Hello.
Yes, there is some news of interest here at Huc & Gabet
international headquarters in Clunes, Victoria, Australia.
As of
this weekend (first weekend in December... and not long before Xmas),
the Huc & Gabet Bookatorium will be open on Sundays from 11 till
4, but only in December and no, we will not be open on the 25th.
There will be signage on the street (sandwich board... and
balloons) and from there it is only a few metres to the Bookatorium.
You are all welcome to come and have a look and even purchase if you
so desire... but just having a look is perfectly acceptable.
The
address is 60 Fraser Street, Clunes, Victoria. It's next to the IGA.
I hope
to see you there.
(Shelves on the following picture are now considerably fuller)
This is what the new Huc & Gabet postcard size promotional postcard looks like. Someone asked me if the design was mine and i replied that i hadn't designed it, but i had stolen it. I think it looks pretty nifty. The original business that used this advertising a long long time ago was proud of their weekly shipments of new books... which is why there's a ship in the picture.
A Short
Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby. Hardcover book (no dust jacket)
published by Secker & Warburg 1958 (first edition), 247
pages with some black and white photographs and a few black and white
maps including 2 fold out maps.
A
Short Walk in the Hindu Kush is a 1958 book by the English travel writer Eric Newby. It is an
autobiographical account of his adventures in the Hindu Kush,
around the Nuristan mountains of Afghanistan,
ostensibly to make the first mountaineering ascent of Mir
Samir. It has been described as a comic masterpiece, intensely
English, and understated. Publications including The
Guardian and The Telegraph list it among the greatest
travel books of all time.
I
agree, it is “among
the greatest travel books of all time”...
and yes, I have read few other globe trotting wayfaring adventures in
my time and it is genre that I still regularly dabble in... which
doesn't mean i'm an expert in things travel book related, but rather
a keen armchair dabbler. Newby's book is a great example of British travel
writing particularly from the second half of the 20th century in that
it does incorporate those various aspects of Englishness including
humour, that make British travel writers so unmistakably British. A Short Walk
could never have been written by an American... or an Australian and
it's not that the Yanks or we Aussies can't take or make a joke... or be toffy, it's
just that there's something very British about Newby and this book, that really does shine.
When I
found this copy I ummmed and ahhhed a bit before figuring that it was
worth the punt. No dust jacket, a few marks to the cover was the
reasoning behind the hesitation (...yep, i'm picky). The fact that
it was a first edition swung it across the line as did my own
appreciation of the book. As bizarre as this may sound, I asked
myself whether I personally would want a first edition of this
classic in my own personal collection and in the blink of an eye came
up with the affirmative (it is that good) ...and now of course after
deciding that I would want it, I'm selling it. It's not worth the
big $. If it was signed by Eric or had some of Wilfred Thesiger's DNA
attached to it, it would be a different story... and if you don't get
the connection between this book and Wilfred Thesiger,
you really need to read it.
Australian Tractors: Indigenous Tractors and Self-Propelled Machines in Rural Australia by Graeme R. Quick. Paperback
book published by Rosenberg 2006, 176 pages with black and white
photographs and some black and white illustrations as well as a few
colour photographs.
Australia
has some of the world’s largest and most labour-efficient farms,
and tractors are an essential part of their operations. The average
Australian farm has three or more tractors. In this historical
overview Graeme Quick documents the development of the indigenous
tractor industry, from the McDonald Imperial of 1909 to more recent
cane, olive and grape harvesters. Histories of individual
manufacturers include much technical detail, but the story also puts
the industry in an economic and social history context and provides
information on a wide range of Australian farmers, engineers and
others who have made significant contributions. This revised edition
includes much fresh information, many new illustrations, and appeals
both to the mechanical enthusiast and the social historian. Dr Graeme
Quick is an engineering - consultant and agricultural machinery
historian who has published widely in the area. He holds fourteen
patents on farm equipment developments.
This
isn't the first time i've delved into the world of Australian tractor
books... it's the second time and being such a great subject, I wrote
about the other one (sort of) when I had it for sale (click here).
It did sell, which is not really that suprising as my neighbour
(...let's still call him Dave) is not the only person who has an
interest in Vintage tractors. By the way, Dave did eventually get
his tractor and then bought a second one... which I guess means he's
now a collector... and yes, he does drive them around town.
The big
question is how different are our Aussie tractors to the rest of the
world's Agricultural vehicles. The answer, or at least some of the
answers are in this book. Have a look...
Saturday
29th of October 2016 To Sunday 30th of October
2016 Time: 10am - 4pm
Ferny
Creek Recreational Reserve Hall (Melways map 75 D1)
Cnr
Clarkmont Rd and Hilton Road Ferny Creek 3786
Books that i was selling last year... not this year.
Yep,
I'm selling at Mountains of Books once again in the wonderful
surrounds of the beautiful Ferny Creek Recreational Reserve Hall.
It's a great weekend for any book lover wanting to peruse a plethora
of booksellers choice items, all in the one location... and what a
location. Even if you're not a book buyer, it's worth having a look
at this wonderful locale and if you are a book buyer, then it's even
more of a reason to come along. (Click here if you want to have a
look.)
More books that i wont be bringing along this year.
I'm
going to be bringing along a good mix of my usual “books of
interest” of the usual Huc & Gabet high standard, as will the
other wonderful booksellers selling here this year (...they were
wonderful last year, so i'm assuming they will be wonderful this
year).
Nolan on
Nolan: Sidney Nolan in His Own Words by Sidney Nolan, edited by Nancy
Underhill. Hardcover
book published by Viking 2007, 472 pages with some colour and
black and white photographs and some colour illustrations.
Sidney
Nolan (1917—1992), myth maker and creator of the iconic Ned Kelly
images, is one of the most significant artists Australia has
produced. In this distinctive book, the artist becomes his own
subject. Extracts from his notebooks, diaries, letters, interviews
and poetry take us on the intellectual and emotional journeys which
carried him around the world and which kept his art, and often his
life, outside the comfort zone. The material from the notebooks,
published here for the first time, offers unique insight into Nolan’s
creative process, while the collection as a whole reveals a complex
personality and an artist who resists stylistic categorisation. It
expands and recasts perceptions of his views on art making,
friendships, travel, music and literature, throwing new light on his
work. Introduced and annotated by art historian Nancy Underhill,
Nolan on Nolan represents the first compilation of the painter’s
views, one which takes the reader behind Nolan’s own carefully
constructed mask.
A few
years back I wrote about Sidney Nolan and the epiphany I had had
regarding his work (click here). Nothing
much has changed since then, with my humble opinions remaining firmly
on the “now there was a genius” end of the art appreciation
spectrum. This book doesn't have much art in it, but it does have
Sidneys words and for anyone vaguely interested in Mr Nolan, it is an
important insight into the work of a true Australian Master.
I was
recently talking about Sidney Nolan with some fellow art appreciators who were not
convinced by my enthusiasm. Interestingly, as soon as I mentioned
his Antarctic landscapes their interest became a little more sparked and as
with most people, they were unaware of this less known aspect of his work. This
makes me wonder what do they and others know about the depth of Sidneys catalogue... and it's
not as if i'm an expert or anything like that. Indeed, I would rate
myself as an amateur ethusiast who has an amazement at having had a
epiphany about someones art that up to that point in time, I had had
no interest in at all.
… and
this is why, books by or about Sidney Nolan are available through Huc
& Gabet.
Lolita
by Vladimir Nabokov. Hardcover book published by Weidenfeld and
Nicolson 1961, 319 pages.
Lolita is
a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, written in English and published in
1955 in Paris, in 1958 in New York City, and in 1959 in London. The
novel is notable for its controversial subject: the protagonist
and unreliable narrator, a middle-aged literature professor
called Humbert Humbert, is obsessed with the 12-year-old Dolores
Haze, with whom he becomes sexually involved after he becomes her
stepfather. "Lolita" is his private nickname for Dolores.
Yep, she
was 12 in the book. For the film, they raised the age of Lolita a
few years but not as much as would make it acceptable that a
middle-aged literature professor was lusting etc, after such a young
girl. Despite this dodgy premise for a story, Lolita in both formats
was and still is a success. It is considered one of the great books
of the 20th century*, and it is also considered one of the
books I really need to read... and yes I do have my own copy waiting
in the pile.
I
watched the film for the first time a few years ago and like
most people, I was quite startled, amazed and gobsmacked. That
doesn't mean that I didn't appreciate the film and the excellent job
that Stanley did, or the excellent performances by all concerned
especially Shelley Winters.
It does
mean that I was a little taken aback by the subject matter and kept
thinking all the way through that it was all a little bit dodgy. A
great story but still dodgy. My copy of the book has been in the
pile for a number of years now and a bit like a fine wine cellar, i'm
waiting for the right moment to read it. Will there ever be enough
time?
*Lolita is
included on TIME magazine's list of the 100 best
English-language novels published from 1923 to 2005. It is also
fourth on the Modern Library's 1998 list of the 100 best
novels of the 20th century, and holds a place in theBokklubben
World Library, a 2002 collection of the most celebrated books in
history.
