The End of Summer

And so summer comes to an end. Oh yes, I know it's only the middle of August, but I've had my holidays and now begin settling in for work once more.

While I was away, I found this at The Bookman in Norwich:

Signed by the man himself!

This is why I maintain my second hand book shop habit! I actually own a more up to date version of this in the British Library publication Jack Vance: Critical Appreciations and a Bibliography but who could resist a document signed by JV himself. Only a tenner, too, which is beer money, really!


While I was away, I also decided to turn my incorrigible instinct for second hand bookshops to evil: I intend to build up my collection of large SF coffee-table art books from the 70s and 80s.

I own a few already, such as The Alien World: The Complete Illusatrated Guide by Steven Eisler and The Tourists' Guide to Transylvania by Count Ignatius de Ludes, no less! I also own Spacecraft 2000 to 2100 AD and Great Space Battles by Steward Cowley, and a few other bits and bobs which I may document here more fully one day.

While I was away I picked up a copy of Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials by Wayne Douglas Barlowe and Ian Summers for a fiver. I longed for this one as a kid so was quite pleased to pick it up. I haven't read most of the books, but it's worth it for the depiction of the Old One on page 68 and 69 that's as precise and clinical as HPL's own description.