yessssss

The library texted me that my reservation is in, Lev Grossman's The Magicians. I read about it in the paper and decided that it needed to be checked out. A quick google gives me lots of blog write-ups so I'd have heard of it before if I read other book blogs which I don't because it's too depressing since mine is a bit shite and also so many books so little time etc. I mean, I'm currently upset about not having had a proper chance of writing about The Singing Sands and Death in Five Boxes and also The Window at the White Cat (which I actually stopped reading so I'd feel pressured to write about the other two first). Bla bla bla, no fun at all.   

Must maybe read this

Nora Ephron: Crazy Salad - Some Things About Women

Also this? 

So, I did it...

... after all, they're collectibles. I may never have another chance to get them. Googling finds me much dearer copies (if I include postage).

The fronts: 

They are so PRETTY.  The backs:

Closeup of the back of Death in Five Boxes by Carter Dickson:

No closeup of The Window at the White Cat by Mary Roberts Rinehart because I neglected to get a good one, but how about the insides?

I love them so much. Am reading Death in Five Boxes now. 

Bonus picture: they had paperbacks of some Agatha Christies in an edition that my mother owned at least one of, Evil Under the Sun, the one on the left. Also great cover art. That brings back memories. 

Pardon the reflections, I can't take pictures worth a damn.

The one I didn't read

Like I said, cool cover art but I wasn't gripped at all. Gave it up. By cool I mean genuinely retro, you understand, not perhaps artistically pioneering. Anywhoo, despite glowing front blurb (sorry, hard to see) I found it dull. A bit too pastischy?

Note to self:

Remember to check out  Fred Vargas.