Cheezwiz-o-mania!
Jun. 28th, 2004 01:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsNOT that ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wiliqueen's musings got me interested in Oz or anything, not in the least, but cheezewhiz! You'd think that looking for the Oz books would be simple or something.
But noooooo...
First, you have to define Oz canon; Baum only? Baum and his successor only? Baum and everyone-and-their-cousin's continuations? Who knew that there were half a dozen official Oz authors?
Second, you have to ask what you're looking for in a copy. For a series that's perilously close to public domain, it's amazing how hard it is to find inexpensive sets. Books of Wonder is selling them only in 6-book sets for the low*cough*low price of $99. Dover Thrift isn't so thrifty at $10 a book. Someone has paperbacks of the first 7 books up on ebay for a *cough*mere*cough* $40. Creation Books are coming out with a supposed all-in-one copy titled, interestingly enough, not "The Wonderful World of Oz" but "The Witch is Dead." It's a reasonable price - $14 - but when I tried to go to their site to see if it really was all the Baum books in one, I discovered that the publishing house isn't what you'd call worksafe. Since they seem to do a lot of Lovecraft, maybe it's not too surprising that they're focusing on the grim, but still!
The books are available online, if you don't mind squinting and/or printing your own copies.
*eyeroll* It shouldn't be this hard, nor this expensive. Narnia? Boxed sets in paperback. Dark is Rising? Boxed sets in paperback. Harry-bloody-Potter? Boxed sets in paperback and hardback and the series isn't even completed yet!
Oy.
wiliqueen's musings got me interested in Oz or anything, not in the least, but cheezewhiz! You'd think that looking for the Oz books would be simple or something.But noooooo...
First, you have to define Oz canon; Baum only? Baum and his successor only? Baum and everyone-and-their-cousin's continuations? Who knew that there were half a dozen official Oz authors?
Second, you have to ask what you're looking for in a copy. For a series that's perilously close to public domain, it's amazing how hard it is to find inexpensive sets. Books of Wonder is selling them only in 6-book sets for the low*cough*low price of $99. Dover Thrift isn't so thrifty at $10 a book. Someone has paperbacks of the first 7 books up on ebay for a *cough*mere*cough* $40. Creation Books are coming out with a supposed all-in-one copy titled, interestingly enough, not "The Wonderful World of Oz" but "The Witch is Dead." It's a reasonable price - $14 - but when I tried to go to their site to see if it really was all the Baum books in one, I discovered that the publishing house isn't what you'd call worksafe. Since they seem to do a lot of Lovecraft, maybe it's not too surprising that they're focusing on the grim, but still!
The books are available online, if you don't mind squinting and/or printing your own copies.
*eyeroll* It shouldn't be this hard, nor this expensive. Narnia? Boxed sets in paperback. Dark is Rising? Boxed sets in paperback. Harry-bloody-Potter? Boxed sets in paperback and hardback and the series isn't even completed yet!
Oy.
