Book Haul for November 2023

We picked up all of the books this go around from the annual event, the Dayton Book Fair. All paperbacks were a dollar, and the hardcovers were two. It was kind of crazy the first day but not too bad. Everyone was pretty polite except for scanners. I hate those cockroaches. Luckily, they stay to the hardcovers for the most part. They are another reason I try not to buy books online.

Don’t feel like reading? Watch the video version:

Anyway! Let’s start with the sleaze this time. Everyone seems to love those. Wonder why? It’s almost like it’s ingrained in our biology or something. There were only three, but I was surprised to even find that many at a book fair.

We have this softcore Grand Slam on Warner Paperback library. I started reading it and unfortunately, it’s pretty boring. It’s from 72 and is like a mainstream version of the counter culture’s sexual revolution written by a square who read a magazine article about it. Commander Amanda is sexy spy sleaze.

Pictures of Marcia is a Midwood and seems to be about a girl coerced into making “dirty” pictures. Oh, how the times have changed. And away from the genre sleaze and into the author sleaze, I was super happy to find this Aleister Crowley novel. I was way into him in my early twenties and read a lot of his non-fiction and poetry but have never had a chance to read one of his novels.

Disaster adventure with the North Wall. The western section was pretty unimpressive, but I wanted to grab something, so I got a Sundance.

There was a lot of Men’s Adventure. Picked up three of the In the Ashes series that I didn’t have. I got a balls and tits swinging vigilante duo in C.O.B.R.A. the Heroin Connection authored by Joseph R Rosenberger.

I couldn’t tell if this Quest of the Seventh Carrier was a horror novel or war novel. The ship gets incased in ice for forty years and then suddenly becomes free and fights Libyan terrorists helmed by a crew of samurai warriors. Wow! Also, got number one in the post-apocalyptic series The Zone.

The Chinese Bandit looks to be white guy traveling across Asia kicking ass. Rankin is another post-apocalyptic adventure about a guy who has to protect the guy who shows people the Bill of Rights or something. Very Men’s Adventure.

I was hoping for more 90’s serial killer thrillers (SKT) but there wasn’t much. I did get Red Dragon which I didn’t have. Also got this movie cover version of Mothman Prophecies. I do really like that movie and the legend of the Mothman. I’ve even been to Point Pleasant and driven over the bridge. Ha!

False Witness is a lawyer thriller and the Running of the Beasts is 80’s SKT.

Twist of the Knife looks to be a brutal cop thriller but I think it’s actually a post-apocalyptic story. Glory is without a doubt a 90’s SKT.

Got a bunch of mysteries here. For some reason they had quite a few people-of-the-cloth centered mysteries. Assault with Intent is a priest solving murders and Rocket to the Morgue is a nun solving murders.

I’ve always passed on the Perry Mason books as I remember it as that boring show my grandparents watched with the big fat guy when they would babysit me. I’d probably actually like it now as a like a lot of stuff from their era. Also, picked up an older Agatha Christie to see if I like it better than the Hallowe’en Party.

Beautiful cover art on these two Ngaio Marsh books. I still haven’t read anything by her but I feel like I want to get all of this edition just for the art.

Grabbed a very clean Judge Dee book and I was very disappointed to see only one Maigret. Book fairs are usually filled with these. Oh well, at least it was one that I didn’t already have.

I found this spooky looking Isaac Asimov mysteries anthology. It looks incredibly classic gothic and occultish. Another cover that drew me in was the Etruscan Bull. It also has some occult flare.

A Bart House mystery classic style by Lee Thayer and another nun solving murder mysteries with Murder Takes the Veil.

American Agatha Christie, Mignon Eberhart and a John Creasey Toff. Got it because it has boxing in it.

Some arty looking Penguin Crime with the Pit-Prop Syndicate and your basic classic mystery with Saint.

Two John Dickson Carr’s.

Two Elizabeth Peters. The Jackals Head has some cool Egyptian vibes.

The book Fair also had a bunch of grimy crime books. Parker #5 Killtown and Long Way Down by Collin Wilcox.

Black Cherry Blues by James Lee Burke. I read Neon Rain and enjoyed it. Newspaper Murders by Bill Granger.

I was really drawn to the cover art on this Lillian O’Donnell After Shock. It actually looked less mystery and more hard-boiled. Really beat up copy of Donald Westlake’s The Busy Body.

Two Ed McBain 87th Precints. Widows is a fat book that came out in the 80’s I believe. I love how it looks like the cover of the Beastie Boys album, Paul’s Boutique. Eighty Millions Eyes is from the 60’s and involves a murder on live television.

Blood of my Brother is straight up crime noir wherein a guy is murdered, the cops don’t care and it’s up to his brother to figure out what happened. I love Mike Shayne so always happy to add another to the collection.

I learned about Robert B. Parker, and many other writers, on the Paperback Warrior podcast. So I grabbed these three. Unexciting covers but oh well. Got the 90’s Cape Fear movie cover of John D MacDonald’s The Executioners. I want the original copy but don’t want to pay the price, you know?

Alistair MacLean and John Le Carre’. Two I usually would only pick up in a cheap bundle like this.

Two more John D MacDonalds; one stand alone and another Travis McGee that I was missing.

The End of Young Blood Johnson is based on a true story of a preacher’s former life of working for the mafia, doing drugs and being a pimp. The Dragon’s Eye looks to be a spy book, but I think it’s more crime.

Not only does Hazard look wonderfully 70’s but it has the letters ESP highlighted in the word espionage. I’m hoping for some psychic spy ridiculousness. The Jesuit has a very stand out cover. It seems like a simple choice for art but works really well.

I didn’t know Lawrence Block had a spy series so I was pleasantly surprised to find these three. Albeit boring cover art. And then a Matt Helm series Fawcett Gold Medal.

Two Nick Carter’s. Another one I see all the time and only pick them up when they are cheap.

Very happy to find this Pan Moonraker. It’s like the 100th printing but whatever. I am very close to completing this run. Another one I needed, the movie cover On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

Picked up this spy novel, Corsica on Award Books, a publisher I’ve never heard of before. And doubling down on the red we have Helen MacInnes The Double Image.

Two TV show based spy novels, I Spy #4 by John Tiger and The Girl From UNCLE by Michal Avallone.

The Devil’s Whisper is about a man getting creepy calls and he doesn’t know if it’s for real or all in his head. Another TV show novelization by John Tiger with Mission Impossible and the always fun Martin Landau on the cover.

Blood on the Ivy is a hippie-sploitation from the early 70’s probably written by a 1950’s guy with a flattop. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is about a working-class guy who lives it up on the weekend…I think? The synopsis was really vague.

Lion Books- One is a Lonely Number. Guy breaks out of prison, is on the run and hooks up with a underage girl. Another confusing plot synopsis with The Murder of the Missing Link. A guy kills his infant son but it’s to save humanity?? Yeesh.

Tennis crime anyone? …sorry. Tennis centered terrorist plot to kill the Queen. Grimy 70’s NYC setting in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. Some more terrorists doing terrible things but this time with subway cars.

Airplane disaster in the Crowded Sky. Looks like I picked the wrong day to quit sniffing glue. A House in Peking seems to be a romance novel, I believe. I don’t know, my wife wanted it.

Not a lot of fantasy or S&S but I did find this third entry in the Silverglass series which I was missing so hell yeah. The Treasure of Atlantis is in the Centaur Books Time Lost series.

Sci-fi time with Robert Silverberg’s The Silent Invaders and my very first Ace Double, The Pirates of Zen and..another Murray Leinster novel that I can’t remember now and don’t feel like digging out. I just liked the Space Pirate idea. I have always avoided the Double Books. I don’t know.

Sideslip has a very Sliders plot so that rules cause that’s one of my favorite shows. Four from Planet 5 is another Murray Leinster but I just got it because it’s a Fawcett Gold Medal.

More human than Superhuman. Oh wait. More than Superhuman by AE Van Vogt. Excellent cover art. Has some Mexican vibes. The Secret People. Cover art by Frank Frazetta.

Gothic time. BlueThorne is looking kind of Bride of Dracula. The Witch’s House we got in a previous haul but this one is in much better condition.

Of course, there will be some Dorothy Eden and Mary Roberts Rinehart.

Evil cults in the Day of the Arrow and more spooky old houses in The Veil of Silence. It’s hard to come up with something to say about all of these, they are very similar.

The Red Carnelian and House of Shadows. Run girl run!

Non-fiction and occult books with Develop Your Psychic Abilities and ESP. But you already knew that, didn’t you?

Ancient Magic of the Pyramids and Mastering the Tarot. Discover your occult powers.

Even More Haunted Houses. Before there were hundreds of paranormal shows this is how you got your ghost on. Lost Cities is a Great Pan with some mesmerizing cover art.

And finally some horror. The horror is always the most difficult to find because no one knows how to sort it. You’ll find a little bit in every section. Except for the Steven King which will have it’s own section. Anyway! Very pleased to find another in the Frankenstein Horror Series. The Curse of Quintana Roo. Mexican horror! There’s always going to be an anthology at these things. Masters of Horror with stories from the earlier part of the 20th century.

Creepy kids in the Door to December. A first UK edition of Flowers in the Attic.

NEW stories from the Twilight Zone. I have lots of Twilight Zone books but I think this is the first that isn’t just novelizations of the TV show episodes. I was hoping Night of the Grizzlies was going to be like Jaws but with a giant bear. Unfortunately, it’s based on a true story of two campers getting killed by a grizzly and then guys going out to hunt it.

Aftershock is a sort of zombie book with a tad of sci-fi vibes. Updated my copy of The Legacy. What a hilarious cover.

Grabbed the Hate Master- The Avenger #16 and another Fu Manchu. I really need to read one one of these days.

I got the Babe Ruth Story by Babe Ruth and a scholastic reader copy of The Invisible Man.

Finally here are all of the hardcovers. Some horror, some mystery.

All in all I was pretty happy with the book fair this year. Got to check off some that I was actually looking for. Got surprised by stuff I didn’t know existed. Upgrades. Amazing deals on an amount of books that would have cost me around $500 in a bookstore and $900 online. Most importantly, it was a whole lot of fun. I love being surrounded by all the books. I love going the second day when it’s the readers instead of the resellers. Everyone is so pleasant. I love hearing them talk to their friends of family about the books and authors. The old guys with their excel checklists printed out. People who actually pick up a book and flip it over to see what it’s about.