The mist is on the swonnicles

[hirez]

The power of abebooks.co.uk (i): I was awoken from a fitful slumber by a fellow on an old tourer (leather Brooks saddle) bearing a parcel. It was the dealer I'd bought the Q Annual from. (or indeed from whom) Since I only live five streets away, he'd decided to save postage and hassle by dropping the tome round himself. A fine gesture. Should anyone else be in need of Milligan publications, I would cheerfully recommend you give him a call early in your search.

Since I was upright, it seemed sensible to capitalise on that fact and beetle footwards to the premises of the estimable Messrs. Fred Baker to see about a replacement for the bits of rear brake it appears I managed to knacker some number of months ago. "You can't use v-brakes with canti levers, young man" said the bloke in the back of the shop, barely looking up from his wheel re-lacing. I wasn't going to give up my purple drag-queen brake levers without a fight (Dredged from the middle of the splendid quercus's parts bin, I should point out), but I took the view that either way I'd end up with a pile of handy bits, so forked out the cost of two network cards.

Some fettling later, aided by Radio Three (I'm not sure why I keep mentioning it. I grew up with the channel. I'm used to lurching from opera to early music and liking it. Well, not so much 'like' in the case of the opera. It sounded like two going off at once.) and a good pint of good coffee fresh from the kajia not-memorial-as-such really-very-awake-now engine, I have both rear stoppage and drag-queen brake levers. Hurrah!

So. Pottering off out in order to test same required. Topeak Alien in one pocket, Leatherman in the other. (bloodnok's right. You need needle (nardle) no(o)sed pliers too.)

Potter potter potter.

Oh look. The A4. There must be a book bar...

The power of abebooks.co.uk (ii): It transpires that one of the tales I've been singularly failing to get out of my head and onto any sort of recognisable media is basically a re-write of an old Harry Harrison story called 'The Daleth Effect'. I suppose it could have been worse, I could have been channelling the uneasy Thetan of Elron ("I am Thetan of Elron. This is my sword. There are many others like it, but this one is mine, etc." That one will be in jarkman's library, next to the Hornblower-in-space written by Heinlein's dog. Anyway...), but it's still a bit of a bugger. Obviously, I'd like a copy of same... (The Harrison, rather than Thetan of Elron's Adventures Beyond The Utlraworld with Minnie Ripperton and a cast of little fluffy spaceships... Oh God. Now I'm stuck with the idea of some not-afraid-of-swords marine corps types doing battle with a huge ever growing brain that rules from the centre of the universe and is partial to playing chess while pelting around in a motorised wheelchair singing VNV Nation songs. No, it's the baldy space marines that sing VNV: A cadre of Fighting SimRonans, bent on saving the universe for the redemptive powers of EDM!... They've a marching song, too: (To the tune of 'Airborne Ranger') "I want to be in VNV Nation. [I want to be in VNV Nation] I want to tour and shout for Helga [I want to tour and shout for Helga] I want to cut off all of my hair [I want to cut off all of my hair]... You get the drift.)

...

Where was I?

Oh yes.

So I thought I'd give the Bristol Book Barn a fair shake before calling in the carpet commerce-bombing skills of 7063rd Strategic Antiquarian Book Wing (Motto: Peace through superior Forteana).

It's a bloody odd place and no mistake. I wandered into a semi-abandoned industrial unit (shades of the Storax Project), past rooms with dead monitors piled in corners next to upturned desks and bits of trade-show display stand and PABX and through the door that said 'Book Barn' and...

You know that bit in Waynes World where the bloke in the hamburger shop opens a door behind the counter and there's a huge and impossible room there, filled with ninjas abseiling and helicopters and mortars and scrack-thing?

Like that. I've never had a real-life perspective do that bo-oing thing before. I swear, half that building must exist in hyperspace. I'm sure there were a pair of dirigibles moored up in the eaves.

No bloody Harry Harrison, mind (Well, other than West of Eden, and who wants to read that?).

Comments

[sheepthief.livejournal.com]

But I loved the Eden series! It had dinosaurs and everything! Though for some reason you've now got me thinking of the Hellicinia trilogy and I don't thank you for that.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Helliconia? That's Aldiss, right?

'Hothouse' scared the piss out of me a long time ago.

I think I got into SF because there was a section round the corner from the children's section in Winchcombe public library where all the big yellow Gollancz hardbacks were on the bottom shelf and thus easy to get at. Most people blame dodgy genes or unfortunate combinations of pre-birth hormones for then being a trannie. I think I blame too much John Varley at an impressionable age...

[reddragdiva]

I bet it's really 'cos you've got a dick the size of your arm.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Bluebell Railway.

[sheepthief.livejournal.com]

God, yeah, the VG logo.

I wasn't much for Hothouse either, though I read it only recently. In fact I can't now think of any Aldiss that I really liked. Now, who did The Integral Trees? That was interesting.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Larry Niven, it says here. (ie - via Google)

I should probably read Ringworld (Is 'ring around the sun' something else? I think I require the aid of seasoned skiffinauts: Where's an Alison or a Liam when you need them? Out carousing, I'll be bound.) but Jerry bloody Pournelle drives me far enough up the wall that I'm usually to be found hanging from the ceiling rose in a comical manner.

On the other hand, I'm definitely going to dig out 'Orbitsville' again. Fine stuff.

[sheepthief.livejournal.com]

Didn't really like the Ringworld stuff. Pournelle gets on my tits, but then he did when he wrote for Byte too. However, the stuff he did with Niven was usually good. Mote In Gods Eye, Lucifers Hammer, now what was the one about arcologies... Oath Of Fealty. Oh, and the one that was written by three of them - Legacy Of Heorot - actually that would make a reasonable Hollywood film with modern-day CGI.

Never heard of Orbitsville.

I don't think I have any sci-fi waiting at the moment - it's all classics and pop science. No wonder I've fallen out of the habit of reading. I might just rummage up some Simak to go to bed with.

Might see you tomorrow by the way - hope so anyway!

[zotz]

Pournelle wasn't involved in Ringworld, was he?

Is 'ring around the sun' something else?

Simak, apparently. I've not read it. If you mean the novel, because there's an Asimov short, too.

[bloodnok.livejournal.com]

It is indeed (the novel), and a wonderful book that had a great effect on me when I read it far-too-many-years ago. I'm currently looking at my NEL copy, priced 4/- and with all of the pages dropping out *g*

Stop accessing my memories!

[sarah-mum.livejournal.com]

Winchcombe public library where all the big yellow Gollancz hardbacks were on the bottom shelf and thus easy to get at.

And they just looked so damned appealling. The 'oversize' section was also a fave (maybe it *wa* just the name), where I developed a strange pre-teen love of arty coffee-table fare.

Anyway...

[bloodnok.livejournal.com]

Argh! What have you done?! Opened a deluge from the area of my brain that I pumped full of SF before university knocked the reading habit out of me is what. Next time I head back to the ancestral throne (and I choose the word carefully), I see myself digging boxes of books out of the loft. I have both the Stainless Rat and Wheelworld series buried in there somewhere.

One that has sprung to mind and, a quick search reveals, it appears I can still get, is a copy of The Leaky Establishment by David Langford.

Oh, all those Eric Frank Russell books I could never get 15 years ago...

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Very fine. My work here is done.

Of course, while the works of Langford the Elder are still available somehow or other, those of the Younger Langford (John, of the Johns, Mekons, Waco Bros et al) firmly resist purchase. To wit: Deathrocker Scrapbook - a tape-only release on ROIR of NY.

Bah, I say. And, indeed, arse-fez!

[bloodnok.livejournal.com]

That should, of course, have been "Stainless Steel Rat". Brain working faster than fingers again. Heaven help me should I ever need to write again for real. Can you get pens with a spell check? Not that I ever spill anything incorrectly, of course. I use Word's thesaurus far more than the spell check, when my Swiss cheese-like brain is fumbling for that word. But I digress.

Found my much-prized hardback copy of Men, Martians and Machines lurking about the place today. I think I may pencil in an early night next Saturday with that and a bottle of wine.

[evilmandykins.livejournal.com]

abebooks has fuelled a large part of my research,as a lot of the books i am using are loooooong out of print... it helps that a lot ( not all,but a fair chunk) actually charge reasonable posting charges ( ie what it actually costs vs some inflatable figure that depends soley on what gods you have angered on the last vernal equinox that fell on a tuesday)
the book barn sounds amazing tho, thats the sort of shop i would love to own/work in. academic bookselling is so...soulless.

[twicezero.livejournal.com]

i went through a phase of trying to buy lots of Spike first prints, don't start me off again! You know i might have some spares and some second printings that i've superceeded, you don't fancy a couple do you?

[specialunclet.livejournal.com]

brooks saddles, that takes me back to me childhood

[sarah-mum.livejournal.com]

You fitted one to your time machine? How clever (and indeed comfy)!