Lord Peter Wimsey Companion - OOP/Rare

[vicki]

I'm lending out my copy of the Lord Peter Wimsey Companion to very careful borrowers, as it is out of print and hard to come by. Keep in mind also that it is a large and heavy book, and will require more postage than the typical book, and larger, heavier packing.

If you're okay with all that, then I'll be happy to lend it to you. Just sign up here. Also, if you can post when the book is sent and when it is received, that will help us keep track of where it is. We can handle mailing instructions behind the scenes, on email or private message.

So far, the lending line-up is as follows:

KarenB
jtb1951
Jen D.

Thanks!

[jtb1951]

Please add me to the list, vicki.

Thanks!
John.

[vicki]

Will do, John! I'll just edit the top post to keep a master line-up going.

[vicki]

Karen, I finally got The LPW Companion mailed out to you. Sorry it's taken so long. I just haven't had a chance to get by the P.O., what with one thing and another. But it's on its way to you, so be on the look-out!

[KarenB]

'Tis okay! I had a stack I've been reading through and have been keeping busy with the start of school (oh, the pain of getting a middle school child out the door!), but I am looking forward to it very much! I'll let you know when it gets here and then John can start sending me psychic "read faster!" messages!

Karen

[jtb1951]

Take your time and enjoy, Karen; after all, it isn't like I don't have anything to read in the meantime!;).

John.

[KarenB]

It's here! It's here! and it weighs a ton!! John, you may have to wait a bit for it as I will be perusing it for quite a while. I wish I had the Companion on my first (or second or third or . . ) time thru the Wimseys.

Thanks, Vicki! Have fun in B-con for all of us who wish we were there (she says with a mournful sniff).

Karen

[vicki]

I'm glad it got there okay--enjoy!!

I'll be posting all about everything on my B'con adventure thread in the Great Room area. That way, all the VBCers can all attend vicariously and will be in the know when B'con 2008 rolls around in Baltimore. I hope to see lots of y'all at that one!

[KarenB]

The really big book is on its way to John . . .after two weeks of in-laws, 2 days of barfing child, and several trips out where I realized it was still sitting on the counter . . . if I only had a brain.:o

Oooo - I've become a senior. Now I at least look like I have a brain. Or is that just a mouth?

[Jennifer]

Vicki,
How does one get on the list for the LPW companion? That would be a great thing to have, even if for a short time!
Jen D.

[vicki]

All you have to do is ask, Jen. I added your name to the list in the top post, so when John is done with it, he can just send it directly on to you. Wheee! I love spreading the good biblio-karma around. :)

[Jennifer]

Vicki,
Thanks! I looked it up on line and it's a very expensive piece of reading material! I came to the party too late! How did you acquire this wondrous book?
Jen D.
PS The subject line refers to you!

[vicki]

I happened to stumble into the Wimseyverse when the LPW Companion had just been printed. It was about $50 at that time, so I got one. Since then, they've sold out and there's been no reprinting in spite of what seems to be continuing demand. As a result, the existing copies have gotten high as a cat's back on the resale market. I hate that new LPW fans are finding it hard to get a hold of such a great reference book on the series, so I'm glad to share my copy around. I do hope they'll reprint the book or at least offer it in an electronic format before too long.

Thankee for the subject line kudos! :)

[jtb1951]

I safely received the Companion in yesterday's mail, KarenB, and it is gigantic! Thanks, Vicki! When I am finished I will send it along to Jen D. Thanks again!:).

John.

[vicki]

it is gigantic!


Hehehehe! It is a monster, isn't it? :D Not as big as Diana Gabaldon's Outlander Companion, and smaller still than a volume of The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, but still rawther large. More to love, I say! :) I'm glad it got there safe and sound, John--enjoy!

[Jennifer]

When ever John sends along the Companion, I know it will be like Christmas round my house! Yippee!
Jen D.

[KarenB]

Glad it got there safely! RL has been interrupting my life too much lately -- I've been reduced to very brief lurks.

[jtb1951]

Hi, Jen!
I sent an e-mail to you requesting your snail-mail address, so be expecting that if you haven't already received it!

John.

[jtb1951]

I dropped the Companion off at my post office this morning, so it should be on its' way to Madison and Jennifer, merrily travelling through the snow! Thanks again to Vicki for the generous gift of the loan!!:). Jen, don't be shocked at the postage, I sent it insured; I'm just paranoid that way! Enjoy!!

John.

[Jennifer]

Hi John,
Insurance is a good idea, considering what that tome (is that too hifalutin' a word for the Companion?) is worth on the open market. I will take your lead when it comes my turn to send it on.
Jen D.

[vicki]

I'm glad you enjoyed it, John! I didn't expect you to insure it (and anyone else on the list--don't feel as if you have to), but thanks for doing so!

[Jennifer]

Hi Vicki, John and anyone else who's poured over the LPW Companion,

I am reading it but I am wondering, do any of you have any tips, advice or any one thing that helped you use it efficiently or open up it's capabilities? So far, I have been reading it from page to page, starting at "A" and while I am enjoying it, I fear the best way to use it is to have it by my side, like a concordance/dictionary for the Bible whilst reading a LPW mystery. I'd love to start back at the beginning, read each book again and use it to reference all LPW's amazing repetoire of apt quotations in at least 3 languages...amongst all the other things, places, people that are referenced as well. But alas, I don't forsee keeping this thing long enough to accomplish that feat!
Next, have any of you gotten hold of the lesser-known materials like stories published in the Spectator? I know there is a book of all LPW's short stories but do you all know if this book will include stories not previously published? I have read "Lord Peter Views the Body," and "Striding Folly" and not sure if the short story collection is worth going after. Somewhere, in extant materials, there must be mention of Lord St. George's death. As much as I don't want to contemplate that, I have a desire to find where that would be mentioned. At any rate, any comments on the Companion would be much appreicated!
Thanks,
Jen D. (wishing she had a holder for the Companion sort of like one of those I-pod belt jobbies..)

[jtb1951]

I am reading it but I am wondering, do any of you have any tips, advice or any one thing that helped you use it efficiently or open up it's capabilities?

Hi, Jen, and Happy New Year! I'm afraid I can't be much help in that regard; I found that the most fun way to use it was to just pick it up and go to something at random which invariably led me into looking up related topics or thoughts. I really had to stifle my native anal tendencies to start at the beginning and go in order. I was one of those weirdoes as a kid who would spend a big chunk of my time going through each of the several encyclopedias available, from A to Z, remembering which word I left off at and picking up there the next time! Yoicks!!!:)

John.

[Kiyomi]

I was one of those weirdoes as a kid who would spend a big chunk of my time going through each of the several encyclopedias available, from A to Z, remembering which word I left off at and picking up there the next time! Yoicks!!!:)
What's so weird about that? Doesn't everyone do that?

[Jennifer]

Hi John, Kiyomi and anyone else reading the encyclopedia,
John, I think you and I are on the same page. I do read the thing page by page for at least a few minutes each day. But then I remember I need to find out what "Domina" means and then I go there. And then I remember something about "turkish delight" and I go there. Hippity hoppity... It really is the kind of thing you need to have access to at all times! I am just trying to answer as many questions as I can before I have to send it on. The thing is amazing. It has all the calendars for the years that DLS wrote about LPW. It has maps, an extensive index, the entries themselves cross-reference other entries. And there's a whole list of things the authors haven't figured out and if you can, they'd like to hear from you. It's a really great reference. Yes, I did read the encyclopedia as a kid! And my kids think I am a nut because I have a dictionary in almost every room in our house!
Jen D.

[Kiyomi]

It is my dream to own the complete OED someday :)

[Jennifer]

We bookworms all think alike! My daughter, knowing my fondness for understanding the meanings of words down to where they came from, when they started being used, etc. announced when she was 10 that her first gift to me when she became an earning member of society, would be an OED! A child after my own heart! Complete with the little accompanying magnifying glass! Have you ever read Harry Potter? When we began reading it together in her 7th year, I began looking up, as near as I could figure, all the names and their roots. "Severus" was, after not such a hard guess, found under "severe" as its original form, Latin, I think. Then I discovered the HP Lexicon, when someone had done all the leg work for me! That's how I feel about the LPW Companion. Someone's done all the leg work! I just get to read and enjoy. I do think the Mary Russell books will need a companion at some point in the future. There was so much in "The Moor" that could have been explained to me. Geography in England plays such a huge role and we've lost that, here in the States. I knew next to nothing about moors. Not that I couldn't have learned and I did learn some things. Anyhoo, back to the books!
Jen D.

[tangential1]

I do think the Mary Russell books will need a companion at some point in the future.

OMG! That would be awesome!

I absolutely love the Amelia Peabody Compendium. All the pictures and place descriptions were such a wonderful complement to the story. It would be way cool to have that for the Russells too:)

[vicki]

Jen, I used the LPW companion to help read and re-read through several of the Wimseys. It really helped with some of the non-English language stuff and the more obscure literary, historical and geographic references. And, like you, I just read through a good bit of it, enjoying the learning experience. I have the book of LPW short stories, but I'm not sure if it contains the ones not previously published. I'll have to flip through it to recall what's there. There were a bunch of Wimsey family letters Sayers did for a newspaper in WWII, and they're actually posted online somewhere, I think. BTW--your daughter sounds like a very cool girl. :)

I really love to be among people who don't think it's weird to read encyclopedias! <Group hug>


I absolutely love the Amelia Peabody Compendium.


Isn't it wonderful? I also enjoy my Outlander Companion by Diana Gabaldon--it's great fun, too, especially the stuff about historical research. Certainly we're getting into Russell Compendium territory, what with 8 novels and one in the hopper! :)

[alina]

Oh my goodness get me one of those!

Dearest Vicki, please put me on that lovely little list there for the Wimsey Companion! I would love to peruse that piece for a good...two months, perhaps, with nothing more than an endless cup of coffee and a lovely little smile on my face!

I now must go hunt out my Wimsey novels and re-read them over Christmas break!

[Millie]

I now must go hunt out my Wimsey novels and re-read them over Christmas break!


What a good plan...

[Pat Floyd]

I note that Amazon is offering 4 copies of The Lord Peter Wimsey Companion priced from $499.94 to $1,100.00.

[vicki]

Dearest Vicki, please put me on that lovely little list there for the Wimsey Companion! I would love to peruse that piece for a good...two months, perhaps, with nothing more than an endless cup of coffee and a lovely little smile on my face!

I now must go hunt out my Wimsey novels and re-read them over Christmas break!

You're on the list, girl! I think you're going to really enjoy it, especially given that you're about to reread the Wimseys. :) And I think it bears repeating--it's great to see your font around here again, Alina!

I do think they ought to reprint the LPW Companion, or offer it electronically--it's such a terrific resource and so many people are interested in it. I just hate that it's so expensive--that makes it hard for people to properly express and feed their LPW fandom. :(

[alina]

Indeed; as a college student, I have just enough dinero for the Ramen and the rice and beans! I cannot wait to have the book finally in my hands. I will savor every moment! Thanks for letting us borrow your book, love; I am ecstatic!

[vicki]

No problemo--I'm happy to see it getting some appreciative eyeballs. I love to share my stuff with other Book People. Especially LRK Book People, who are among the very best Book-Folk of all!

Ah, the ramen and beans mention really takes me back to my college years. But when we were flush with cash, we'd splurge and get Lean Cuisines (oooh, aaah, yowsah) and boil them in this little electric pot my roommate had. We didn't have a microwave until our sophomore or junior year, and now I don't know how I'd manage without one!

[alina]

Goodness; I can't imagine life without a microwave!

Oh, and trust me, when we have some cash, the girls and I completely splurge and buy *dun dun duuun* meat! And we make something like chicken chili or some type of casserole that lasts forever. It's fantastic!

Oh, college...