#'s59-66 discontinued

[tomswift2002]

I was just on Chapters.ca and it appears that the 2005 reprints of Mystery Stories 59-66 have been discontinued.  So if you have been wanting to buy these books, but have figured you'd get them some day, you might want to pick the books up if you see them at book stores before the old stock runs out.

[MacGyver]

Yeah, I thought I'd heard that somewhere- thanks for the confirmation. I've got a few of those- I might like to get the rest eventually, when I have the money. Thankfully, I still see them around some at bookstores, but yeah- they are getting harder to find. Thanks for the heads-up.

[tomswift2002]

Well I never did find that a lot of book stores stocked them, so I wonder, since it appears that Grosset & Dunlap was most likely allowed an 8-year time limit, if maybe there was some clause in Grosset & Dunlap's original 2005 contract that said that, should they continue printing more books, then they could keep the books in print indefinitely, but if they didn't, then after 8 years they would loose the printing rights. 

[MacGyver]

That could well be. I guess we're probably not to going to see a second wave of these hardback releases. It would be kinda neat if they had released Flashlight hardback editions of #67 to #85 (since Wanderer released hardback copies of all those titles initially). Of course, from #86 on to #190, we wouldn't have any internal illustrations [I could be wrong- I'm not positive on when the internall illustrations were stopped- but I know there weren't any past #85 in any case]. So I don't know if #86 to #190 in hardback would work quite as well- particularly since the various covers might be kinda jarring trying to fit them into the Flashlight look and format.

[Lungbarrow]

Yes, annoyingly, they stopped selling the eBook versions without any notice either so I wasn't able to nab them before they disappeared. 
Currently there's a big gap of numbers 59-135 unavailable as eBooks and with the release schedules filled up with Clues Brothers books until December, it looks like next year before any of the early digests will be available online. Also, its possible that Simon and Schuster still won't publish 59-66 immediately when they go back to the digests. It's the books up to about #85 I'm interested in, too since this was "my" era of the series - I think I gave up reading them in about 1987 since that's the most recent printing date on the copies I've kept from my childhood.

[MacGyver]

Does that mean you haven't read any of the later books- the Casefiles, Undercover Brothers, Adventures, etc.? Just curious.
Yeah, there are still a lot of the Digests that have not made it to eBook release yet- hopefully, they will come soon though. Simon & Schuster has released all of The Clues Brothers series to eBook format now, so maybe they can now get back to releasing more Digests.

[tomswift2002]

Obviously this wasn't just a case of the e-book rights reverting to Simon & Schuster (since it could've been where Simon & Schuster had taken back the e-book rights, but left the "dead tree' rights with Grosset & Dunlap).

[MacGyver]

lol- the "dead tree" rights.

[Lungbarrow]

Does that mean you haven't read any of the later books- the Casefiles, Undercover Brothers, Adventures, etc.? Just curious.

I've read a couple of Casefiles that I've picked up in recent years (I'm definitely looking forward to them being published as ebooks) a couple of UBs as ebooks and some of the more recently released Digest ebooks. The Adventures I've been buying as they've come out.

[MacGyver]

Oh, okay- that's cool. You'll notice the Casefiles are quite different from the other series since they're. Written for teenagers rather than children. But you may already have known that.

[Lungbarrow]

Yes, I've read up on the history of the series. I remember when the Casefiles were released at first - I recall a display stand of them in a newsagent in my local town. I'd have been 14 at the time, so a perfect age to follow the series but I remember thinking "how am I ever going to keep up with two series when I can't even manage to collect all of one?" so I kind of gave up on the Hardy Boys for a long time after that. I'm kicking myself now since I've really enjoyed both Casefiles that I've read.

[MacGyver]

Well, you can still get them pretty readily through Amazon.com or Ebay, etc. Of course, I would also recommend checking your local used bookstores, flea markets, yard sales, library sales, etc. You can find all kinds of neat things for cheap there....
Of course, if you just want to read them- then by all means, check your local library first!

[Lungbarrow]

Well, I've checked my local library but there weren't any available. I'm not surprised really since they're unlikely to have many 10-20 year old paperbacks still on the shelf. Actually, they don't have that many Hardy Boys books at all. (Here's a link to Glasgow Libraries online catalogue of Hardy Boys books) Given that, they're unlikely to turn up in library sales. You don't tend to get flea markets and yard sales here but charity shops often have large book sections and car boot sales have become very popular lately. Anyway, if I was going to I'd probably pick them up at Bookmooch but I've been trying to cut down on the number of physical books I pick up and as they'll probably come out as ebooks soon anyway, I figure I'll wait.

[MacGyver]

Okay- I guess that's true. I think it depends on which library- I've seen some of the Casefiles still available at some public libraries. But yeah- I imagine a lot of them have cleared out those older books by now. Yeah- I forgot to mention Bookmooch- great book trading site! I've used it a lot in the past few years- gotten quite a few cool books that way. (Another good option is Paperbackswap.com - but I think it has some drawbacks versus Bookmooch.)
But yeah- if you'd rather cut back on physical books, then might as well wait it out and see what comes down the pipeline next... And you can always contact Simon & Schuster and ask them about their plans for the Casefiles as eBooks.......

[tomswift2002]

Well Casefiles #89 Darkness Falls is still available, although only as an e-book.

But with the e-book's for 59-66, I wonder if you had purchased the books before they were discontinued, are you still able to read them now?  Or has your e-book service (Kobo, Nook, Kindle?) disabled the titles and now you can't read the books?