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 !
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. ]
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 !
1 comment:
Great classic spread of books! Some real 70s grit in these titles. Love old stepbacks like the one for The War God.
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