I think the last time I wanted to read a set of books that had gone out of print it was the Sundered Quadrolgy (just kind of rolls of the tongue) and after a little research found out if I could hold out for a few months they were being reprinted by Benbella. So I did and I managed to pick up all four books before they once again went out of print (well before one of the books became harder to get hold of than the others).So at the beginning of 2010 I'm pootling round the blogs to see what everyone's recommending from their 2009 reading and what they're looking forward to. And I see Bookdaze over at Me and My Books is talking about Sarah Monette and the fact that her new series is being released under a different name. She also mentions the Labyrinth series (which I had always intended to get at some point) is now going out of print. The first book is out of print, and Renee mentions in the comments that it's the second book that is really hard to get hold of - prices up to £90 on Amazon UK marketplace for the mass market paperback.
Aha! I say. :) A book quest for 2010. And I fully anticipate that it's going to take me most of the year to get my hands on the series - the first two books in particular. Well I can report that I have managed to get both Melusine (from Ebay) and The Virtu (from Amazon marketplace) as new and at cover price. So my 2010 book quest comes to an end in January.
(As an aside here, why is it that it's always the second book in a series that's harder to get hold of. When I was trying to get a complete set of Stardoc books by S. L. Viehl, Beyond Varallan (Book 2) was the hardest book to get hold of).
So do you have any book quests for 2010, or can you explain why it's always the second book in a series that goes out of print before the rest. I have a copy of Hunting the Hunter by Shiloh Walker to giveaway to one commenter on this post. Winner chosen at random by randomnumber.org on Friday (or if it's like this week and I have a migraine on Friday, on Saturday).
5 comments:
As to why second books are harder to get, my first thought is that perhaps fewer of them are printed than first books, and so they run out faster. Or perhaps people borrow the first book from the library and then buy the second, so that even the same print run will have fewer of the first books sold than the second.
I can't think of any Book Quests I have going for 2010. Usually they happen spontaneously for me, though, so who knows what will come up.
And I don't need to be entered in the contest, as I already own "Hunting the Hunter." =) It's a fun book, though!
Nicole - the print run for the second book being shorter seems a reasonable explanation. It's just so frustrating to be able to get books 1,3 and 4 of a series and not number 2.
So glad they are now out in mmpb! Sarah Monette was actually matching up readers with booksellers who still had book 2 in stock for a while. I love this series, all dark, emo, and magic-y. I even got my husband reading them. I'm waiting to read the last in the series (Corambis) til he catches up, so we can read it at the same time. (Cause we're dorks like that.)
Hope you enjoy the Doctrine of Labyrinths, Lesley. Her other book, A Companion to Wolves (co-written with Elizabeth Bear) is one of my all-time favorite books. It has some really interesting m/m relationships in it.
Renee - nothing wrong with being a dork, or a geek. :) I'm looking forward to reading it, though not sure at the moment when it's going to fit in with my reading schedule - possibly the summer. I've got quite a few books lined up that I have GOT to read.
Thanks for the rec. on A Companion of Wolves I shall add that to my wishlist.
I'm glad you got your hands on these books!
I must say I haven't noticed the 2nd book thing. That's just weird and I've no idea why. I mean, people would normally start with the first book so I would expect that one to sell out first.
My last proper book quest was for Georgette Heyer's books. Or maybe Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody books. Helped in both cases that the publisher was re-releasing the books, thank goodness!
I've been reading some threads on tor.com about "neglected" books (http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=58654) and making notes - a couple of names that caught my attention and are OOP. E.g. Elizabeth Willey, never heard of her before, but she was rec'd a few times.
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