None of the books were any more expensive than Doctor Sleep, but, still, some were a step up from charity shop prices! I might have to plough through these Kings as a Goodreads challenge next year. I don't know how many I'd get through before craving another author, though!
Back once again with some more hardback horror yielded from the second-hand bookshops and charity shops of Norwich:
Shadow Land is a UK first edition, though has seen its price snipped from the dust cover. The copy of Portent cost me less than a loaf of bread. Astonishing, though, then again, it's far from Herbert's best. No sooner had I bought Portent than I unearthed a larger format copy of the book in another shop, interestingly without a copyright page. (I couldn't see it had been ripped out.)
I quite like the INTENSEAUTHORCLOSEUP photo on the back of The Dark Half.
It's like he's about to bite your right hand off if you so much as dare open the book.
Anyhoo, a quick nip into a charity shop near where I work yielded these latter-day Uncle Steves, collectively purchased for less than the price of a pint:
The Kingage didn't stop there either. The next day I managed to procure four mid-term Kings, each seemingly first edition hardbacks, at another charity shop. They probably don't count for much in collectibility terms when the first print run spans approximately fourteen gazillion copies, but it was still a pretty cool find. Pics to follow.
I too recently discovered the many possibilities for books at one of my local second hand shops. One had lots of King, Koontz, Saul books. Most were pb's, and didn't grab any, as I didn't have any spare cash. I did say a very good condition, 1st ed, of either Delores Clairborne, or Duma Key - I can't remember now.
Just to prove I too saw the same thing in my CD #70 as Squire... (looks innocently left and right!)
Anyhoo, shameless salesmanship aside, here's a pic of some recent buys from a local second-hand bookstore. I keep forgetting the kinds of treasure one can unearth in such places. For example, I picked up these hardbacks for less than the RRP of Doctor Sleep:
But here's the thing. There were two hardback editions of Odd Thomas in the shop. One of comparable size to the latter-day Kings you see on the bottom row, and the smaller edition you see in the picture. The reason I picked the smaller hardback was because of this curio I spotted on the copyright page:
I can't honestly say I've seen other cases of books being published before they are copyrighted. I'm guessing it's a pre-emptive strike, or perhaps an edition that was published close to the year-end. There is, of course, a Tardis-related explanation, I'm sure. Can any of the seasoned collectors shed any light?
(Images are sourced from my Twitter feed. If they vanish let me know and I'll try to reinstate.)
Last edited by Lucian Poll; 09-22-2013, 11:17 PM.
Reason: Extraneous wordage.
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