Prufrock's Wargaming Blog

Prufrock's Wargaming Blog

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

A couple of good book scores.

There haven't been too many additions to the library of late, but I was quite pleased to recently pick up both an old favourite and a bit of a rare treasure at a secondhand bookshop in Richmond (Richmond, New Zealand, that is).

(Image nabbed with thanks from M. C. Smith's interesting blog 'Puttering in the Study' here.)

I first read this on loan from Lord Pat of Kobe, and have been looking for a copy since. This was a very good price for the hardcover, and it's in pretty good shape.  The book itself has probably dated a bit, but I like it.


(Image grabbed - again with thanks - from White Lotus Press, here.)

This one was a real find for an ancients enthusiast: it's expensive even through Abe Books, and I could never quite justify the cost, but there it was, hardcover, in good nick, staring at me on the shelf. I almost gave the chap double for it as a slightly better reflection of its value online, but then remembered the reason I hadn't bought it previously was because I couldn't justify paying online prices, and didn't.

Instead I helped out with his rent by buying a poetry collection that no other person in their right mind would ever purchase!

Incidentally, it was quite sad to see that this was the last secondhand bookshop remaining in the Nelson region. Four years ago there were about five, two years ago there were three, and now there's just one. It's a shame; secondhand books and used records were always my favourite objects when I was a student, and it's a pity to think that future generations will have far less opportunity to grow to love such things.

But that's just the way it goes, isn't it?


15 comments:

  1. A couple of great bargains there Aaron! I'd love to get a copy of the Scullard book.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, it was surprising to find it, that's for sure!

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  2. I like Keegan's book on Six Armies in Normandy.

    Cheers
    Kevin

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  3. Scullard book looks interesting. With this work being nearly 45 years old, has the information within become obsolete?

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    Replies
    1. Not completely sure Jonathan, but I think it's stood the test of time pretty well.

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    2. Well, I have one on order. Hopefully, I didn't overspend on it...

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    3. Hope you get good value from it, Jonathan! It certainly shows up in a lot of bibliographies.

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  4. Nice reading material; I used to have the Face of Battle book too. Interestingly, I just got an ebay Peninsular Uniform book in the mail today - come to find out I already had a copy of the same book - just different covers! :)

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    Replies
    1. Same thing happens to me more often than I care to admit!

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    2. This is starting to happen to me now, too - mainly with music I already have but have put somewhere and forgotten about!

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  5. good finds Aaron. One thing I have done is to get Amazon's Kindle reader and then did a search for free ancient history kindle books in their book section. This keeps changing, but I did get the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and several dozen other books at no cost. After getting

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  6. The elephant book seems well worth a read!

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    Replies
    1. Yes; it's in storage at the moment though, so it's in reserve!

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