Paperback 1127: Golden Tramp / Daoma Winston (Beacon B 272)

 Paperback 1127: Beacon B 272 (PBO, 1959)

Title: Golden Tramp

Author: Daoma Winston

Cover artist: Uncredited [Harry Barton]

Condition: 8/10 

Value: $20

Best things about this cover: 

• Her name is Gay? Bit on the nose, don't you think? I mean ... whither subtlety?
• It's like she's eating his face with her neck. Some kind of weird reverse vampire.
• "Your head feels so good, Steve!" "Mmmfrphywtuh"
• There's something oddly, bizarrely, unexpectedly charming about the pink stripes on the pillow.
• I approvingly acknowledge the hint (the barest hint) of garter hook.
• I love the cover copy's anguished "WHY?" "Why oh why won't she give up this endless orgy of the flesh and join the endless orgy of the mind!?"

Best things about this back cover: 

• Ransom note font, wtf?
• OMG there really is a "Steve" in this thing. Nailed it!
• "Maybe it was Tom who turned Gay from men." So ... he turned Gay ... gay? Seriously, the protagonist's name is not helping you, Daoma.
• I'm not sure "tete-a-tetes" means what you think it does, Daoma. Unless ... "tete" ("head") is a euphemism for some other body parts that they're putting ... together ...
• Holy shit, plot twist! Peter covets Jonathan!? Who the fuck is Jonathan? You can't just drop Peter's queerness *and* a new character into the very last sentence. I don't even care about Gay anymore. I need to know about Peter and Jonathan! I hope they're happy (but since they're gay in a 1950s paperback, safe bet is that they are probably not, in fact, happy).

Page 123~

"Well, you know what he did? Went off and married one of those drive-in girls in the shiny shirts, and dimpled knees showing. And the funniest thing happened. It turned out she's some kind of an heiress or something. Couldn't have happened at a better time, or to a nicer guy."

Man, it's like Daoma Winston's got a barreful of premises for novels and she's just gonna dump them all into one book. Now I need to know about the heiress who is also somehow a dimple-kneed shiny-shirted drive-in girl ... which is apparently a type? I want to live inside a late '50s Beacon paperback, if just for a day. It sounds wild.

~RP

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Paperback 563: Canterbury Tails / Bjorn Peters (Adam's Gay Readers 148)

Paperback 563: Adam's Gay Readers 148 (PBO, 1986)

Title: Canterbury Tails
Author: Bjorn Peters
Cover artist: yes

Yours for: ... well, I can see exactly one copy of the book on sale, at ebay, for $103, so ... $1,000,000 (or best offer)
Best things about this cover:

• I assume this is a modern version of the Nun's Priest's Tale, since that tale centers on a cock.
• As a friend of mine noted, *that* sandwich will not fit in *that* lunchbox (p.s. that's what she said).
• I love fall weather—cold enough for a down vest, hot enough for a shirt unbuttoned all the way below the navel.
• I love how the artist captured the expression on sandwich guy's face precisely at the moment he realizes what his co-worker is suggesting. [Needle scratching on record!]
• After yet another unsuccessful audition for Village People '86, Raymond needed the comfort that only a fellow hard-hat could provide ...
• "Bjorn" is funny on many levels. Most notably, its first two letters.

Best things about this back cover:

• Really? "Surey?" That's your name? Are you sure? Or sorry? And what kind of circus font is that?
• If this is Adam's Gay Reader #148, how bad, HOW BAD do I want Adam's Gay Readers #1-147!?

Page 123~ (drum roll, please)

Having Jim's cock filling my mouth, and mine filling his, made me feel closer to him than I had ever felt to anyone.

The word "literally!" comes to mind. Understatement, thy name is Bjorn Peters! [slow clap => standing ovation]

P.S. this sample is not atypical. Virtually every sentence of this book is this unintentionally awesome. Who knew words like "gullet" and "starchy" (!?) were erotic!? A revelation. Five stars.

~RP

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