A Bookstore Saturday, to refresh those in need, is that most-grand of events, comprised of the following:- It takes place on a Saturday
- In a used bookstore (smattering of new books allowed)
- Involves 2 or more hours of in-store browsing
- Store must honor the Used Bookstore Gods in its look, feel and browsing experience
Here's what went down:
I'd found myself with a few pre-airport hours at the end of my last business trip. You know the drill: checkout's at eleven but flight's not till three, you don't want to sit at the airport all day so what do you do with the time. Well if you're anything like me, you grab your smartphone and type in "used bookstores nearby" to see what your options might be. Sometimes you get lucky, and sometimes you find yourself in the midst of a Used Book Desert. (Aieeee!)
As it turned out, Lady Luck was with me on that day: My phone search led to an oh so enjoyable Canoga Park shop called Next Chapter Books. Which is a great name for a used bookshop, it being the next chapter in a book's life, and you being the next person to read it. Okay, technically books don't have lives, but you know what I mean. (Well, they kind of do have lives....)
Anyway, walking through the front door, this place just exuded Genuine Used Bookstore--it had the feel, you know? If you're a used book lover, you know exactly what I'm talking about. There were plenty of books on the shelves--no problem finding the more recent and/or popular stuff here--but the shop also had a really nice selection of older and more unusual books. I'm telling you, I could've spent so many more hours roving around its stacks than I had the time for that day.
Turned out the place is owned and run by a fellow named Boyd, who I'm happy to say offered up just the right amount of assistance before stepping back and allowing the shelf-scouring to begin. And this guy knew books, in general and what was on or not on his shelves, which always makes for a nice bookshop browse.
Speaking of knowing books, I'm always amazed when a shop owner--after hearing my latest ridiculously obscure title request--gazes out over thousands of books and says "Yeah, I have a copy of that." And then leads me straight to it. It's just as amazing when the answer is "no I don't." How does a non-cyborg keep that amount of constantly changing information in their head, anyway? (I'm only assuming Boyd wasn't a cyborg; I don't actually know, do I?)
Anyway, suffice it to say this shop is very much worth your time, should you find yourself in LA with thumbs a-twiddling. Heck, if you're in LA and wildly busy, the place is still worth stopping into.
Enjoy these shots of the place I grabbed from Google Maps, which just happen to include myself as I browsed about the place. In my red sweater. And red pants. Okay, that may or may not actually be me. Could be a clever and high-tech illusion. YOU BE THE JUDGE.
That's the shop; now let's get a look at all the book-spoils I rode away with (by Uber, not horse) that day. As always, feel free to click through images for larger (readable) versions....
I was entirely unable to pass up this copy, when I ran across it, of the very novel that deadmansbrain is named for. Well, technically the blog is named for one of the associated film's taglines, but still....
It's a 1969 Berkley Medallion edition of Curt Siodmak's (pronounced see-ODD-mack, in case you were wondering like I was) novel, which was first published in 1942. Apparently this edition's cover designer was so enamored with that cover art they decided to use it on both sides. That or they ran out of time as the book went to press. Either way, it's a nice looking image. Creepy.
I had thought I'd read this way back in the day, and that may be true, but flipping through this copy today isn't ringing any obvious bells, so we'll see once I actually get into it. I know I read one or both of the sequels, and I don't usually do that without reading the source material first....
This one had me at "50-meter monsters." Sadly, having already given that particular story a read on the airplane-ride home, I can safely say it was pretty underwhelming. Definitely not a "tale of terror" as the book's title would have me believe.
Anyway, the book is a 1976 Archway Paperbacks (Pocket Books) original, targeted at younger readers. That could have something to do with the tepidity of the story I read--tough to go full-on-terror when you're marketing to tweens.
The book's editor, Roger Elwood, seems to have carried a bit of controversy around with him. I know this because the book has an About the Editor page which mentions Mr. Elwood was, at time of publication, "...working on book versions of classic science-fiction and horror films." Now that's not something I'm going to just read past without further research. No joy, though. I couldn't find a thing he'd ever done to fit that bucket.
I did find the guy had garnered a reputation for glutting 1970s sci-fi/horror short-fiction markets with substandard material, making it harder for the higher quality stuff to get published afterward. I don't know one way or the other, but folks out there have written articles both for and against the man. Interesting bit of history....
At any rate, the book's story titles were enough to get me to lay down a fiver for it:
- "The Spider Ring" by Howard Goldsmith
- "The Museum" by Matt Christopher
- "The Most Horriblest Monster" by Arthur Tofte
- "The 50-Meter Monsters" by Nick Anderson
- "The Whispering Sea" by Ward Smith
- "Feeding Time" by Dave Bischoff and Chris Lampton
We'll see how it all pans out.
My wife and I had recently (pre-bookstore visit) been talking about Robert E. Howard and his Conan stories. I'd read a few Conan stories in high school, due to a friend-fan's insistence, but hadn't gotten sucked in enough to continue on my own. "Who knows," I said to my wife, "maybe I'd enjoy them more today...."
And then the very first volume of the collected stories showed up, right in the middle of my next Bookstore Saturday. An omen? A portent? Let you know after I read.
Ah. The book (one of the Lancer/Ace paperback editions, 1966-1977) includes some nicely done line drawings, such as this one:
Interior art in a non-graphic (non-comics content) novel of this type is always a nice touch. I think.
And here's one I'd been looking to find for quite some time. Seems the used bookshops I frequent habitually have Volumes 2 through 13 of this series by James Blish, but not Vol. 1, so you can imagine my glee at pulling this off the shelf.
Come to think of it, I have the same (lack of Vol. 1) problem with this related series by Alan Dean Foster....
Yeah, title alone was enough to add this one to my bag. It's a 1976 Archway Paperback edition of the previous year's Doubleday hardcover by Edward Edelson. Pretty interesting guy, this Edelson.
I'll give this one a read and maybe check out his Great Monsters of the Movies and Great Movie Spectaculars.... Come to think of it, that monsters book looks awfully familiar. Might've checked that one out of my childhood library a few times.
Ah yes. It was the publication date and sheer number of stories that landed this one in my bag. It's a "Bantam Giant" from 1957 (I'm a sucker for vintage paperbacks), and I figured: "Nineteen tales of terror for four bucks? I'm in." Besides, the book just felt nice in-hand, being all old and crackly and stuff. Had the old paperback smell, too (the good one, not the got-wet-and-moldy-long-ago one).
Unfortunately, I think I should have read the blurbs more closely in-store--turns out the book is full of stories of psychological horror, basically people going mad. Hum. I'm not generally a fan of psychological (versus creature and supernatural) horror, and I'm even less a fan of man-or-woman-goes-mad-and-terrible-things-happen stories. But I'll give it a go to see what happens. At least I have nineteen tries to find something I like.
Although, now that I do a bit of research, the book was edited by Whit and Hallie Burnett, a couple of fairly influential writers themselves, so who knows, I might find more to like here than I'd've first thought.
And the book, being as vintage as it is, does have some nice ads inside it. Check out this Perry Mason deal....
Okay, there you have it. Another Bookstore Saturday is complete. And thanks to Boyd over at Next Chapter Books for helping this one to happen. (And yes, NCB hands out bookmarks and business cards, the way any Genuine Used Bookstore should do....)
Till next time.
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