neadods: (Default)
neadods ([personal profile] neadods) wrote2004-06-28 01:24 pm

Cheezwiz-o-mania!

NOT that [livejournal.com profile] 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.

[identity profile] hildy.livejournal.com 2004-06-28 11:14 am (UTC)(link)
*blinks*

*stares at her set of Del Rey 80s reprint Baum Oz books on her children's shelf she never got rid of*

*blinks again*

Why am I so amused by this?

(I never did get "Land of Oz" though.)
lagilman: coffee or die (Default)

[personal profile] lagilman 2004-06-28 11:22 am (UTC)(link)
The first one, at least, is available as an e-book...

[identity profile] neadods.livejournal.com 2004-06-28 01:15 pm (UTC)(link)
I found a site (and naturally forgot to write down the URL) that has all 7 online on a page-by-page basis.

I wouldn't mind paying someone else to print 'em, but I don't want to pay *that* much right now.
ext_3548: (Avatar2)

[identity profile] shayheyred.livejournal.com 2004-06-28 03:40 pm (UTC)(link)
See, I've become such a pervert that when you said "Oz" all I thought of was the HBO series about the penitentiary and all the M/M sex.
lagilman: coffee or die (Default)

[personal profile] lagilman 2004-06-28 05:43 pm (UTC)(link)
And we expect nothing less from you. ;-)

[identity profile] neadods.livejournal.com 2004-06-29 04:59 am (UTC)(link)
*amused snort* And to think, I was the one who explained slash to you!