Book Hunting Adventures: Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

The story of how I found two editions of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll in his hometown, Oxford!

While in England for the first time in the fall of 2015 with my mom, we split up for a day. She stayed in London and I went off to Oxford, home of Lewis Carroll. 150 years earlier Carroll's Alice in Wonderland was published and while I hadn't gone to Oxford with the intent of purchasing not one but two more copies of the novel that is what happened. After seeing where the real Alice and the Mathematician who wrote for her and her sisters lived at Christ Church College, I went to Alice's Shop. It is not only a shop that sells only Alice merchandise, but is in fact the shop that Alice Liddell herself would buy candy in. It is also the model for John Tenniel's drawing of the “Old Sheep Shop” in Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. 

Alice's Shop and St. Philip's Book Shop next door.

He drew it as if it was in a mirror so it was all backwards. Being there felt like being in a strange world where I was in the looking glass myself, but one where Alice was still a book. Every where I looked in the small shop I saw Tenniel's art, everything you can think of was there including a small, blue paperback copy of Alice that was the 150^th Anniversary edition. It was only £5 and it was light so I didn't think twice before buying it with some other souvenirs.

The story of buying Alice in Oxford should have ended there, if I had not followed a sign that said “books” down an arch covered alley and up a flight of small stairs next door to Alice's Shop. Honestly, that's how most of my adventures happen, accidentally following signs. St. Philip's Books was a lovely crowded shop. I noticed that English independent shops are different than ours here. It is hard for me to explain, but the workers seem to be in a constant state of cataloging the shop's collections at small tables overflowing with books. The atmosphere was studious and calm. Upon walking in the one of the first books I saw was a yellow cloth edition of Alice and Through the Looking Glass that had an illustration I did not recognize.

 From the 1930's, it was illustrated by J. Morton Sale. A slightly rare edition that they were only asking £10 for it, so what could I do but buy it? It still intrigues me to this day because of the illustrations because Alice appears more like a scantily clad teen than a seven year old! While paying for Alice I noticed a glass fronted cabinet that contained first edition Inkling books, including many of Tolkien's. The woman who was helping me saw my gaze and said “You're free to look through them, but I'm going to be honest you probably can not afford them. We've priced them properly and thus ridiculously high.” I was sorely tempted, but did not take up her offer. I had plans to see if I could find cheaper Tolkien works at another shop I had on my list!

Until next time,

keep hunting those books,

~Laura!

Book Hunting Adventure: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by JK Rowling

The story of how I found my first edition of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by JK Rowling at Henry Pordes on Charing Cross Road, London!

After successfully finding the third, fifth, and seventh books under Waterloo Bridge (read that adventure here) I only needed a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to complete my UK Childrens' Edition set. I was determined to find it later that day when we went to Charing Cross Road, even if I had to go into every single book shop, which is exactly what I did. I went into each shop and looked around. If their children's book section was not easily found I'd ask if they had copies of Harry Potter.

A quick photo of me on Cecil Ct!

Most didn't have any and those that did, none of them were HBP. In the third or fourth shop, Henry Pordes, I found a copy fairly quickly at the bottom of a pile. It was a nice shop with multiple rooms and high shelves. However, this shop wanted £20 for the first edition. Normally, I would fork that out no problem, but since I had just hours before bought two first editions and one early edition all for only £5 more I was leery to spend so much. I figured I would check out other shops and if I couldn't find a cheaper one I'd come back. I tried several more after that. I found one in a set of firsts that the owner wanted a few thousand quid for the set which obviously wasn't for me.

The last shop I went to was Marchpane, a shop devoted to children's books, down Cecil Ct. I was excited because I saw a copy in the window. I walked in and was immediately alarmed by the union jack covered Dalek that stood near the door. It set the tone of the room better than anything else could. It consisted of one tiny room packed with books. There was a man behind a desk that was on a risen platform. He was grunting at a couple who were asking the prices of some Alice in Wonderland books that lined his platform thing. He seemed so annoyed with them when he said they ranged from £5 to several thousand that I didn't ask any questions at first. I noticed their Harry Potter books were on the left wall behind a cart of other books. I became a contortionist to carefully extract them from their shelves to look at them. I was alarmed at the prices I saw on those covers. Several hundred pounds and they weren't even firsts!

The Dalek

By this time the couple had left and I asked Mr. Grumpypuss about the book in the window. He said he would gladly sell it to me for £800. My jaw hit the floor. I said back, “Wow, ok. I hope you sell it to some inexperience collector some day!” I planned to leave immediately, but plucked up the courage to ask to take a picture of the Dalek (who knew when I would see another terrifying alien again?).

Needless to say, once I left I told my mom to hang about in Cecil Ct. for a bit because I was going to run back to Henry Pordes and buy that extremely reasonable £20 copy of Half-Blood Prince and thus completed my UK Childrens Collection.

~Laura!

Book Hunting Adventure: Harry Potter PoA, OotP, & DH

The story of how I found my UK Children's Editions of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Order of the Phoenix, and Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling at Southbank Book Market in London!  

 On my first trip to London in 2015 I was determined to finish my collection of UK Children Editions of Harry Potter. Ideally, I wanted to find cheap editions. It didn't matter if they were first editions as long I had them. I knew that the best place to look in multiple places would be Charing Cross Road, but I wanted to try something more unique first. I'm not even sure where I first heard of the used book sale that takes place under the Waterloo Bridge, but once it was in my head I knew that it was exactly the right place to start. I had visions of stumbling across copies of Harry Potter there and would do anything to go.

I was sitting on one of those nice benches when I took this of
the market under the bridge.

Anything is practically what I gave. My mom and I got hopelessly, frustratingly lost. London (well, in my opinion England in general) is horrible with street signs. We were lost for about an hour and were miles away from our target when we finally realized what had gone wrong. I was cranky and I'm pretty sure my mom wanted to throw me in the Thames more than once. I wasn't sure that getting to this book flea market type thing was even worth it but when we finally got there I knew it was. It was such a nice, peaceful place. Right on Southbank, it is a nice place to buy books and then sit there on a bench reading them. If I lived near there I'd have no pay check because I would be there every day reading and people watching.

While searching the tables I found Prisoner of Azkaban, Order of the Phoenix, and Deathly Hallows (the later 2 were first editions)! The market was set up weird. At least weird to me, maybe because I'm not British, I'm not sure. At the first table I found one of them, snatched it up, and moved on to the next table to search. I noticed, however, that this sketchy old man kept looking at me. I was a bit freaked out, but then realized that it was because he thought I was stealing. Each table or so, though very close together, belonged to separate people. Here in the States at least, vendors have clear separations, there it wasn't nearly as clear. I did figure it out and paid the man. I paid closer attention after that and no more sketchy people bore holes into me with their gazes. All in all I bought 2 first editions and 1 early edition for a grand total of £25! It was definitely one of the most unlikely setting for such a find, but my book hunting paid off! 

~Laura!

Book Hunting Adventure: 1st Edition Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The story of how I found my first edition of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling at my local Amvets Thrift Store!  

My best friend and I have a tradition of going to all of the thrift stores in our neighborhood every month or so to check them out. Rachel looks for anything and everything, while I am constantly looking for Harry Potter merch that I don't yet own. Any one who knows me knows that Harry Potter means everything to me and I will do anything to acquire anything related to it. 

1st ed. UK Children's GoF

So it was no surprise to Rachel when suddenly the book she had just pulled off the shelf at my favorite thirfty was plucked from her hands before she even read the title, accompanied by a gasp and a high pitched “It can't be!” Rachel had unknowingly picked up a first edition copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I had recognized the spine colors. I couldn't even imagine how this book made it's way to this place, but before I could think too hard about it I immediately went to the front and bought it. There was no way I was going to let that book about of my sight until it was officially mine. That is the book that started my collection of UK Children's editions of Harry Potter. 

One never knows what one will find in a thrift store if one looks hard enough. They are magical places.

~Laura!

Book Hunting Adventure: Tolkien's Sir Gawain

The story of how I found my copy of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by JRR Tolkien at Commonwealth Books in Boston!

In 2013, I went to Boston with my Aunt and cousin. While we were doing a self-guided walk of the Freedom Trail I happened to notice a little pedestrian alley. I really liked this, we don't have anything like that back home in Buffalo. I was just mentioning the cute little street to my Aunt when I noticed a sandwich board type sign that advertised “Commonwealth Books.” 

You can just see Commonweath Books down
the alley of Spring Lane.

Well, of course, I immediately wanted to go in. My Aunt was not into it. We had been walking for a while and it was really hot so she told me to go on and have a look around while she and my cousin ducked into a small cell phone shop on the corner to hide in the A/C.

Commonwealth Books was a nice shop. It was one of those shops that was like a little tornado of books. Organized, but packed. I looked around for a bit, but couldn't really find anything that I considered “must have.” However, just as I was leaving I overheard a couple girls talking about JRR Tolkien and how they didn't realize he translated famous old tales, not just Lord of the Rings. I kinda hovered in their general area being a creep until they moved because I love Tolkien and I didn't have any of his translations. I was really excited to see that the book the girls was looking at was the Professor's translation of

This is the book I found on my adventure in front of some of the
other Arthurian books I gathered for the project.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight! 
I was super excited! I didn't even know he had done a translation of that! I had read bits of it a few semesters previously and it was interesting but the translation wasn't very good. I knew that Tolkien's had to be better. At the time of this trip I was getting ready for a strange, invitation only class starting the next semester and I was planning on doing a lot of research on the Arthurian Legend as part of the class. Score! I knew that I had found that elusive “must have” book! I purchased it and went back to the air conditioned cell phone store to tell my Aunt about my find. 

~Laura!

Get Ready For Some Book Hunting Adventures!

Introducing Bookworm Extraordinaire’s

 Book Hunting Adventures

This new feature on BWE is inspired by R.S. Garnett’s 1931 Some Book-Hunting Adventures in which he relates his own tales of scouring the shops for that perfect find. As I related in my review of it, I found this book quite by chance as I was in the stacks of my library in August. As I read it the idea of this series began to worm its way into my brain. Garnett had some pretty interesting tales about how he came into his books and the more I thought about I realized that I get my books in some strange places. Everywhere from thrift stores to a sketchy old man under a bridge my books have come to me in odd ways. BWE’s Book Hunting Adventures is going to be a new series in which I share my stories with my readers. I hope my Book Hunting Adventures amuse and inspire you as much as Garnett’s did me. 

~Laura!

Review:Some Book-Hunting Adventures: A Diversion by R.S. Garnett

Some Book-Hunting Adventures: A Diversion by R.S. Garnett

Release Date: 1931

Publisher: William Blackwood & Sons Ltd.

Pages: 318

Source: Library (but I wish to buy it soon!)

Summary: R.S. Garnett was asked to write stories about how he came to own some of the books in his collection.

Review: 

I was in the stacks of my library, doing my job, when the title of this book caught my eye and I knew I had to read it. I kind of feel like no one else has read this book, mostly because I had to create its Goodreads page myself, but also because even though it is from the 30’s it is in great condition. I really like the idea of me being the only person to discover this book among the millions of books on our tiers. It also gave me an idea for a new feature on this blog that I will tell you all about at a later date.

            This book is a collection of stories about how Garnett came to own some of his books. Some he bought for himself, some were given to him by various people, and some came to him in strange ways indeed. This book was surprisingly readable. What I mean to say is that it seems that this book was written like a very long letter to the man who asked him about his adventures. Indeed, sometimes I lost track of what was happening because of the inside jokes between Garnett and this man in a monkey hut to whom he dedicated the book to. And yet, despite, maybe even because of this intimacy I adored this book.

            Some of the later tales in the book did not interest me, but the earlier ones caught my imagination and wouldn’t let go. His first Book Hunting Adventure is of a book he found in a small shop with a pretty girl. So pretty in fact that he forgot to pay for his find and when he went back the next day to right his wrong the shop and the girl had disappeared entirely. Then there is the adventure where he gained Trelawny’s “Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron” because of an act of kindness to a favorite bookseller who was out on his luck. Garnett tells humorous tales of how he gained a series of books by setting up a practical joke on his wife to countless encounters with odd booksellers and patrons alike. He even tells of his adventures that involve the meeting of a couple very strange poets. R.S. Garnett came by his books in such fantastic ways that it almost seems a fantasy.

Then perhaps my favorite is the tale of his cousin, the Guv’nor and the fishing trip. They talked of the books they enjoyed and the next morning the Guv’nor had sent along some of the books as well as a bag of Roman snails including, “one specially large snail, which I called ‘Dunstan,’ [that] I retained as a pet for several years. He knew me well, and was in every respect, for a snail, an intellectual monster.” (22). Throughout each tale there are witty one liners and great observations of the human character, as well as the whimsy of fortune that guides a booklover to attain his beloved books that made me love this book. If you can find it, I encourage you to read these “Adventures.”

~Laura!