behold, my precious...

 (as always, click to enlarge)

     Two Forgotten Realms books I already own, but I know someone who is looking for them, three R.R. Martin short story compilation books that are pretty hard to come by, and a smattering of vintage paperbacks to round out the bunch. Most notable is Death Cloud, by Mannion. I almost never see this book for sale, and had no idea what the cover even looked like. Ebay did not have a copy for sale, and Amazon did not have this first edition cover depicted. I'd say its a pretty good find! Honorable mention to Orbitsville, by Shaw. Interesting little advertisements inside:

   
     When I read, I only smoke Kent Golden Lights. Also, a little insert advertising a book club that sells those BCE's we loved so much in the 70's and 80's.

 

     A little better picture of the Wild Cards book by Martin. Since A Game of Thrones is so popular, these go for about $15 each on eBay right now. Not that I would sell them or anything. Overall, I spent about $10.00 on everything, and found some pretty cool paperbacks. As customary on a good book hunting adventure, I will now reward myself with a Newcastle Brown Ale for my efforts. Cheers.

Read it again? Sometimes. (Anthony, Asimov)

The theme of the day is all-in-one novels, or books that contain multiple books from the same series, taken from my collection.

     I have read the first seven Xanth books at least ten times each in high school. I felt as if they were witty, with great characters, and each book was different. After the seventh* book, the formula was:

Official Xanth Writing Formula

1) Have an issue.
2) Go to the Good Magician Humphrey's castle for a answer
3) He gives you a quest in exchange for the answer, big breasted Gorgon
4) Puns
5) Love side story that is not very good, or innuendo of a strange sexual nature
6) Puns
7) Ends on a positive note, possibly interspecies sexual innuendo

I suffered through almost 25 Xanth books before I realized they were not getting any better, and decided the best books were the ones he wrote before he was super famous, and had to be very creative. Being as prolific as he was, almost everything was a trilogy.. or a trilogy of trilogies. Later series that broke free of the trilogy suffered greatly as a result. Most people would call this "sucking ass" or "pants-shittingly bad".

 
     The Adept novels were awesome. Half Fantasy, half Science Fiction, they were just what the doctor ordered. The first three books were magical, perfect, and just really fun. Each of the books could be made into a detailed blockbuster movie. Stile, the main character of the first trilogy was the consummate un-hero, breaking stereotypes and winning at all costs. Then, enter the next trilogy. The frames merged, then separated, leaving a huge plot hole. To fill the hole, make the main characters have kids, and give them unoriginal names and abilities. Break rules you have made in earlier books in the series, and introduce unimportant characters to dilute the story further. Weird alien and child sexual innuendo abounds in larrrge amounts. Do yourself a favor and read the first three books in the adept series again and again, but skip the last three. To cap it all off, as if my other issues were not enough, he wrote a seventh book, and it just got out of hand. Crossover you say? Of course he had a character in Xanth visit Phaze, the fantasy world in the Adept novels. Sigh.

     Best science fiction series(s) ever written. I read these novels several times, all the way in to adulthood. Unlike the Piers Anthony books, they really hold up to today's standards. The story stays with you, and does not get watered down in sequels. The blend of science fiction, friendships, love and hate, and sometimes violence draws you to each page. Foundation is one series that ever human should have to read before they leave the earth. In a fictional study that I just made up, 25% of white males aged 10 to 25 should fucking read this book.

     I'll be honest, it's been raining a bit lately, especially when you want to get out and do something. Garage sales were plentiful last weekend, but books were in short supply. I live in a wealthy area, but unfortunately, rich people don't seem to like to read, or get rid of their good books. I found my wife several things, and some movies for my son but that's about it. I'll give it another try this weekend and see what I come up with, and if I don't find anything, I'll just sit in my car and shit my pants or something and write about that.

*I did enjoy the eighth book in the series, but as an adult I felt it juvenile and poorly written.

Super Thrift Shopping.. at Super Thrift.

    
     So decided to give this super huge Thrift Store by the train tracks another chance. It's pretty ghetto. Nothing electronic I bought from there ever works. It's 99% clothes, and it smells like Kenny Rogers in there. Not the chicken place, I mean, Kenny-fucking-Rogers.

     Some first edition, late printing Harry Potter books.. always good for a quick eBay turn-around..l but alas.. $3.99 each! I don't think so Super Thrift. Shame on you.

 

 

     Look what we have here. C.O.P.S. VHS tape. Fantastic short-lived cartoon from my youth. Great animation for it's day. Also, I saw some PC games, both without the codes. A used copy of Ever Quest II, a failed MMORPG, for $10. (sarcasm) Sign me up!

 





      Fail again guys. The shirts were super organized by color and type. The pants too. No books, no cool things to show you. I'm out of here.

Garage Sales, Yard Sales & Flea Markets.. Oh My.

     As a family we hit quite a few yard sales and garage sales on Saturday morning. We had a lot planned for the afternoon, so we tried to be quick at the sales we stopped at. As a whole everything was looking good. Jen had found some books she wanted, software for my son, and some key finder thing from Sharper Image. My boy found some toys that he could not live without, so we got those too. Nothing for me until the last yard sale.. pictured above.

 Analogs! Fantasy & Science Fiction! (Something else under it, that I will save for a rainy update.)

 

 On the left, an early Future Makers and a Daw sci-fi original. Honorable mention, a text book from 1873.

Later that night, we went bowling and had sushi with some friends and had a blast. I woke up this morning with a total headache, but I knew I better get out there or someone else will. (I keep telling myself that, even though I seem to be the only one out here buying this stuff)

 

     The flea market was a ghost town. We stopped and got something to eat before meeting up with my buddy the book seller who said they had something nice for me. We split a Cuban and some of the deep fried ghetto chips. The boy had pizza that looked good enough for any cafeteria on the east coast. Belly's full, time to see what's doing.

 

 Yes, they sell used cars inside, as well as a shelf of Dreamcast and PS1 games.

 Shitty 90's comics!

 Star Log mags (that I have already) and New Kids stuff in the same stall.

 Star Trek books anyone? Star Blazers.. what anime is this? Serious I don't know.



    
   Again I came back around to the book seller's row, where it's almost all books, VHS, DVD, and really just media in all shapes and types.

     Chris saw me right away and told me not to go anywhere, he had a box of books that he forgot he had pulled out for me a long time ago.. like more than a year ago. I checked things out in the meantime and found a couple things that I wanted.

     By the time he got back and dumped a whole box of vintage books on me, I had picked out another dozen or so hard cover books that escaped me before, being the wrong spot under a table. We negotiated, I paid. What treasures did I pick up? Behold!

 The huge box on the table, mysteries unknown.  Good mix of Sci-Fi, and fantasy.

 It just keeps on giving! Daw classics, and early first editions.

 A few Forgotten Realms books I did not have, some I did, Spelljammer (meh.) and a rouge Piers Anthony. The hard backs just kicked me in the nuts when I saw them, and I know what that feels like. All first edition hard covers from the 60's and 70's in great shape. All valued in the $20 range, and some at more than that.

     Found a few other hard backs around the corner from my buddy's stall for pennies, along with a few Executioner books for my brother who collects them. More on that later!

 

 

     All in all, a pretty good day. I spend $23.00 in total the whole weekend on books. My ten dollar budget was whacked by three bucks, but I blame my brother for that. Damn Executioner books... Cool covers though. I found some other things over the weekend, and took some pictures of some interesting shit I'll share with you guys in the middle of the week as time permits.

Forgotten Realms: The Harpers

     The Harpers was one of my favorite book series of all time. Its no secret: Im a AD&D junkie from way back. An ultra nerd if you will. I played every campagin you can think of, and no setting was off limits. The Forgotten Realms paved the way for my imagination and addiction to High Fantasy. It was not until just this year I got all 16 of The Harpers in one place, including the very well known Finders Trilogy. (or Finders Quartet!)
    

 

    So basically every well known Forgotten Realms author got a crack at writing a Harpers novel, the opoular ones were reprinted, and the later ones were reprinted as stand alone novels. (12-16) The copies I have from 12-16 are the reprinted ones. The list of the books are located here. Hard to find all these books in one place, for sale or otherwise. Now to the good bits.

 

    

     Some of the better books in the Forgotten Realms universe are some of the firsts. The Azure Bonds trilogy written by Kate Novak and Jeff Grub, employees of TSR and co-creators of the universe itself, was arguably the better of most fantasy books written at the time. Several popular video games were made about this series in the 80's and early 90's. The fourth book in the series, The Masquerades was written many years later when the original authors had 'a crack' at writing a Harpers novel. It's what the fans wanted, and was the perfect ending to a perfect series within-a-series.

Screen shot of the computer game, with Alias' tattoo. I did not take this picture obviously.

 

The Tattoo as depicted in the book. 

 

 I love maps, so took a few pictures of the maps on the first page.