Get a bedside companion for only $2.49

Back in 1984, before Raymond Benson was a James Bond author he wrote the fantastic book THE JAMES BOND BEDSIDE COMPANION. The book was nominated for the Edgar Allen Poe award for Best Biographical/Critical Work in 1984.

Back then there had not been to many books on the subject like now. There were also no internet for fans to use so a book like this was much appreciated at the time.

in 1988 an updated version of the book was released with a fantastic cover design by Graham Rye over at The James Bond international fan club.

That version of the book was one of the very first I bought when I became a fan in 1990. and I spent hours trying to read the book since I was only 14 years old whit poor English skills at the time. It is actually books like this that made me understand English better and better and even helped my self-confidence grow so that I later in life wrote in English on a daily basis at work.

The James Bond bedside companion is a book that every Bond fan should have in their collection. It tells the story of both the books and the films. The book was almost like the blueprint for other books to follow in later years.

Now in the digital age the book is for sale as an E-book. The normal price is $4.99 but during this week (March 6 - March 11 - 2017) the book is at half price only costing $2.49.

I do not make any profit from urging you to buy this book. I just think its a great book to have in the collection.

You can buy your copy of the book here. 

You can also buy the softcover version at a very good price on Amazon US here and Amazon UK here. 

US First edition

UK 1988 edition 

E-Book edition 

Trigger Mortis released in glorius US paperback Today

Today saw the release of Anthony Horowitz fantastic James Bond novel in paperback in America.

I have earlier written a blog post about how the fantastic illustration by Patrick Leger evolved. I received my copy of the book today and I must say that the design is even better then I dared to hope it would be. The spine is fantastic and what looks to be yellow on the below picture is actually more neon green then yellow.

But there is something that I have never seen or actually felt before with this book. The thicker cover paper bare the feeling of sandpaper at a grit of approximately P1200. This is totally new to me. I also like that the pages of the book seems to be made of mixed paper.

TRIGER MORTIS is a fantastic James Bond novel. especially the chapter when the villain Jason Sin explains to James Bond why he does what he intend to do.

Collecting James Bond novels is mostly about collecting old books since the new ones do not have a great cover design. I mean who can forgive the artworks they used on the Raymond Benson books.

Also, in the UK, when Orion books released the paperback. They tried to broaden the target audience by making the cover speak more to women. Here on the US version they do not do that. They now what the book is and stays faithfully to that audience. This is exact what I would have done. Maybe it all debends on the UK hardback selling much better then the US. I do not know.

One thing is certain. It is a great novel, with a great cover and I would love for this to happen all over again with the same author in a year or two. A new author trying to write a Bond novel will be like Lazenby talking over after Sean. Anthony Horowitz placed the bar high with Trigger Mortis.

Added to the collection is NEVER DREAM OF DYING

Added to my collection today is a UK first edition of Raymond Benson's James Bond novel NEVER DREAM OF DYING.

It was released in 2001 by Hodder & Stoughton and the original price was £17.99.

My copy is signed by Raymond Benson and bought on Ebay for £19.50. I consider this a really great catch since the price is almost the same as when it was released and this one is actually signed by the author.

During today's dinner I spoke to my wife regarding the books cover. It is in my opinion one of the worst artworks for any James Bond books and I say this even when Sweden is actually in the middle of the artwork. The book looks more like a revealing book about Scientology (dont ask me why that comes to mind).

Now I don't know if this book sold poorly or if there was any other reason for the estate not to give the Raymond Benson books the great cover design they deserved. I don't men any harm on Raymond Benson but I do think that these books might have gotten a wider audience if the book covers had been more intriguing. My wife that reads a lot of books said that with a cover like this she would NEVER DREAM OF READING and she has read CASINO ROYALE at least.

I had to ask Raymond Benson on Twitter if he had anything to say when it comes to these covers for his books and as you can see below sadly he had not. One of the first books I ever got was Benson's THE JAMES BOND BEDSIDE COMPANION and it has an excellent cover by Graham Rye.

Whit that said, I do look forward to read all the Benson novels since I know that he is a true James Bond fan with lots of knowledge on the matter.

Book cover photo for THE JAMES BOND BEDSIDE COMPANION.
copyright of Graham Rye/007 MAGAZINE & ARCHIVE Limited/www.007magazine.com

NEVER DREAM OF DYING seems not to be available as a book at the moment on Amazon so if you want it you will have to hunt down a used copy, 

Raymond Bensons THE MAN WITH THE RED TATTOO added to the collection

Added to my collection today is RAYMOND BENSON's final James Bond book THE MAN WITH THE RED TATTOO.

It was released 2002 by Hodder & Stoughton and cost £18.99 upon release.

Here I need to mention that the movie tie-in for DIE ANOTHER DAY was released in November 2002 and was Raymonds last Bond book but that was an adaptation of the screenplay written by Neal Pervis and Robert Wade.  

I bought my book (the above and below photo) out of Ebay and paid £13 for it. I consider this a really great catch.

Sadly the cover design for Raymond Bensons James Bond books have aged really quickly. What might have looked good and advanced in the early 2000 now looks old and easy to do yourself in Photoshop. I think that THE MAN WITH THE RED TATTOO has the best cover design out of the books Benson wrote. One can actually start wondering if the writer had anything to say about the cover design for his books and also why the Ian Fleming Publications did not spend more money on the books design. I am sure that should have helped the sales of these books a lot. Just like the great cover design we just saw on TRIGGER MORTIS (UK that is!).

"When a British businessman and his family are killed in Japan, James Bond suspects a mass assassination. Investigating with the help of beautiful Japanese agent Reiko Tamura and his old friend Tiger Tanaka, Bond discovers that two powerful factions controlled by the mysterious terrorist Goro Yoshida are playing God. Between them they have created the perfect weapon, one small and seemingly insignificant enough to strike anywhere, unnoticed.

With an emergency G7 summit meeting just days away, it's a race against time as Bond confronts both man and nature in a desperate bid to stop the release of a deadly virus that could destroy the Western world."

If you wish to buy the paperback version of THE MAN WITH THE RED TATTOO you can sponsor the blog buy buying it below. 

Raymond Bensons HIGH TIME TO KILL

Added to my collection today is the UK first edition of Raymond Benson's HIGH TIME TO KILL.

The book was released in 1999 by Hodder & Stoughton and cost £16:99 upon release.

I must confess that I have yet to read any of the Bond novels by Raymond Benson. The reason for this is that I actually stopped collecting James Bond stuff for many years just around when this book came out. But since Raymond Benson did such a great job with THE JAMES BOND BEDSIDE COMPANION I have high hopes for his novels as well.

I bought the book on Ebay for £24,99. That shows how few actual collectors there are of James Bond Books that are not first editions of the Fleming books. I was the only bidder.

If you wish to buy this book on Amazon UK and at the same time sponsor this blog you can click on the image below.