Thursday, September 18th, 2008
We just added a few new items to the Iliad shopping cart, including a perfect hardback first edition of Richard Laymon’s MADMAN STAN AND OTHER STORIES, a few vintage paperbacks like a true first of Theodore Sturgeon’s THE COSMIC RAPE, and a copy of the scarce limited edition of Jack Ketchum’s THE DUST OF HEAVEN, signed by both Ketchum and Edward Lee.
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
One of my favorite sections of the Iliad Bookshop is the “oddities” section. Not only does it contain books that are certainly odd, but we frequently put books that we simply can categorize.
Today, I found Fire Eating: A Manual of Instruction by Benjamin Garth and Feffrey W. Cowan on the oddities shelf. Despite the fact that this trade-sized paperback is only 86 pages long, it’s filled with practical information on how to become a fire eater. Simple, yet effective B&W illustrations accompany the text on almost every page making the lessons easy to understand. The book was published in 1993 by Brian Dube publishers of New York. Fascinating book, but where do you put it? Ah-ha, in the Oddities section.
Another book which caught my eye was Hillyer’s Parade Manual and, as you can see from the illustration on the front cover, it’s a book about organizing and structuring parades and marching bands. Published in 1948 by Trade Winds publishing company, the book is a practical introduction to creating, funding and managing bands in parades. There is even a section on majorettes and how to judge a majorette competition. The style of writing is slightly anacronistic, but simple and informative. And I like the illustrations very much.
The last book I have for you from the Oddities section is Freight Train Graffiti by Roger Gastman, Darin Rowland and Ian Sattler. The title of this book says it all: it’s a photographic essay on the graffiti found on freight trains primarily within the U.S. The photos are remarkable and the scope of the book is much wider than one would expect. It goes into the history of graffiti on trains and covers individual graffiti artists as well. This book was published by Abrams in 2006. Congrats to the editor that decided to publish this book as it’s an edgy choice for a main-stream publisher. The is my favorite book of the three I’ve presented here.
Our Oddities section is an entire bookcase with books spilling over in stacks on the floor. There are so many fascinating books on subjects like manners, holidays, manners, farting, wilderness survival, etc., that I could spend hours and hours browsing. It’s my favorite section of the store.
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