Monday, June 12, 2006

THE WEEKEND SCORE

In a very married weekend, Stevie, our friend Anne, and I went to IKEA, dropped a lot of money on shelving and glare-reducing curtains. Along the way we stopped at Half-Price Books where I scored a deal. Specifically this:


That's a box of 75 choice vintage paperbacks for $35. Included, all the Ian Fleming James Bond novels, a bunch of Heinlein, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Delaney, and others. Donovan's Brain, that's in there. It's all pretty exciting stuff and I hope to be blog about it as I work my way through it. There's a non-fiction Fleming book called Thrilling Cities that attracted the following critical notices upon release:

"A bonded tour of fourteen sin-infested cities... I suggest you sample them." --John Barkham, Saturday Review Syndicate


"It's almost as fun as 007 battling SMERSH for the safety of Fort Knox. Other travel tomes may list beaches and shopping centers but Fleming concentrates on more interesting matters: bawdy houses, GIRLS, gambling, GIRLS, whiskey, GIRLS, dirty entertainment--with and without GIRLS. He provides a sort of
Playboy guide to the cities where James Bond would go for recreation." --Denver Post


"Racing... hairy-chested... intoxicating." --Oakland Tribune



That might be first up. Also, we saw A Prairie Home Companion, which was terrific. It's not only very much an Altman film and true to the radio show. But it's also a feature-length tribute to Midwest stoicism that subtly (and sometimes not-so-subtly) stresses the importance of living with death. It's not the kind of film young people would make and, as much as I like the youth-friendly fare that's kind of refreshing too.

Let's look at some of those books again.




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