Apart from working on my Model Railway, and driving my Classic Car, I am very fond of reading, particularly by the Pool during the daytime, or in bed late at night.

My favourite author is George Simenon and his collection of Maigret novels, and I have circa 50 Maigret stories in my collection, but am missing and would like about 50 more.

Does anyone else on here collect Maigret novels, or know where I might find the stories I haven't got? I can supply a list of those I have to anyone who might be able to help, many of the books I have I have I found in Charity shops or old book shops on visits to the U.K., plus a few on Amazon, but of course I can't find any (English) versions here on Tenerife.

I have read lots of books by many well known Authors, but never found any that I have found as absorbing and interesting as those by Simenon where it is so easy to envisage the realistic scenes, people, and atmosphere described, and feel that you are there as an interested observer.

Anyone else agree with me?

I remember watching 'Maigret' on the telly way back when but haven't read any of the books.
I'm more of a Raymond E Feist and George RR Martin type of reader.

If there's anything I can do to help let me know by PM, although I suppose your relatives in Chorley are 'on alert' for any.

Www.abebooks.co.uk would be my first port of call - great place for finding secondhand books.

Quote from: Gnep on May 26, 2014, 07:40:24 AM
Www.abebooks.co.uk would be my first port of call - great place for finding secondhand books.

Thanks for that - not heard of that site before and they have a listing of Maigret books in variances languages when I tried it. Will check through in more detail later to see if they have any that I am missing and am looking for.

I would also agree with Abe Books being a good place to look - I have bought some old hard to obtain railway books from them, and they had them listed on their site. Good prices and good delivery too!

I tend to read fantasy ,anything from Pratchett to Feist , aviation histories and classic adventure  and have found AwesomeBooks.com
very good also free uk delivery and only £2.99 for anywhere else .I have always found them quick and reliable . they currently show stock of Maigret books from £2.49 but are offering 15% off this week

I have a collection of about 70 prototype railway books (not model) mostly on Southern Railway and LSWR, locos, passenger stock, freight stock with a few on more general railway topics, liveries, signalling history etc. Also have a few local history books and gardening books.

For "light reading" I rely mainly on the library, SciFi, Fantasy - Anne McCaffery, Greg Bear, & Ben Bova among others, some crime, spy and adventure and some history, one series I have are the Earth's Children, 6 books  by Jean M Auel, fiction but set in Europe during the ice age around the time of the co-existance of the Cro Magnon and Neanderthal. Exceedingly well researched and a strong story line.

One author I have not seen in the library for some years is Ernest K Gann, aviation and some sailing novels, best known for "the High and the Mighty" but my favourite is "Fate is the Hunter2 more or less a history of the development of American airlines from 1930s through to post WW2 and partly auto-biographical.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_K._Gann

I have a large collection of SciFi an Fantasy novels, but must admit to being a bit of a western fan.

Sci-Fi books - I have an almost-complete selection of both Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke to choose from...

Currently reading the current series of Jack the Station Cat to the grandchildren. It's OK until they want the CD that goes with them put on!

Quote from: newportnobby on May 26, 2014, 01:27:43 AM
I'm more of a Raymond E Feist and George RR Martin type of reader.

So am I, but I mainly read Scandi Noir.  It all started with Wallander, of course, but it's amazing how much there is.  I'm also an expat; the Kindle is the answer to all book sourcing problems, though I raid the charity shops when back in the UK.  I lived in Chorley (or actually Adlington) for many years.

David

Quote from: dwrenched on May 26, 2014, 04:13:03 PM

Quote from: newportnobby on May 26, 2014, 01:27:43 AM
I'm more of a Raymond E Feist and George RR Martin type of reader.

So am I, but I mainly read Scandi Noir.  It all started with Wallander, of course, but it's amazing how much there is.  I'm also an expat; the Kindle is the answer to all book sourcing problems, though I raid the charity shops when back in the UK.  I lived in Chorley (or actually Adlington) for many years.
David

Well, well - the World just seems to get smaller and smaller. As a young lad used to go in a Pub in Adlington (next to the traffic lights on the top road - can't remember it's name), where they had a good loud jukebox with all my favourite records on it.

Just a bit further up the road to Horwich (where they used to have a Loco Works by the way), would visit another pub called the "Wheatsheaf" where every Thursday night was "Folk Club" night and you could have a good singalong to some great singer/comedians who were then just starting to make a name for themselves such as :- Mike Harding, the Houghton Weavers, and a good Bolton singer whose name I forget, plus lots of other guest artists whose names also escape my memory.

There was also a pub on the bottom road in Horwich who had some really good up and coming rock groups playing at weekends, and besides there the next port of call would be Rivington Barn on a Saturday night, where more new groups could be heard, and it was the place to chat up the girls, and maybe be lucky enough to take one home (in my Austin A40).

My very first job after leaving Grammar School was as a Bank Clerk in Horwich, at a branch of the District Bank on the top Bolton road.

Quote from: dwrenched on May 26, 2014, 04:13:03 PM
I lived in Chorley (or actually Adlington) for many years.

David

but there is a great curry house in the church building in Adlington

I lived in Horwich for a short time, too, and I seem to remember I was there when the loco works was closing.  Most of the village originally existed to serve the works.  As for the curry house, I ate there a number of times, and it was very good.  Adlington had a remarkable number of places to get food, including take-aways.  For a short time there was a model railway shop in Horwich, near the crossroads at the bottom.

David