Ten Days That Shook The World, John Reed, Penguin Modern Classics, 1977
£3.00, Very Good condition, Oxfam bookshop
A beautiful copy of John Reed’s ‘Ten Days That Shook The World‘ in Penguin Modern Classic edition which details the Bolshevik revolution in 1917. According to the book’s publication page it was published in 1977 but Henry Eliot’s ‘The Penguin Modern Classics Book‘ insists it was first published as a modern classic in 1979. It has an introduction by AJP Taylor, in which he notes a little testily, that when Penguin first published the book in 1966, it decided to do produce the book without his introduction. The cover, typical of the Penguin Modern Classic series at this time, show a detail from a contemporary painting of the setting of the book, in this case ‘The Attack on the Winter Palace’ by V Kiriakov, which has become an iconic image of revolution.
October The First is Too Late, Fred Hoyle, Penguin, 1980
£5.00, Mint condition, eBay
I’m trying to get a copy of all of the Science Fiction books Penguin produced between 1935 and 1985. I’m doing pretty well – although there are some I think I’m going to struggle with. Some of the later ones, from the early eighties are also difficult to find in good condition so I was very happy to get this 1980 copy of Fred Hoyle’s 1968 time distortion novel ‘October The First is Too Late with a brilliant cover by the much underrated Adrian Chesterman. Paid a little bit more than I normally would, but was Mint condition.
The Beatles in Help!, Al Hine, Mayflower Dell, 1965
£1.50, Good condition, Oxfam Bookshop, Dorset.
Nice little find in the ‘sale’ section of my local Oxfam bookshop to add to my small but growing ‘TV and Film Tie-in’ pile. In David Lodge’s Changing Places – one of my favourite novels – English academics at an increasingly fractious dinner party have to name classics of literature that they have never actually read. Not quite as embarrassing but I have to confess that I have never actually seen Help! Scanning the photo insert in the book hasn’t persuaded me that it should be on my ‘to watch’ list.
Dune, Frank Herbert, Gollancz SF Masterworks (Hardback), 2012
£4.00, Very good condition, eBay bundle
The Gollancz SF Masterworks series is an excellent collection of beautiful reprints of classic and recent science fiction. The series is split between the earlier, black-spine numbered editions (1999 – 2007) and the newer, unnumbered yellow spine editions (2010 – current). Being a book nerd I prefer picking up the numbered black spin editions, but they can be hard to find in good condition. A few of the later editions were printed in hardback and I was delighted to get this hardback edition of Frank Herbert’s Dune as part of a small eBay bundle. I remember reading the book as a teenager and very much enjoyed the updated film version.
Vintage Paperback Treasure 