Sorry - had to tell you - received signed edition of The Well of Lost Plots proof this morning (limited to 50 copies in total) - very excited!

Only problem - do I read it or do I not? Usually I would go out and purchase unsigned run of the mill edition to read but I can't do that for another 4 months! Will I last that long?

Cow !

All right, I forgive you (and if you believe that, you'll believe anything).

*I'd* read it. Just don't tell us anything about it, OK ?

Hello, Susan, come in, sit down, mind the cats, don't eat the Marmite.

That's a very impressive first post. We are all insanely jealous, except, possibly, Carla.

And *of course* you read it. Don't be silly. But keep schtum.



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

Personally, my view is it's a book. Not reading a book is like not feeding a puppy. It's wrong and if you do it for too long something starts to smell funny.

Take the book round the world, melt the glue in hot climates and then give the cover frost damage as you watch the Northern Lights. Wash it with sea water in the Pacific and mud from the Amazon. Let the book live and develop its own story - a book that had done all that would be worth much more than a plastic-smelling, uncreased, aseptic piece of processed wood pulp, that is only going to rot and yellow on the shelf anyway.

So what if it'll be worth a fraction less for a couple of fingerprints on the inside? People who want 'perfect' editions are the same people who buy fleur-de-lys bin liners, and we all know how worrying that is. A book lives through the words inside it, and if you aren't going to read them then what's the point? Even if you can get another copy, this one is personal - it means something. Even if it's one of fifty it's the only one that's yours.

Read it. Brag about having read it early. Allow your copy to develop its own stories, but don't, whatever you do, leave it alone and unloved on the shelf. In years to come, you want to be able to sit and say to your grandchildren 'I was given this book four months before anybody else could buy a copy, and I can remember the excitement of curling up in a chair and being one of the first to read it.'

C'mon - you know you're worth it. And so is WOLP.



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Alternatively if you're determined to flog it I'll offer you fifty quid, and I'll even let you read it first ;D



Post Edited (04-03-03 14:55)

PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Bravo, PSD:

a man passionate about books.

I collect pony stories, but for the story inside, not just for the book itself. I don't mind if my first edition has an inscription written in ink:
"To Judy, Happy Christmas 1958 from Auntie Freda and Uncle George"
The book has a history, a past life. It was chosen as a gift.

I try to take care of my books, so they will last to be enjoyed for years to come. Some of them are so beautiful. I have large, Country Life pony books, dating from the 30's and 40's, with the loveliest pencil illustrations, printed on thick paper. Sadly these have lost their dust jackets but I treasure the smaller books that have theirs, tatty though they may be. Sometimes I pick my books up and handle them just for the pleasure of doing so.

I bought an animal charity jigsaw last year, titled 'The Literary Cat'. The picture is a large black cat in a bookcase, lying on the middle shelf. Stacked here and there on the shelves are a variety of classics, all lovely old cloth-bound hardbacks: Aesop, Dickens, Myths and Legends, Gallico.... There's also some flowers and fruit, and a maddening assortment of blue and white china. It was a lovely jigsaw to do, even if I kept getting stuck on Thackery's twiddley bits.

skiffle wrote:

> I kept getting stuck on Thackery's twiddley bits.


yes .... I believe Charlotte Bronte had the same problem ....



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

vaseline helps

surely not? I mean if you use vaseline on a jigsaw, don't all the pieces slide all over the place?

*blinks innocently*



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

I bought one of those big folding board things for doing jigsaws on. They have a fuzzy surface inside, so the pieces don't slip.

It's a largish jigsaw, and knowing Diesel, I didn't dare leave any pieces where she could get at them. If I've just paid nearly a tenner for a jigsaw, I don't want the cat playing with it too.

Thank you for your support! I would never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever even entertain the idea of selling it so PSD, your £50 is safe!

So I'm going to take it to France next week read it but I would never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever even entertain the idea of giving you any spoilers or telling you anything about it before it comes out - that would just be adding salt to the wound, wouldn't it?

But I might tell you how good it is........................................

Actually, maybe I shouldn't take it to France - you see we're going to Beauvais and that's where the R101 airship went a bit bang..............


"Never grow up completely, because that's when you start growing old"

Do the 'e', 'v' and 'r' keys still work on your keyboard ?

y s th wo k y w ll thank you!

My bank manager wouldn't let me have another fifty quid anyway...

In fact, the most he'll let me have is an earful of abuse.


I'm starting (slowly) to collect old books - you know, the sort that have picked up the scent of leather from long-dissolved libraries and have that strange tea-stained look to the edge of the pages. There are few things as thrilling as a slight coating of dust on a book you've just bought - you always wonder what marks have been left by previous readers, and who they might have been. I'm the same with old maps too.



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

I'm a sucker for second hand books myself - always wonder about where they've been, who they belonged to etc. Some titles I only ever buy as second hand editions eg Diary of the Provincial Lady - E M Delafield. I'm on my 4th second hand copy of that!

Hubby has a lot of the really old everyman hardback editions that belonged to his mother - my favourite one is Cranford by Mrs Gaskell - quote "a man is so in the way."




"Cats are rather delicate creatures and they are the subject of a good many ailments - but I have never heard of one who suffered from insomnia"

Can I just put money on the following line appearing somewhere in the Nextian Canon, especially given Mr Ff's love of flying machines, film and puns?

"One of our plots is missing"

Occurred to me after I misread the title of this thread.



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

I've got a random assortment of maps at home. National Geographic maps covering various bits of the USA, OS maps of different vintages, scales and areas and odds and ends like the map of Portmerion and one of Exeter University c.1990. I keep looking in remainder book shops: I want a good map of the UK, showing the counties, and a world map, both to go on a wall somewhere.

It's so easy to get lost in a good map.

We've got a framed war edition of Evesham and Stratford-upon-Avon on the wall at home. I'll spend ages looking at it, and even use it to plan walks and stuff, leading to interesting moments when totally unexpected landscape features suddenly arrive. Like most of the town, for example.



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Had some building done since the war then ?

Maps are good. I love reading maps, and collect as many as I'm allowed space for. My latest is one of the British Railways network in 1961, full of long-forgotten branch lines. In my professional career I've also drawn a few, and that's good fun too. I would really love some professional mapping software, but, boy, is it ever expensive. (And needs better kit than I can afford, too).



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty