Monday, June 25, 2007

In Search of the King in Yellow

The King in Yellow, by Robert Chambers, is an obscure collection of Gothic short stories, was an inspiration of H. P. Lovecraft, and is not the sort of book you expect to find at Borders. I have been trying for several weeks to find a copy, thus far unsuccessfully.

My three regular places to look for books are all conveniently located near CalTrain stations, and as usual, I managed to find something I wanted to read...

  • At BookBuyers in Mountain View I found a collection of Saki's short stories.
  • At Feldman's Books in Menlo Park I got an anthology of vintage pulp fiction.
  • I discovered that Know Knew Books on Cal Ave, Palo Alto, is having a 50% off sale (but was glad to hear this in preparation for remodeling, not going out of business). No dice here either, though the owner had at least heard of the King in Yellow, and I found another of Chambers' works (unfortunately, a later, more conventional historical romance, though a hopeful looking read nonetheless).

Next on my list is McDonald's Books in San Francisco, and if they don't have it, I'm heading to Berkeley.

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