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Shop 139, Irene Village Mall. Cnr. Nellmapius and Pierre Van Reyneveld Roads. Irene. Centurion.Gauteng. Republic of South Africa. Monday-Thursday : 09:00 - 19:00 Friday : 09 : 00 - 20 : 00 Saturday : 08 : 00 - 18 : 00 Sunday : 09 : 00 - 17 : 00 Telephone : 27 (0)12 662 2829 E-Mail : tallstories@megaweb.co.za There is no substitute for knowledge. Tall Stories is a book shop offering fine books for discerning readers. We sell only the best books: collectables, africana, publishers overstocks and quality pre-loved books. We also buy good books, every day of the week. Come to us for that elusive africana you have been searching for - be it botany, travel, hunting, zoology or other. Impress your friends with your collection of Dostoevsky and Murakami. We accept Visa, AMEX. and Mastercard

Sunday, August 14, 2011



Tall Stories

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• Fine Books for Discerning Readers •

August Newsletter

Hello All,


This letter has been a long time in coming out, so we thought we would start things out with a bit of literary fun.

Something that we thought was quite fun which we would like to share with you is a recent topic which was generated by @RandomHouse via the social networking site of Twitter, which asked people to come up with the food equivalent of some classic literature titles, but with a food theme instead, so for example : Ernest Hemingway's "The Sun also Rises" became "The Bun also Rises". Please note that we have not given accreditation to various people for their originality, so if anyone feels maligned, we do apologise in advance. We thought we would share some of the more funny #FoodieLit translations with you :


Leek House - Bleak House by Charles Dickens, which was our contribution to the game.


The Thyme Traveller's Wife - The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenigger, which was also our contribution as well as The Time Traveller's Knife.


Peter Panini - Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie.


The Lord of the Onion Rings - Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.


For Whom the Bellpepper Tolls - For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, along the same thought was : Sylvia Plath's Bell Jar* which became The Bellpepper Jar


Little House on the Praline - Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder


The Grapes of Broth - The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck


Watercress Down - Watership Down by Richard Adams


The Merry Chives of Windsor - The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare


Midnight in the Garden of Food & Weevill - Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt


Yeast of Eden - East of Eden by John Steinbeck


Bury My Heart at Wounded Ghee - Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown


If you send in your #FoodieLit contributions, which have to be original & are not copied from the list,: #foodielit the most original title will win a gift voucher to the value of R100.00 from us. The winner will be notified on the 2nd of September, 2011.

* As an interesting afterthought for those of you who are interested in collecting Modern First Editions, The Bell Jar was not originally published under the name of Sylvia Plath but rather under the name of Victoria Lucas.

If you are at all interested and you use Twitter, you can visit us @TallStoriesBook , we give almost daily updates relating to the book world.


When I have been able to focus my eyes through the biting cold, I have been reading The Kindly Ones, by Jonathan Littel. A hugely interesting book, and one that gives the lie to any piece of advice you have ever seen about succesful creative writing. It is a tome of more than 950 pages about a bisexual German officer in the Einsatzgruppe of the SS during the Second World War, and has been met with howls of pleasure and outrage wherever it has been published.

Written in French by an American (son of one of my favourite spy authors, Robert Littel) and originally published in France, it won the Prix de Goncourt and sold more than 700 000 copies there. The books' American publisher paid $1 000 000 for the rights, and it has sold well all over the world. Not the stuff best sellers are made of, at all, it concentrates on the evil of the nazi extermination policy in Europe. Where Hannah Arendt described the same as the banality of evil, Littel's approach examines its bureaucratic nature. Max Weber introduced the concept of bureaucracy as an attempt to standardise administrative procedure. In the nazi system this degenerated into a rational, efficient system of murder that shifted, warped and changed the world's definition of what it meant to be human, and inhuman.

The main character is deeply unpleasant, and no-one, aside from those you or I would not want to know, can identify or sympathise with him. Yet the book is magnificent, and even crammed with historical detail to the point of redundancy and beyond, keeps you enthralled. It's description of the battle of Stalingrad is grippingly, horrifyingly real and leaves you shaken and thoughtful.

The next time you see a press of generic, mass market novels, do not despair – on occasion publishers will still print the exceptional. We live in hope.

P.S. We did ask Agatha-Panther, our book cat, to contribute to this newsletter. She only wanted to talk about food and how to take a marathon nap, and we deemed it not appropriate.

Our Unused Book

Specials for this Month.

*whilst stocks last.

Spa Wars

by
Chris Manby

When Emily Brown's life and business is turned around by a surprise visit from Carina Lees, immaculately-groomed reality TV star, she can't believe her luck.With just one other member of staff to help her out at her Essex salon The Beauty Spot, Emily is pushed for time as well as money, and so Carina's patronage and the subsequent financial success of the salon is more welcome than a sunbed session in December. But even with the assistance of skilled-yet-shabby new girl Natalie, things start to go mysteriously wrong, and it soon becomes clear that someone's got it in for the salon. And with tactics dirtier than a gardener's fingernails, the battle of the beauticians commences. For under all the make-up and manicures, Carina is not who she seems, and although confronting the past can be more painful than a bikini wax, Emily eventually has to stare the truth in the face and realise it's what's inside that really counts ...

Published Price : R185.00
Tall Stories Price :

R 95.00

More Unused Book Specials for this Month.

*whilst stocks last.

Special Air Service Rhodesia : The Men Speak

by
Jonathan Pittaway


Tall Stories Price : R450.00
Until now little has been known about the Rhodesian contribution to the history of the SAS. Now at last the men themselves tell their own stories of the exploits of that elite Special Forces unit during the Bush War and the years before.

Soft cover 590 pages, profusely illustrated in both colour and black & white.


This comprehensive volume starts with the birth of the SAS during the Second World War. Men from the British Commonwealth of the then Southern-Rhodesian joined the new parachute regiment, the Long Range Desert Group and the SAS.

Later chapters cover Malaya, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Southern Rhodesia and finally Rhodesia up to the birth of Zimbabwe and disbanding of the Rhodesian SAS.

As it is written by those involved it is very evocative.

This is how Trooper Geoff Turner-Dauncey describes service in the jungles of Malaya:

“From the moment we stepped into the jungle until we returned to base we got soaked, and stayed wet... . With our operational dress torn and rotting... it was common practice to burn our clothes on returning to base. For a while troops returning to base from operations looked rather like clowns: wearing just PT shorts, sandals and berets, their bodies lavishly painted with mercurochrome, gentian violet and Whitfield's Lotion until their skin problems healed.”

Please Note :
Orders will be taken for this book, with a 2 week waiting period.

Our Featured Book for this Month.



* The History of the Zulu War and Its Origins.

Colenso Frances E.
&
Durnford, Lieut.-Colonel


Imprint: London, Chapman and Hall, Limited, 1880
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardback

Royal Octavo. 491 + 24 pp (publisher, Chapman & Hall's catalogue dated February 16, 1880).Folding coloured map at rear. Some acid tape repairs. Some creases and tears to the map. Recased, with new headbands and end-papers. Recasing has original cloth laid down onto the boards. A good job as a recasing, although the end-papers are too white. Ink name on the half-title page with a small ( 5 cm) tear in the top edge of the page. Some light foxing around the title page. Overall a good copy. The authors deal with the background to the War from the Zulu perspective and are critical of Frere and his policy towards Cetywayo and the ultimatum which was presented to him. A scarce and important title. Hard Cover. Book Condition: Very Good. Binding: Olive Cloth. Jacket: No Jacket
Stock number:01470.

R 9000.00
Buy Now

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