Bookfair a go go

Listening to 'Permanence'-Gramsci

I love bookfairs. Mainly because I love books, and the reading thereof. There is possibly a causal link between this and my skill at quizzes. A quick glance around my place reveals four books that I am reading concurrently, not counting magazines. I treat books like TV, changing channels/books depending what I feel like. I don't generally use bookmarks. I just flick through until I find where I was at.
Its very mild tonight. I have the dryer on, so the back door is open, and it isn't even cold. This and other portents, like my car being covered in pollen mean that spring is here. This also means that my annual purchase of antihistamines and preventers is due.
Anyway, I was talking about bookfairs. I love the not knowing quite what you'll find, and the thrill of the hunt as you chase down a book you have been looking for for years. Several books in my library have been sourced from bookfairs, after long quests. I don't like the crowds, or the fanatical hard core collectors who carry boxes around and get in everyones way.
The two biggest fairs in Wellington are the Downtown Community Mission fair in the Queens Wharf event center, and the Upper Hutt Rotary fair, usually held at CIT.

On Saturday in company with regular fairers Rich, Dennis and Fi, I hit up the DCM fair.
$34 later, this is what I came up with.

A selection of magazines, mostly related to model aircraft. I spend more time reading about building them than actually making them, which is a habit I need to reverse. Still, the magazines are a great source of hints and tips, and most importantly, inspiration. I get a cheap thrill from looking at the close up photos of the subject of an article and knowing 'I can do better than that'.

'Treasures of the National Air and Space Museum', $1
Pocket size companion to the US NASM, located in Washington DC. Basically if it is a historically important air or spacecraft, it is there. The Wright Flyer is there, along with the Spirit of St Louis and the Apollo 11 Command Module. Very impressive place which I hope to visit someday.

'Metamorphosis'-Mike Wilks, $2
Basically an enormous spot the difference book. Every page is doubled; the double has differences. As this includes pages of text, as well as detailed paintings, this one could take a while to peruse if I have the patience.

'I learned about flying from that'-From the editors of 'Flying' magazine, $1
A compilation of columns from an aviation magazine where pilots describe near-misses, incidents, accidents, and how they got into and out of them. Lessons about complacency, over confidence, lack of preparation abound. I find it interesting as I like flying and work with complex machinery, so some of it cross pollinates. Plus they are usually pretty good stories in their own right.

'Contact'-Carl Sagan, $1
Source novel for the movie. Read it ages ago, enjoyed it, so I picked it up.

'40 Squadron RNZAF, To the four winds', $1
Brief paperback history of the RNZAF's transport squadron (the ones that fly the Hercules and the Boeing 757's, which I have heard referred to as 'Helen's broomsticks' in certain circles). Interesting little publication from the early 80's.

'The riddle of the Titanic'-Robin Gardiner and Dan van der Vat, $1
Despite the naff title, this is a very interesting mid nineties analysis of the Titanic disaster, origins and aftermath. I have always been fascinated by the 'Titanic' and her story, from as early as I can remember. The well researched book examines the myths and legends versus qualifiable reality of the ship and her fate. It also considers the consiracy theory that it was not the Titanic that sank, but her sister ship the Olympic, the identities having been swapped after the Olympic was made uninsurable by a collision in 1911. The Olympic had a long and peaceful career, finally being scrapped in 1937. Third sister the 'Britannic' wasn't so lucky, being sunk by a mine while serving as a hospital ship in 1916. At least one of the crew to survive the Britannic sinking also survived the Titanic disaster.

'Swirly World'-Andrew Fagan, $4
Mocker's lead singer Fagan buys a tiny yacht and makes solo voyages all over the place, including setting the record for the smallest craft to complete a double crossing of the Tasman according to the blurb. If his musical and DJing style is anything to go by, this should be an interesting read. The blurb lists partner Karen Hay's occupation as 'novelist'. I didn't know that. I just thought she was a former TV music show host and killer of good radio stations.

Modern Fighting Aircraft, Bill Gunston $6
Not so modern as it turns out, being published in 1984. This is a large format reference book, with details and illustrations of military aircraft. I have the equivalent volume from 1977 also. I devoured these things when I was a kid. I find them interesting now, as they are reflective of the time they were written, at the height of the cold war. Planes that were still current then are now history. While western types are pretty well documented, anything from the Soviet Union, China or the Eastern Bloc is reduced to fuzzy blurry photos, speculation, ridiculously inaccurate in hindsight 'artists impressions', and in one case a satellite photo (a lot of Chinese stuff still falls into this category occasionally). They are fun in that things that are widely known about now were still very secret at the time. The Stealth fighter, which was operational in 1984, gets one paragraph of rumours, a completely inaccurate sketch, and an incorrect designation. It's also fun for me in seeing how the great projects of the time have panned out twenty years later. Some things that were ultimately never built are anticipated in great detail. Others show how complex and complicated defence projects can be. The French 'Rafale' fighter is an example. In 1984 it was known as the ACF, and is shown in model form, as it hadn't been built yet. Where is it in 2006? In the process of entering full scale service, after twenty years of development. Plus Gunston is one of my favourite aviation authors. He really knows his stuff, and often manages to get some humour into fairly dry topics.


'Above Wellington'-James Siers with Alex Veysey, $5
Probably the best buy, this 1985 book consists of aerial photos of Wellington and its surroundings. The photos are all from the early eighties, and are of a Wellington that I remember. Some parts are still familiar, others are very different. The picture of central Lower Hutt has no Queensgate mall or Huia pool. Where the mall is now there is a patch of waste ground that I remember as a good source of treat plants for our pet rabbits.
The thing that struck me the most, and which took me a while to figure out, is in a lot of the shots of the central city in particular, there are very few cars. I wondered where they all were, until it occured to me that in the early eighties, there was still no Sunday shopping, and Saturday shopping was only until noon generally. On the weekends the city was a ghost town, so I figure a lot of the pictures were taken on a weekend, hence no cars.
I love books like this, and am amassing a small collection of them. It helps connect you to the place you live when you see how it used to look, and you can remember the time when it looked like that.