this is the 160th in my series of forgotten or seldom read book posts
New Arrivals:
These are new arrivals, but they are – the books anyway – forgotten books so it qualifies for a Friday Forgotten post, in my opinion. With Christmas on the horizon, it’s a real splurge to be buying things, but I couldn’t resist these.
These Nebel stories and short novels were published in pulps:
Flame Island and Other Tales of Adventure by Frederick Nebel [Black Dog Books 2014 trade paper, purchased new] – adventure short story collection. I like Nebel’s pulp writing, and this collection of 14 short stories looks to be very good. This is BDB’s Frederick Nebel Library Volume 3.
Forbidden River by Frederick Nebel [Black Dog Books 2014 trade paper, purchased new] – five adventure novels. These five novels, Wolves of the Wild; A Gambler Passes; Forbidden River; The Roaring Horde and Gold! are all set in, as the cover states it, “the Frozen North”. It’s a setting I enjoy. This is BDB’s Frederick Nebel Library Volume 4.
Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon [University of Chicago Press, British Library Crime Classics, 2014 paperback, purchased new] – mystery novel. Originally published in 1937. The blurb on the publisher website:
“A snowbound train should be a safe, if slightly inconvenient, place to spend Christmas, no? Not in Mystery in White: Death, it turns out, is a passenger on this run, and as passengers begin to fear, and some make a bid for escape, J. Jefferson Farjeon keeps ratcheting up the tension”
Looks good, and at just the right time. Top of the TBR (after the library books, which continue to pour in).
… and a couple of new CDs …
d’Apotheose and Autres Sonades by Franςois Couperain [Harmonia Mundi HMC 902193, length: 57 m, purchased new] – classical music. I was in the mood to try something new to me, so I got this.
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies written and conducted by Howard Shore [Warner Brothers, Water Tower Music WTM 39601, 2 CD, total length: 1 h 50 m, purchased new (also have mp3 version as part of the package] – music, original motion picture soundtrack, special edition. I now have all of the Howard Shore music for the Middle Earth films, Hobbit (three films) and Lord of the Rings (three films). Since, as the title implies, the film is full of battle, this soundtrack has a lot of great big, loud, dramatic music in it. Maybe just a bit too much.
I guess I should mention that I also picked up, for 99 cents each, a few of Amazon’s e-book Megapacks, which are a great bargain. The ones I got were SF but there are plenty mystery ones too. You can find them here.
The Broken Bullhorn 
Wow, it looks like Christmas came early for you! I’ll be interested in your review of the Howard Shore soundtrack. Like you, I like Frederick Nebel’s work.
Hey, thanks for that Megapack link. I’d already had a couple of them (I know I read the Mack Reynolds Megapack and I have the complete Wizard of Oz, though I haven’t read them since I was a kid) but I picked up a few more. For 99 cents each how can you go wrong.
But you, with a Kindle? What is the world coming to?
😉
I did get in that book I was waiting for, by the way. Will list it next time. Also have a couple of CDs and a DVD on the way from Amazon.
Like you (and George) I like Nebel and have been tempted by recent collections, though I haven’t pulled the string on buying any as yet. I picked up any number of Farjeon titles in England during my bookselling days but he was never that popular here with my customers. The snowbound train one does sound somewhat interesting.
Jeff, I don’t have a Kindle or any tablet thingie, but I have the Kindle for the Mac application and have several e-books, though I have yet to read but two (when my eyes were bothering me and I needed the huge print option).
Just kidding. I can read the Kindle books on my phone or laptop if I want and we will be getting a tablet next year – we get a free (cheap) one or $200 off a more expensive one as part of the bonus for switching from Time Warner to Verizon Fios. We also will be getting a $400 Visa gift card. And it is cheaper and we get ALL the pay channels for two years with a guaranteed rate.
Plus, best of all no more dealing with the hideous Time Warner service (sic).
Richard, I’d love to sit down and read some of the Frederick Nebel adventure short stories and novels. I’d never heard of the writer before. Thanks for the post.
George, the Nebel books came in over a week ago, the Farjeon a few days after that. The CDs just showed up. The Hobbit BOFA CD has been on pre-order for over a month. I got the link for the Mp3 download on release day and the physical disk came a day or two after.
Nebel wrote a lot and I have a good amount of it, mostly yet to read.
Jeff, Barbara keeps talking about getting me an iPad, but I just mumble “don’t really need it…” They are expensive. That discount deal you have sounds great. We never seem to get things like that here. One thing I like about getting music from Amazon is their Auto-Rip feature, which allows me to get the Mp3 file immediately with the physical disk to follow. I can then listen on Amazon Music Player and/or download it into iTunes. We don’t have the Verizon FIOS option here, that I know of. What equipment does it require?
Prashant, the Nebel collections from Black Dog Books are great, and Altus Press has several sets of his work as well. All fine stuff.
What happened with Fios was they made some kind of deal (I guess) with the landlord and wired the buildings a couple of months ago. (I’m guessing part of the deal was that he and his family got service for free but I don’t know this for a fact.) A woman came around ringing apartment bells with the offer – the $400 Visa card and the tablet are Christmas offers, though in some places it is just the Visa – and I think a lot of fed-up Time Warner customers were receptive.
We already had the wiring for cable so all the installer had to do was run a wire from the Verizon terminal in the hall through the wall into the apartment. He put the box that controls everything (12″ x 15″ x 4″ deep) on the wall here in the den because that’s where the phone line comes in and just replaced the wireless modem we had with the Fios router and replaced the two Time Warner DVR boxes with nearly identical Fios boxes. We can record six things at once and it has a 500 hour capacity.
In addition it is costing us $25 less per month and we have a guaranteed two-year contract with no raise and all the pay channels (HBO, Showtime, Starz, Cinemax, Epix, etc.) included. After two years, whatever deal they offer new customers has to be offered to us too.
Wow, that’s a lot of work to do, but sounds like you’ll be happy. That box that controls everything (12″ x 15″ x 4″ deep) on the wall sounds like it’s huge. I’m not so sure I’d want that thing mounted on the wall were it shows all the time.
Doesn’t show at all. It’s to the side of the computer behind a small table. The installer said a lot of people have them mounted in a closet.
Not read anything by Nebel yet – ta!
How did I miss these. Never heard of Nebel but these sounds right down my alley.