Folio Society Showcase! - 20th Aug 2020

The Folio Society has a reputation for releasing absolutely GORGEOUS editions of all our favourite books. 
We have many of them here at Hard to Find Books so we thought we should now would be great time to do a bit of a showcase!

The Folio Society started publishing books in 1947 with the aim to "produce editions of the world's great literature, in a format worthy of the contents, at a price within the reach of everyman".
It originally started as a membership club and it wasn't until 2011 that non-members where able to purchase these editions! Now you know.

Pictured are some of our favourite editions that we have in stock at Hard to Find Books and are all available online.

Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien (1977): $225NZD SOLD!
The Plague by Albert Camus (1987): $120NZD
Paradise Lost by John Milton (1991): $100NZD SOLD!
Bhagavad Gita (2011): $50NZD
The Black Death by Philip Ziegler (1997): $20NZD
Seeds of Change by Henry Hobhouse (2007): $40NZD
The Great Plague of London by Walter George Bell (2001): $24.50NZD
London Characters and Crooks by Henry Mayhew (1996): $32.50NZD

If you are wanting a more indepth description along with some more fun facts on each book, follow us on Instagram and Facebook: @hardtofindbooksdunedin or @hardtofindbooks
 

First Edition: The Wild Boys - A Book of the Dead by William S. Burroughs - 14th Aug 2020

First Edition Friday Presents: The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead by William S. Burroughs

"The young are an alien species.  They won't replace us by revolution. They will forget and ignore us out of existence."

The Wild Boys' dystopian future sets the scene for a feral gang of young gay revolutionaries whose objective is the downfall of western civilisation.
It is gruesome, twisted and completey on-brand for the infamous Burroughs.
This book is not for everyone...it's probably not even for most people to be honest, but those fans of Willam S. Burroughs, the Beat Generation or gruesome confronting literature will feel right at home.
Fun fact: David Bowie's character Ziggy Stardust was based off the descriptions of the boys in this book! He said "it was a cross between that and Clockwork Orange that really started to put together the shape and the look of what Ziggy and the Spiders were going to become. They were both powerful pieces of work, especially the marauding boy gangs of Burroughs's Wild Boys with their bowie knives."
This First Edition copy is NZ$75.
 

SOLD! First Edition Friday: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - 7th Aug 2020

“Better never means better for everyone... It always means worse, for some.”

This book took the world by storm when it came out, and continues to be one of the most requested books in the shop.
It tells the story of Offred, a woman who lives in a time where extremist Judeo-Christian beliefs have won America's culture war. Her, like many other women, have lost all of their rights and become slaves to a brutal patriarchal society which allows them no autonomy nor hope.
It has been 35 years since this book was written and it is just as relevant now as it was when it was first published. It is harrowing, terrifying brutal and necessary.

And here is the First Edition!
This is a First Edition, First Impression published by Jonathan Cape in 1986. It is an Ex-Library and is missing its FEP (front end page), aside from this, it is a suprisingly tidy copy for its age and history and for only NZ$100.00 is an absolute bargain!
This will not last long so snatch it up before someone else does!

If you are interested we also have First Edition Copies of many other Atwood favourites:
Oryx and Crake $20NZD
Alias Grace $27.50NZD
The Blind Assasin $18.59NZD (1st Aus. Edition)
The Robber Bride $15.30NZD

SOLD! First Edition Friday: Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel García Márquez - 31st Jul 2020

"Crazy people are not crazy if one accepts their reasoning"

You may already be familiar with Gabriel García Márquez, the nobel prize winning Colombian powerhouse - he wrote 'Love in a Time of Cholera', 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' and 'Autumn of the Patriarch' to name a few. He is the father of magical realism, weaving the mystery of the unknown, the magic of myth, and the familiarity of real life. 
This is particularly true  of 'Of Love and Other Demons'. It tells the story of a young girl bitten by a rabies infected dog whom shows then shows no signs of illness. When strange occurances begin to happen around the town she is believed to be possessed. After being shipped off to convent to be exorcised, she meets a priest who adds love to her list of ailments.

We have first editions from both England and America available.
The American version (pictured first) is only $11.15 NZD
The English version (second with no dust jacket) is $12.00NZD
 

First Edition Friday Presents: The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God by Bernard Shaw. - 10th Jul 2020

I will be the first to admit that when this came across my lap I was concerned. A story from the 1930’s about a black woman... I felt this may be very.... problematic. 
So I did some research and what I found surprised me. 
This is a selection of short stories from Bernard Shaw (Best known for Pygmalion and it’s adaptation My Fair Lady) which follows an African woman in the wake of interacting with white Christian missionaries. Dissatisfied with their teachings, she embarks upon her own quest for God and Truth. Journeying through the forest, she encounters various religious figures, each one seeking to convert her to their own brand of faith. It is a sardonic fable which echoes Shaw’s unorthodox views on religion and also attacks the racist and sexist underpinnings of religious dogma and prophesies the emergence of feminism and multiracialism.
Definitely not what I was expecting! 
This is visually striking First Edition, Fourth impression and is available online or in store for $14.00NZD. 
(I know it is not a true first edition, but it was so gorgeous and interesting that I had to share) 

The Alchemy of Mirrormask by Dave McKean & Neil Gaiman - 5th Jul 2020

The Alchemy of Mirrormask by Dave McKean (with commentary by Neil Gaiman)
After the popularity of yesterday’s post, we thought it would be a good idea to showcase another book of the same ilk. Mirrormask is an incredibly quirky film from Dave McKean, Neil Gaiman and The Jim Henson Company.
This book is a look inside the creative process of this extraordinary film and is available online or in our Dunedin store

SOLD! This just in: Brian Froud’s The World of The Dark Crystal! - 4th Jul 2020

This visually striking book is a conceptual companion book to the original Dark Crystal movie and is filled with insights, sacred geometry, and some simply outstanding illustrations and photographs. We fell in love with it the second we saw it and knew you would too!
It will cost you $38.50NZD and is worth every cent!
THIS BOOK HAS BEEN SOLD

First Edition Friday: Anais Nin - 3rd Jul 2020

First Edition Friday Presents: Anais Nin

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."

Anais Nin was a novelist, passionate eroticist, short story writer who rose to fame with the publication of her personal journals which covered over 40 years of her extraordinary life. She is regarded as one of the leading female writers of the 20th century and a source of inspiration for women challenging conventionally defined gender roles.
We have several first edition copies of her books:

Delta of Venus; Erotica - First Edition in excellent condition 1978: $65.00
In Favour of the Sensitive Man and Other Essays - First Edition 1978: $20.66
The Novel of the Future - First Commonwealth Edition 1969: $27.89
The Four Chambered Heart - First Edition 1959: $35.00

All these books are available online or at our Dunedin Store.