Fantastic video as always, Steve. Love the Cormorant. Would recommend you check out Last Days by Brian Evenson. I'd say Evenson is the best horror short story writer of the last 20 years. Interestingly he cut his teeth with infamous literary mandrin Gordon Lish, he of slicing Raymond Carver into a genius with his zealous editor's pen. Last Days is one of Evenson's two novels. Admittedly, a very crap title but let me entice you by saying it's a detective story expanded from a novella called The Brotherhood Of Mutilation. Hope also you're feeling alright and taking it easy after your recent health news. The videos are great but please look after yourself as a priority!
I made so many attempts in the late 80s/early 90s to get Shaun to do a book signing at our shop. He refused to believe anyone would actually turn up. Also I remember Ramsey Campbell tried his best to convince Shaun that he was capable of writing really good books, but at that time, Shaun refused to step outside his safe schlock horror zone. He is good at it, though. I also commented on your Nicholas Royle video, before it occurred to me that it was 9 months old, and you may not see it. 🙂
My wife and I really love the conversational style of your book review videos. I recently finished up your Elements videos, and they left me deeply considering my own attempts at writing, and why, which is a wonderful feeling. Always looking for more from you.
Lots of food for thought here Stephen. And two titles at least about which you've intrigued me sufficently enough to want to go to the effort of tracking down. So thanks for that. Have many happy memories of the reams of schlock horror I consumed in my early teens, nearly all of which was discovered on the carousel in the local newsagent (those were the days; sigh): Herbert, Guy N Smith, Gary Brandner, Mark Ronson, Richard Lewis etc etc. Don't read much horror these days but am not averse to the odd nostalgic dip into the pool of the macabre. I generally draw a line at the end of the 80s though, and most of the stuff I read is far older than that. Wordsworth used to be a great cheap resource for vintage horror when they had a dedicated Mystery & Supernatural line. But the stuff never sold and so they discontinued it. A rather sad indictment of the market. Enjoyed and appreciated the mention of Ray Russell. Great horror writer. And as the one time fiction editor of Playboy important with it when the magazine was a bastion of weird fiction and instrumental in developing the talents of Matheson and Charles Beaumont amongst others. I acknowledge the importance of MR James, but personally prefer his student EF Benson. There is nothing subliminal or suggestive about Benson's ghosts and monsters. They're usually real, invariably malevolent and wonderfully entertaining.
I love Benson too, actually. The first ghost story I ever read was his classic "The Bus Conductor", brilliant stuff. As an ardent lover of the literature associated with Italy's Amalfi Coast, Benson is in my 'Capri Canon' since he lived down that was for a while. He's underrated, totally agree!
I was blown away by Gretchen Felker-Martin's Ego Homini Lupus (still only a self-published ebook and I'm surprised no publisher has jumped on her self-published books after Manhunt became a big zeitgeisty hit), it's medieval folk horror which combines a lot of different things, it can be very eerie but also very extreme in different ways. I was really impressed by some of the stories in Jessica Amanda Salmonson's Dark Tales, some stuff which stands up to CASmith and a very bleak and nasty sword and sorcery story. The stories are from the 70s-80s but the book is from Sarob from the early 00s, which unfortunately means it's rare and expensive and some of the stories badly need a reprint.
I know I am late to this video but I have read almost 40 books so far this year and Song of Kali by Dan Simmons is probably the most memorable of all of those. A book that really stays with you.
Late doesn't matter, not everything is about what's going on now. Older videos are still here to be commented on. Thanks for your comment, totally agree- I sold a copy to a guy today, as it happens.
Utterly marvelous. I own a few Jeters, as you do, but I've only read his wonderful SF title FAREWELL HORIZONTAL, which is about outcasts living on the outside of a skyscraper, or what the late artist Syd Mead called 'megarises'. Also, I think you enjoyed BERSERK more than I did; perhaps I should revisit it.
Yes, 'Farewell Horizontal' is a good one, bought it as soon as it was published on import, still have my hardcover first! There is a video about 'Dr Adder' on the channel too.
Wonderful vid. So much richness, better sell on Jeter & Yarboro than in their designated vids! You must be the master of the Elevator Pitch. Took forever to get through b/c you had me looking up titles on different book services left & right! I LOVE that you brought up Lafcadio Hearne & Richard Matheson but was surprised you didn't go for the Trifecta with Charles Beaumont!
Well, I will revisit both KW and Chelsea again at some point. I must say that Beaumont has disappointed me, but I need to read more. Matheson - the master!
@@outlawbookselleroriginal I understand. He is well reviewed / respected, wrote some *pivotal* short stories & some of the best Twilight Zones, but a random Audiobook anthology during covid proved too mundane. In fact, I was hoping you could point out the collection I missed!
I don’t even care for or observe Halloween (because I’m Swedish and old enough to not have been corrupted), but this gets me in the mood anyway! Viva Fulci!
Another good Welsh horror weird fiction writer is Wyl Menmuir.The Many is a great little strange novel. Also, Adam Nevill, Tim Lebbon and Shaun Hutson all Heavy Metal fans. Agree, also, K W Jeter is a fantastic stylish horror writer. Nicholas Royle really needs to write quicker, there are way too long gaps between his novels and collections.
I've looked at Menmuir's stuff but not read any yet, though I will. I remember talking to Shaun about Judas Priest when we met- he's a nice guy. Royle is fantastic too, love his stuff.
Love the horror recommendations. On King... I prefer his short stories and his Dark Tower series to most of his well known horror titles if I'm honest. On a different note....I have the Ballad of Black Tom coming tomorrow. Apparently its inspired by Lovecraft but also a rebuttal to the racism of Lovecaraft. I'll be reading that and some Aickman in what's left of October. Where does the time go!? Cheers.
All the size & space problems of a hard cover w/o the durability/collectability? But I shouldn't speak for someone as particular as The Outlaw. He might put some sorta Cymric curse on me. From behind mirrorshades. . .
It's more of a preference, really. As Walter suggests, storage space is one thing, you can rack more A's than Bs in the same space, obviously, given that you have adjustable shelving (and don't start me on the fact that not a single bookcase manufacturer on Earth has worked out that they should design budget bookcases based on common formats such as A, B, Octavo, Demy & Royal). Also, it's simply a nostalgia thing in one sense, but an imprint differentiation issue in another- the A was king as I was growing up and this of course was the age of the rack spinner stuffed with paperbacks in all sorts of retail outlets, so you came across all sorts of goodies in unlikely places. Britain was massively short of bookshops -especially large ones - until Waterstone's started up in the early 80s and of course it didn't spread out of London until the mid 80s. This meant that many of the books my contemporaries and I bought were from newsagents etc as much as bookshops. For example, in my native South Wales, there were NO bookshops in Glamorgan outside Cardiff (though there were odd branches of John Menzies - A Scots chain similar to WH Smith), with the exception of a tiny academic one at Treforest Polytechnic. So I bought most of my early paperbacks from non-bookshops. A bit like the small town drugstore rack spinner in the provincial USA. Only cities had bookshops. Those were golden days of discovery, and as the A has faded away, it means more. The fact is that as you grow older, you have more time behind you and less ahead of you, so thoughts of the past naturally become more dominant. On the imprint front, the B was invented in the UK in the late 60s by Sonny Mehta, a publisher who founded Paladin (which was until 1986 a non-fiction imprint). Sonny later moved to Pan Macmillan, where he created Picador (then the B format imprint of Pan) in the early 1970s. Picador became a sensation, licensing literary and hip fiction and non-fiction from avant-garde hardcover publishers like John Calder and Peter Owen (both of whom I knew from the 90s onwards, both sadly deceased now) and they gave Penguin a run for their money. The 'Picador Spinner' soon became a destination point in any good bookshop. Gradually, other major British paperback houses decided to start their own B format imprints, working on the idea that readers associated the B with literature. This had already happened in the early 60s in the USA, with the 'egghead' format (slightly larger than B)- hence the name applied by readers. Serious, hip Modernism, not cheap disposable popular fiction in A. By the time I entered the industry (October 84), Picador had been joined by a rebooted King Penguin, Flamingo (Collins Fontana B imprint) and Abacus (Sphere B imprint). Soon after Hodder NEL/Coronet launched Sceptre (which was generally a bit crap) and even new as of 86 mass market house Headline started their B imprint ('Review') by the end of the decade - and that was crap! As hardcover publishers started increasingly to start their own paperback lines instead of licensing them to paperback houses, they started their own B format imprints (Gollancz, for example, had never done paperbacks before 1986 and began with the B format Gollancz Classic SF imprint, the precursor of Masterworks). When a publisher has a hardcover and paperback presence, this is called vertical publishing. As time went on, almost all fiction made the transtition to B format - and most of it went up in price by £1, despite publishers telling booksellers that it was becoming cheaper to print Bs -odd, considering it used more paper and board. Basically, it was a way of signalling to readers that the book they were buying was 'literature' in a then upwardly mobile Britain - and of course 'Literature' has bourgeois implications in the UK, the British being obsessed with Class. People wanted to be seen to be buying/reading 'good books'. A became something that was only entertained in popular forms. So in a way, it gained 'Punk' credibility among SF and Horror fans- we were proud to be pariahs. Having said that, I do like the original and best B imprints - Picador completely lost its identity around 2000, and Paladin's early fiction circa 86-92 was amazing - great SF marketed as literary fiction, plus the likes of Jonathan Meades and Iain Sinclair in beautiful liveries. Strictly speaking, B isn't really a 'Trade' format anymore, since 'Trade' means "a bigger than A format edition that you won't find outside bookshops in non-book trade outlets". True trades - C, D and E format paperbacks- really came into their own after Feist's 'Silverthorn' was a huge success (watch the 'Magician' video in my 100 must read fantasy thread where I speak about trades) and have long been in decline. As I say, that video tells you more. C format is basically a demy in paperback, D is a Royal in paperback and E is a defunct format once used by Penguin that's hard to describe- it's bigger than a B, but wider than a demy. Now that almost all fiction is B, the identity of the old 'literary' B format imprints set up by mass market houses is effectively meangingless as they're virtually indistinguishable from each other and have no real noticeable identity. Instead, excellent literary (predominantly backlist) independent houses like Serpent's Tail, The Canons and & Other Stories occupy the position that Picador and Paladin once did, but are less commercially effective. Hope this helps!
An excellent Overview Stephen,once more your experience and eloquence shine though your selections. Well once again you task me,so here are my selections:- Thomas M Disch -The MD,The Priest and the Bussinessman James Blish-Black Easter and The day after judgement K W Jeter-Soul Eater Keith Roberts-Winterwood and other hauntings John Shirley-New Taboos William Hjortsberg-Falling Angel Philip Jose Farmer-Image of the Beast Nancy A Collins-Sunglasses after Dark I had to leave many good authors out,when I chose this List,Sadly!
All books I've read/owned for many years except the Shirly - I've read lots of his other stuff and he provided a quotation for the back of one of my books about '100 Must Read Science Fiction Novels' ("It's a rockin' thing!") was what he said. I've had a number of brushes with John going back as far as 1998, but we've never met and he has actually sent me books in the past. A great writer.
There are SO many I wouldn't know where to start...but having said that, given the overall standards on SF cinema/TV today, I'd rather they stayed on the shelves between covers - for example, the awful Amazon adaptation of Gibson's 'The Peripheral' comes to mind....I think I'd only be happy if David Cronenberf could film all my fave SF titles...
Oh, if you have not already, you must try Michael Slade, (pen name of Canadian novelist Jay Clarke, a lawyer) I think it was made up of a few lawyers at one stage - try reading Ghoul which I think is labeled shock horror.. Slade writes novels on three concentric levels. At the center of each story is a whodunit or howdunit. Around that is psychological horror, through which Slade ventures into the supernatural without leaving the real world. Police procedure is the outer level - ref, wikipedia, May 2024
I have heard of Slade- I recall the lawyer thing- but haven't read him, though something is niggling at the edge of my consciousness suggesting I have, but I think that's an invading alien thought-form!
I'm not a big horror fan and prefer my scariness mixed with a bit of humour, which is why my favorite horror writer is Kim Newman. I love his Anno Dracula books, but his earlier novels are much more basic horror. Jago is full of Somerset folk horror, and the bit that always scares me most among all the blood-letting is one of the character's awful toothache! I think the best American writer of horror was someone who died last month. Peter Straub wrote a couple of books with King and I think they were not his best work. The Hellfire Club, Ghost Story, and Koko are all brilliant and very scary, and his short stories get more challenging as his career progressed. Mr Clubb and Mr Cuff is especially nasty if you can find it, and he seemed such a nice guy. I could list other writers like Graham Joyce, Caitlin R Kiernan, and to repeat last week's recommendation, Liz Hand, whose Cass Neary books are full of Death Metal and Punk music, and often set in bleak Scandi locations. Sorry to go on about her, but I am a great admirer of her work and think it should be more widely known. Hope your heath issues are improving, and that you are not working too hard. It makes me suspicious that you are sneeking your recordings past the video widow. Believe me, wives know best.
I love Newman's novella 'Andy Warhol's Dracula' which of course became a bigger book in his Dracula series. Straub seems to be virtually forgotten, though I do sell 'Ghost Story' still now and then. I like Joyce, again sadly departed too young - Stephen King's 'Joyland' had a remarkable similarity in many ways to Joyce's 'Year of the Ladybird', which I thought was a cracking little book. Thanks for the health wishes too.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal It seems like only yesterday that Straub was as respected and as known as King. But I'm still trying to figure how Barker became an Historical footnote.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal The book Nightbreed was *loved* - but it was the decade where the X-Men could do no wrong, so a Goth/Horror/Fetish version was probably just zeitgeist. Hmm, I think he got to start directing his own films, perhaps it was him "going Hollywood" swelled head, cocaine & cuties did him in? But most evidence of him in public discourse seems carefully expunged - like Steven Shorter. . .
All great recommendations. I set aside October for reading nothing but horror and the macabre. I agree with your views about Stephen King. In my opinion his best are the early novels like 'Salem's Lot and The Shining. He stopped being a must read after The Tommyknockers. I've just read Tales from the Nightside by Charles L. Grant and am trying to decide whether to read either The Hungry Moon or The Overnight by Ramsey Campbell. Stay well!
I like Grant, he's good. I've read about a dozen of Ramsey's books, but he does have a habit of recurring protagonists who I get the feeling are him (or someone he knows). 'The Overnight' is based loosely on his experiences as a bookseller for Borders in the UK (showing how little money Britain's only contemporary horror writer to make it into 'The Oxford Companion to Literature' was making at that point). It's ok, a bit long and misses out the real horror of working in a bookshop - which no bookseller can mention for fear of job loss!
The reason that The Ghoul, and also Legend of the Werewolf, are unavailable for home viewing is repudiately due to the son of the director Freddie Francis wanting too much money for the rights. Shame really, as they both deserve a decent blu-ray release.
Thanks for this, Robert, that explains everything - very foolish of him, to make no cash when he could make some and a pity for those of us who love these films. As you say, decent BD releases would be very, very welcome!
You say there is a mystery connected to Nicholas Royle. In his collection, The Dummy, there is a story entitled ‘Jayne Anne Phillips’ where he makes reference to the existence of the other Nicholas Royle in the world of letters. Uncanny and entertaining.
Well Joe, you've unleashed a spoiler there I'm afraid...this is why I want people to watch my Royle video for a full understanding of this phenomena (not that I mind really, since you've nailed it). Yep, it's fascinating and fun stuff!
@@joevillaverde1991 No problem really Joe! No, I'm not writing anything currently as I'm way too busy with the channel. Besides, I'd have to write and submit something -and I may not come up with something suitable, it's just one ambition of many. In theory, I am writing something for 'The Last Deep Ends' which will be published in 2023, but it's only had false starts thus far. As I work 4 days a week, now have a retired partner, an elderly mother and a youtube channel to run, any writing time is seriously curtailed. My last effort was an SF story for 'Deep Ends 2019' entitled "Saucer Occupant", which is around 13,000 words long. I am very keen to start writing again and work on short fiction, but this is unlikely to even begin this year. If you want to read my work outside the Must Read Guides, 'Deep Ends 2019' and 'Deep Ends 2018' (which contains a 15,000 word essay about why my Italian holidays are Ballardian, those are the things to go for. They're available in hardcover and paperback from Amazon on both sides of the Atlantic and have lots of great fiction, non-fiction and illustrative work by numerous Ballardians - pro non fiction writers, fans, visual aritsts, academics, critics, pro SF writers. They're very diverse and handsome volumes. My ambition at the moment is to get at least one more bit of SF published professionally by the end of 2024.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal What a generous response, given your time constraints! Thanks! I’ll order those editions of Deep Ends. In the meantime, I’ve added ‘Lloigor’, Sleep No More, and Regicide to my reading list. Thanks for your channel, and keep on channelling! Cheers.
I've more or less given up on Horror, apart from the classic stuff. Contemporary writers, for the most part are too clichéd. They want to describe everything in detail, even though Horror works best when it builds a sense of anticipation and dread that plays with our imagination. I was expecting Who Made Stevie Crye to be lifted into view by your delicate hand, but it didn't happen.
I do like that Bishop, but I don't own a copy at present as I really disliked the UK paperback cover (Headline, I think) though I had a chance recently to reacquire it, but didn't, which I may remedy. I almost included Lisa Tuttle's 'Gabriel (which I imagine you enjoyed too, I've read it twice, fine book) and bemoan my selling on of the Severn House edition of 'Memories of the Body' a now super-rare hardcover. I also almost included some Garry Kilworth, but he'll come up at another time or two in future...
i was Stephen King all the time when I was younger, I missed out on a lot. Clive Barker is far superior, (for me anyway, he just blew my young mind with his world building and character development) it's a shame he's been so ill in his later years - I'm sure we'd have seen more from him..
Terrible thing to say, really, but when Stephen King passes away, it will be the best thing to happen to Horror writing since the 1960s- he's just WAY too dominant. I've talked to hundreds- maybe over a 1000 King fans in my job over the decades and most of them never get beyond him and kids are still full of 'Wow, Stephen King' so they miss loads of great Horror. Sad really.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal I enjoy reading the work of late great Harold Bloom, and I won't repeat what he said here about S. King and the Potter Books, but I share his thoughts, and yours whole heartedly. I'll say the same for Harry Potter.
Here's the link to my Nicholas Royle video, which I urge you all to watch BEFORE you buy any books by him: ruclips.net/video/WmxsOmH4cdU/видео.html
Fantastic video as always, Steve. Love the Cormorant. Would recommend you check out Last Days by Brian Evenson. I'd say Evenson is the best horror short story writer of the last 20 years. Interestingly he cut his teeth with infamous literary mandrin Gordon Lish, he of slicing Raymond Carver into a genius with his zealous editor's pen. Last Days is one of Evenson's two novels. Admittedly, a very crap title but let me entice you by saying it's a detective story expanded from a novella called The Brotherhood Of Mutilation.
Hope also you're feeling alright and taking it easy after your recent health news. The videos are great but please look after yourself as a priority!
I will check out Evenson, thanks for that.
I made so many attempts in the late 80s/early 90s to get Shaun to do a book signing at our shop. He refused to believe anyone would actually turn up. Also I remember Ramsey Campbell tried his best to convince Shaun that he was capable of writing really good books, but at that time, Shaun refused to step outside his safe schlock horror zone. He is good at it, though.
I also commented on your Nicholas Royle video, before it occurred to me that it was 9 months old, and you may not see it. 🙂
Just found your channel. Yay for me. Blessings from chicago.❤
Hello and welcome aboard. Please watch the backlist hundreds of fun clips here, best browsed on smart TV or PC.
My wife and I really love the conversational style of your book review videos. I recently finished up your Elements videos, and they left me deeply considering my own attempts at writing, and why, which is a wonderful feeling. Always looking for more from you.
Thanks very much! Glad to hear you're both enjoying them.
Lots of food for thought here Stephen. And two titles at least about which you've intrigued me sufficently enough to want to go to the effort of tracking down. So thanks for that.
Have many happy memories of the reams of schlock horror I consumed in my early teens, nearly all of which was discovered on the carousel in the local newsagent (those were the days; sigh): Herbert, Guy N Smith, Gary Brandner, Mark Ronson, Richard Lewis etc etc.
Don't read much horror these days but am not averse to the odd nostalgic dip into the pool of the macabre. I generally draw a line at the end of the 80s though, and most of the stuff I read is far older than that.
Wordsworth used to be a great cheap resource for vintage horror when they had a dedicated Mystery & Supernatural line. But the stuff never sold and so they discontinued it. A rather sad indictment of the market.
Enjoyed and appreciated the mention of Ray Russell. Great horror writer. And as the one time fiction editor of Playboy important with it when the magazine was a bastion of weird fiction and instrumental in developing the talents of Matheson and Charles Beaumont amongst others.
I acknowledge the importance of MR James, but personally prefer his student EF Benson. There is nothing subliminal or suggestive about Benson's ghosts and monsters. They're usually real, invariably malevolent and wonderfully entertaining.
I love Benson too, actually. The first ghost story I ever read was his classic "The Bus Conductor", brilliant stuff. As an ardent lover of the literature associated with Italy's Amalfi Coast, Benson is in my 'Capri Canon' since he lived down that was for a while. He's underrated, totally agree!
I was blown away by Gretchen Felker-Martin's Ego Homini Lupus (still only a self-published ebook and I'm surprised no publisher has jumped on her self-published books after Manhunt became a big zeitgeisty hit), it's medieval folk horror which combines a lot of different things, it can be very eerie but also very extreme in different ways.
I was really impressed by some of the stories in Jessica Amanda Salmonson's Dark Tales, some stuff which stands up to CASmith and a very bleak and nasty sword and sorcery story. The stories are from the 70s-80s but the book is from Sarob from the early 00s, which unfortunately means it's rare and expensive and some of the stories badly need a reprint.
Yeah, Sarob do interesting stuff, but as you say expensive as they're super-limited. Gretchen Felker-Martin is a new name to me, will check her out.
Thanks for the video. My current Halloween read is Monster: A Novel of Frankenstein by Dave Zeltserman.
I know I am late to this video but I have read almost 40 books so far this year and Song of Kali by Dan Simmons is probably the most memorable of all of those. A book that really stays with you.
Late doesn't matter, not everything is about what's going on now. Older videos are still here to be commented on. Thanks for your comment, totally agree- I sold a copy to a guy today, as it happens.
Utterly marvelous. I own a few Jeters, as you do, but I've only read his wonderful SF title FAREWELL HORIZONTAL, which is about outcasts living on the outside of a skyscraper, or what the late artist Syd Mead called 'megarises'. Also, I think you enjoyed BERSERK more than I did; perhaps I should revisit it.
Yes, 'Farewell Horizontal' is a good one, bought it as soon as it was published on import, still have my hardcover first! There is a video about 'Dr Adder' on the channel too.
Wonderful vid. So much richness, better sell on Jeter & Yarboro than in their designated vids! You must be the master of the Elevator Pitch.
Took forever to get through b/c you had me looking up titles on different book services left & right!
I LOVE that you brought up Lafcadio Hearne & Richard Matheson but was surprised you didn't go for the Trifecta with Charles Beaumont!
Well, I will revisit both KW and Chelsea again at some point. I must say that Beaumont has disappointed me, but I need to read more. Matheson - the master!
@@outlawbookselleroriginal I understand. He is well reviewed / respected, wrote some *pivotal* short stories & some of the best Twilight Zones, but a random Audiobook anthology during covid proved too mundane. In fact, I was hoping you could point out the collection I missed!
@@waltera13 -'Perchance to Dream', perchane? Penguin Classics, a few years ago... I sell it regularly. It has a foreword by Shatner.
I don’t even care for or observe Halloween (because I’m Swedish and old enough to not have been corrupted), but this gets me in the mood anyway! Viva Fulci!
It's all become horribly commercialised -and the trick part of trick or treat seems to have been forgotten...Viva Fulci indeed.
Another good Welsh horror weird fiction writer is Wyl Menmuir.The Many is a great little strange novel. Also, Adam Nevill, Tim Lebbon and Shaun Hutson all Heavy Metal fans. Agree, also, K W Jeter is a fantastic stylish horror writer. Nicholas Royle really needs to write quicker, there are way too long gaps between his novels and collections.
I've looked at Menmuir's stuff but not read any yet, though I will. I remember talking to Shaun about Judas Priest when we met- he's a nice guy. Royle is fantastic too, love his stuff.
Love the horror recommendations. On King... I prefer his short stories and his Dark Tower series to most of his well known horror titles if I'm honest. On a different note....I have the Ballad of Black Tom coming tomorrow. Apparently its inspired by Lovecraft but also a rebuttal to the racism of Lovecaraft. I'll be reading that and some Aickman in what's left of October. Where does the time go!? Cheers.
Hope you enjoy Aickman. An acquired, but unique taste and definitely different in a great way!
I’m curious about your prejudice against trade paperbacks (B format?) Care to explain?
All the size & space problems of a hard cover w/o the durability/collectability? But I shouldn't speak for someone as particular as The Outlaw. He might put some sorta Cymric curse on me. From behind mirrorshades. . .
LOLs, as they say...
It's more of a preference, really. As Walter suggests, storage space is one thing, you can rack more A's than Bs in the same space, obviously, given that you have adjustable shelving (and don't start me on the fact that not a single bookcase manufacturer on Earth has worked out that they should design budget bookcases based on common formats such as A, B, Octavo, Demy & Royal).
Also, it's simply a nostalgia thing in one sense, but an imprint differentiation issue in another- the A was king as I was growing up and this of course was the age of the rack spinner stuffed with paperbacks in all sorts of retail outlets, so you came across all sorts of goodies in unlikely places. Britain was massively short of bookshops -especially large ones - until Waterstone's started up in the early 80s and of course it didn't spread out of London until the mid 80s. This meant that many of the books my contemporaries and I bought were from newsagents etc as much as bookshops. For example, in my native South Wales, there were NO bookshops in Glamorgan outside Cardiff (though there were odd branches of John Menzies - A Scots chain similar to WH Smith), with the exception of a tiny academic one at Treforest Polytechnic. So I bought most of my early paperbacks from non-bookshops. A bit like the small town drugstore rack spinner in the provincial USA. Only cities had bookshops. Those were golden days of discovery, and as the A has faded away, it means more.
The fact is that as you grow older, you have more time behind you and less ahead of you, so thoughts of the past naturally become more dominant.
On the imprint front, the B was invented in the UK in the late 60s by Sonny Mehta, a publisher who founded Paladin (which was until 1986 a non-fiction imprint). Sonny later moved to Pan Macmillan, where he created Picador (then the B format imprint of Pan) in the early 1970s. Picador became a sensation, licensing literary and hip fiction and non-fiction from avant-garde hardcover publishers like John Calder and Peter Owen (both of whom I knew from the 90s onwards, both sadly deceased now) and they gave Penguin a run for their money. The 'Picador Spinner' soon became a destination point in any good bookshop. Gradually, other major British paperback houses decided to start their own B format imprints, working on the idea that readers associated the B with literature.
This had already happened in the early 60s in the USA, with the 'egghead' format (slightly larger than B)- hence the name applied by readers. Serious, hip Modernism, not cheap disposable popular fiction in A.
By the time I entered the industry (October 84), Picador had been joined by a rebooted King Penguin, Flamingo (Collins Fontana B imprint) and Abacus (Sphere B imprint). Soon after Hodder NEL/Coronet launched Sceptre (which was generally a bit crap) and even new as of 86 mass market house Headline started their B imprint ('Review') by the end of the decade - and that was crap!
As hardcover publishers started increasingly to start their own paperback lines instead of licensing them to paperback houses, they started their own B format imprints (Gollancz, for example, had never done paperbacks before 1986 and began with the B format Gollancz Classic SF imprint, the precursor of Masterworks). When a publisher has a hardcover and paperback presence, this is called vertical publishing.
As time went on, almost all fiction made the transtition to B format - and most of it went up in price by £1, despite publishers telling booksellers that it was becoming cheaper to print Bs -odd, considering it used more paper and board. Basically, it was a way of signalling to readers that the book they were buying was 'literature' in a then upwardly mobile Britain - and of course 'Literature' has bourgeois implications in the UK, the British being obsessed with Class. People wanted to be seen to be buying/reading 'good books'.
A became something that was only entertained in popular forms. So in a way, it gained 'Punk' credibility among SF and Horror fans- we were proud to be pariahs. Having said that, I do like the original and best B imprints - Picador completely lost its identity around 2000, and Paladin's early fiction circa 86-92 was amazing - great SF marketed as literary fiction, plus the likes of Jonathan Meades and Iain Sinclair in beautiful liveries.
Strictly speaking, B isn't really a 'Trade' format anymore, since 'Trade' means "a bigger than A format edition that you won't find outside bookshops in non-book trade outlets". True trades - C, D and E format paperbacks- really came into their own after Feist's 'Silverthorn' was a huge success (watch the 'Magician' video in my 100 must read fantasy thread where I speak about trades) and have long been in decline. As I say, that video tells you more. C format is basically a demy in paperback, D is a Royal in paperback and E is a defunct format once used by Penguin that's hard to describe- it's bigger than a B, but wider than a demy.
Now that almost all fiction is B, the identity of the old 'literary' B format imprints set up by mass market houses is effectively meangingless as they're virtually indistinguishable from each other and have no real noticeable identity. Instead, excellent literary (predominantly backlist) independent houses like Serpent's Tail, The Canons and & Other Stories occupy the position that Picador and Paladin once did, but are less commercially effective.
Hope this helps!
An excellent Overview Stephen,once more your experience and eloquence shine though your selections.
Well once again you task me,so here are my selections:-
Thomas M Disch -The MD,The Priest and the Bussinessman
James Blish-Black Easter and The day after judgement
K W Jeter-Soul Eater
Keith Roberts-Winterwood and other hauntings
John Shirley-New Taboos
William Hjortsberg-Falling Angel
Philip Jose Farmer-Image of the Beast
Nancy A Collins-Sunglasses after Dark
I had to leave many good authors out,when I chose this List,Sadly!
All books I've read/owned for many years except the Shirly - I've read lots of his other stuff and he provided a quotation for the back of one of my books about '100 Must Read Science Fiction Novels' ("It's a rockin' thing!") was what he said. I've had a number of brushes with John going back as far as 1998, but we've never met and he has actually sent me books in the past. A great writer.
Hi Stephen what SF novel's you would like to see adapted for TV series or film?😉😄
There are SO many I wouldn't know where to start...but having said that, given the overall standards on SF cinema/TV today, I'd rather they stayed on the shelves between covers - for example, the awful Amazon adaptation of Gibson's 'The Peripheral' comes to mind....I think I'd only be happy if David Cronenberf could film all my fave SF titles...
Oh, if you have not already, you must try Michael Slade, (pen name of Canadian novelist Jay Clarke, a lawyer) I think it was made up of a few lawyers at one stage - try reading Ghoul which I think is labeled shock horror..
Slade writes novels on three concentric levels. At the center of each story is a whodunit or howdunit. Around that is psychological horror, through which Slade ventures into the supernatural without leaving the real world. Police procedure is the outer level - ref, wikipedia, May 2024
I have heard of Slade- I recall the lawyer thing- but haven't read him, though something is niggling at the edge of my consciousness suggesting I have, but I think that's an invading alien thought-form!
@@outlawbookselleroriginal invading thought forms 😂
I'm not a big horror fan and prefer my scariness mixed with a bit of humour, which is why my favorite horror writer is Kim Newman. I love his Anno Dracula books, but his earlier novels are much more basic horror. Jago is full of Somerset folk horror, and the bit that always scares me most among all the blood-letting is one of the character's awful toothache! I think the best American writer of horror was someone who died last month. Peter Straub wrote a couple of books with King and I think they were not his best work. The Hellfire Club, Ghost Story, and Koko are all brilliant and very scary, and his short stories get more challenging as his career progressed. Mr Clubb and Mr Cuff is especially nasty if you can find it, and he seemed such a nice guy.
I could list other writers like Graham Joyce, Caitlin R Kiernan, and to repeat last week's recommendation, Liz Hand, whose Cass Neary books are full of Death Metal and Punk music, and often set in bleak Scandi locations. Sorry to go on about her, but I am a great admirer of her work and think it should be more widely known.
Hope your heath issues are improving, and that you are not working too hard. It makes me suspicious that you are sneeking your recordings past the video widow. Believe me, wives know best.
I love Newman's novella 'Andy Warhol's Dracula' which of course became a bigger book in his Dracula series. Straub seems to be virtually forgotten, though I do sell 'Ghost Story' still now and then. I like Joyce, again sadly departed too young - Stephen King's 'Joyland' had a remarkable similarity in many ways to Joyce's 'Year of the Ladybird', which I thought was a cracking little book. Thanks for the health wishes too.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal It seems like only yesterday that Straub was as respected and as known as King. But I'm still trying to figure how Barker became an Historical footnote.
@@waltera13 -To me he changed his style to a more transatlantic tone with 'The Great & Secret Show' and that dreadful film 'Nightbreed' didn't help...
@@outlawbookselleroriginal The book Nightbreed was *loved* - but it was the decade where the X-Men could do no wrong, so a Goth/Horror/Fetish version was probably just zeitgeist. Hmm, I think he got to start directing his own films, perhaps it was him "going Hollywood" swelled head, cocaine & cuties did him in? But most evidence of him in public discourse seems carefully expunged - like Steven Shorter. . .
All great recommendations. I set aside October for reading nothing but horror and the macabre. I agree with your views about Stephen King. In my opinion his best are the early novels like 'Salem's Lot and The Shining. He stopped being a must read after The Tommyknockers. I've just read Tales from the Nightside by Charles L. Grant and am trying to decide whether to read either The Hungry Moon or The Overnight by Ramsey Campbell. Stay well!
I like Grant, he's good. I've read about a dozen of Ramsey's books, but he does have a habit of recurring protagonists who I get the feeling are him (or someone he knows). 'The Overnight' is based loosely on his experiences as a bookseller for Borders in the UK (showing how little money Britain's only contemporary horror writer to make it into 'The Oxford Companion to Literature' was making at that point). It's ok, a bit long and misses out the real horror of working in a bookshop - which no bookseller can mention for fear of job loss!
@@outlawbookselleroriginal 😂 How true.
The reason that The Ghoul, and also Legend of the Werewolf, are unavailable for home viewing is repudiately due to the son of the director Freddie Francis wanting too much money for the rights. Shame really, as they both deserve a decent blu-ray release.
Thanks for this, Robert, that explains everything - very foolish of him, to make no cash when he could make some and a pity for those of us who love these films. As you say, decent BD releases would be very, very welcome!
You say there is a mystery connected to Nicholas Royle. In his collection, The Dummy, there is a story entitled ‘Jayne Anne Phillips’ where he makes reference to the existence of the other Nicholas Royle in the world of letters. Uncanny and entertaining.
Well Joe, you've unleashed a spoiler there I'm afraid...this is why I want people to watch my Royle video for a full understanding of this phenomena (not that I mind really, since you've nailed it). Yep, it's fascinating and fun stuff!
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Apologies about the spoiler. Are you writing a novella for Nightjar?
@@joevillaverde1991 No problem really Joe! No, I'm not writing anything currently as I'm way too busy with the channel. Besides, I'd have to write and submit something -and I may not come up with something suitable, it's just one ambition of many.
In theory, I am writing something for 'The Last Deep Ends' which will be published in 2023, but it's only had false starts thus far.
As I work 4 days a week, now have a retired partner, an elderly mother and a youtube channel to run, any writing time is seriously curtailed. My last effort was an SF story for 'Deep Ends 2019' entitled "Saucer Occupant", which is around 13,000 words long.
I am very keen to start writing again and work on short fiction, but this is unlikely to even begin this year. If you want to read my work outside the Must Read Guides, 'Deep Ends 2019' and 'Deep Ends 2018' (which contains a 15,000 word essay about why my Italian holidays are Ballardian, those are the things to go for. They're available in hardcover and paperback from Amazon on both sides of the Atlantic and have lots of great fiction, non-fiction and illustrative work by numerous Ballardians - pro non fiction writers, fans, visual aritsts, academics, critics, pro SF writers. They're very diverse and handsome volumes.
My ambition at the moment is to get at least one more bit of SF published professionally by the end of 2024.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal What a generous response, given your time constraints! Thanks! I’ll order those editions of Deep Ends. In the meantime, I’ve added ‘Lloigor’, Sleep No More, and Regicide to my reading list. Thanks for your channel, and keep on channelling! Cheers.
@@joevillaverde1991 -I hope you enjoy them all, Joe.
I've more or less given up on Horror, apart from the classic stuff. Contemporary writers, for the most part are too clichéd. They want to describe everything in detail, even though Horror works best when it builds a sense of anticipation and dread that plays with our imagination.
I was expecting Who Made Stevie Crye to be lifted into view by your delicate hand, but it didn't happen.
I do like that Bishop, but I don't own a copy at present as I really disliked the UK paperback cover (Headline, I think) though I had a chance recently to reacquire it, but didn't, which I may remedy. I almost included Lisa Tuttle's 'Gabriel (which I imagine you enjoyed too, I've read it twice, fine book) and bemoan my selling on of the Severn House edition of 'Memories of the Body' a now super-rare hardcover. I also almost included some Garry Kilworth, but he'll come up at another time or two in future...
i was Stephen King all the time when I was younger, I missed out on a lot.
Clive Barker is far superior, (for me anyway, he just blew my young mind with his world building and character development) it's a shame he's been so ill in his later years - I'm sure we'd have seen more from him..
Terrible thing to say, really, but when Stephen King passes away, it will be the best thing to happen to Horror writing since the 1960s- he's just WAY too dominant. I've talked to hundreds- maybe over a 1000 King fans in my job over the decades and most of them never get beyond him and kids are still full of 'Wow, Stephen King' so they miss loads of great Horror. Sad really.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal I enjoy reading the work of late great Harold Bloom, and I won't repeat what he said here about S. King and the Potter Books, but I share his thoughts, and yours whole heartedly. I'll say the same for Harry Potter.
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