I picked up a baker’s dozen worth of books at a recent Boston trip. This happened across four book stores, although I walked away from one of those stores without buying a single item. Why? Well, Brookline Booksmith marks every single one of their used books with an ink dot on the top or bottom edges of their books. They have a large used book section, but as soon as I saw how they defaced these books, it just sucked the will right out of me, to the point I barely looked at their new books selection.

The other stores I visited were more interesting: Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, and Brattle Books and Commonwealth Books in downtown Boston. All are well worth a visit. Commonwealth Books has several books published by NESFA Press, which makes sense as it’s the New England sf press. I could have bought a ton more of books in the Noir series as Brattle, but at that point I was almost out of suitcase space. Three of the books were hardcovers, and I probably could have added several more to my pile, but with limited space I had to make some hard decisions.

Ed Gorman’s collection, Prisoners (Cemetery Dance, 1992). This copy is one of the signed limited books. Although it’s in a slipcase, the book’s dustjacket shows some wear and tear.

Strange Days – Fabulous Journeys with Gardner Dozois (NESFA Press, 2001). Published on behalf of the 2001 WorldCon (Philcon), where Dozois was the guest of honor. Collects many of his short stories, plus his travel diary from the 1995 WorldCon in Glasgow, Scotland. Dozois has won multiple Hugo and other awards as an editor, and also was a prolific short story writer, both solo and in collaboration. Each of the stories are accompanied with an introduction from other writers.

Mike Resnick’s Voyages (Subterranean Press, 2017). Another signed/limited edition. It was marked down to $25 from $40 in the store, and looks like great fun in the pulp SF tradition. I’m a sucker for Subterranean Press books, and now that this small press is shutting down in a year or so, their books become artifacts in the history of the small press SF/Fantasy/horror world.

The rest are trade paperbacks or old paperbacks: Jack Vance’s The Narrow Land (Daw); a nicer copy than the one that I already owned. Vance’s The Book of Dreams (DAW); one of the Demon Prince novels, of which I owned just two of DAW books in that five-book series. Fritz Leiber’s The Second Books of Fritz Leiber (DAW). As I had DAW’s first books of Leiber, I had to have this one. Judy-Lynn Del Rey’s anthology, Stellar 1; I’ve struggled to find copies of this anthology, and still lack a few of them. All these paperbacks were in the $5 per book section for SF paperbacks, and there were many more I wanted, but maybe next time.

And then, a few mysteries. Len Deighton’s Spy Line (Grove Press). In retrospect, I regret not buying several other of his titles by the same publisher, but I wasn’t sure which ones I already had, so I need to make a list for the next time I’m in Boston. Charlotte Jay’s Beat Not the Bones (Soho Crime); winner of the first ever Edgar Award for best novel, so a critical work to buy and read. P.D. James’s Sleep No More (Vintage Books); a short story collection by one of the grandmasters of the genre. Helene Tursten’s Who Watcheth (Soho Crime); I thought I had all of Tursten’s books, but this was unfamiliar, and so I added it to my pile. Lastly, a pair of anthologies by Akashic — Denver Noir and New Haven Noir. This series has dozens of titles, so I’ve barely scratched the surface with my handful of copies.