Is
This the Most Beauteous Anthology of Last
Year?
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This anthology is a beauty to
behold and this DJ is nominated for an
Anthony award.
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MY NAME IS RICK KLEFFEL AND I
AM A BOOKAHOLIC.
Frankly, I don't give damn.
Some addictions -- food, water, books and
breathing -- are worth holding on to. And if
you, like me, love a great book that has heft,
is tightly bound and best yet contains oodles of
good writing and illustrations, then you'll owe
it to yourself to dig up this probably hard-to
find gem from Dennis McMillan.
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Store this bottle in reach of
your impressionable children to
effectively poison their minds.
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D'Ray's 'Measures of Poison'
is already sold out, post mortem, find it via
one of the ubiquitous search engines, but by all
means find it and you'll absolutely believe the
publisher when he says that his books are the
most collectible and the best investment out
there. Investment, hell -- this is something
you'll never, ever want to sell, period once you
get it in your hands. But at least you can tell
your spouse/mate/other half/partner that these
books are an investment. You show them this kind
of quality, they'll believe you. They call that
"enabling behavior".
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This is the "morocco" bound
edition.
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D'Ray told me about the
morocco editions. I must admit that I was
completely clueless when he used the term
"morocco", but by all means I'm not clueless
anymore. It's always nice to learn some new
facts about books. It makes it seem as if you're
doing something useful, educational, not just
spazz-out compulsive buying behavior. Just show
them this and say, "Look honey, it's an
encyclopedia."
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Trust me, as nice as the
illustrations are, you're not buying
this publication for the articles! This
illustration is from a story titled
'Johnny Heartbreak'. What more can one
ask than Bikini Girls With Machine
Guns?
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..And since the bottom line
with any book, from the rattiest paperback to
the toniest limited edition is the contents,
here's how you judge 'Measures of Poison', in
D'Ray's own words:
"...so far, four of the
stories from it [those by Pelecanos, Scott
Phillips, Crumley, and Christopher Cook]
have been chosen for Houghton-Mifflin's BEST
MYSTERY STORIES 2003, and the book's dust jacket
and a short story [Bob Truluck's "A Man
Called Ready," which he whipped out for me in a
week, when I asked him at the last minute if
he'd like to be in the book] have been
nominated for "Anthony" awards.."
But wait -- there
more!
This includes an unpublished,
never seen 100+ page screenplay that was quashed
by a Chicago newspaper ("You'll never shoot a
movie in this town again if you shoot that
screenplay"), as it had more than a little to
say about a subject we're now front-page
familiar with, that being journalistic ethics.
There are plentiful line
illustrations, an example of which is shown
above. They're perfectly in keeping with the
tone and look of the volume.
Why else should you be
hunting down this volume? Because in New Yawk --
or anywhere else -- you aren't going to find a
reprint by any major publishing house.
Apparently, major publishers are suffering from
a glut of money, because, clearly, their
inability to connect with readers is
demonstrated by their disinterest. Paging Otto
Penzler. Please pick up the white courtesy
telephone.
The lesson here is fairly
simple, at least for this reader. Haunt the
website,
buy the books in advance. Put them someplace
where your enabling half won't see them.
THE FIRST STEP IS TO ADMIT
THAT YOU HAVE A PROBLEM.
THE SECOND STEP IS TO
CAREFULLY HIDE ALL EVIDENCE OF THAT
PROBLEM.