Carleton Place and the Book Gallery...

[fajrdrako]

For the past few years, every year at about this time I go with a bunch of friends to visit The Book Gallery, a second-hand bookshop in Carleton Place - a little town not far from Ottawa.

The place is crowded with books of all types, and I often find books I can't find in Ottawa. I had a list - including Paul Cornell's Human Nature and P.C Hodgell's Seeker's Mask. Didn't find them, but I found a lot of what I was looking for. I got:

• Anthony, Patricia, Conscience of the Beagle. I liked the sound of the first paragraph.


• Bear, Elizabeth, Hammered. On spec.


• Beverley, Jo, To Rescue a Rogue. Jo is a friend of mine from Dunnett fandom, and I've fallen slightly behind on reading her books. The truth is, I didn't much like Skylark and after reading it, didn't have the heart to read another anytime soon. But it's been a while and I do generally enjoy her books.


• Bryson, Bill, The Lost Continent, one of his I've never read. I didn't want to get books I was sure I could find in the library, but this was only $1.00.
.

• Chaucer, Geoffrey, Poetry: An Anthology for the Modern Reader, ed. E.T. Donaldson. This is the pièce de résistance of the day. I've been looking for a good edition of the Canterbury Tales for a while now, and everything I've been finding has been rewritten out of the original Middle English. This book is a beautiful thick hardcover that looks hardly read, and it has everything I want, including notes and glossaries, commentaries, and the text of Troilus and Crisede and Minor Poems. And it was only $8.00. I've been doing a mental happy dance ever since I nabbed this one.


• Cornell, Paul, Doctor Who: The Shadows of Avalon - no, it's not Human Nature, but I'm happy to have found it anyway!


• Dunnett, Dorothy, The Game of Kings, Popular Library edition, back from when paperbacks cost $1.95 - yikes! Yes, I already own this book. Many editions. In fact, I can probably recite a good part of this book without consulting the text: don't tempt me. I got this to complete a set. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.


• Ford, John M., Growing Up Weightless. I love Ford's writing with a passion.


• Heyer, Georgette, The Foundling and Regency Buck. I have of course read these, but they are missing from my collection, so I replaced them.


• Lane, Andy, and Mortimore, Jim, The New Doctor Who Adventures: Lucifer Rising because I liked Lane's book Torchwood: Slow Decay, and because I liked the title.


• Wilhelm, Kate, Let the Fire Fall (She's a long-time favourite author.)

It was fun book-browsing in this rambling old brick house while a thunderstorm raged outside. Afterwards, when it had cleared up a little, we went to Tim Horton's for coffee, and then to "The Mill at Ashton", a pub with delicious food. I had their special of the day: shepherd's pie with caesar salad and cream of celery soup. The soup was homemade and it was delicious.

We walked a little in the village of Ashton. Beautiful blue and purple irises. Many birds. Mist rising on the Jock River. A lovely evening... okay, there were also mosquitoes: so it goes.

Comments

[sraun]

FWIW, I think Uncle Hugo's has a copy of Seeker's Mask. If they don't, Dreamhaven should.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I keep hoping to find it in a Canadian venue, to avoid the hassles of ordering it over the border. No luck so far!

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

Congrats on all your acquisitions! I recently read The Foundling - found it at Cindy's - and enjoyed it very much. I particularly liked the hero.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I read The Foundling so long ago I don't remember it now, but I do recall that I loved it, so I'm looking forward to rereading it and rediscovering it all over again.

[filkferengi]

It's one of my favo[u]rites, which is saying something, as there are so many.

Congratulations on the cool acquisitions!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Marna saw the copy of The Foundling on my bookcase, and borrowed it - it's a while since she's read it, too. So meanwhile I'm rereading "Memory"!

Human Nature

[renka54.livejournal.com]

You can always order the book from us if you haven't found a copy yet - we've sold over 300 copies of it in the last few weeks - most of them to the UK funnily enough. If you're looking for any of the other Missing or New Adventures books, we probably have them, too. We finally got "Inside the Hub" in as well - the hardback version is exclusive to Alien Entertainment and I know it's pricey, but it does look really nice.

Karen

Re: Human Nature

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

we've sold over 300 copies of it in the last few weeks - most of them to the UK funnily enough

That is so cool! Strange, though, you'd think they'd have sources there that would save them shipping costs and time. I tend to think of the UK as the glorious source of all things pertaining to the Doctor while we in NA get only a trickle. Or maybe I'm just greedy. I'e got Inside the Hub but I haven't read it yet - I'm sort of going slow on it and Torchwood: Border Princes because I figure it will be a long dry spell between the end of series 3 Doctor Who and the beginning of series 2 Torchwood without anything new.

Do you sell Torchwood and Doctor Who mugs? And do you know anything about the 2008 Torchwood calendar? I want it if it will have pictures of the Torchwood team - but not if it's going to have Weevils, dark Fairies and Ed Morgan!

I love, absolutely love, your icon there. Just let me stare a little...