You can find Bob's channel here: www.youtube.com/@mrbook451

I'm so glad these kind of book shops are still around. Lovely weather and a lovely watch.

@outlawbookselleroriginal

10 күн бұрын

Yes, it was a beautiful day and The World's End (an appropriate title for an SF video) is a lovely pub. The sort of bookshop we visited in Puddletown is uncommon now, a pleasure to visit. Bob's stock- as I said- cannot be visited, but he does pop up at Book Fairs and is always happy to answer emails and sell online.

Perfect watching with morning coffee

@chocolatemonk

10 күн бұрын

and a pipe pf Escudo

Love a 'bookish holiday' - just had some time off myself and a couple of little book hauls to follow. Thanks for sharing your part of the world Steve its a treat.

This might be my favorite video. Sunshine, books and conversation about authors and their work. Priceless.

@outlawbookselleroriginal

10 күн бұрын

Glad you liked it. Check out my 'Science Fiction to read in summer' video from last year (in my top 5s. top 10s etc playlist) and my 'Beer garden book haul' video from around 2 years back, you'll love them.

Looks like a BEAUTIFUL hot day for a beer with a mate outside. I could feel the breeze. And taste the Corona from the Can Shaped Glass.

What lovely treasures! I saw the box with all the yellow books & thought "Are THOSE Gollancz? They don't 'look' like SF. No, Steve's passing them by, must all be Crime or Mystery, he wouldn't pass it up." Then BAM - You were on them & FINDING the one SF mixed in , as any bookhunter KNEW would be possible. Better than Hunting Videos! (Well, I guess, I don't watch any, how would I know?) And your books at the middle/end - stunning.

@outlawbookselleroriginal

9 күн бұрын

Yes, some crackers from Robert. I already have another pile waiting in the warehouse for next time. I'm trying to burn him down and reach the 'next time I visit I may want 2 paperbacks' stage but no sign of that taking place yet....

thanks, steve. how i wish dorset bob or someone like him lived here in america! so many wonderful books. i'm very jealous of your hardcover copy of the chalk giants. that was a great story. cheers

@outlawbookselleroriginal

7 күн бұрын

I'm sure there are similar people in the States- yours is a big country and Bob Clones must be out there!

Alan Arkin wrote SF? One of my favorite actors, because Catch-22...

Those Panther finds are amazing! Can't wait to grab a bunch when I visit next spring.

@outlawbookselleroriginal

10 күн бұрын

That's a long way off- it's highly likely many will be long gone by then, as Summer in Hay is busy. But you never know....

Sunshine, Bob and Dorset at it's best... oh, there was the lager too, but I won't mention that, plus a great pile of books. That seems like a perfect day to me. The Map and Book Shop in Puddletown I used to visit regularly. I'm surprised it's still in business. What a shame you had to leave behind three wonderful 1950s collections, Aldiss' first SF book, plus a Tenn and a Kornbluth, none of them are seen much these days.

So fun to have a beer with you and Bob! I could listen to you banter all afternoon. I do enjoy hearing Bob talk about the books for sale on his channel.

@outlawbookselleroriginal

9 күн бұрын

We would love it if you could join us as well, of course! Hopefully it will happen one day. If you come over here for a visit, you'd have to put a day aside to meet up with us. Bob is a great host and The World's End does spectacular meals.

@vintagesf

9 күн бұрын

@@outlawbookselleroriginal When planning our next trip to Europe I’ll definitely give you a heads up and see if we can arrange something.

@outlawbookselleroriginal

9 күн бұрын

@@vintagesf That would be great!

I haven't read any Robert E Howard for many years. Incredible creator of eery atmosphere. He died very young but his output was prolific. Lovely video.

The science fiction hall of fame has some serious great stories. Classic stuff.

@outlawbookselleroriginal

10 күн бұрын

Yes, it's generally brilliant, I've been re-reading it (again) recently.

Lovely haul. Those Cowper covers are beautiful!

@outlawbookselleroriginal

10 күн бұрын

Yes, they're great- I think Ian Pollock is the artist. I've had several copies over the years and I'll be selling my previous tranche (which were pretty good) either at a book fair in Westbury that Maurice of Allyouneedisbooks (aka Zardoz) is hosting, though I may post a sales video before then.

@SlowDazzle11

10 күн бұрын

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Great. I have a v good copy of the 1974 Quartet Books Clone which also has a good cover- but I don't know who the artist is..Have a great weekend.

@outlawbookselleroriginal

10 күн бұрын

@@SlowDazzle11 Quartet did some really great SF back then, I'm trying to recall the cover of that one, may be Patrick Woodroffe. I have all the Cowpers in hardcover too, mostly Dobson and Gollancz.

"The Death of Grass" is a great John Christopher book.

@outlawbookselleroriginal

10 күн бұрын

Yes. It was, however, out of print for over thirty years until recently. The beauty of the current Penguin Modern Classics edition is that it has the same cover design as the original hardcover.

@zamiadams4343

10 күн бұрын

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Great episode by the way Stephen, so many great books.

I found that Other Voices at the amazing Dreamhaven books in Minneapolis...that series of Unwin paperbacks from the late 80s is a treasure trove of deep cuts...also included Gary Kilworth's Abandonati, some Scott Bradfield, some Tanith Lee. You should come to Minnesota sometime if you're in the States. Off the beaten path for sure, but it boasts of 3 f/sf bookshops, run by diehard fans.

@outlawbookselleroriginal

10 күн бұрын

Yes, I was a huge fan of Unwin's work at that time, I used to stock and sell them all, I have loads of them in hardcover and paperback, they pop up throughout my backlist here. Great books in that range.

What a fun visit! Tfs!

@outlawbookselleroriginal

10 күн бұрын

Yes, it was a fun day, best of the English summer sun and lots of books!

There is SO much good I can say about SF Hall of Fame! The introduction that goes into painful detail about how the list was mathematically purified & derived & the ethics of why which changes were made. I too don't love all of the stories (The Heinlein is a reminder of just who he was as a writer!) But they DO give a nice sample of the breadth of the genre! I too can NEVER remember what "Helen O'Loy" was!

@outlawbookselleroriginal

9 күн бұрын

"Helen O'Loy" is the Lester Del Rey story. I don't love the Heinlein either. I'm re-reading the book (again) currently and as important as it is, it is interesting to look at it from a contemporary perspective- more on this soon.

@waltera13

9 күн бұрын

@@outlawbookselleroriginal I just mean Helen O'Loy has been in a few anthologies. I've read it more than once. Can't remember anything other than its Lester Del Rey.

It occurred to me you might be documenting the end times of bookstores when you make these excellent videos, OB. Sad, yes, but it's an important endeavor. Another fine interview as well, sir, Cheers!

@outlawbookselleroriginal

10 күн бұрын

Yes, there are so few bookshops like the one in Puddletown now- most of their business is online. The chat with Bob wasn't planned, it just came up as a natural consequence of our pubbing it. As a collector, Bob and I are more alike than say Jules Burt and I - Bob and I both cherry pick and obsess about condition, though he does have a thing for magazines that I've always tried to avoid, as I collect enough as it is. He's a great guy, Robert.

Cats, beer and book hauls - I always enjoy these LP (longplay) videos. JK Potter gets a mention no less! Sending some dollaroos for your next retail sortie.

@outlawbookselleroriginal

10 күн бұрын

Thanks so much, my friend, very generous, ST makes all the diff here. Glad you're enjoying these, G'day to you too!

The cover of Galaxy Volume 1 depicts The Holes Around Mars by Jerome Bixby. A little gem of a story. I have a real soft spot for Galaxy Vol 1, because I read it while on deployment with the Australian Army, and it took me out of the miserable circumstances I was in at the time. As I couldn't escape physically, it allowed my mind a bit of freedom to be far away, somewhere else, thinking about other things. At least for a small while.

@outlawbookselleroriginal

10 күн бұрын

Bixby wrote some very good short stories, agreed.

I, too, have the *Galaxy 30th Anniversary* anthology, but in the one-volume trade paperback edition; like you said, the supplementary material is terrific! 👍 The John Varley 'reminiscence' is, um, interesting! 😳 Must say, though, your two-volume mass market editions are _way_ nicer than my one-volume edition! 💚 I've read the John Sladek novel in that very same Panther edition; of course, mine is strictly reading-copy condition only! 🤣 Good book, however! 😁

@outlawbookselleroriginal

9 күн бұрын

Yes, I think 'Muller-Fokker' is ahead of its time when you think of Cyberpunk....

I wonder, if I were every allowed in such a place, if that allow me to bring my own portable chair, and just let me spend hours, combing through the stacks. I think that was one of the few things Barnes & Noble (in the States) got right: they allowed you to sit, get coffee, take a bathroom break, and then go back at it. The problem with B&N, though, was that never seemed to carry anything I wanted. I'm impressed by how well-ordered everything is. What a little piece of paradise. Hope you're doing well, Mr. Andrews. Cheers. I just wanted to add: Americans have a tendency to mystified and fetishize writing fiction, whereas British writers seemed to have a very craftmanslike, get-her-done kind of attitude. This isn't to say one group is more "artistic" than the other; it's just that the British, as far as actual word-smithing, seem to have an almost working-class attitude to getting a book done. This is just my perception, though; I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with it. But I'm speaking about the past, not present-day writers.

@outlawbookselleroriginal

9 күн бұрын

This is ironic, as in SFF, we have - or had until the late 1980s - a far more literary tradition for our SFF over here, since Scientific Romance and Dystopian Fiction were mainstays of the British literary tradition going way back (especially the latter) and that the creature we call 'Genre SF' (i.e. SF that arose out of the magazine tradition was predominantly North American, as the term 'Science Fiction' itself is) was born of craft - or artisanship, I'd rather say- and graft rather than ivory tower literary aspiration. I think because the American novel as a philosophical form began to outstrip the British Social Novel in the breadth of its concerns by the mid 19th century and flowered fully in the 20th, might explain a lot of this perception of 'mystifying' writing as you put it. I think in the instances Bob speaks of here, we are talking about jobbing writers- what some would call 'hacks' - but it's worth remembering they had many more US counterparts and a larger market and that the likes of High, Bounds, Tubb et al weren't operating at the levels of say Wyndham, Ballard and Aldiss, say. British writers at the 'library' end of the market were, of course, often copying US pulp models, as Wyndham did very early on, which is one reason why their work has not endured. Most successful and acclaimed British SF writers from Wyndham to the mid 1980s were more influenced by Wells, Orwell and Huxley than the Golden Age writers, though they were an influence. Combine the British literary tradition with the impact of 'Galaxy' magazine in the 1950s and you have Ballard, for example.

@unstopitable

9 күн бұрын

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Some deep insights here. Thanks for taking the time to give them;. I'll spend days unpacking them. Perhaps the literary production of a nation is more bound to its life-cycle than I'd like to admit, for reasons of my own mortality.) Maybe our lit. is dying b/c the Empire is dying. (I can't help seeing images of Fellini's Satyricon when I say this, or even the Divine Comedy, especially the Hell part.) Thanks, Outlaw. I know your time is precious. Cheers.

Nice content and info. Need to re -read The dark is rising again. Great book.

@outlawbookselleroriginal

10 күн бұрын

Yes, good stuff!

Anyone looking to buy THE finest RE Howard hardcover at a reasonable price couldn't do much better than The Sowers of the Thunder also from Donald Grant and profusely illustrated by Roy Krenkel. The typesetting alone is a marvel wrapping beautifully around Krenkel's drawings and border decorations and must've been a nightmare to set back in the early 70s. It's sad the other Krenkel/Grant/Howard volume Road of Azrael is but a pale shadow of Sowers but still worth having if you can find it cheap. And it goes without saying the Wandering Star REH library is fabulous also.

There is a second-hand book shop in Brisbane I sometimes visit called Archives Fine Books. It's got quite an extensive collection of SF. It was where I found Harlan Ellison's "The Beast That Shouted Love At the Heart of the World", along with "Partners In Wonder" and part of "Dangerous Visions". Even though "Spider Kiss" is not SF, it was on the same shelf. I was also able to find an ancient Penguin edition of John Wyndham's "The Outward Urge". It was printed when John Wyndham was still alive, the author bio talks about him in the present tense. And I also found a lot of John Wyndham's pre-WW2 work. On my last visit they had a copy of Richard Cowper's "Clone". I'm thinking of going to Archives again tomorrow, so maybe I'll pick it up if it's still there. Incidentally, Tony Robinson of Blackadder fame once made an on-camera visit to Archives. It was when he was making a documentary about Australian cities.

@outlawbookselleroriginal

3 күн бұрын

Best of luck, sounds like a good bookshop for second hand scores.

@picturepainter

Күн бұрын

@@outlawbookselleroriginal I bought "Clone". Same cover as the one in the video. There is some slight damage to the cover where someone tried to remove a price sticker, otherwise it's in pretty good condition.

Hi Stephen. Good to see you out and about as always - great to see Bob too. As someone with a great interest in SF pulps and digests I was particularly intrigued by the Playboy Press Galaxy books. Were there more of these because I certainly haven't seen any. Also I was wondering if the Anticipations anthology is a "true" lozenge. My copy's a bit knackered but I stuck it in with the rest of the lozenges.

@outlawbookselleroriginal

9 күн бұрын

Hey Kenny, good to hear from you. I would say contact Bob direct about the Playboy Press books or check isfdb- which I've been meaning to do, but haven't- I hadn't seen them before and suspect there were only this couple. 'Anticipations' is a true lozenge, as I adopted that word because it described the bevelled edges of the text box (I always aim for eloquence and 'rounded corners' sounds a bit workmanlike compared to 'bevelled edges') and of course lozenges aren't rectangles- I'd have gone with Pan Oblong, but we wouldn't be geometrically correct then. Semantics aside, there are several rule-breaking titles in the Lozenge canon- Clarke's 'View From Serendip', a non-fiction book, the titles with two lozenges on their front covers- classic examples of the days when human beings with flaws designed books as opposed to everything being done template style on a computer. I know which I prefer!

Is that the same John Sladek who wrote The New Apocrypha? A book I pored over for hours and hours when I was a teenager. I've never read any of his SF.

@outlawbookselleroriginal

10 күн бұрын

Yes, same guy. He wrote lots of great New Wave SF and was big on fake conspiracy theory books and debunking titles too.

I'm persuaded to use protective bags before boxing up part of my library. Any tips on where to get them would be appreciated.

@outlawbookselleroriginal

3 күн бұрын

Amazon.

@quantok

3 күн бұрын

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Thank you, Stephen. Your videos (and Bookpilled) have inspired me to put down the Kobo and acquire a shelf of physical SF, so room must be found!

Never, ever even entertain the idea of “one in, one out”. What’s wrong with you, man?

@outlawbookselleroriginal

9 күн бұрын

How I laughed. There's no sign of it actually happening, of course....