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  • Illustrated Sherlock Holmes?

    From Mark Carroll@21:1/5 to All on Mon Mar 4 16:38:06 2024
    I hope to buy somebody a fairly complete Sherlock Holmes collection as a
    gift. They aren't a devoted fan so it needn't be absolutely complete and superlative in every way but I am hoping at least to find a copy that
    includes reasonable reproductions of Sidney Paget's accompanying
    illustrations.

    I don't suppose anybody can recommend a current printing? It's been
    difficult to find because,
    - local bookstores don't seem to carry an illustrated compendium
    - I don't trust online reviews to be of exactly the edition sold.

    -- Mark

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  • From Joerg Walther@21:1/5 to Mark Carroll on Tue Mar 5 18:03:18 2024
    Mark Carroll wrote:

    I don't suppose anybody can recommend a current printing? It's been
    difficult to find because,
    - local bookstores don't seem to carry an illustrated compendium

    So if you have been to a local bookstore why didn't you ask for a recommendation there?

    -jw-

    --

    And now for something completely different...

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  • From Mark Carroll@21:1/5 to Joerg Walther on Tue Mar 5 21:48:15 2024
    On 05 Mar 2024, Joerg Walther wrote:

    Mark Carroll wrote:

    I don't suppose anybody can recommend a current printing? It's been >>difficult to find because,
    - local bookstores don't seem to carry an illustrated compendium

    So if you have been to a local bookstore why didn't you ask for a recommendation there?

    Mostly because the local ones tend not to be the pleasant places one
    sees in films, more in the way of retail chains where the staff's main
    function is to operate the checkouts and that's what they're busy doing.

    Mind you, I just realize it didn't occur to me to check the library's
    copies in case they happen to have a suitable edition that's still
    obtainable. The local library's a strange place too, lots of books, but
    tends to feature rather more Humans, Bow Down and suchlike than, say,
    The Stand, or The Name of the Rose, so I can't make assumptions about
    which books they'd be more likely to have available.

    -- Mark

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  • From Joerg Walther@21:1/5 to Mark Carroll on Thu Mar 7 15:10:10 2024
    Mark Carroll wrote:

    So if you have been to a local bookstore why didn't you ask for a
    recommendation there?

    Mostly because the local ones tend not to be the pleasant places one
    sees in films, more in the way of retail chains where the staff's main >function is to operate the checkouts and that's what they're busy doing.

    OK, this is not what I would call a bookshop, more a book supermarket.
    Here we still have bookshops like "one sees in films" where you can ask
    for advice and people still will have time for you. Nothing like that
    anywhere near the place you live?

    -jw-

    --

    And now for something completely different...

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  • From Mark Carroll@21:1/5 to Joerg Walther on Sat Mar 9 15:11:50 2024
    On 07 Mar 2024, Joerg Walther wrote:
    (snip)
    OK, this is not what I would call a bookshop, more a book supermarket.

    That's a good term for it.

    Here we still have bookshops like "one sees in films" where you can ask
    for advice and people still will have time for you. Nothing like that anywhere near the place you live?

    I hadn't noticed any on our walks, pretty much everywhere I've seen
    these days has Waterstones and not much else. When I buy from https://www.hive.co.uk/WhatsHiveallabout I usually pick to donate to
    some bookshop I've never actually seen in real life.

    Though, with a bit of searching online, it looks as if there may be a
    couple worth trying that aren't too far away, even if they're a bit out
    of the way. It's nice to learn that they still exist at all.

    -- Mark

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  • From Joerg Walther@21:1/5 to Mark Carroll on Mon Mar 11 17:54:14 2024
    Mark Carroll wrote:

    Though, with a bit of searching online, it looks as if there may be a
    couple worth trying that aren't too far away, even if they're a bit out
    of the way. It's nice to learn that they still exist at all.

    I don't know where you live in the UK, but the omnipresence of chains
    like Waterstones where nobody has time for the costumer is maybe also
    due to the fact that books are sold too cheaply, "three for the price of
    two", etc. In Germany (and Austria and France) discounts on books are
    not allowed, there is one set price for each book, which gives the
    owners of smaller book shops probably a bit more space to actually talk
    to costumers.

    -jw-

    --

    And now for something completely different...

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mark Carroll@21:1/5 to Joerg Walther on Wed Mar 13 08:07:14 2024
    On 11 Mar 2024, Joerg Walther wrote:
    (snip)
    I don't know where you live in the UK, but the omnipresence of chains
    like Waterstones where nobody has time for the costumer is maybe also
    due to the fact that books are sold too cheaply, "three for the price of two", etc.

    Possibly, also I wonder if they can simply use purchasing power to get
    the hotter sellers more cheaply in the first place.

    In Germany (and Austria and France) discounts on books are
    not allowed, there is one set price for each book,
    (snip)

    Goodness, having lived in the US and UK, that seems far from a policy
    we'd see in either, interesting! In my limited experience, price
    controls are rare indeed although, e.g., here in Scotland, we do have
    minimum unit pricing for alcoholic drinks.

    I think the more disappointing book-buying for me was in the Philippines
    where they were nearly all wrapped in thin plastic so one couldn't leaf
    through them at all before buying. That's especially unhelpful when
    what's printed on the back cover is more "how wonderful everybody
    thought it was" than "what the book's actually about". (This was also in
    "book supermarkets" like Fully Booked.)

    -- Mark

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  • From Mark Carroll@21:1/5 to Mark Carroll on Wed Apr 3 18:16:19 2024
    On 04 Mar 2024, Mark Carroll wrote:

    I hope to buy somebody a fairly complete Sherlock Holmes collection as a gift. They aren't a devoted fan so it needn't be absolutely complete and superlative in every way but I am hoping at least to find a copy that includes reasonable reproductions of Sidney Paget's accompanying illustrations.

    I don't suppose anybody can recommend a current printing?
    (snip)

    "The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection" from the Sherlock Holmes
    Museum turned out to be a pleasing choice: ISBN 978-1802792546.

    -- Mark

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