rattfan: (Default)
Alex Isle [Rattfan] ([personal profile] rattfan) wrote2008-08-20 01:50 pm

Con loot and gloating

They're all here :-) I sent three packages to myself during my trip. One got here while I was still gone and the next a couple of days after I returned so I wasn't expecting the third quite so soon but just now there was a thump on the door and there it was.

I got some really good loot, in book collector terms. There's a few writers I look for who are just difficult to track down; one being F.M. Busby and another John Barnes. D.F. Jones, author of the Colossus series, even more so. I'd decided I would concentrate on finding secondhand stuff while I was away as new really isn't difficult to obtain via Amazon. So I located the dealers at Worldcon and began to hunt. They asked what I was after and I said the D.F. Jones' books. In a moment they'd pulled number two off the table and then number three from the hard-to-find stack, in a plastic bag all its own. "These are a bit more expensive - five dollars," the dealer confided, slightly anxious. When I had pried it from his hand and helped him to his feet again, I had to take a few breaths and calm down :-) I couldn't believe I'd actually located them after so long. Then I found one of the hard-to-find Busbys and a John Barnes, Candle.

I couldn't resist Joe Haldeman's new book, Marsbound which, even though it was hardback, wasn't a very *big* hardback. Stephenie Meyers' Breaking Dawn was indeed a big hardback but that one I bought with the help of [livejournal.com profile] ankh_hpl and her discount voucher, many thanks. It lasted just long enough on the trip home, btw. Another gift from Ankh was an unusual little book by Stephanie Barron, entitled Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor. This is number one in a series featuring Jane Austen as a sleuth! Definitely recommended to fans of Jane Austen.

I didn't find everything, of course, there was not a copy of John M. Ford's Growing Up Weightless to be had anywhere but then, it wouldn't be fun if I had nothing left to look for. This kind of thing is a big part of why I went. It may not seem exciting to fans who just wanted to party but hey, this is me.

[identity profile] stephen-dedman.livejournal.com 2008-08-20 06:34 am (UTC)(link)
Might I recommend bookfinder.com ?

http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?ac=sl&st=sl&qi=D6wp2TgRokUrJKYnis4.w00cK,g_1432891139_1:6:84&bq=author%3Djohn%2520m.%2520ford%26title%3Dgrowing%2520up%2520weightless

[identity profile] ratfan.livejournal.com 2008-08-20 06:41 am (UTC)(link)
Hey! I'm having a gloat here :-) It's also extremely satisfying to do your own hunting among the piles.

book nerdishness

[identity profile] satyapriya.livejournal.com 2008-08-20 12:10 pm (UTC)(link)
I had my book buying frenzy my last day in Denver. Poetry books no less. (now creeps into corner from embarrassment)
PS: Something from me should be on its way to you shortly.
snakypoet: Line drawing of dragon plus 5-pointed star (Default)

Re: book nerdishness

[personal profile] snakypoet 2008-08-20 01:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh oh, WHAT poetry books? Now you REALLY have me in a lather of excitement. Tell, tell!
snakypoet: Line drawing of dragon plus 5-pointed star (Default)

[personal profile] snakypoet 2008-08-20 01:30 pm (UTC)(link)
I myself find book buying far more exciting than partying. Wonderful to find one's own definition of rare treasures! In the far-off days when I had lots of money, I used to describe my visits to bookshops as orgies.:)

[identity profile] ratfan.livejournal.com 2008-08-21 02:32 am (UTC)(link)
I quite understand. At the con some people seemed intent on telling me I "should" go to the parties, especially if I was having trouble sleeping anyway, in a sort of "one size fits all" attitude. I don't really get this, since I was meeting fans anyway in the con suite and also going to morning programming when I was not roaming the dealers hall.