Book Update: January 2012 Books

JANUARY 2012 BOOKS

I got a large number of books this month so I will not post individual covers for all of them. I got 3 of them from the Quality Paperback Book Club, 1 from Goodreads in the first giveaway that I won (I have entered many giveaways there but this was the first time I won one, it helped that the author was giving away 25 copies) and the rest from Ebay.

HARDY BOYS MYSTERIES: 

Many know that the author of these books Franklin W. Dixon was actually a group of authors for the publishing company, but that is a story that has been told before by others and can easily be found by a web search.These first four books I got from one seller on Ebay for and average of $3.00 a piece (some auctions and some fixed price I think) they were ordered in December and I think originally shipped in late December/early January but the post office failed to leave one of those little "orange" pick up slips. Fortunately you can still pick up packages showing you valid photo ID to prove you are who you say you are and you are authorized to pick up mail for your address. I got it 10 days after they had originally tried to deliver it.

USPS "Orange" pick-up slip

Hardy Boys #1 The Tower Treasure

So since I'm trying to rebuild my collection from my childhood, or at least some of the highlights I got the hardback copies of these books. They are the 1960s or early to mid 1970s versions at the newest. I don't plan on getting any newer printings unless the original publication was later for those later numbers. Anyway the Series library numbers I got are 1, 4, 15, 16. These editions are numbered only on the spine, later editions put the number on the front cover. Later still they added a "flashlight" banner to the top of the front cover. I found an excellent identification website The Hardy Boys Unofficial Home Page that can help you determine which edition you may have. It might not be perfect but it helped me tons.  Anyway the titles of what I got:

Hardy Boys #16 A Figure in Hiding

01 - The Tower Treasure

04 - The Missing Chums

15 - The Sinister Sign Post

16 - A Figure In Hiding

With the exception of "number one" I had previously owned the others, I even had two different editions of number 16.

Next I had gotten three books from QPB:

Evidence of the Afterlife by Jeffrey Long, MD with Paul Perry
The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer 

The Vikings: A History by Robert Ferguson - When I first saw this book in the catalog I thought I already had it because I have a hardback edition of another book titled Vikings by Magnus Magnusson that has a similar cover.

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E

Next I am building a library of television-tie-in books from a TV series I barely saw as a kid. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. which starred Robert Vaughn, David McCallum (who plays "Duckie" on NCIS), and Leo G. Carroll. The trick to this series is I also plan on getting the UK versions of some of the books which have a different numbering system and sadly didn't publish as many of them there. I am concentrating on getting the US editions first then perhaps as I can find them get the UK ones. There is an excellent website (from a guy in the UK that has a bunch of series listed on his home page) to see the covers of all these books The Man From UNCLE Books Gallery

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.  (later printings listed it as #1 and titled "The Thousand Coffins Affair" this edition only has that title on the inside) by Michael Avallone

02 - The Doomsday Affair by Harry Whittington
03 - The Copenhagen Affair by John Oram
04 - The Dagger Affair by David McDaniel
05 - The Mad Scientist Affair by John T. Phillifent
06 - The Vampire Affair by David McDaniel
07 - The Radioactive Camel Affair by Peter Leslie
08 - The Monster Wheel Affair by David McDaniel
09 - The Diving Dames Affair by Peter Leslie

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Affair of the Goldrunners' Gold by Brandon Keith

The book I got as a freebie from the Goodreads giveaway by the author is a Sci-fi story Death Drop by Sean Allen. That is about all I know about it right now. I moved it to the top of my "to-be-read" list. When I am finished with it I will post a review there as soon as I can. Oh and it was signed "All my best" by the author..

 The last minute addition is just a small one, well a big one a big little one actually. Journey To The Center Of The Earth - The Fiery Foe by Paul S. Newman a "Big Little Book". When I was a kid my brother had a copy of this book. I'm not sure if he snagged it years ago upon move out of the family home or if my mom had put it into a giveaway box years later. I think it was the former. Anyway this copy I got from Ebay for $8 (the shipping was free) it is in very good condition but has that really musty old book smell. I might try that putting it in a plastic container with an unscented clothes dryer sheet to see if that trick works I don't want to try the kitty litter trick as I have no cats and would feel strange buying kitty litter. LOL.

Some books recently bought June Edition

I've got some books that I recently read that I have to sit down and write reviews for, they are making a nice little pile for me to think about. This post is not about that. It is about a few books I recently got, most of them from Quality Paperback Book Club. Two of them were kids books of those two one of them I had as a kid the other one is a recently published one.

So the kids books I got (wow this one I got at the end of April.)

When I Grow Up by Al Yankovic
Yep that book was written by "Weird Al" Yankovic the parody musician. This is his first attempt at kids books and it is pretty good. It has that strange wacky humor of Al's so you know he wrote it, or someone was channeling the spirit of Shel Silverstein (and cleaned it up). Somewhere online there is an interactive version of the book that you can purchase or download. I haven't tried that although I thought about it.

Next a book I had, or rather my family had, when I was a kid. I think it was eventually either handed down to my nephew (who is now 24), given away or donated. But the version I got is a special anniversary edition of the book. I figured "Why Not?". Um it was actually May when I got this one. (So much for this being only books I got in June).

 

The Story of Ferdinand: 75th Anniversary Edition by Munro Leaf
As I said my family had this book when I was growing up. Like many of the books in our family library from my childhood this book was probably a 1950s or 1960s edition. I don't know how many times I read it or had it read to me. I think the original copy we had may have been defaced with crayon by either the 5 year old me or one of my older siblings at that age. Aren't most kids books defaced by the kids at a young age? Who then in their Adult life find the childhood memories in a trunk in mom's attic or basement when they are moving out for the final time or many years later when they are packing up the estate.

Growing up in the suburbs of Washington DC, in the small city/town of Wheaton, MD there was an Italian restaurant that was named "Ferdinand's". They had excellent food, and a fantastic salad bar. The restaurant was family owned and seemed like it would last forever, even though many times there would be barely a soul in the place. Sadly they closed down a few years ago.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

This is the third book in the Robert Langdon series by Dan Brown. I haven't had a chance to read this one yet. I'm sure if they are making a movie of it I will read it before seeing the movie as I did with the previous books from this series. I'm not sure what the full synopsis of this story is at the time of this writing (I plan on starting it soon after composing this post). All I know is with the picture of the Capital on the cover and from the first stirrings I recall from hearing about this book some of it takes place in Washington DC.

And Another Thing... (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
by Eoin Colfer
This book is on my list of books to read (although I haven't added it to my goodreads list yet. So I don't know when I got it exactly.) It is sort of officially unofficially the sixth book in the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams, except it's written by Eoin Colfer the author of the Artemis Fowl series. I plan on re-reading the first five books of the H2G2 series before starting this one to get back to wherever it is that Arthur Dent has gotten to since then.