Tavern's Member Picture Gallery.

The cover is of a "blood thirsty plant-based humanoid", created to enforce the totalitarian state.

 

@Wreybies Now there's a blast from the past. I think Brian Aldiss's Helliconia Trilogy was the first Sc-Fi/Fantasy trilogy I ever read. Not sure how it would hold up now, but I remember being rather impressed at the time with his world building, and creature creation. To start with it was a tad confusing but within the first few chapters I started to feel fully immersed. I even remember the artwork on the covers of the particular press I read...




... perhaps not as evocative of the time they were written as your chosen collectibles, but looking at them brings me right back to reading them.

 

Actually this style of art is very evocative to me. It's clearly early/mid 1980's, when I was in the very bloom of my nerdom. I was living in Hawai'i of all places and the post library called to me every day. There was a pair of bookshelves packed with old paperbacks that the GI's would leave behind or donate. Not the regular library gondola shelves where you can see from one side to the other, but your typical "Walmart" bookshelves with a solid back, both side by side up against one wall. I'm sure they would seem small to me now, but to my 12 year old eyes, it was a wall of adventure! These were the covers that I read there. The covers from the 1960's really aren't from my personal time, but I was drawn to them after having read an article someone posted in the lounge regarding how the U.S. military program to bring inexpensively bound books to WWII GI's is what kicked off the paperback phenomenon. Researching that brought up all these old sci-fi covers from the 50's and 60's, and I'm a sucker for nostalgia, and I also used to work the antiques trade, so that element of my past is drawing me to the older stuff, and the reason I care as much as I do about the condition of the books. As pristine as they can be if they're to hold any value across the future years.

 

I've got it under control. I can stop any time I want. I just don't want to yet.

Code Duelo by Mack Reynolds (1968) Cover art by Kelly Freas
The Singing Stones by Juanita Coulson (1968) Cover art by Kelly Freas
The Herod Men by Nick Kamin (aka Robert J. Antonick) (1971). Cover art by John Schoenherr.



And their respective flip sides:

The Age of Ruin by John M. Faucette (1968). Cover art by Gray Morrow.
Derai by E.C. Tubb (1968). Cover art by Jeff Jones.
Dark Planet by John Rackman (aka John T. Phillifent) (1971). Cover art by Jack Gaughan.

 

I love Kelly Freas' art! Also, the cover of The Age of Ruin is pretty sexy.

 

The cover for Derai caught my eye immediately when I saw it up for bid. She's not been rendered with terribly great sensitivity, but she's Barbarella as all get out. The art on The Age of Ruin (Gray Morrow) captures a very typical trope of the time, this mix of advanced science with tribal savagery. A lot of the covers on Andre Norton's early works show this melange of future and past.

ETA: And yes, Kelly Freas is excellent. I've started hunting books for his artwork and a couple of other artists (Gray Morrow) specifically.

 

All this book collecting inspired me to start my own. Murakami hardcovers are ridiculously expensive and rather difficult to find in the UK. Found some on US Amazon, one arriving from Japan, one from NY any day now

 

Here are some insane hardcover prices from the world of science fiction.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Antiquarian-Collectible-/29223/i.html?Printing%2520Year=1950%252DNow&Special%2520Attributes=1st%2520Edition&Topic=Science%2520Fiction&_sop=3&LH_PrefLoc=2&_dcat=29223&rt=nc

 

@Wreybies : Uh, that first edition Dune has my name written all over it (making drooling Homer noises). If I collected Faberge eggs, it'd be cheaper...

 

Let's see how much those books actually sell for.

 

Don't know if you'll see the sold link if you aren't signed in but
here's the "sold" from the same page.

 

A quick pic of the view from my new writing/hobby room window.

 

That's pretty interesting view. On first look I thought the dome is a mosque. What is it? Gardens? I love the two accidental birds flying over all that civilisation. And the divide between man and nature, figuratively speaking

 

@jazzabel The dome is actually the Victoria Centre, a partially open-air mall. A few posts back I shot from it toward the two iconic gantry cranes on the slipways. Would you believe it is bang slap in the centre of town, and yet you can see green fields close by. That's the view South, if I pointed the camera east, you would see the slipways, cranes, an oil rig in for repair, cruise liners, and the Craigantlet Hills. To the West is Cavehill. There's an amazing amount of greenery for being so industrialised.

Best of all is that the view to the East is constantly changing. There's something new to look at every day.

 

A quick pic of the rig.

 

What a wonderful blend of the old and the new in this photo. The clock tower to the left and the Victorian row house rooves in the front contrasting with that modern dome, and the hills in the back that knew this land when only the wee folk tread her glens, and then only ever so lightly.

 

I echo Wrey's sentiment. also, what a lovely depth of field, with almost ethereal nature in the background

 

What a gorgeous Sunday morning. Another view of the rig East of me.

 

Banh mi sandwiches (Vietnamese) with pickled daikon and carrots grown in our garden this summer. Yum yum!

 

@jazzabel lol... yum indeed. I love daikon and such pretty colours. They say you eat with your eyes first; that I totally believe, and this looks well appetising, talking of which, what will I have for dinner?

 

I found this really cool old photograph taken back in the '70s I believe, when my dad was in the military. He probably won't mind my posting it 'cause he looks so different nowadays; I just think glimpses like this from the past are incredibly interesting. Sometimes they work like writing prompts for me, and I love all the little details you can see there; the type of gear they carried, the pots and pans, the weapons... Unfortunately I have to credit this to an anonymous photographer, I've no idea who took it. Apparently there was some film maker/photographer present that day, recording the training session of the troops.

 

Quite the strapping lad.

 

Heh, yeah. I had to go and make copies of it for the family as well You don't come across pictures like that too often cos my parents and their families couldn't afford cameras back then. As a whole, Finland was quite different; agricultural and pretty poor, still trying to recover from the wars.

 

Great photograph @KaTrian. Now I can see where you get your good looks from.

 

Lol, thanks I guess . Unfortunately I did take after my Dad more than my Mom, while with my brother it's vice versa. Oh well....