Browsers' Bookstore
Browsers' Bookstore |
|
|
Search our inventory! |
Where low prices meet high quality. |
Past NewslettersPlease note: there is at least a one-month lag time between a newsletter being mailed, and being posted to this website. Email us today to sign up! Browsers' Bookstore Newsletter for May, 2007HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!! Are you ever curious what best-selling authors' favorite books are? We are in the process of writing to several authors to ask them for their favorite books. So far, we've heard back from seven or eight, and we've hung their responses around both stores. Keep your eyes peeled for them as you're browsing. By the way, this will be an on-going project, so keep checking for new letters. For those of you out-of-town, we will be posting these to the website soon. NEW ARRIVALS I've featured quite more valuable books this month, but that is no indication that we haven't been flooded with good $5-15 books! 1. 1984: The Facsimile. George Orwell. This big book is a facsimile of the original manuscript, side-by-side with a typed transcription. These books always fascinate me, as they show the writer's creative process, and they are fun to compare to the final book. $37.50 2. A Skanner Darkly. Philip K. Dick. First bookclub edition. George Orwell hit it big with 1984, and it remains one of the classics of (and my favorite) paranoid fiction. However, PKD has him beat for sheer output of quality paranoia. If you haven't read anything by him, I strongly recommend him, especially if you know they are out to get you. $50 3. Madame Butterfly. John Luther Long. The book which became the opera. Illustrated by C. Yarnall Abbott. 1903 "Japanese edition", 1st ed. $40. 4. Lamb in his Bosom. Caroline Miller. Pulitzer Prize winner of 1934. This is apparently Margaret Mitchell's favorite book, and perhaps some inspiration for Gone With the Wind. This is a Harper's reprint, with the dust jacket as well as the DJ band announcing it's Pulitzer Prize win. One of those books where the DJ is worth as much as the book. $150. 5. Catcher in the Rye. J. D. Salinger. Speaking of valuable DJs, this copy of Catcher (an 11th printing) has the first state dust jacket with $3.00 price and author's photo on rear panel. It's worth more than the book! $150 5-1/2 I am finally letting go of the majority of our "books about books." I've come to the conclusion that I'm just not going to read hundreds of books about books, despite how fun they are to read or browse through. Both stores will be doubling or tripling their collections in the upcoming weeks. 6. Albany is making room for expanded sections of Bible study and Theology. This is a result of buying two pastors' libraries, and digging through some of the boxes in the basement. The basement, for those curious, is not getting much emptier. The problem is that I am moving boxes down there as fast as I am bringing different ones up! But.... we are making more space upstairs, and next newsletter should contain news of an expanded store. 7. Corvallis has created a special section for pulp fiction of the '40s and '50s. Great cover art! Great stories! (Okay, some of them are really bad, but still fun!) $1-5. Recently, we also came into a collection of Art Deco dustjackets ('20s and '30s), and the sensational pulp covers mentioned, and it just makes me wonder what publishers are thinking these days. Cover art seems like it's becoming a lost art -- I'm getting pretty bored of the standard modern fare. 8. Spacetime Inn. Lionel Britton. 1932. This is actually a proof of the final book. Uncorrected proofs and advance reader's copies have a special niche among book collectors (especially early science fiction, like this one), as they pre-date the first editions. They are usually pretty close to the finished product, but there are cases of last-minute changes and corrections. This copy is inscribed to O. G. S. Crawford, who was one of the first archaeologists to use aerial photography, but the best thing is that it includes a letter from the author in which he states that the book "may have some sentimental interest to keep as a curiosity of literary history, as a pre-first edition." $100. 9. The Commonwealth of the Philippines. George A. Malcolm. 1936. Philippine Supreme Court justice and founder of the College of Law. Illustrated. You never know, it might be interesting. $100. 10. Aircraft Design Sketch Book. Lockheed Aircraft Corp., 1940. One of the coolest airplane books I've seen, this book contains detailed sketches of whole airplanes, cockpits, landing gears, armament, engines, etc. These are engineering sketches, cross-sections, andcut-aways showing all the nuts & bolts, with labels and brief explanations of different components and assemblies. Just a few models featured are: Fairey Seafox, D.H.95, Tipsy, Miles "Master" Advanced Training Monoplane, Hawker Henley, Westland Lysander, Blackburn Skua Fighter Dive-Bomber, many many more. Approximately 200 pp, all illustrations except for a one-page preface. $200. 11. Some large paperback collections: in Corvallis, Dr. Who; in Albany, John Dickson Carr/Carter Dickson. Is the end near for bookstores? Later this year, Google will be releasing their latest product "Online Access." This will enable readers to read entire books on their computers. If I were CEO of Tylenol, I'd definitely partner up with Google on that one. However, two intriguing features are cut-and-paste and print capabilities -- that could make for a lot of fun! Don't like the ending of the latest Grisham? Just cut it out and paste in the ending of another one! Later this spring or summer, Amazon.com will start selling their new e-book reader. It is going to cost at least $400, so I'll pass. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the reduction of paper used and money spent on new books, but I don't think either of these technologies is the death knell for new bookstores (although they might start affecting textbook sales.) As far as used books go, it should be business as usual for at least another couple of years. Happy reading, Scott GivensBrowsers' Bookstore 121 NW 4th St. Corvallis, OR 97330 1425 Pacific Blvd. SE Albany, OR 97321 www.browsersbookstore.com info@browsersbookstore.com
|
|
|
Browsers' Bookstore is dedicated to four principles: low prices, high quality, great selection, and fantastic customer service. If we don't have the book you're looking for in stock, please email us and we'll do a free international book search for you, whether you're in Oregon's beautiful Willamette Valley or in the middle of the Australian outback. We can order new books, used books, and almost any out-of-print book.
|