I hope to buy somebody a fairly complete Sherlock Holmes collection as a
gift. They aren't a devoted fan so it needn't be absolutely complete and
superlative in every way but I am hoping at least to find a copy that
includes reasonable reproductions of Sidney Paget's accompanying
illustrations.

I don't suppose anybody can recommend a current printing? It's been
difficult to find because,
- local bookstores don't seem to carry an illustrated compendium
- I don't trust online reviews to be of exactly the edition sold.

-- Mark

Mark Carroll wrote:

>I don't suppose anybody can recommend a current printing? It's been
>difficult to find because,
>- local bookstores don't seem to carry an illustrated compendium

So if you have been to a local bookstore why didn't you ask for a
recommendation there?

-jw-

--

And now for something completely different...

On 05 Mar 2024, Joerg Walther wrote:

> Mark Carroll wrote:
>
>>I don't suppose anybody can recommend a current printing? It's been
>>difficult to find because,
>>- local bookstores don't seem to carry an illustrated compendium
>
> So if you have been to a local bookstore why didn't you ask for a
> recommendation there?

Mostly because the local ones tend not to be the pleasant places one
sees in films, more in the way of retail chains where the staff's main
function is to operate the checkouts and that's what they're busy doing.

Mind you, I just realize it didn't occur to me to check the library's
copies in case they happen to have a suitable edition that's still
obtainable. The local library's a strange place too, lots of books, but
tends to feature rather more Humans, Bow Down and suchlike than, say,
The Stand, or The Name of the Rose, so I can't make assumptions about
which books they'd be more likely to have available.

-- Mark

Mark Carroll wrote:

>> So if you have been to a local bookstore why didn't you ask for a
>> recommendation there?
>
>Mostly because the local ones tend not to be the pleasant places one
>sees in films, more in the way of retail chains where the staff's main
>function is to operate the checkouts and that's what they're busy doing.

OK, this is not what I would call a bookshop, more a book supermarket.
Here we still have bookshops like "one sees in films" where you can ask
for advice and people still will have time for you. Nothing like that
anywhere near the place you live?

-jw-

--

And now for something completely different...

On 07 Mar 2024, Joerg Walther wrote:
(snip)
> OK, this is not what I would call a bookshop, more a book supermarket.

That's a good term for it.

> Here we still have bookshops like "one sees in films" where you can ask
> for advice and people still will have time for you. Nothing like that
> anywhere near the place you live?

I hadn't noticed any on our walks, pretty much everywhere I've seen
these days has Waterstones and not much else. When I buy from
https://www.hive.co.uk/WhatsHiveallabout I usually pick to donate to
some bookshop I've never actually seen in real life.

Though, with a bit of searching online, it looks as if there may be a
couple worth trying that aren't too far away, even if they're a bit out
of the way. It's nice to learn that they still exist at all.

-- Mark

Mark Carroll wrote:

>Though, with a bit of searching online, it looks as if there may be a
>couple worth trying that aren't too far away, even if they're a bit out
>of the way. It's nice to learn that they still exist at all.

I don't know where you live in the UK, but the omnipresence of chains
like Waterstones where nobody has time for the costumer is maybe also
due to the fact that books are sold too cheaply, "three for the price of
two", etc. In Germany (and Austria and France) discounts on books are
not allowed, there is one set price for each book, which gives the
owners of smaller book shops probably a bit more space to actually talk
to costumers.

-jw-

--

And now for something completely different...

On 11 Mar 2024, Joerg Walther wrote:
(snip)
> I don't know where you live in the UK, but the omnipresence of chains
> like Waterstones where nobody has time for the costumer is maybe also
> due to the fact that books are sold too cheaply, "three for the price of
> two", etc.

Possibly, also I wonder if they can simply use purchasing power to get
the hotter sellers more cheaply in the first place.

> In Germany (and Austria and France) discounts on books are
> not allowed, there is one set price for each book,
(snip)

Goodness, having lived in the US and UK, that seems far from a policy
we'd see in either, interesting! In my limited experience, price
controls are rare indeed although, e.g., here in Scotland, we do have
minimum unit pricing for alcoholic drinks.

I think the more disappointing book-buying for me was in the Philippines
where they were nearly all wrapped in thin plastic so one couldn't leaf
through them at all before buying. That's especially unhelpful when
what's printed on the back cover is more "how wonderful everybody
thought it was" than "what the book's actually about". (This was also in
"book supermarkets" like Fully Booked.)

-- Mark

On 04 Mar 2024, Mark Carroll wrote:

> I hope to buy somebody a fairly complete Sherlock Holmes collection as a
> gift. They aren't a devoted fan so it needn't be absolutely complete and
> superlative in every way but I am hoping at least to find a copy that
> includes reasonable reproductions of Sidney Paget's accompanying
> illustrations.
>
> I don't suppose anybody can recommend a current printing?
(snip)

"The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection" from the Sherlock Holmes
Museum turned out to be a pleasing choice: ISBN 978-1802792546.

-- Mark