Rare books from Books of the World

Paulton, Bristol, England: Purnell & Sons. 1970. Staple-bound magazine. Very Good. Color photo-illustrated thick paper covers. Lavishly illustrated. Cover and internal pages are tightly secured by three clean staples. Interior is unmarked. Cover shows shelf and reading wear. Not from a library. 24 pages. Part 1 of a weekly cookery course by two of the earliest TV chefs. Contents: The Key to Simple Cooking with Poultry; How to Make Perfect Featherweight Swiss Roll; A Simple Souffle; We take the sting out of Meringues; Crunchy Pork Crackling and Proper Roast Potatoes; Non-sink Cherry Cake.

New York: Condé Nast Publications, May - August 1968. Digest-size Magazine. Very Good. Interiors unmarked but lightly tanned. All covers clean and bright; June cover has a small tear. Mild edgewear. Satan's World is one of Poul Anderson's finest science fiction novels. It first appeared in print when it was serialized in the May-August 1968 issues of Analog Science Fiction / Science Fact magazine with cover art (May) by Chesley Bonestell and eight interior illustrations by Kelly Freas. In 1984, Satan's World was nominated for the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award. The story features flamboyant capitalist adventurer Nicholas van Rijn, owner of the Solar Spice and Liquors Company, and the Polesotechnic League, a mutual benefit association of interstellar merchants. Also includes Prometheus Hall of Fame Award nominated novelette "Conquest by Default" by Vernor Vinge and and Hugo finalist short novel "Hawk Among the Sparrows" by Dean McLaughlin with cover art (July) by Kelly Freas.

Beijing: Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China, no date, [about 2002]. Boxed Set. Rare presentation copy issued by the PRC government to foreign institutions and VIPs. Boxed set includes hardcover book, CD-ROM for windows computers and a VHS tape. All are unused and suitable for gifting. Box shows minor shelfwear. Book cover shows many very-small bubble-like spots, most on the rear. See photo. Ninety page book with many color illustrations provides an overview of Chinese acrobatics and how it developed from diverse origins such as hunting, farming, the military, ritual, games and sports, palace entertainments and cultural exchange. CD-ROM includes music clips, text and images. Videocassette shows 16 winning acrobatic performances from competition in a range of disciplines, including unfixed pole climbing, plate spinning, contortionism, chair stacking and loose steel wire stunts. Purchasers should take precautions against the possibility that the PRC-government produced CD-ROM may host… Read More

Beijing: Foreign Languages Press. 1988. Hardcover. First Edition (stated, actually First English-language Edition). Blue leatherette over boards with gold titles to spine and front board. Sewn binding. Sewn-in yellow silk place-marker. Fine book in a Fine jacket. Interior pristine. Spine straight and very tight. Light remainder mark to top edge. Very slight edge-wear to jacket. No tears. Not from a library. Not clipped. 502 pages.Garden of Repose (憩园, Qì Yuán, 1944) and Bitter Cold Nights (aka Cold Nights, 寒夜, Hán Yè, 1947) are both critiques of China's traditional Confucian family system focusing on emotionally fragile and weak men struggling and failing to deal with family demands and social pressure. Both are set in Sichuan during the Sino-Japanese War (World War II) and both have been adapted into movies at least twice. Garden of Repose is the story of two decadent and decaying families. It follows the live of two characters: a drug addict from a rich family forced to sell his family… Read More

New York: Pantheon, March 1979. Trade Paperback. First Revised American Edition (stated) / first printing (no additional printings listed). Fine. Interior pristine. Spine straight, very tight, and uncreased. Corners sharp. Very slight edge wear is the only thing keeping this from being As New. Its hard to imagine a 40+ year-old book in better condition than this. Not from a library. No remainder mark. Not clipped. 172 pages. Lenin is the key to understanding the Russian Revolution. His dream was the creation of the world's first Socialist state. It was a short-lived dream that became a nightmare when Stalin rose to absolute power in 1929. Lenin was the avant-garde revolutionary who adapted Marxist theory to the practical realities of a vast, complex and backward Russia.

Set of the first four Poke Rafferty Bangkok Thriller books: #1: A Nail Through the Heart. 9780061255809, June 2007;#2: The Fourth Watcher, 9780061257254, June 2008;#3: Breathing Water, 9780061672231, August 2009;#4: The Queen of Patpong, 9780061672262, August 2010. New York: William Morrow. Hardcover. All volumes are stated First Editions. #1-3 have full number line. #4 number line ends at "2". Near Fine books in a Near Fine jackets. Spine ends bumped, remainder marks to bottom edges of #1-3. Light edgewear to jackets. Not from a library. Not clipped. Suitable for gifting. American travel writer Poke Rafferty was good at looking for trouble-so good that he made a little money writing a few offbeat travel guides for the young and terminally bored. But that was before Bangkok stole his heart. Now the expat American is happily playing family with his fiancée Rose, a former go-go dancer, and Miaow, the wary street child he adopts. Yet just when everything is beginning to work out, trouble comes looking… Read More

RARE! Phoenix Park, West Bank, Demerara, Guyana: Harpy Books, November 2002. Staple-bound pamphlet. First Edition (stated). Very Good. Stamp of Michael Forde Bookshop to title page, otherwise interior pristine. Rubbing and shelf-wear to covers. Not from a library. 40 pages. Contents: Encounter with a Tiger-Cat, The Year of the Wild Pig, A Night to Forget, Jungle Tug-O-War - Man vs. Beast, Trespasser in the Jungle, The Angry Bull, Bush-master!, Christmas in the Deep South, Diamonds are Fatal.

RARE! Tolworth, Surrey, England: Great Britain. Directorate of Overseas Surveys, 419. First Edition. 1968. D.O.S. 419. Printed on one side. Color. 45.5" x 31" (116 x 79 cm) heavy paper sheet, folded after purchase. Condition: Very Good: Map is unmarked. Small tears, chips, and tape scars to the margins. Creases from post-purchase folding. Suitable for mounting/framing. Contents: Freetown Peninsula (Western Area) 1:50,000; Inset: Freetown (city center) 1:10,000; Inset: Banana Islands 1:50,000.

London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1875. 8vo (9 x 6 x 15 inches). Three-quarter bound in black morocco-grain cloth with marbled-paper sides. Spines in six compartments separated by raised bands, gilt lettering in two compartments, intricate gilt tooling in the remainder. Marbled endpapers. Top edges gilt. First vol. has frontispiece portrait with tissue guard. Armoral bookplate of Howell Wharton Bickley (1842-80) to each front pastedown. "MButler" penciled on top of three bookplates. A handsome set, particularly when shelved. All volumes unmarked, tightly bound, square and clean. No evident repairs. Interiors are in exceptional condition for books nearly 150 years old, with only slight tanning. Exteriors show a good deal of reading and shelf wear and general abrasion. Rubbing and chipping at hinges and spine ends. A 1.5 inch gouge mars the spine of Vol. 5. Dents to top and bottom edges of the rear covers of Vols. 5 and 7. Part of the marbled is missing from the rear cover of Vol. 7 and front cover of… Read More

RARE! Vientiane, Lao PDR: Institute for Cultural Research, October 11, 1999. Staple-Bound Pamphlet. Near Fine. Light wear to back cover, otherwise As New. Not from a library. In Lao and English. 18 pages. 17 B&W illustrations.

Indianapolis: Dog Ear Publishing, January 2013. Trade Paperback. Fine. Slight reading wear to corners, otherwise pristine. Not from a library. No remainder mark. Not clipped. Not damaged. Suitable for gifting. 163 pages. The 25 authors of this book were volunteers in the first Peace Corps rural community development project in Africa: Sierra Leone, 1965-67. They are also the first group to tell a collective story of Peace Corps volunteers, anywhere. The Peace Corps was in its infancy then, and memories of John Kennedy were strong among the young volunteers. Sierra Leone was also in its infancy in the first few years after independence, before military coups and tribal warfare became common. The authors forthrightly recount their feelings of loneliness and isolation, and their frightening experiences with secret societies and witchcraft, but their uniquely optimistic "can-do" American attitude brought most through a great life experience.

Lisbon: Câmara Municipal de Lisboa - Turismo, c. 1992. Rare! Fine book in a Fine jacket. Interior pristine. Spine straight and tight. Jacket clean and bright. Not from a library. No remainder mark. Not clipped. Suitable for gifting. 141 pages. About 100 color photographs. 9.75 x 12.5 x 0.63 inches.

A written and photographic essay on the life, art and scenery of Lisbon. Beautifully illustrated. Text in Portuguese, English and German. Contents: A First Glance; Moorish and medieval Lisbon; Manueline Lisbon; Genuine, noble and devout Lisbon; Pombaline Lisbon: From Terreiro do Paco to Rossio; Romantic Lisbon; Present-day Lisbon.

New York: Macmillan. Hardcover. September 1935. First Edition / no additional printings listed. Green cloth over boards with black lettering and lamp decoration to front cover. Yellow endpapers. Lavishly illustrated. Very Good book / no dust jacket. Bookplate to front pastedown. Text block unmarked. Binding tight. Fading to spine and both covers, but black lettering is still dark. Not from a library. See photos. 16 pages. 11.25 x 8.75 inches. Here is the Famous Old Tale of that Strange & Wonderful Lamp which brought the Boy Aladdin great Riches, a marvelous Palace built all in one night and a beautiful Princess for a Wife. By rubbing this Magical lamp, from a poor lad in Rags he became the rich merchant Aladdin. Elizabeth Mackinstry adds new luster to this oldest of fairy tales with her pictures in gorgeous colors and carefully patterned black-and-white. The jewels in the secret cave glow with Oriental richness; jovial genii, grinning broadly, build Aladdin's palace in a sapphire night, while the… Read More

Evanston, Illinois: Row, Peterson and Company, n.d. [copyright 1936]. Hardcover. First Edition, no additional printings listed. First-grade reader in the Alice and Jerry basal reader educational series. Red cloth over boards with blue & yellow titles and illustration of a dog and duckling. Good+. Prior owner's bookplate to front pastedown, a few penciled notes. Sewn binding is straight and tight. Corners and spine ends bumped. Covers clean and bright. Not from a school or library. See photos. 156 pages with color illustrations on every page. Word list.

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, May 2006. Hardcover. First Edition / full number line. Inscribed & signed by both authors on the title page. Fine book in a Fine jacket. Text unmarked. Jacket clean and bright. Laid-in tri-fold pamphlet from the Owens Foundation for Wildlife Conservation. Not from a library. No remainder mark. Not clipped. xxvi + 230 pages. Crossing stick bridges over swollen rivers and battling swarms of tsetse flies, Mark and Delia Owens found their way into one of the most startlingly beautiful, wild places on earth, the northern Luangwa Valley in Zambia. As they were setting up camp to launch their lion research, gunfire echoed off the cliffs nearby. Gangs of ivory poachers were not only shooting the elephants but also virtually enslaving local villagers. Against unimaginable odds, Mark and Delia stopped the poaching by helping the villagers find other work, start small businesses, and improve their health care and education. Living with wild creatures all around (lions sleeping… Read More