Wednesday, May 1, 2013

New York And The Mysterious Bookshop

On April 23rd, my cousin was going into Manhattan for a concert.  Being only sixteen, my aunt obviously didn't want him to go alone, so I went in with him.  (Seriously, there was virtually no point.  We split up almost as soon as we left the train station, but oh, well.)  Anyway, I had a mission.  I wanted to go to The Mysterious Bookshop, because another Holmes author (probably more than one,) had gone there, and told how it had a full wall of Holmes books.  I knew I had to check this out.

I went to Forbidden Planet first, (SO happy to find out they hadn't actually moved, though I was disappointed there was no upstairs to go to like there was the first time I was there,) and was geeking out at the Doctor Who stuff they had there.  I ended up buying two Doctor Who shirts, getting a pic of the golden Dalek cutout they had, and spazzing about the Beatles stuff I wasn't able to buy.  Must go back there soon . . .

Anyway.  I ended up catching a cab down to Warren Street, where the Mysterious Bookshop is.  I walked in, and the first thing I see is a Holmes silhouette on a messenger bag kinda thing.  I walked around the store for a bit before going to the back wall, where what do I see, but Holmes books!  I looked at them, reading blurbs, investigating covers, quietly exclaiming over seeing ones in my own collection, but that were different editions, or hardbounds where I had the paperback.  I saw Darlene Cypser's The Crack in the Lens, among others that I own and recognized, and plenty that I'd never heard of, or only saw on Amazon.  One such book was The Canary Trainer, by Nicholas Meyer.  I've wanted to collect that one for awhile now, and seeing it right there in front of me, in hardbound, I decided this book was mine.  I also got one, I believe called Revenge of the Hound.  Then, I came across the majority of MX books, and imagine how surprised and pleased I was to see copies of my own standing right there, displayed on the shelves!  :)  I looked through them and saw The Detective and The Woman, by Amy Thomas.  I'm in the process of reading both hers and Canary Trainer (because it's yet another Holmes/Phantom crossover that I've been curious about for awhile,) and when I'm done with both, I'll review them on here, hopefully with a follow up interview with Amy.

Until then, happy readings, writings, and other Holmesian endeavors!