NOVEMBER, 2010 NEWSLETTER.

And We Are Back !

After an absence of a year, just one second before the tidal wave of despair engulfed you, just a breath before the last shred of hope curled up and died, a heartbeat before giving up and submiting to the horror of SABC tv, the Tall Stories Newsletter arrives. After a long silence due in part to aliens, vampires, sulphur pits and badly adjusted underwear, it returns. Huzzah, and hark the trumpets and the angelic choirs.
During said long silence, many things happened. Many did not, but that's another story.

Those of you who regularly attend the shop will have met the newest bookdealer. A ferocious(ly cute) cat called Agatha-Panther, she has been hard at work helping us in the shop by being nice to customers, demanding food and attention, and sitting in the windowsill, staring at the passing parade.
She arrived as a small bundle of kitten fur, and has grown into a seasoned and well-travelled book cat, handsome to behold and regal in her acceptance of the adoration in which she is held by all.

We were also pleased to witness Mario Vargas Llosa, a long favourite author, be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. For an interesting read and some background on this author, go to: http://bit.ly/cwJrXd

We were also pleased to learn that Bill Bryson is back in the United Kingdom, and has been appointed vice-chancellor of Durham University. An entertaining interview with him is found here: http://bit.ly/bKHWDL

It has been fifty years since the landmark Lady Chatterly's Lover judgment in Penguin Books' favour. For legal and literary interest, read this: http://bit.ly/8Y1U2X

Collections of Books for Sale :

We have two collections of books that we are going to be selling by themselves,in otherwords,the collections will not be broken up.
The first comprises approximately 129 titles, all about Aviation. From Vlamgat to Aircraft of the S.A.A.F. via Air War Flanders 1918 to I Flew For the Fuhrer.The second collection is comprised of around 96 titles, all about Rhodesia and Zimbabwe. From Contact to When a Crocodile Eats the Sun via Troopiesongs and Rhodesia Before 1920.If you are interested in either set, either contact us in the shop or at :
tallstories@megaweb.co.za

Our Unused Book Specials for this Month.
*whilst stocks last.

Mr. and Miss Anonymous

College senior Lily Madison is on her own and desperate to pay for her last semester of school. With nowhere to turn, she makes the difficult decision to donate her eggs to a fertility clinic. Sam Parker is also a penniless student who supplements his tuition money by visiting a sperm bank. One day, Lily and Sam meet at the clinic and talk about their secret. They agree that the clinic gives them an odd feeling, as if all is not as it seems. Despite their obvious attraction, Lily and Sam go their separate ways. Twenty years have passed and Lily often wonders if she has a child somewhere in the world. She also thinks a lot about Sam. Now a wealthy entrepreneur, Sam never forgot Lily either, and when he sees her in an airport one day, he falls for her all over again. But while they enjoy their unlikely reunion, a story on the news has them riveted. Two teenage boys are missing and their disappearance may be linked to the fertility clinic Sam and Lily visited in college. In a shocking twist, one of the boys looks exactly like Sam. Lily and Sam are now determined to find out what really went on at the clinic all those years ago. When the whole story comes out, the truth will be more than they bargained for. But they will discover that letting go of their secrets from the past is the best way to build a future worth fighting for...
Published Price : R185.00

Tall Stories Price :
R 95.00

Fern Michaels (born Mary Ruth Kuczkir) is an American author of romance and thriller novels, including nearly 50 best selling books with more than 70 million copies in print.

More Unused Book Specials for this Month.
*whilst stocks last.
Samurai Swords - A Collector's Guide to Japanese Swords

For 700 years Japanese civilization was dominated by a single warrior caste. This project looks at the weaponry & clothing of Samurai men and women over the centuries.
Fascinating history, detailed technical information, advice on collecting and preservation - all in a single volume. The pages are beautifully illustrated with dynamic paintings, specially taken photographs, detailed diagrams and maps
Tall Stories Price : R280.00

Hand colored Albumen print of a Samurai circa 1890 (photograph coutesy Wikipedia)

Samurai in armour, 1860s. Hand-coloured photograph by Felice Beato
(photograph coutesy Wikipedia)

A Sammurai katana in Koshirae
(photograph coutesy Wikipedia)

This Months Featured Book

* Beyond the Light Barrier *

Originally published in 1977 in Germany, the first two editions were sold out within weeks. This is the autobiogrpahy of Elizabeth Klarer, a Cambridge educated meterologist. who believed that she had had an affair (which resulted in a child) with an extraterrestrial being. It deals primarily with this affair with Akon, a male astrophysicist living on Meton, one of the planets of Proxima Centaur, which is apparently Earths' closest stellar neighbour, at a distance of 4.2 light years away from us. According to the author, she was taken, via spacecraft to Meton, where she lived with Akon and his family for four months. She apparently gave birth to their son whilst on Meton. Akon apparently continued to visit Klarer until 1963, when his work in this part of the galaxy was completed. Akon explained to Ms. Klarer the workings of the light-propulsion system used in his spacecraft. She in turn conveyed this information to the U. S. National Aeronautical and Space Administration as well as the S. A. Air Force authorities. This information is also documented in the book.

Imprint: South Africa, Howard Timmins, 1980
Edition: First South Africa Edition.
Binding: Hardback , with Dustjacket
Book Condition: Very Good. Jacket: Very Good
Binding: Blue Boards.Octavo.191 pp. Illustrated with black and white photographs. Slight spinal lean. Ink name of a previous owner on the front free end paper. Base of the boards slightly rubbed. Small chips in the top edge of the rear panel of the dust-jacket. Flaps of the dust-jacket creased. Closed tear in the rear panel of the dust-jacket (25mm). Slight wear to all edges of the dust-jacket.
R 650.00

STOCK CLEARANCE SALE

Hello Folks !

We are having a bit of a stock clearance sale which will last until Sunday 21st November, 17 : 00, or, whilst stock lasts.

Titles on Sale include :

Pretty Dead Things

Barbara Nadel
Paperback, 373 pages, August 2008
Published by Headline Book Publishing

When Emine Aksu, the flamboyant wife of an Istanbul style guru, suddenly goes missing, Inspector Cetin Ikmen's investigation leads him deep into her strange and colourful past. Emine was a hippie when she was younger, who wholeheartedly enjoyed the liberated lifestyle that swept across Istanbul in the sixties. Her husband suspects that she was visiting an old friend at the time of her disappearance. Meanwhile, Inspector Mehmet Suleyman is called to a terrifying scene at the art deco Kamondo Stairs in the old banking district of Karakoy. The skeleton of a woman has been discovered in one of the large plant containers. Could these two bizarre incidents be linked?

Published Price : R82.00
Now : R 30.00



Memorandum - A Story with Pictures

Marlene Van Niekerk
Hardcover, 136 pages, November 2006
Published by Human & Rousseau

In this title about a hospital experience the text and visual images offer parallel narratives that resonate poignantly with each other. Adriaan van Zyl's series of more than 20 paintings portrays a patient's experience from waiting room to ward giving a quietly disturbing view of the soullessness of hospitals in general. Marlene van Niekerk's accompanying story is a narrative by JP Wiid, a lonely man who is diagnosed with cancer of the liver just before his retirement. The night before a scheduled operation he starts writing a "memorandum" about an experience he had during his first stay at the hospital - sharing a ward with two enigmatic men in a state of postnarcotic euphoria, he overheard their strange conversation, one which was to have a profound effect on his life. He writes how, in the ensuing four months, he becomes a regular visitor to the library, anxious to learn more about the diverse concepts he had been exposed to for the first time. Everything new which Wiid learns about the world comforts him and helps him to accept his fate. Most importantly he makes a friend for the first time - an eccentric but very helpful librarian. While writing the memorandum, Wiid makes a life-changing decision - not to have the operation the next day. He chooses instead to make the rest of his life worth living by filling it with knowledge about cultures, structures, histories, literature and music. In the process he discovers his true self - and his true vocation.

Published Price : R300.00
Now : R60.00

The Duel - Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power

Tariq Ali
Hardcover, 304 pages, September 2008
Published by Simon & Schuster

Pakistan, the likely home of Osama Bin Laden and safe house for the Taliban forces fighting NATO in Afghanistan, stands on the front line of the war against terror. Yet, as recent events have shown, this long-time ally of the West and recipient of $10 billion of American aid in the past decade, is in deepening crisis. As President Pervez Musharraf struggles, with ever-diminishing success, to cling to power through states of emergency and imprisonment of his opponents, a range of forces are attempting to fill the vacuum that surrounds him: (before her death) Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, both previous presidents themselves and, Ali, argues, more corrupt than Musharraf himself; a lawyers movement that has taken to the streets demanding adherence to the constitution and the rule of law; and the Islamists in Waziristan and the North West Frontier whose increasingly effective assaults on the Pakistan army threaten to tip the country into full-blown civil war.With customary verve and acuity, Ali parses the prospects for these contending groups, drawing on extensive first-hand research and personal knowledge of many of the key players involved to assess the causes and consequences of Pakistan's rapid spiral into political chaos.

Published Price : R255.00
Now : R60.00



Kydd : The Admiral's Daughter

Julian Stockwin
Paperback - Trade, 324 pages, October 2007
Published by Hodder & Stoughton

In the eighth book of this popular series, Thomas Kydd and Nicholas Renzi return to England in 1803 after tumultuous episodes on the other side of the world to find England in peril of starvation and bankruptcy. Kydd is placed back in command of his beloved vessel, "Teazer," but he barely has time to prep her for the sea when he is sent on an urgent mission. Smugglers, enemy privateers, and treacherous sea conditions await Kydd on his journey to northern France on the eve of war, but equally worrisome events are occurring ashore. A growing attachment to the admiral's daughter curbs Kydd's blissful reunion with "Teazer" and he is forced to make a terrible decision that may cause the end of his friendship with Renzi--or the end of his naval career.

Published Price : R 145.00
Now : R 45.00

Patrick Parker's Progress (New Edition) Mavis Cheek Paperback, 320 pages, March 2005 Published by Faber & Faber Patrick Parker, child of bomb-devastated Coventry, adored and encouraged by his mother, fulfils his dream destiny to be a great architect and bridge builder. Audrey Wapshott, born at the same time, feels her dream destiny is to become Patrick's wife. But ambitious Patrick has other plans and Audrey, abandoned, is left to follow her own, random path to self-fulfilment beginning with Paris, and sinfulness, in the arms of a much older man. Mavis Cheek's eleventh novel will delight her many fans with its fast-paced, funny and insightful story of ambition, love and revenge. Published Price : R 102.00 Now : R25.00

Reel Ephemera

I have to confess, I am not fond of ephemera. This is not a a sentiment that the majority of my colleagues share. My feelings are not popular. However, every now and again, I come across an item which makes me pivot on my axis.

According to Wikipedia, ephemera is defined as
"....transitory written and printed matter not intended to be retained or preserved. The word derives from the Greek, meaning things lasting no more than a day. Some collectible ephemera include advertising trade cards, airsickness bags [yes, airsickness bags this was news to me to, hopefully these are unused items, bearly touched by human hands and throats. Not even Marilyn Monroes' throat would make me feel less queasy about this issue], bookmarks, catalogues, greeting cards, letters, pamphlets, postcards, posters, prospectuses, newspapers, stock certificates, tickets and zines. Decks of personality identification playing cards from the war in Iraq are a recent example of ephemera items which are gaining in popularity with people who are interested in collecting such items.

In library and information science, the term ephemera also describes the class of published single-sheet or single page documents which are meant to be thrown away after one use. This classification excludes simple letters and photographs with no printing on them, which are considered manuscripts or typescripts. Large academic and national libraries and museums may collect, organize, and preserve ephemera as history. A particularly large and important example of such an archive is the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera at the Bodleian Library, Oxford."

We have just been offered an unusual item and I have to say, that I am fascinated by it. I have been absorbed for the entire day, pouring over it and researching it.

Above is said item.
Said item relates to the career of one Harry Curry. Mr. Curry appears to have had a rather enviable life. He was also a hoarder of note. The album contains a panorama of Harry's career, roughly between 1925 and 1939, from letters of acceptance into various positions for different film companies around the world including Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. and Columbia Pictures, signed menu cards from events held by these companies, letters received aboard the White Star Line, a radiogram received aboard the "Samaria", Cunard White Star Line, telegrams received aboard the SS Queen Mary, telegrams received from the Union Steamship Company, airline tickets, telegrams received from the Western Union, newspaper clippings about his promotions and all sorts of other titbits. There is even a fold-out map pasted into the album, where he has outlined his journey aboard the T.S.S. “Themistocles”, from Melbourne to South Hampton, where he has had some of the crew members sign the map at the bottom.

The collection is not limited to letters, there are a couple of promotional, publicity cards from stars of the day (one of those being William Powell)

.

It also includes promotional matter related to publicity for movies that he launched in New Zealand such as “The Vagabond King”, "The Canary Murder Case", and "Maid to Order" (starring Julian Etlinge).

My ghast was flabbered to learn (from the letterheads) that a publicity manager was once known as an "Exploitation Manager". It appears that Harry took his job as an "exploitation manager” quite seriously. There is a newspaper article, “Stunting The Vagabond King”, which details Harry Curry staging

“a unique exploitation stunt.....that not only sent the picture merrily on its way to box-office records, but nearly sent Harry on his way to the place where exploitation men go when they die. It appears that Harry took to the air, heavily laden with handbills announcing the opening of the production......which he intended to drop on the seething masses below. All went well for some time, and the Paramounteer flung out hand-bills with great gusto. Then tragedy! A batch of 'bills caught in the aeroplanes rudder, making control of the machine impossible. As a fitting climax, Harry and the plane made a forced landing in the mud at St. Helier's Bay, none the worse for having introduced the first aerial exploitation stunt in that neck of the woods”.
I did mention that I have been enjoying reading the material, did I not ?

Not only did I learn of "exploitation managers", from these letters and letterheads, but I also learned a wee bit about film industry history. Some of the letterheads are from the "Famous Lasky Film Service" which was an earlier incarnation of "Paramount Pictures".

All these little details of which I had been oblivious. The album also contains bits of British film history in the form of photographs of the UK. Warner Bros. annual conventions and signed invitation forms as well as signed menus from these events. There a few amusing photographs and published caricatures of one Max Milder, who was the head of the London subsidary of Warner Bros., cigar always in hand and in the case of the caricatures of him – nearly eclipsing his head in size.

Mr. Curry clearly had a sense of humour. Whilst aboard the "Orca", he founded this club :

“Ye Jolly Olde Kocktail Klubbe – ye J. O.K.K. Loveth a good Drinker”, the membership card being “not returnable” and admittance being “one bottle as required” and their funds being 'We áint got much money but we sure see life". Under the the rules and regulations we see that the number of drinks per meeeting is described as "as many as you can freeze on to” and “Hoboes not on time to be ostracised. Charming ladies allowed sixty minutes latitude only – this on account of their well known proclivity”

The album also contains a humourous caricature of Mr. Curry captioned "The Social Lion" which appeared in the Paramount Punch, which appears to have been a journal for the trade.

For someone who is an "anti-clutter bug", this was quite an extraordinary object. I am amazed that someone can retain all these pieces, when I find myself in a world where architects appear to be competing to build places of captivity rather than homes, so small are they in size. Letters of appointment and congratulations I can understand as with the movie paraphernia, but the airline tickets, radiograms and telegrams, leave me bewildered, and yet this album captivated me from the start. I read it from cover to cover. It documents an interesting career of an interesting man in an interesting industry, but it doesn't stop there. Although we don't get the personal bumph of christmas letters and birhtday cards, we do get just enough of a view into the mans' life to make the collection interesting and we must remember that this also served as a family document, this was someones father, grandfather, uncle etc. I found the album to be more interesting in many ways than the average collection of ephemera as it is not sterile, but rather somehow alive with someones personality of past.

For those of you whose interest has been piqued with regards to the world of ephemera, go and have a look at The Ephemera Network.
And as they say in the classics "That's All Folks!".

Eco in the darkness

Umberto Eco, he of inter alia The Name of the Rose, Foucault’s Pendulum, Travels in Hyper-Reality and How to Travel with a Salmon, is curating an exhibition of lists at the Louvre in Paris. What a splendid notion from a simply splendid person, a real-life, honest-to-goodness intellectual in a time of mental dwarves.

Lists, he says, are the way humans construct order out of chaos. It is the way they make sense of a perplexing world and a method of understanding the inexplicability of life and other humans.

I may be paraphrasing him a bit, just a smidgeon, but this would be my humble understanding of the great man’s thinking here. I cannot vouch for his thoughts on the missionary position, one-ply versus two-ply toilet paper (though any sane person would be able to deduce that with some clarity), David Icke’s sanity, or whether the moon ever feels lonely, but of this I am sure. Certainly lists are vitally important. They are tools without which we are unable to make our way in the world. Indeed, not to murder other people it is necessary daily to draw up a list of reasons not to, not least of which would be lists of ways of getting rid of all the bodies, which is really rather tricky when you think about it. I have spent some time cogitating on same, and making lists which are promptly destroyed lest they fall into the hands of people who will fail to understand the true context and spirit in which they were made and report me to the authorities. So I have found that I cannot, for instance and strictly in context you understand, bury them in our garden – it’s too small for the number of victims, and our dog will dig them up. And I daresay there’s nothing quite as off-putting as relaxing with a nice cold beer of an evening only to find your quadruped best friend entering the house with someone’s foot in her mouth.

As the electricity has just gone off (again) and the UPS is beeping at me while I hurriedly finish typing this, gnashing my teeth, I try to find the silver lining in this situation (it’s cheaper than taking Prozac).

(Ehm… er… ah… This may take quite a long time.)

Oh yes, having a bookshop means never having to say: ‘Rats, I forgot to bring a book to work,’ when the power goes out.