It was mentioned on another thread, but Taschen (Publisher of the Book of Tiki) is publishing a limited hardback edition of 'The Curse of Lono' by Hunter S. Thompson. It's signed by both HST and Ralph Steadman, who illustrated it with many a Tiki, and there's only 1000 of these made.

When I originally looked at the Amazon.com website, they were selling it for 30% off the $200 cover price while the Amazon.co.uk site was selling it for a mere 10% off. "Pah!" I thought, "I'll buy it elsewhere".

Now, when I looked at the Amazon.co.uk site today, the price has shot up to 50% OVER the cover price! Then I looked at Amazon.com and that's now $300, also 50% over! Obviously they are very very close to selling out.

Now, I don't want fellow Tiki Centralites to miss out on such a great book (I named my home Tiki bar after it)so checked out a few places still selling it (relatively) cheap.

So try: http://www.alldirect.com

http://www.biggerbooks.com

Both are still selling it for less than $150.
The price is going through the roof before it's even been published, so act fast!

Trader Woody

Thanks Trader Woody. I read one of your previous posts about the book awhile back and decided to preorder on Amazon. I thought $127 was steep and almost didn't pull the trigger. But thought about it and figured that I could always cancel later if I changed my mind. Feeling a little better about it now. Thanks again.

Thanks as well, Trader Woody. After reading your post I decided I better make the move and buy it now before they were all gone. I originally was going to order it from "Amazon", but by the time I was ready to pull the trigger, they had already raised it to $300 (without a discount anymore, either!) I ended up getting it at Barnes and Noble.com for $200 with a 20% discount. (FYI: They have since raised their price to $300 as well.)

Glad to see a few copies going to Tiki Centralites!

1000 copies might seem a lot, but once you figure Thompson, Steadman, Sean Penn (Who wrote the intro), people at Taschen, major libraries and assorting hangers on will have claimed at least 100 of these, it's not actually many at all. Rabid collectors devour both Thompson & Steadman stuff, and there must be a few misguided Sean Penn fans out there all competing for a print run that's less than the average mid-sized show in a minor city.

Some good news here:
"Toward that end, perhaps, Thompson and Taschen have teamed up to republish his 1983 trade paperback, The Curse of Lono, a collection of ripping yarns swirling about the Hawaii Marathon and illustrated by Ralph Steadman, who has become Thompson’s Boswell and Beardsley. The long-out-of-print book, which shows Thompson’s humor at its driest, is so rare that it doesn’t even exist in the L.A. Public Library system. This time Lono will be a coffee-table volume that prefigures a planned movie version in the works. Taschen is also preparing an as-yet-untitled photo-journal of Thompson’s life, due out in summer 2005, that will document his evolution all the way back to childhood."

Trader Woody

Barked in the manner of actiouneer: SOLD!

Well, I am not entirely certain why, but I just bought the book. Seemed like a good idea, maybe I am just an easy mark, or I am really bored. Picked up mine from BiggerBooks, the other place wasn't taking orders. Woody, old man, you're costing me money. Still don't have a Butlin's mug.

Next time I am in London, the beverage at Vic's is on you. What the f..., I always liked Mr. Thompson. He did a fine job as Warren Zevon's physician those last few months. Check it out, I tied it all back together: Tiki-Trader Vic's-London-Zevon-Thompson....

I got skills,
midnite

On 2005-02-05 17:57, midnite_tiki wrote:
Barked in the manner of actiouneer: SOLD!

Woody, old man, you're costing me money. Still don't have a Butlin's mug.

Next time I am in London, the beverage at Vic's is on you.

Aieeee.....................
The only time a parcel has been lost in the mail either towards me or away from me was a mug I sent to Midnite stuffed with cash. It plagues me to this day - sent it, have no record of having sent it, and lost my own Butlins mug somehow in the interim. Mmmmmm....a colossal bummer..........

One day that mug shall be yours Midnite. Just need to find it again.

Good to see you've got the book BTW. Taschen always do a good job of giving value for money.

Aye, the drinks are on me at Vic's.

Trader Woody

I'm in and I'm excited. April needs to get here quicker. Thanks for the heads up. In anticipation I did some sluething. Read the post below--if the book is half as good as the making of. We all owe you many tiki drinks woody.

http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/excerpts/photography/show/1/87.htm

Dr. Thompson is no longer taking appointments.

midnite

Suicide is not painless...

I'm guessing he didn't sign the book with the release date of May.

From the front page of "The Independent" newspaper (UK) 22nd Feb 2005:

(Written by Ralph Steadman)
"On Sunday morning, I had just finished signing the 1,200 title pages for a limited-edition Taschen version of the "Curse of Lono", which Hunter had signed so uncharacteristically - obedient & mechanical - over the month of December. I thought that was very strange. He has to be cajoled like a child to do anything like that, so I drew his portrait across the last sheet, glaring out, his two eyes in the two O's of LONO, put the cigarette holder with long Dunhill prodding upwards in his grimacing mouth, signed it with an extra flourish and closed the last of the four boxes. The old bastard! He waited to make sure I'd finished the task. Then he signed himself off."

Trader Woody

Thanks for the update Woody. I've been looking everywhere to try to find out what was up. I ordered my copy from Bigger Books and it looks like the order is going through and they still have copies available. Their price is still $147.00. More than half off of list price.

On 2005-02-22 09:44, MachTiki wrote:
... I ordered my copy from Bigger Books and it looks like the order is going through and they still have copies available. Their price is still $147.00. More than half off of list price.

I had ordered my copy from them too. Let's hope they come through.

It would seem to me, thanks to the Steadman quote that Trader Woody posted, that it was HST's plan to make sure that everything was completed so that it would still be made available.

[ Edited by: Riptide on 2005-02-22 12:13 ]

I also ordered from Bigger Books? When did you order? My order shows as processing? But we shall see. I did talk to Taschen in Beverly Hills and he said that the list price was $300.00 from Taschen? That was last week.

So I am questioning Bigger Books is getting the copies. The person at Bigger Books said that they submit their invoice directly to the publisher once it's ordered. So if I understand it we order at bigger books the paper work goes directly to the publisher to fulfill. You would think that they would not accept orders if they had run out of their allocations.

Only time will tell. Is shipping still around March/April. I've even heard May.

On 2005-02-22 12:13, tikiEAMES wrote:
I also ordered from Bigger Books? When did you order?

I ordered my copy Sunday afternoon. The status of my order shows "OPS". In their legend it doesn't show exactly what that means. I can only speculate that it stands for: "Order Pending with Supplier" - which is strictly a guess.

This was just a classic excerpt I found in a story about Hunter's death:

*Mary Eshbaugh Hayes, an acquaintance and a former editor of the Aspen Times said she was present when a drunken Thompson fired three shots into a copy of one of his books and gave it to a friend, saying, "This is your autographed copy." *

Has anybody here read his RUM DIARY ?:

Begun in 1959 by a then-twenty-two-year-old Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary is a brilliantly tangled love story of jealousy, treachery and violent alcoholic lust in the Caribbean boomtown that was San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the late 1950s. Exuberant and mad, youthful and energetic, The Rum Diary is an outrageous, drunken romp in the spirit of Thompson's bestselling Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Hell's Angels

Read it as soon as it came out.

Although billed as a novel, it seems pretty autobiographical. Works very well as a good peek into the mind of the man that would become Raul Duke in later appearances.

Ordered the Lono book. Has anyone found someplace to buy a used 'reading' copy? I haven't found one yet.

On 2005-02-22 18:21, bigbrotiki wrote:
Has anybody here read his RUM DIARY ?:

Begun in 1959 by a then-twenty-two-year-old Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary is a brilliantly tangled love story of jealousy, treachery and violent alcoholic lust in the Caribbean boomtown that was San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the late 1950s. Exuberant and mad, youthful and energetic, The Rum Diary is an outrageous, drunken romp in the spirit of Thompson's bestselling Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Hell's Angels

My wife bought me this book several years ago as a Christmas gift. It is an excellent read. A funny, irreverant "novel" with a character that sounds like HST. My brother, The Sperm Whale, currently has my copy. Spermy, read that damn book and give it back you crazy bastard.

On 2005-02-23 10:03, Riptide wrote:
... My brother, The Sperm Whale, currently has my copy. Spermy, read that damn book and give it back you crazy bastard.

Riptide - Being Spermy's brother, you should know that you have to speak his language to get the book back.

Try saying: "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW"

On 2005-02-22 18:21, bigbrotiki wrote:
Has anybody here read his RUM DIARY ?:

Yep. I'm a big fan of his, and followed his difficulties and frustrations in getting this very early novel published over quite a few years. As a result, the book itself inevitably disappointed to some extent (as are most lost and legendary things). I understand he was also forced to cut out a fair amount because he thought an American audience wouln't be able to deal with certain sections. Not really sure what he meant by that.

It's certainly enjoyable, and it'll be interesting to see what the upcoming film version would be like. It certainly gives a good account of Caribbean life before mass tourism, where the non-locals had little money, but a lot of time and cheap rum to be enjoying. Also, it would be interesting to hear from someone fresh to HST who's read the Rum Diary before his better known books.

Trader Woody