*AN APOLOGY TO NETSCAPE USERS
*THE RETURN OF PARABLES
*PEANUTS STATUE BOOK
*ANIMATED ADAPTATIONS PREORDERABLE
*PEANUTS TREASURIES EVERYWHERE
*BEWARE OF GHOST BOOKS
*BRITISH LITTLE BOOKS
*A USED BOOK TIP
Oh no, not another newsletter! It’s not even a full week since the last one, I know. I really don’t mean these to come out nearly so often — but I don’t want to skip any Peanuts book news, and I don’t want to build up so much news that each newsletter is longer than The Brothers Karamazov. So I need your opinion: do you mind getting the newsletter so often? Would you rather have fewer but longer newsletters? Let me know via email to nat@aaugh.com
AN APOLOGY TO NETSCAPE USERS
Last newsletter, I published some links to books that had preview pages available for online reading. It was only later that I discovered that the preview pages would only be visible to people using certain browsers. My copies of Internet Explorer and Opera would get the preview pages, but my Netscape Navigator would not. I don’t know all of which versions of which browsers would get the pages. I apologize to anyone who clicked through looking for the previews, but couldn’t find them.
……………………………………………………………
THE RETURN OF PARABLES
When Robert L. Short wrote up his lectures on finding Christian lessons in Peanuts strips, he had a best-seller on his hands: THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO PEANUTS sold millions upon millions of copies in the 1960s. He followed that book up with THE PARABLES OF PEANUTS, and then (a couple decades later) SHORT MEDITATIONS ON THE BIBLE AND PEANUTS. While Short Meditations is still in print and a new edition of Gospel (same text, new intro) was published a few years back and is still available, the Parables book has been out of print for years. It is being reissued in March of 2002, and you can preorder it from AAUGH.com’s US catlog now: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0060011610
If you want the Gospel book (the best of the three): In the US — http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0664222226 In the UK — http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?0664222226
If you want Short Meditations: In the US — http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0664251528 In the UK — http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?0664251528 (Note: That is the US edition being sent through the UK. There was a UK edition of this book, retitled THE BIBLE ACCORDING TO PEANUTS, but it’s out of print.)
……………………………………………………………
PEANUTS STATUE BOOK
Over the last couple of summers, there have been hundreds of Snoopy and Charlie Brown statues decorated by various artists and displayed all around St. Paul, Minnesota. Now there’s a book with photos of all 203 statues. Unfortunately, I can’t offer it through the AAUGH.com catalog, but if you want a copy, here’s where you can get one: http://www.campsnoopy.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=697144
……………………………………………………………
ANIMATED ADAPTATIONS PREORDERABLE
Two more of the upcoming kids book adaptations of animated Peanuts specials are now available for preorder from the US catalog: A CHARLIE BROWN VALENTINE (that’s the new special!) http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0689848218 IT’S THE EASTER BEAGLE, CHARLIE BROWN (new adaptation of a classic) http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0689848226
However, I’d hold off on preordering this just yet. At the moment, the pre-order is at full cover price. Wait a little while, and they should be preorderable at the usual discounts.
……………………………………………………………
PEANUTS TREASURIES EVERYWHERE
A new U.K. book (well, it’s actually a reprint, but I’ll get into that in a minute) has just been released, and it’s bound to confuse those of us who keep track of Peanuts books.
You see, this new book is called PEANUTS TREASURY.
But this book has nothing to do with the US book named Peanuts Treasury, a big anthology which came out in 1968 and reprinted strips from 1959-1967. That book was reissued last year, and is still available in both AAUGH.com’s U.S. catalog http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?1586630687 and the UK catalog http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1586630687
Nor should it be confused with the book Snoopy Treasury, which was a UK book that was mostly a reprint of the US Peanuts Treasury volume, with some other pages mixed in.
Nor does it have anything to do with the Peanuts Treasury *series* of US books that reprinted early 1990s strips (which you can find at http://AAUGH.com/pntscat.htm in the U.S. catalog or http://AAUGH.com/uk/usstrips.htm in the UK catalog.)
Nor should it be confused with the current UK book named Peanuts Anniversary Treasury, which reprints the earlier Snoopy Classics, which was a UK book based largely on the US book Peanuts Classics. The Peanuts Anniversary Treasury is only in the UK catalog: http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1841610216
So what is this new UK book? It’s actually a reprint of a book named PEANUTS AT SCHOOL, which was a UK book which reprinted part of the US book CLASSROOM PEANUTS. That book was a big anthology of strips about attending school, mostly from the 1970s. If you want this book of school strips, you have to order it through the UK catalog: http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1841610437
(And people wonder why a Peanuts book collectors guide is needed!)
……………………………………………………………
BEWARE OF GHOST BOOKS
Modern bookstore catalogs are all done via computers, which manage huge lists of books. Because so much is being handled, errors inevitably occur. One of the most frustrating types of errors is when a book that isn’t actually going to exist shows up on the catalog. Maybe the book was something that was planned but was taken off the schedule for some reason. Maybe the book was released under another title, but the only title still lingers. Perhaps the book’s entry was a completely human error in the first place. Whatever the reason, these books appear to exist (generally as "coming soon") but don’t really, so I call them "ghost books." As an author, I’ve even discovered that I’ve been listed as the writer of a ghost book or two over the years.
In the past couple years, there have been a number of Peanuts ghost books. I’ve gotten pretty good at recognizing them (generally they are being issued by publishers that are no longer licensing new Peanuts books) and do my best to keep them out of my catalog. That’s why you never saw me listing PEANUTS COLLECTION as coming soon, for example.
However, once you click through my catalog and into Amazon’s, you may be shown some of the ghost books in their list. Every once in a while, I see that one of them has been ordered, and that always saddens me because the person is generally ordering other books at the same time — a shipment that will be held until the ghost books are released, which is never.
Currently, there are two Peanuts ghost books that are haunting Amazon. PEPPERMINT PATTY AND MARCIE and CAPS DON’T WIN BALL GAMES, MARCIE are both clearly supposed to be parts of the Peanuts Gang line, which were a line of kids storybooks put out by Harper Prism but brought to an end a couple years back. The dates that these books are supposedly being released keeps being changed, but they never appear and I would be shocked if they ever did. Don’t order these books — and if you have an order waiting for either of those two books to be released before being shipped, cancel those books from the order.
……………………………………………………………
BRITISH LITTLE BOOKS
I just received a quartet of new British books. These small paperbacks (a little more than three inches wide and high, 96 pages) have a quote (or paraphrasing) from Peanuts and a picture from the strip on each two-page spread. The pictures are in black on white paper, so they look a little blander than the more colorful look of Happiness Is A Warm Puppy and similar books.
Each book focuses on one character. They’re edited by Gordon Volke, who has put together a number of British Peanuts books, making it all the more surprising when he makes a basic mistake: a couple of the pictures of in LUCY’S LITTLE BOOK OF ADVICE aren’t pictures of Lucy at all — they’re pictures of Violet. My favorite one is the Peppermint Patty one; there just aren’t enough Peppermint Patty products out there!
These small volumes fit neatly in a pocket for some very light reading. They’d be nicely suited for stocking stuffers. They can’t be had through the US catalog, but anyone from anywhere can order them through the UK catalog:
CHARLIE BROWN’S LITTLE BOOK OF WISDOM http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1841610992 LUCY’S LITTLE BOOK OF ADVICE http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1841611018 SNOOPY’S LITTLE BOOK OF LAUGHTER http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?184161100X PEPPERMINT PATTY’S LITTLE BOOK OF BLUNDERS http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1841611026
……………………………………………………………
A USED BOOK TIP
Whenever buying used books online (from a bookstore or at auction), you should beware of the description of the book. Even a seasoned book retailer can misdescribe something or even just partially describe it, leaving you uncertain of which Peanuts Treasury you were getting.
If you’re buying foreign language books, however, there is one specific problem to look out for: the book may be in a different language than the seller indicates. Many foreign books are sold by people who do not speak that language that they are in. As such, they may see a Korean book and assume it’s Japanese. I just got a book at auction which the seller indicated was in German. I was a little suspicious — while the cover title SNOOPY didn’t give anything away, it was unlike the German books I had seen. Still, it was a book that I didn’t have, so I bought it. It arrived today. It’s in Dutch (which actually makes me happy; Dutch books are harder to find than German ones!)
For more tips on finding and buying used Peanuts books online, check out http://AAUGH.com/guide/shopping.htm
……………………………………………………………
That’s the news for now. There’s more Peanuts book news lurking around the corner, I can just smell it! So I’ll see you next issue, whenever that may be. Until then, feel free to send me your comments and your questions (and yes, I still owe a couple of you responses — sorry for the delay, life is overly full!)
Treat your friends well, and call your parents!
–Nat proprietor http://AAUGH.com
