Harking back (again – because I did so on Monday as well 😉 ) to the May 6 post in which I discussed rereading books that count as very old friends, you may recall that the “old friend” in question was Patricia McKillip’s The Riddlemaster of Hed.

My favourite cover treatment — but not my edition!

I was still mid reread when I posted, but alas, when I came to the end of the book I discovered that time and not infrequent rereads have both taken their toll, because the last ten pages have completely separated from the spine.

Oh no!

Although I first discovered the series via the library, my editions (of the trilogy) are relatively early in its now forty-five year life, i.e. Riddlemaster (Book #1) was first published in 1976, and this was a 1985 reprint.

My edition. 🙂

I have had it quite a while, but am pretty sure it was acquired in the mid-late 1990s, at a then specialist bookshop in Dunedin (NZ) called (most fittingly) Bag End Books.

There’s a tribute site to Bag End Books here — check it out! Meanwhile, here’s a pic of the “other” Bag End: 😀

Bag End, Hobbiton

Although the book’s still in print it’s mainly available as an omnibus edition, so as I have the second and third books intact, I’ll probably see if I can repair my copy of Riddlemaster, since otherwise it’s in very good condition for a paperback.