@@SciFiScavenger You could say a bit of everything, but very happy to add some mint second-hand H/B signed Corvus, Newcon and PS Pub. books to may stash. I also found a large box of my original books, bought new by myself in the 80's & 90's, hidden away in my mother’s house. It took some digging around in the loft to find them. Conan, tripods, Hitchhiker GTTG and Fighting Fantasy sets along with many others, all in fine condition. Books which I thought had been thrown out after I flew the nest 25 years ago. Not knowing my late father had boxed and wrapped them all in plastic. A time capsule back to my youth.
As an American it's fascinating to see these Pan editions. Regarding "perennial obsession in SF", that reminds me of talking to a huge SF fan older than me back in the 1990s. We were talking about Stranger in a Strange land and she laughed and said "Some SF writers really think they invented writing about sex in fiction!"
Sometimes I wish I could reach through the screen when you're doing your shelf-browsing 😆 I'm inclined to agree with you about the newer yellow Masterworks; they are a bit garish I find. I'm currently in the process of swapping out the ones I have for more vintage copies. The typesetting in some of them can be a bit strange too.
Your oxfam is way way better than what we have in Cambridge! Very envious. I haven't even found one with that kind of range when I've scouted around in London.
I think it benefits from the larger bookshop in Reading being closed for some time, I think they get the donations. It seems to have pretty good turnaround, I rarely leave with nothing. Cheers Mark, thanks for watching 👀!
@@SciFiScavenger in Cambridge the amnesty bookshop usually has the best range. Last week I did an Oxford, bath, bham loop and took in Zardos and Astley farm as well as lots of smaller bookshops in between. I may have overhauled 🙄
86, pretty good, pretty good. I acquire 3 or 4x more books a month than I can read. Some might argue that is not sustainable. Wrongly, of course. I do need to have a bit of a clear out though, a futile exercise in making room...
Out of your beloved Pan Lozenges, I'm recommending "Door into Summer". Quite simply excellent, and as far as I'm aware, the very first use of time travel to redo the events in the traveler's own life. I'm also seriously recommending Dragon in the Sea, which along with the Dorsadi Experiment, are the best non-Dune books by Herbert. Do be warned, the plot of the Dorsadi Experiment will make less sense unless you read Whipping Star first, which isn't that great of a book. But necessary to understand the ConSentiency, which is where the Dorsadi Experiment takes place.😉. There are also a few short stories by Herbert on the ConSentiency, which are helpful to understand the incredible world building by Herbert. The Tactful Saboteur is very very helpful in understanding the incredibly weird life cycle of the Pan-Spechi. By the way, Dorsadi Experiment is not technically First Contact. The multiple species inhabiting the Experiment are not biologically different than the members of the ConSentiency...however the pressures inside the Experiment have radically changed their intellect, and personalities...in a fundamental way. 🤓
@ or it might not. It's been many decades since I read it, back in high school, it might have enough information to follow the plot. I vaguely remember I read Whipping Star after the Dorsadi Experiment...🤔🧐
Ian McDonald's Kirinya took a while to get going - so much so, that I almost DNF 'ed it a third of the way through - something I almost never do - but I stayed with it, & the 2nd part of the book turned out to be really intriguing IMO. I liked McDonald's 1st short story collection - Empire Dreams - as well. The collection that you bought - Speaking in Tongues - was McDonald's 2nd collection of short stories, which I haven't read, but I'm tipping it'll be every bit as good as his 1st collection was...
Interestingly the back of the book of Speaking in Tongues says it is the first collection of his published in the UK, but you're right Empire Dreams was first, but doesn't seem to have had a UK release. Thanks for watching 👀!
I really like seeing UK bookshops because all the stuff I recognize has covers I've never seen before and you get a lot more of writers that are harder to find out here, Wyndham, for instance! I was sad to see you leave the Lord Dunsany Ballantine's behind!
there was a whole bunch of Wyndham's there, most of which I already had. Not interested in the Lord Dunsany books, more out of ignorance than deliberate choice. thanks for watching 👀!
Reamde is superb novel. It's not really sf, but more of a techno thriller/chase novel. There is about 150 pages long action scene in there. The whole thing moves like a bullet train. The sequel, Fall, Or Dodge in Hell is the worst thing that Stephenson has ever written. Eater by Benford is pretty good. Rudy Rucker is the guy who coined the word cyberpunk. I read Lady of Mazes by didn't really liked it. I think it's set in the same universe as Ventus. Great video.
Awesome, noted about Reamde. and Fall, I have that on my shelves, perhaps an opportunity to make room for a more worthy book. Or two... Thanks for watching 👀!
Really enjoyed this haul, Jon! I may not read a whole lot of SF these days, but I like seeing all those 'vintage' books on the shelves. We really don't have that kind of bookstore in these backwaters, unfortunately... Those NEL books with the beatiful Pennington covers remind me of that old, large format Science Fiction magazine. Had lots of their posters hanging on the walls of my room as a teenager. Jon, which Pan Lozenges are you missing? I have a few of those, might have one you need for your collection...
Ooh. I'm missing Nine Tomorrows by Asimov, and the first of the two Damon Knight anthology 100 Years of Science Fiction. Cheers Luiz, thanks for watching 👀!
Ah Interesting, well yes, I hope I like it better too! But perhaps I won't rush to get the other few that go with it. Cheers Angus, thanks for watching 👀!
A Maze of Death- one of my favourite PKDs. I used to have the Pan, but I lost it and replaced it with the Sf Masterworks (black) edition. I haven't got the Pan Dream of Wessex, but I've got the Pan Infinite Summer. BTW, I got a vg condition copy of Beckett's Dark Eden from a charity shop which was signed by Chris- Great. Just £3! Four Becketts in my library now. Re your charity run, I Hope to Arrive Soon is Dick's last collection- worth reading. Herbert's The Dorsadi Experiment is really good- also recommended. Van Vogt's Null-A is crazy, not well written, but worth reading due to its importance to SF.
Nice result on Dark Eden! I think i paid nearly 30 quid for mine, which felt like a steal as they're often 50 or more. My main listening for the race will be the second of MR Carey's multiverse books. Cheers David, thanks for watching 👀!
Yeah, was deliberate, I usually see a drop off in first 30 seconds, perhaps due to my usual preamble. Be interesting to see what happens with this one.
Whenever I see Songs of Earth and Power by Greg Bear I think of the album Song of Earth and Sky by Bill Douglas. You skipped right past Lord Dunsany and Alan Dean Foster (that was Founding of Commonwealth vol.3).
I have a lot of ADF on my shelves and am yet to read any. When I do, and if I enjoy them, might add to them. Might not seem like it based on this video, but I need to be sensible about shelf space.. ok,.doesn't seem like it at all... Thanks for watching 👀!
🛒 When you’re pulling out candidates from the shop shelves, do you aim to rapidly go back over them lest an enthusiastic punter comes in after you and gets a bit cheeky…? Quite some items of interest in this yuge haul 😮 I cannot read all of these books 😭
Some of his ideas did work better in a shorter format I think; for example Your Appointment Will Be Yesterday, which was rather unevenly expanded into Counter-clock World.
The footage from that bookshop was cruel to watch. So much stuff and I can‘t get my hands on it, waaah! 😁 Regarding your copy of Nova: Would you mind having another look at it and telling me 1) if it has a price on it somewhere? 2) which printing it is (i.e. what‘s the numberline on the copyright page)? and finally 3) does it contain the introduction by Ken MacLeod? Thanks a lot!
I‘m asking, btw, for my endeavours at contributing to ISFDB. The other day I entered data for my 4th printing of Nova from the same edition you have, and weirdly enough my book didn‘t have a price anywhere on it. I‘ve been wondering whether I have a copy that for some reason was not intended for sale, or whether all printings are missing the price.
My copy was first printed in this edition in 2001, 2nd impression 2004, price is £6.99. There is no foreword by Ken MacLeod (which is probably in the more recent yellow SFMW edition). Thanks for your contributions to ISFDB, I use it a lot. Thanks for watching 👀!
@@SciFiScavenger You are totally right, of course. I was fooled by the cover art because I misremembered and thought that the earlier SF Masterworks editions from the beginning of the 2000s used a different artwork. Upon closer inspection I now see my error. Thanks for responding.
2061 is a very good hard scifi book that was briefly considered for the big screen with Tom Hanks in a role. Heywood Floyd's son crash lands on Europa and he goes off to the rescue. Lady Of Mazes, I quite the book a long time ago because I did not understand what was supposed to be virtual and real and how they were getting around. I wonder how I would see it now. I intend to read those Stableford Millenium books next year, I just have not ordered them yet. Wikipedia has a reading order though I am not sure I'll for the last YA book: The Cassandra Complex (Tor March 2001); revised and expanded from: Inherit the Earth (Tor September 1998); revised and expanded from: Dark Ararat (Tor March 2002) Architects of Emortality (Tor September 1999) The Fountains of Youth (Tor May 2000) The Omega Expedition (Tor December 2002 The Dragon Man: A Novel of the Future (Borgo Press 2009); a stand-alone "Young Adult" novel; also available as an e-book, listed at 65,401 words
Yes perhaps I won't bother with the YA book either. Someone else said the others (or at least Cassandra Complex).wasn't very good..but still, I'm intrigued just based on my past interest in the source material.. cheers Montie, thanks for watching 👀 !
You probably are knowledgeable enough by now to not come across too many blind buys, but do you ever still pick up a book anymore just based on title and cover art?
Very nice finds!
Thanks for showing them.
😺✌️
Thanks for watching 👀!
Great finds Jon. I did a lot of November scavenging myself, a large book haul now polished and added to my shelves.
Ooh sounds good, what did you get? Cheers Ian, thanks for watching 👀!
@@SciFiScavenger You could say a bit of everything, but very happy to add some mint second-hand H/B signed Corvus, Newcon and PS Pub. books to may stash. I also found a large box of my original books, bought new by myself in the 80's & 90's, hidden away in my mother’s house. It took some digging around in the loft to find them. Conan, tripods, Hitchhiker GTTG and Fighting Fantasy sets along with many others, all in fine condition. Books which I thought had been thrown out after I flew the nest 25 years ago. Not knowing my late father had boxed and wrapped them all in plastic. A time capsule back to my youth.
@IanBurke-f8n oh wow that's awesome! I stupidly sold most of my books from that era, just for beer money in my early 20s. Sigh.
As an American it's fascinating to see these Pan editions. Regarding "perennial obsession in SF", that reminds me of talking to a huge SF fan older than me back in the 1990s. We were talking about Stranger in a Strange land and she laughed and said "Some SF writers really think they invented writing about sex in fiction!"
Ha, yes probably right. Thanks for watching 👀!
Sometimes I wish I could reach through the screen when you're doing your shelf-browsing 😆
I'm inclined to agree with you about the newer yellow Masterworks; they are a bit garish I find. I'm currently in the process of swapping out the ones I have for more vintage copies. The typesetting in some of them can be a bit strange too.
Hands off, they're mine! 😀 thanks for watching 👀!
I’m a shelf browsing enjoyer for what it’s worth. It’s like a small dopamine rush. Great haul video as always!
Excellent! Thanks for watching 👀!
Your oxfam is way way better than what we have in Cambridge! Very envious. I haven't even found one with that kind of range when I've scouted around in London.
I think it benefits from the larger bookshop in Reading being closed for some time, I think they get the donations. It seems to have pretty good turnaround, I rarely leave with nothing. Cheers Mark, thanks for watching 👀!
@@SciFiScavenger in Cambridge the amnesty bookshop usually has the best range. Last week I did an Oxford, bath, bham loop and took in Zardos and Astley farm as well as lots of smaller bookshops in between. I may have overhauled 🙄
Ooh I really must go to Astley one of these days.
@@SciFiScavenger it was a great way to spend a week, but with 86 books added to the TBR pile it's not something I'd do every month!
86, pretty good, pretty good. I acquire 3 or 4x more books a month than I can read. Some might argue that is not sustainable. Wrongly, of course. I do need to have a bit of a clear out though, a futile exercise in making room...
Great finds John I also seem to be collecting those black SF masterworks I agree that they look much nicer than the yellow ones
Much nicer! Thanks for watching 👀!
This was a proper bookpilled beginning 😄
No messing about!
Out of your beloved Pan Lozenges, I'm recommending "Door into Summer". Quite simply excellent, and as far as I'm aware, the very first use of time travel to redo the events in the traveler's own life.
I'm also seriously recommending Dragon in the Sea, which along with the Dorsadi Experiment, are the best non-Dune books by Herbert. Do be warned, the plot of the Dorsadi Experiment will make less sense unless you read Whipping Star first, which isn't that great of a book. But necessary to understand the ConSentiency, which is where the Dorsadi Experiment takes place.😉. There are also a few short stories by Herbert on the ConSentiency, which are helpful to understand the incredible world building by Herbert. The Tactful Saboteur is very very helpful in understanding the incredibly weird life cycle of the Pan-Spechi.
By the way, Dorsadi Experiment is not technically First Contact. The multiple species inhabiting the Experiment are not biologically different than the members of the ConSentiency...however the pressures inside the Experiment have radically changed their intellect, and personalities...in a fundamental way. 🤓
Well, Dosadi does sound interesting, but also sounds like some homework required! Thanks for watching 👀!
@ or it might not. It's been many decades since I read it, back in high school, it might have enough information to follow the plot. I vaguely remember I read Whipping Star after the Dorsadi Experiment...🤔🧐
Ian McDonald's Kirinya took a while to get going - so much so, that I almost DNF 'ed it a third of the way through - something I almost never do - but I stayed with it, & the 2nd part of the book turned out to be really intriguing IMO.
I liked McDonald's 1st short story collection - Empire Dreams - as well. The collection that you bought - Speaking in Tongues - was McDonald's 2nd collection of short stories, which I haven't read, but I'm tipping it'll be every bit as good as his 1st collection was...
Interestingly the back of the book of Speaking in Tongues says it is the first collection of his published in the UK, but you're right Empire Dreams was first, but doesn't seem to have had a UK release. Thanks for watching 👀!
@SciFiScavenger That's right. Empire Dreams was a Bantam publication. I'm surprised it was never released in the UK at some point.
I really like seeing UK bookshops because all the stuff I recognize has covers I've never seen before and you get a lot more of writers that are harder to find out here, Wyndham, for instance! I was sad to see you leave the Lord Dunsany Ballantine's behind!
there was a whole bunch of Wyndham's there, most of which I already had. Not interested in the Lord Dunsany books, more out of ignorance than deliberate choice. thanks for watching 👀!
Reamde is superb novel. It's not really sf, but more of a techno thriller/chase novel.
There is about 150 pages long action scene in there. The whole thing moves like a bullet train.
The sequel, Fall, Or Dodge in Hell is the worst thing that Stephenson has ever written.
Eater by Benford is pretty good.
Rudy Rucker is the guy who coined the word cyberpunk.
I read Lady of Mazes by didn't really liked it.
I think it's set in the same universe as Ventus.
Great video.
Awesome, noted about Reamde. and Fall, I have that on my shelves, perhaps an opportunity to make room for a more worthy book. Or two...
Thanks for watching 👀!
Really enjoyed this haul, Jon! I may not read a whole lot of SF these days, but I like seeing all those 'vintage' books on the shelves. We really don't have that kind of bookstore in these backwaters, unfortunately...
Those NEL books with the beatiful Pennington covers remind me of that old, large format Science Fiction magazine. Had lots of their posters hanging on the walls of my room as a teenager.
Jon, which Pan Lozenges are you missing? I have a few of those, might have one you need for your collection...
Ooh. I'm missing Nine Tomorrows by Asimov, and the first of the two Damon Knight anthology 100 Years of Science Fiction. Cheers Luiz, thanks for watching 👀!
@SciFiScavenger I'm pretty sure I have(or had) Nine Tomorrows, but it wasn't a Lozenge, it was an American edition. I'll check.
Just finished The Cassandra Complex. Loved Stableford's Hooded Swan series. But Cassandra Complex was dull, dull, dull. Hope you like it better.
Ah Interesting, well yes, I hope I like it better too! But perhaps I won't rush to get the other few that go with it. Cheers Angus, thanks for watching 👀!
A Maze of Death- one of my favourite PKDs. I used to have the Pan, but I lost it and replaced it with the Sf Masterworks (black) edition. I haven't got the Pan Dream of Wessex, but I've got the Pan Infinite Summer. BTW, I got a vg condition copy of Beckett's Dark Eden from a charity shop which was signed by Chris- Great. Just £3! Four Becketts in my library now. Re your charity run, I Hope to Arrive Soon is Dick's last collection- worth reading. Herbert's The Dorsadi Experiment is really good- also recommended. Van Vogt's Null-A is crazy, not well written, but worth reading due to its importance to SF.
Nice result on Dark Eden! I think i paid nearly 30 quid for mine, which felt like a steal as they're often 50 or more. My main listening for the race will be the second of MR Carey's multiverse books. Cheers David, thanks for watching 👀!
A bit of an abrupt beginning… but like with a good book, you‘re thrown right in … 😉 Great finds. I still wish I could read as much as you do.
Yeah, was deliberate, I usually see a drop off in first 30 seconds, perhaps due to my usual preamble. Be interesting to see what happens with this one.
Whenever I see Songs of Earth and Power by Greg Bear I think of the album Song of Earth and Sky by Bill Douglas.
You skipped right past Lord Dunsany and Alan Dean Foster (that was Founding of Commonwealth vol.3).
I have a lot of ADF on my shelves and am yet to read any. When I do, and if I enjoy them, might add to them. Might not seem like it based on this video, but I need to be sensible about shelf space.. ok,.doesn't seem like it at all...
Thanks for watching 👀!
🛒 When you’re pulling out candidates from the shop shelves, do you aim to rapidly go back over them lest an enthusiastic punter comes in after you and gets a bit cheeky…?
Quite some items of interest in this yuge haul 😮 I cannot read all of these books 😭
There is rarely anyone else in when I go. I glare at people, that works. Thanks for watching 👀!
I haven't experienced a lot of PKD, but I think his short stories are more tractable/enjoyable/something else than his longer works.
Yeah, I should read some of his shorter work. Cheers Eric, thanks for watching 👀!
Some of his ideas did work better in a shorter format I think; for example Your Appointment Will Be Yesterday, which was rather unevenly expanded into Counter-clock World.
The footage from that bookshop was cruel to watch. So much stuff and I can‘t get my hands on it, waaah! 😁 Regarding your copy of Nova: Would you mind having another look at it and telling me 1) if it has a price on it somewhere? 2) which printing it is (i.e. what‘s the numberline on the copyright page)? and finally 3) does it contain the introduction by Ken MacLeod? Thanks a lot!
I‘m asking, btw, for my endeavours at contributing to ISFDB. The other day I entered data for my 4th printing of Nova from the same edition you have, and weirdly enough my book didn‘t have a price anywhere on it. I‘ve been wondering whether I have a copy that for some reason was not intended for sale, or whether all printings are missing the price.
My copy was first printed in this edition in 2001, 2nd impression 2004, price is £6.99. There is no foreword by Ken MacLeod (which is probably in the more recent yellow SFMW edition). Thanks for your contributions to ISFDB, I use it a lot. Thanks for watching 👀!
@@SciFiScavenger You are totally right, of course. I was fooled by the cover art because I misremembered and thought that the earlier SF Masterworks editions from the beginning of the 2000s used a different artwork. Upon closer inspection I now see my error. Thanks for responding.
2061 is a very good hard scifi book that was briefly considered for the big screen with Tom Hanks in a role. Heywood Floyd's son crash lands on Europa and he goes off to the rescue.
Lady Of Mazes, I quite the book a long time ago because I did not understand what was supposed to be virtual and real and how they were getting around. I wonder how I would see it now.
I intend to read those Stableford Millenium books next year, I just have not ordered them yet. Wikipedia has a reading order though I am not sure I'll for the last YA book:
The Cassandra Complex (Tor March 2001); revised and expanded from:
Inherit the Earth (Tor September 1998); revised and expanded from:
Dark Ararat (Tor March 2002)
Architects of Emortality (Tor September 1999)
The Fountains of Youth (Tor May 2000)
The Omega Expedition (Tor December 2002
The Dragon Man: A Novel of the Future (Borgo Press 2009); a stand-alone "Young Adult" novel; also available as an e-book, listed at 65,401 words
Yes perhaps I won't bother with the YA book either. Someone else said the others (or at least Cassandra Complex).wasn't very good..but still, I'm intrigued just based on my past interest in the source material.. cheers Montie, thanks for watching 👀 !
You must have one of those Big American Gas Guzzling Pickup Trucks to haul your books around. 😂
I have a freight helicopter to move it around.
@SciFiScavenger 👍
Why the heck does red fade faster than other colours?
Something about the ink perhaps. Dunno.
You probably are knowledgeable enough by now to not come across too many blind buys, but do you ever still pick up a book anymore just based on title and cover art?
I do occasionally succumb, yes!
@@SciFiScavenger It’s a fun part of it for me, but it’s always disappointing when the contents don’t live up to the cover title and art.