Vintage paperbacks July 2022

Vintage Paperbacks

July 2022 

Another sweltering, 90+ degrees day in mid - July in Central Virginia. It's too hot and humid to do much outside, what with the heat and mosquitoes. So why not take a drive to a used bookstore and see what can be found on the shelves ? 

These cost me only $2.75 each, so it's a cheap thrill. Cheap thrills are good thrills when a gallon of gas costs $4.19.

Well, I came away with a genuine 'Paperback from Hell' in the form of 'Junkyard', by Barry Porter, from Zebra Books, 1989. 

Bookjackers at amazon are asking $125  to $500 (!) for this novel, which gets four- and five- star reviews. A commenter at the 'Too Much Horror Fiction' blog says the book is not about vicious dogs, but rather, mutant rats...........?! Ring this book up as a real score !

Two potboilers that promise much, but probably deliver rather tame content.......'The Voyeur' (1969) is a fictionalized treatment of Hugh Hefner and Playboy, while 'Ellie' (1973), about a domineering young woman, is an unknown. It's not among the Herbert Kastle paperbacks reviewed at Glorious Trash.

'The War God' (May 1981) features an elaborate stepback, fold-out cover.......... they really knew how to make paperbacks back then.......

Back in the 1970s journalists were revered personages, particularly those who cultivated a 'man of the people', proletariat-friendly persona. This was very true of Pete Hamill of the New York Daily News. His novel 'Dirty Laundry' (1978) features a reporter who drinks too much, and occasionally does some crime investigating, as its hero. Roman a clef, anyone ? 

[ Hamill did have legitimate credentials as a fiction writer, publishing ten novels and one hundred short stories. ]

'Run', by William Sleator (1975) apparently was written for the Young Adult market. It has an amazing cover. The artist's signature is in the lower left corner, but it is illegible.

And then there's ''The Khaki Mafia' (1971), a potboiler about illicit activities on the grounds of Fort Benning, Georgia, during the late 1960s. Author Moore was a very successful writer during the 1960s and 1970s, with 'The French Connection', 'The Green Berets', and 'The Happy Hooker' among his credits.

So there you go...........although the store's air conditioning was inadequate and I was dripping sweat by the time I left, shopping on a 93 degree day can have its rewards !