IdleRich
IdleRich
Gonna be doing one of those trendy jumble sale things in a month or so to clear out some books but seeing as I've priced 'em up now and written a bit of blurb about each one I thought I might as well offer to you lot. To be honest I'd much rather sell to people who are close enough that I can just give 'em the things cos it's an arse to post books but if you are miles away from London and you really want something I'm sure we can sort something out. Just message me.
These are all books that I've read so obviously they're at least second hand and probably well-loved if you see what I mean. I've said if they're really battered though and on the other hand I personally endorse virtually all of them as good books....
Knut Hamsun - The Hunger: classic and influential modernist Norwegian novel £3 GONE
JK Huysmans - La-Bas: fin de siecle novel from France, as good as Against Nature his most famous and controversial work £3 GONE
Giorgio de Chirico - Hebdomeros: this crazed rant is the only novel from the famous surrealist artist £5 GONE
Pirandello - The Late Mattia Pascal: exploration of identity from the Nobel Prize winner £3
Samuel L Delany - Dhalgren: brainy science-fiction masterwork that has garnered comparisons to Gravity's Rainbow £2 GONE
Gustav Meyrink - The Golem: dreamlike Jewish horror from the bank manager turned occultist £3 GONE
Christopher Isherwood - Mr Norris Changes Trains: another investigation of Berlin between the wars from the writer of Cabaret £2
Rene Daumal - A Night of Serious Drinking: metaphysical adventure through a bizarre world from the author who inspired Jodorowsky to make The Holy Mountain £3 GONE
GK Chesterton - The Man Who Was Thursday: metaphysical (and religious) mystery from the creator of Father Brown £3
Alfred Jarry - The Super Male: pervy, futuristic surrealism in Jarry's last novel £2 GONE
Alfred Jarry - Collected Works (contains Days and Nights, Exploits and Opinions of Dr Faustroll Pataphysician, Absolute Love): more nonsense from the master of the surreal £3 GONE
Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg - Candy: sexed up modern take on Voltaire's Candide from the writer of Easy Rider, Dr Strangelove, Barbarella etc £3
Nigel Richardson - Dog Days in Soho: Reminiscences of Soho in the fifties centred around Francis Bacon's circle £2 GONE
Matthew Gregory Lewis - The Monk: one of the defining novels of gothic horror "Monk" Lewis's story tells of the descent of a pious Catholic monk from innocence into rape and murder when tempted by a beautiful choir boy £2
Richard Brautigan - The Hawkline Monster: bizarre and humourous mystery from the whimsical, counter-cultural alcoholic £2 GONE
Nancy Friday - Forbidden Flowers: follow up to My Secret Garden, more women's sexual fantasies £2 GONE
Jean Ray - Malpertuis: truly bizarre gothic horror novel by Jean Ray, later made into an equally bizarre film starring Orson Welles! £3
Walter Mosley - The Man in My Basement: brilliant existential meditation on the nature of race and race relations by the detective writer (this is not a detective novel though) £3 GONE
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Faust and the Urfaust: classic play that needs no description £2
Villiers de L'isle-Adam - Tomorrow's Eve: symbolist science fiction novel from the 19th century that populised the term android and influenced Resnais and Robbe-Grillet in their creation of Last Year at Marienbad £4 GONE
Ben Okri - Astonishing The Gods: dream logic travel story that evokes a world not unlike a de Chirico landscape £2
Michel Houellebecq - Lanzarote: more exploration of Houellebecq's obsessions; sex, Islam, death cults etc amongst the moonlike landscape of Lanzarote £1 GONE
Christopher Priest - A Dream of Wessex: thoughtful science fiction the central conceit of which was substantially "borrowed" years later for Inception GONE
Various (edited by Iain Sinclair) - London City of Disappearances: amazing evocation of London describing entirely things, people and places that are no longer there, compiled by the master of psychogeography £5 GONE
Christine Brooke-Rose - Xorandor: science fiction novel told mainly in meta-narrative and computer speak by this experimental novelist £2 GONE
@mbassadors - We Love You: beautiful art booklet and cd featuring various artists performing covers including Sam Taylor-Woods' take on Je T'aime (produced by The Pet Shop Boys), Gavin Turk doing My Way and a load of other stuff £15
Henry James - The Beast in the Jungle: arguably the most highly regarded short story from the master 50p
Philip K Dick - The Man in the High Castle: alternative history novel in which the Nazis won the second world war £2 GONE
Djuna Barnes - Nightwood: modernist novel with lesbian themes which was described by William Burroughs "one of the great books of the twentieth century" £3 GONE
Alain Robbe-Grillet - The Voyeur: experimental murder (or is it?) mystery by the inventor of the Nouveau Roman £3 GONE
CS Lewis - Out of the Silent Planet: the first novel in CS Lewis' Space Trilogy and an exploration of morality in the guise of a fantasy novel (pretty battered) £1
Laurence Sterne - The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy: post-modern novel from two hundred years before the idea was invented (front cover has come off) 50p
Jacqueline Susann - Valley of the Dolls: the famous story of glamour, drugs and everything going horribly wrong for everybody. It inspired both the film of the same name and Russ Meyer's trashy homage Beyond the Valley of the Dolls £1
Yann Martel - Life of Pi: Booker winner, I forget what it's about £2
Irvine Welsh - Trainspotting: classic of Scottish drug taking as you all know, still stands up though I reckon £2
Armistead Maupin - Tales of the City: the famous comedy set partly in the counter-culture of San Francisco in the sixties that spawned (roughly) a million sequels £1
Dr Harold Greenwald and Ruth Greenwald - The Sex Life Letters: frankly bizarre collection of letters to Forum magazine listing sexual proclivities and experiences, my favourite was the man who keeps cheating on his wife with a vacuum cleaner £5
Tommaso Landolfi - Cancerqueen: Landolfi was a popular Italian novelist at one point, garnering comparisons to Kafka, Gogol and Borges, but he fell from favour and is now little known. This collection of weird short stories includes the title story in which a mad scientist goes to space in the eponymous rocket which, like HAL almost twenty years later, has a deranged personality of its own £15 GONE
Don DeLillo - The Body Artist: novella about bereavement compicated by an almost ghostly visitor £2
Raymond Roussel - Locus Solus: experimental novel generated according to formal constraints from the genius who inspired Oolipo - the Quay Brothers film The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes is also based in part on this book £4
Chuck Palahniuk - Rant: one of the better novels by the author most famous for Fight Club - this is an uncorrected proof copy £6
Boris Vian - Foam of the Daze (sometimes translated as Froth on the Daydream): utterly surreal and heart-rending novel, the most celebrated work by the jazz musician and critic £4
Denton Welch - A Voice Through a Cloud: depressing and at times psychedelic account of the author's time in hospital after the horrendous accident that was to blight the rest of his life. William Burroughs said that Denton Welch was the author who most influenced him and he dedicated The Place of Dead Roads to Welch £3
DH Lawrence - The Plumed Serpent: bizarre (and borderline rascist) Mexican novel from the famous author £2
David Lindsay - A Voyage to Arcturus: gnostic sci-fi described by the philosopher critic Colin Wilson as the greatest novel of the 20th Century. Beginning with a seance, followed by a trip to the eponymous planet the author uses characters and landscapes to critique philosophical systems £3 GONE
Robert Walser - Institute Benjamenta: Walser was admired by Kafka, Herman Hesse and Walter Benjamin but is little known now (certainly in the UK) as he spent the last twenty-five years of his life in an asylum. This is his most famous book and it was adapted into an extremely strange film by the Brothers Quay £4
Evelyn Waugh - Decline and Fall: fantastic comic novel featuring a number of the characters who later make up the "bright young things" of Vile Bodies £2
Peter Ackroyd - Chatteron: chronicler of London Ackroyd turns his attention to the boy forger (and suicide) Chatterton here and, as you would expect, brilliantly brings to life 18th Century London £1 GONE
Tom Wolfe - I am Charlotte Simmons: savage attack on jock culture and privilege at a fictional American "elite" university. Wolfe returns to the simplistic and satisfying bombast of Bombfire of the Vanities or a Man in Full here £2
Some Films
Oasis of Fear - inferior giallo £1
Alice in Acidland + Smoke and Flesh - two soft-core drug films from Something Weird £1
Soul Vengeance (also called Welcome Home Brother Charles) - bizarre blaxploitation film notable for the scene when the protagonist strangles one of the bad guys with his magic penis £1
The Curious Dr Humpp - horror about a mad doctor who steals people's sex drives or some such nonsense, with added sex scenes cut in at a later date for extra titillation. Includes truly weird pornographic extra called The Girl and The Skeleton which has to be seen to be believed £3
These are all books that I've read so obviously they're at least second hand and probably well-loved if you see what I mean. I've said if they're really battered though and on the other hand I personally endorse virtually all of them as good books....
Knut Hamsun - The Hunger: classic and influential modernist Norwegian novel £3 GONE
JK Huysmans - La-Bas: fin de siecle novel from France, as good as Against Nature his most famous and controversial work £3 GONE
Giorgio de Chirico - Hebdomeros: this crazed rant is the only novel from the famous surrealist artist £5 GONE
Pirandello - The Late Mattia Pascal: exploration of identity from the Nobel Prize winner £3
Samuel L Delany - Dhalgren: brainy science-fiction masterwork that has garnered comparisons to Gravity's Rainbow £2 GONE
Gustav Meyrink - The Golem: dreamlike Jewish horror from the bank manager turned occultist £3 GONE
Christopher Isherwood - Mr Norris Changes Trains: another investigation of Berlin between the wars from the writer of Cabaret £2
Rene Daumal - A Night of Serious Drinking: metaphysical adventure through a bizarre world from the author who inspired Jodorowsky to make The Holy Mountain £3 GONE
GK Chesterton - The Man Who Was Thursday: metaphysical (and religious) mystery from the creator of Father Brown £3
Alfred Jarry - The Super Male: pervy, futuristic surrealism in Jarry's last novel £2 GONE
Alfred Jarry - Collected Works (contains Days and Nights, Exploits and Opinions of Dr Faustroll Pataphysician, Absolute Love): more nonsense from the master of the surreal £3 GONE
Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg - Candy: sexed up modern take on Voltaire's Candide from the writer of Easy Rider, Dr Strangelove, Barbarella etc £3
Nigel Richardson - Dog Days in Soho: Reminiscences of Soho in the fifties centred around Francis Bacon's circle £2 GONE
Matthew Gregory Lewis - The Monk: one of the defining novels of gothic horror "Monk" Lewis's story tells of the descent of a pious Catholic monk from innocence into rape and murder when tempted by a beautiful choir boy £2
Richard Brautigan - The Hawkline Monster: bizarre and humourous mystery from the whimsical, counter-cultural alcoholic £2 GONE
Nancy Friday - Forbidden Flowers: follow up to My Secret Garden, more women's sexual fantasies £2 GONE
Jean Ray - Malpertuis: truly bizarre gothic horror novel by Jean Ray, later made into an equally bizarre film starring Orson Welles! £3
Walter Mosley - The Man in My Basement: brilliant existential meditation on the nature of race and race relations by the detective writer (this is not a detective novel though) £3 GONE
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Faust and the Urfaust: classic play that needs no description £2
Villiers de L'isle-Adam - Tomorrow's Eve: symbolist science fiction novel from the 19th century that populised the term android and influenced Resnais and Robbe-Grillet in their creation of Last Year at Marienbad £4 GONE
Ben Okri - Astonishing The Gods: dream logic travel story that evokes a world not unlike a de Chirico landscape £2
Michel Houellebecq - Lanzarote: more exploration of Houellebecq's obsessions; sex, Islam, death cults etc amongst the moonlike landscape of Lanzarote £1 GONE
Christopher Priest - A Dream of Wessex: thoughtful science fiction the central conceit of which was substantially "borrowed" years later for Inception GONE
Various (edited by Iain Sinclair) - London City of Disappearances: amazing evocation of London describing entirely things, people and places that are no longer there, compiled by the master of psychogeography £5 GONE
Christine Brooke-Rose - Xorandor: science fiction novel told mainly in meta-narrative and computer speak by this experimental novelist £2 GONE
@mbassadors - We Love You: beautiful art booklet and cd featuring various artists performing covers including Sam Taylor-Woods' take on Je T'aime (produced by The Pet Shop Boys), Gavin Turk doing My Way and a load of other stuff £15
Henry James - The Beast in the Jungle: arguably the most highly regarded short story from the master 50p
Philip K Dick - The Man in the High Castle: alternative history novel in which the Nazis won the second world war £2 GONE
Djuna Barnes - Nightwood: modernist novel with lesbian themes which was described by William Burroughs "one of the great books of the twentieth century" £3 GONE
Alain Robbe-Grillet - The Voyeur: experimental murder (or is it?) mystery by the inventor of the Nouveau Roman £3 GONE
CS Lewis - Out of the Silent Planet: the first novel in CS Lewis' Space Trilogy and an exploration of morality in the guise of a fantasy novel (pretty battered) £1
Laurence Sterne - The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy: post-modern novel from two hundred years before the idea was invented (front cover has come off) 50p
Jacqueline Susann - Valley of the Dolls: the famous story of glamour, drugs and everything going horribly wrong for everybody. It inspired both the film of the same name and Russ Meyer's trashy homage Beyond the Valley of the Dolls £1
Yann Martel - Life of Pi: Booker winner, I forget what it's about £2
Irvine Welsh - Trainspotting: classic of Scottish drug taking as you all know, still stands up though I reckon £2
Armistead Maupin - Tales of the City: the famous comedy set partly in the counter-culture of San Francisco in the sixties that spawned (roughly) a million sequels £1
Dr Harold Greenwald and Ruth Greenwald - The Sex Life Letters: frankly bizarre collection of letters to Forum magazine listing sexual proclivities and experiences, my favourite was the man who keeps cheating on his wife with a vacuum cleaner £5
Tommaso Landolfi - Cancerqueen: Landolfi was a popular Italian novelist at one point, garnering comparisons to Kafka, Gogol and Borges, but he fell from favour and is now little known. This collection of weird short stories includes the title story in which a mad scientist goes to space in the eponymous rocket which, like HAL almost twenty years later, has a deranged personality of its own £15 GONE
Don DeLillo - The Body Artist: novella about bereavement compicated by an almost ghostly visitor £2
Raymond Roussel - Locus Solus: experimental novel generated according to formal constraints from the genius who inspired Oolipo - the Quay Brothers film The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes is also based in part on this book £4
Chuck Palahniuk - Rant: one of the better novels by the author most famous for Fight Club - this is an uncorrected proof copy £6
Boris Vian - Foam of the Daze (sometimes translated as Froth on the Daydream): utterly surreal and heart-rending novel, the most celebrated work by the jazz musician and critic £4
Denton Welch - A Voice Through a Cloud: depressing and at times psychedelic account of the author's time in hospital after the horrendous accident that was to blight the rest of his life. William Burroughs said that Denton Welch was the author who most influenced him and he dedicated The Place of Dead Roads to Welch £3
DH Lawrence - The Plumed Serpent: bizarre (and borderline rascist) Mexican novel from the famous author £2
David Lindsay - A Voyage to Arcturus: gnostic sci-fi described by the philosopher critic Colin Wilson as the greatest novel of the 20th Century. Beginning with a seance, followed by a trip to the eponymous planet the author uses characters and landscapes to critique philosophical systems £3 GONE
Robert Walser - Institute Benjamenta: Walser was admired by Kafka, Herman Hesse and Walter Benjamin but is little known now (certainly in the UK) as he spent the last twenty-five years of his life in an asylum. This is his most famous book and it was adapted into an extremely strange film by the Brothers Quay £4
Evelyn Waugh - Decline and Fall: fantastic comic novel featuring a number of the characters who later make up the "bright young things" of Vile Bodies £2
Peter Ackroyd - Chatteron: chronicler of London Ackroyd turns his attention to the boy forger (and suicide) Chatterton here and, as you would expect, brilliantly brings to life 18th Century London £1 GONE
Tom Wolfe - I am Charlotte Simmons: savage attack on jock culture and privilege at a fictional American "elite" university. Wolfe returns to the simplistic and satisfying bombast of Bombfire of the Vanities or a Man in Full here £2
Some Films
Oasis of Fear - inferior giallo £1
Alice in Acidland + Smoke and Flesh - two soft-core drug films from Something Weird £1
Soul Vengeance (also called Welcome Home Brother Charles) - bizarre blaxploitation film notable for the scene when the protagonist strangles one of the bad guys with his magic penis £1
The Curious Dr Humpp - horror about a mad doctor who steals people's sex drives or some such nonsense, with added sex scenes cut in at a later date for extra titillation. Includes truly weird pornographic extra called The Girl and The Skeleton which has to be seen to be believed £3
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