An impromptu trip to the bright lights of Leeds our nearest big city was a fun and festive experience yesterday, an unusual thing for us to do these days especially on a Sunday.
Evidence of the coming Yuletide was all around like this gorgeous Christmas tree in the Corn Exchange, the erstwhile grand circular Victorian grain market, now a haven for indie shop browsers.
Little shops where you can find ... Devil Man, not a Japanese character I know. You?
and customised Godzilla figures! Is that the King's original box below them? £75 is a king size price tag too! Would you pay that?
Some cute baby Gojiras and lots of new Japanese Manga characters in this cabinet, which are not my cup of cha but I'm sure they'll fly this December.
and this pugnacious fellow's name eludes me. You?
In a small bookstore I clocked new glossy editions of The Killing Joke and Death of Superman graphic novels, neither of which I have and either of which would be welcome under the baubled tree!
Were there graphic novels before the Killing Joke?
Onwards through the Victorian Quarter and its glass-bedecked wings of finery and festive glister ...
.... we arrived at Waterstones the bookstore in search of novels for our Grandson. Armed with a list from his Mum we quickly found them in the 9-12 section and then we began wandering.
I liked the film-related big books.
and the new copies of Dracula, a paperback I used to collect.
So many Star Wars novels these days. I remember when it was just Splinter of the Mind's Eye and Alan Dean Foster's other tomes available. Remember them?
In the Forever Young section It was nice to see Michael Ende's Neverending Story, a flick that will no doubt grace the Christmas schedules this year. I remember how it caught the public imagination. Getting Kajagoogoo and Limahl to sing the opening was a winner. Michael Ende, a Bavarian, died aged just 65, in 1995. I recall seeing his book MOMO in a German bookstore back in the 1980's for the first time - it had parts that read from either end I recall, like the palindromic name.
Another novel on my bucket bookcase!
Richard Adams' Watership Down, along with The Plague Dogs, was part of my teenage rebellion against animal cruelty, as I'm sure it was for many kids back then. The film adaptation became a Christmas staple, although some scenes were too violent for very small children. Art Garfunkel's Bright Eyes was a melodious bonus. Like The Snowman and Father Christmas, it feels like another time, another world, when I see it at Christmastime on the telly.
Ah, fuzzy felt! What a blast from the soft play past. I loved FF as a nipper and used to gingerly place oddments of felt lovingly on those backgrounds. Was there a farmyard? This is the Jungle and is a modern re-release, part of a 'classic series'.
As a teenager in the late Seventies I began to soak up all and everything between covers that today we might call quirky or geeky. Some were children's' books and Moomin troll was one of them. I still have my Seventies Moomin paperback and was thrilled to see an entire section devoted to the Finnish stars.
Always of interest since I read Lord of the Rings in the office drawer of my first paid job in 1978 [don't tell them!] the Tolkein shelves draw me in. My own interest lies in 1970's editions but I always enjoy looking at modern fayre.
When did you first read Lord of the Rings?
Shirley Jackson modern editions have their own section. Last year I read the Lottery, a quite devastating short story. I've loved her work since finding out she wrote the original story which the film The Haunting was based on, a book called The Haunting of Hill House. I adored the Haunting and the movie scared the Bejeezus out of me, an amazing feat given that it relies largely on sound for its scares, a real aural shocker. I've one more book on the shelf at home, which I've yet to read; We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Jackson died aged just 48 in Vermont.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince was a novella that my wife gave me as a young man when we first got together in 1979, a copy I still have with her inscription when we first began giving each other books, a tradition we've kept going for 45 years.
Do you give your partner books?
I've not read Joan Aiken's 1962 kids' book The Wolves of Willoughby Chase but I remember seeing the film vividly. Starring the late great Mel Smith, it was that quintessential chilly winter Sunday movie to watch with the kids like the Secret Garden, Uncle Buck and Curly Sue. I imagine it'll be on this Christmas season. Have you seen it?
Last but not least, theHound of the Baskervilles is one of my favourite books all round and I adore a couple of the movie versions too. At one time I collected different editions of the Hound and have quite a few loping in the attic. This is a modern edition with a rather nice cover ......
but I prefer the original cover and binding of the 1902 first edition lavished with golden lettering and a simple silhouette of the hell hound, a tome which would set you back upwards of a thousand pounds! I wish!
Have you read it readers? Do you like the film versions? Which one?
So that was our rare wander round Leeds. Do you visit your nearest big city at all?
No comments:
Post a Comment