Science Fiction Aficionados discussion

In some of the other groups I'm a member of, this is a fun and popular topic.

List the books you scored from used book stores.

What made me think of adding a thread like this to SFA is that, you guessed it, today I was at the used book store. Two of them, actually. I think I scored pretty well:

My SO and I went to two used book stores today. I got a pretty big haul.

by Dan Simmons
by Dan Simmons
by Dan Simmons
by Kathe Koja
by Peter F. Hamilton
by Alastair Reynolds
by Iain M. Banks
by Steven Erikson

Great idea for a topic, Jason.

I really like going to used book stores and find out what "hidden treasures" I can discover.

Recently I also went to a couple stores and found a bunch of really, really cheap sci-fi books. Here's the list:

Time Wanderers
The Chrysalids
Memoirs of a Space Traveler: Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy
Revolt in 2100
Have Space Suit-Will Travel
The Eye of the Heron
Non-Stop
Rocannons World
Cryptozoic!

A week from now I'm expecting to get my hands on a even bigger haul of old sci-fi paperbacks :)

(By the way, the editions I bought aren't the ones I linked to but portuguese ones)

Song of Kali and The Cipher are great!

Thanks, Sergio.

Scott, I was really excited to find those two books. Not an everyday occurrence, let me tell you. Especially the Kathe Koja.

It's hard to find in good condition because of that annoying cut-out cover.

The spine is well used, but the cover is in great shape. I usually hate those cut-out covers, but this one's actually creepy.

The one on Bad Brains is worse. :D

There are two used book stores that I go to, though I haven't made regular trips for a while. The majority of my paperbacks come from these two stores, and occasional trips to Goodwill. The past two trips I picked up:

I have Halting State but I haven't read it yet.

In my area, I have the luxury of having a used book store specializing in sci-fi/fantasy. I can't say enough awesome things about Uncle Hugo's!!

With such selection, my scores are almost guaranteed but I was happy to find almost mint condition copies of Deadhouse Gates and Memories of Ice a while back.

Ben wrote: "In my area, I have the luxury of having a used book store specializing in sci-fi/fantasy. I can't say enough awesome things about Uncle Hugo's!!

With such selection, my scores are almost guarantee..."

Nice! Genre specific book stores are difficult to find, or don't seem to last long, at least from my experiences. There is one in San Francisco (Borderlands) But I don't get down to SF very often. One of these days I need to make a trip there.

John wrote: "Ben wrote: "In my area, I have the luxury of having a used book store specializing in sci-fi/fantasy. I can't say enough awesome things about Uncle Hugo's!!

With such selection, my scores are almo..."

I love Borderlands Bookstore. I've only been twice, but I've ordered books from them over the phone. Very cool bookstore.

I like to collect old Sci-Fi paperbacks, especially those with covers designed by Richard Powers. Not so much for the value of them as just for the admiration of the designs. He was the art director of Ballantine in the 50's -60's, he's the artist who did those covers with the amorphous space blobs. Probably more than anything else, his covers were what got me interested in reading Sci-Fi. At the time, they weren't like anything else I had seen before. A lot of Sci-Fi art from the time tended to be of the 'mad scientist-damsel in distress' school. There were certainly some other great artists at the time, like Chesley Bonestall , Hannes Bok, Kelley Freas, and H.R. Van Dongen, but it was the art of Richard Powers that really stood out for me. Seeing those mysterious surreal paintings of Powers certainly intrigued my little pre-teen mind. They're getting harder and harder to find though. And when a used book store does have a few, they will price them astronomically high. I was used to paying $1 or so for each one, but now I sometimes see them go for $10 and up.

So I've discovered that library book sales are sometimes a good source, still at good prices and the money goes to a good cause.

Here's a some examples from recent library book sales I've been to, all for $1 each. Woo Hoo!:

John wrote: "Nice! Genre specific book stores are difficult to find, or don't seem to last long, at least from my experiences. There is one in San Francisco (Borderlands)"

I did not know there was anything like this in the city! Thanks for sharing about Borderlands. I know where I am going next Saturday. Its just a short bus ride away.

Peter wrote: "So I've discovered that library book sales are sometimes a good source, still at good prices and the money goes to a good cause."

Totally. My local library does the same, I missed the last one, however. There should be one coming up in the summer, though. I had to bring a box the last time I went.

Christine wrote: "I did not know there was anything like this in the city! Thanks for sharing about Borderlands. I know where I am going next Saturday. Its just a short bus ride away. "

My pleasure. That's cool that you are so close to that store. I'm an hour north of SF. But, I have to make a trip down there at some point, been meaning to for ages.

Jason wrote: "In some of the other groups I'm a member of, this is a fun and popular topic.

List the books you scored from used book stores.

What made me think of adding a thread like this to SFA is that, you..."

I'm am really envious of those who live or have access to good bookstores. I live in Tokyo and books in English are not easy to come by here. Thankfully, there's Amazon Japan and Awesome Books (which deliver to Japan at a flat rate - that's great of them to think of that!). I just bought about 5 books from Awesome Bookstore - Dan Simmon's The Terror and carrion Comfort; Hamilton's Pandora's Star; David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas; and Alastair Reynold's Revelation Space. I also got Spin and The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide from Amazon Japan. (Come to think of it, most of my buys are sci-fi books!)

Those are great books you got, Shari. It's too bad Tokyo doesn't have English bookstores.

Jason wrote: "Those are great books you got, Shari. It's too bad Tokyo doesn't have English bookstores."

Thanks, Jason. I can't wait to read them. There are no English bookstores like those you can find in the US, Canada, UK... big Japanese bookstores have a few shelves of English books, but they are expensive. As I always try to buy used books, I avoid these stores. Do you prefer used or new books?

I like both new and used books for different reasons. If a favorite author of mine is releasing a new book, I'll want it new. But I love going into used bookstores and finding those gems. I also love the smell of used books.

Ben??? Uncle Hugo's??? You live in Minneapolis!?!?!?! Whoo hoo I just LOVE that store....I bought like 30 books when I went there this past summer!

Jason wrote: "I like both new and used books for different reasons. If a favorite author of mine is releasing a new book, I'll want it new. But I love going into used bookstores and finding those gems. I also lo..."

I like the smell of used books too. Browsing thru a used bookstore is one of my favorite things to do. Even if I have nothing in particular I'm looking for.

Kurt wrote: "Jason wrote: "I like both new and used books for different reasons. If a favorite author of mine is releasing a new book, I'll want it new. But I love going into used bookstores and finding those g..."

Me,too. There's something about used bookstores, not just the smell, that gives you the feeling of being among old friends. You can really feel when you see the creases on the covers, the yellowed pages, and the cracked spines that the books have accomplished their mission and will do so much more when you buy them. It's different in bookstores when you take in newly printed books in their look-but-don't-browse plastic covers. I like it when books beckon me to read first, not to buy.

Great post Shari. :)

Here's a few more used sci-fi books I bought recently:

The Crystal World
Low Flying Aircraft And Other Stories
The Futurological Congress: From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy
Half A Life
Self-Discovery
Le travail du furet a l'intérieur du poulailler.

and a few others that aren't in the database.

Some nice finds there, Sergio!

Sérgio wrote: "Great post Shari. :)

Here's a few more used sci-fi books I bought recently:

The Crystal World
Low Flying Aircraft And Other Stories
[book:The Futurological Congress: F..."

Thank you, Sergio! The titles you mentioned look interesting. Do you sometimes read books in French?

@Jason: Thanks!

@Shari: Yes I do actually (I was born there and it helps me practice my french), but the editions I bought were in portuguese - I linked to a french edition because the book wasn't published in english.

re: #13, Peter - I like old scifi paperbacks from the 50'-60's as well. The old cover art really grabs me. They are hard to find now at reasonable prices but I got lucky and I recently picked up a number of them inexpensively, including many by Van Vogt - and I'm reading "Mission to the Stars" aka The Mixed Men at the moment with a Richard Powers cover. Freas, Powers, and the others you mentioned sure had unique styles. Freas may be a fave for me but I like almost all of them in different ways.


.

Ron wrote: "re: #13, Peter - I like old scifi paperbacks from the 50'-60's as well. The old cover art really grabs me. They are hard to find now at reasonable prices but I got lucky and I recently picked up a ..."

I love those old covers. I try to pick up those old ones whenever I can find them as well. That's a really cool cover for that A.E. van Vogt paperback.

Ron wrote: "re: #13, Peter - I like old scifi paperbacks from the 50'-60's as well. The old cover art really grabs me. They are hard to find now at reasonable prices but I got lucky and I recently picked up a ..."

That's a really early one, I'm jealous!

Nashua, NH library book sale this weekend. No good old paperbacks, but I did find a first edition hard cover of this old one;
Wasp by Eric Frank Russell . Not sure who the artist is yet.

That Wasp book is a real find as well!

I'm sure I'm not alone, but I got hooked on Powers art very young with all the Tarzan and John Carter books in the 60's. Much later I discovered he was also responsible for all the surreal stylized stuff on the older science fiction books.

I'm getting more of my books from library sales than bookstores. We have a big one coming up (once a year) in a couple weeks that I am looking forward to.

Wasp is a good find. Was it in good shape?

Seems to be in pretty good shape, has the full dust jacket along with a mylar cover as well. It's not a library discard or book club edition so I'm happy with the $1 charge. Bought it along with a few John Brunner titles, but those were kind of beat up book club copies which I just bought since so much of Brunner's work is out of print.

Another haul:

The Seeds Of Time by John Wyndham
Tower of Glass by Robert Silverberg
Earthworks by Brian Aldiss
Metrophage by Richard Kadrey
War With the Newts by Karel Čapek
Andromeda: A Space Age Tale by Ivan Yefremov
Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison
La Dame De Cuir by Michel Grimaud

I'm buying much more than I can read, but just looking for and finding them in used bookstores is worthwhile.

Great haul, Sergio!

I visited a really cool used book store in San Francisco. Its called Kayo Books and they specialize in vintage paperbacks from the 1940s to 1970s but do have some books from the 80s. Their tagline, " Is that a paperback book in your pocket, or are you happy to see me?" Most of what they have is for adults leaning toward pulp, hardboiled mysteries, and some erotica. Its a place you could spend hours looking thru the shelves. My interest was in science fiction, an Andre Norton title and I found it!

check out this store the next time you are in San Francisco!
http://www.kayobooks.com/

That sounds like a pretty cool place, Christine. I love it when you find something you're looking for in a used book store.

Christine wrote: "I visited a really cool used book store in San Francisco. Its called Kayo Books and they specialize in vintage paperbacks from the 1940s to 1970s but do have some books from the 80s. Their taglin..."

Thanks for that suggestion, Christine. I'd love to visit that store next time I'm ever in San Francisco. I've only gone to Borderlands (Mission district) and, of course, City Lights. But Kayo sounds really cool.

I got

The Demolished Man
The Stars My Destination
The Songs Of Distant Earth

only 0.50€ each :)

I also got a couple of Valerian comics. They were not as cheap and in worst state than the books, but the art looks really good.






(love this cover)

good finds Sergio!

Dropped it at my previous workplace to check out a batch of vintage SF paperbacks they took in. I got:



They even gave me an employee discount even though I haven't worked there for a year and a half!

Return From the Stars
The Affirmation
The World of Null-A
From the Earth to the Moon

1€ each :)

Don't know much about those books. Any opinions?

Here are a couple oldies that I picked up last month


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I was really pleased to find this Cordwainer Smith:


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I also found this autographed John Scalzi hardback for $3 at Goodwill, unread and near new in appearance.


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re#29 Peter, according to ISFDB, http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?1... The cover art for your Wasp novel is by Ric Binkley who seems to have been active in the 50's, but I am unfamiliar with his work.

A friend told me about a store called Paperbacks Unlimited in Santa Rosa, so I made a trip there a few weeks ago and picked up:





I could have blown half a paycheck there. I'm actually thinking about unloading some of the paperbacks I've read for store credit, but it's tough to purge my collection.....

How is the pricing at Paperbacks Unlimited? I overheard this place mentioned about a month ago at my library (I infer it is the same place - it was described as "this great paperback store in Santa Rosa who has things I can't find elsewhere").

Ron wrote: "How is the pricing at Paperbacks Unlimited? I overheard this place mentioned about a month ago at my library (I infer it is the same place - it was described as "this great paperback store in Santa..."

Half off the cover price, at least that's what the two I got were marked as. They do have a sizable collection of paperbacks of all genres, and while I did find a few that I don't see that often in other used book stores, I saw quite a few that I see often. Here's the link to their website:

Paperbacks Unlimited

Thanks John. Good to know next time I'm up that way.

Bought a lot of them today because I found them unbelievably cheap and I was in a bad mood, so that helped me cheer up a bit.



Hunters of the Red Moon
The Martian Chronicles
Frankenstein
Captive Universe
The Sudden Star
More Than Human
Mockingbird
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Merchants' War
Strength of Stones

Great scores! I find books always help a bad mood and you got a deal, even better.

that would have made my day too!