The non-school books - are they worth the effort?

[tosomja.livejournal.com]

I read all the four school Marlow books as a child and absolutely loved them, read them 100s of times etc.  Now I have rediscovered them and realised only for the first time that there were others - I just thought that all the references to the holidays and falcons etc were things which happened 'off-stage', as it were.  So I acquired a version of the GGB Thuggery Affair, but found it really hard going and nothing like as good as the school books.  In fact I gave up once altogether, and then came back to it and managed to finish but wasn't hugely impressed..  I have also acquired The Ready Made Family which I enjoyed much more, but still, not as much as the school books. 
Given that it requires a fair amount of time and money to acquire the rarer Marlow books, it is really worth the struggle? Or are the school books the most popular for a reason?  What do you think - does anyone actually prefer the non-school books?   I don't want to spend a lot of effort on them only to wish that I'd kept to the school books and kept my memories of AF as good as they were!

And also what do you think of the historical ones? Are they as good, and do they connect to the later Marlows in any way apart from the characters being called Marlowe?

Comments

[ex-lizzzar998.livejournal.com]

You do not need to read the historicals to understand the present day Marlow books, but they do connect to them in that they feature the ancestors of the current Marlows and Merricks. Information relating to them is mentioned in The Attic Term and the Cricket Term, when Edwin is researching the farm log. The plots of the historicals involve Shakespeare, Shakesperean drama, religious persecution and the Essex rebellion.

[(Anonymous)]

Having looked at web-sites, I think that e-bay does probably offer the best value - it is just a personal quirk of mine to be a bit nervous of it. Good luck with future Marlow reading!

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

Books are one of the safest things to buy on ebay. You know exactly what you're getting and the money's not huge. Usually things like the AF books are sold by professionals who have high star ratings and you can check lots and lots of satisfied customers. I've never had a problem with anything I've bought that way.

I don't like Paypal much, so I generally send a cheque which takes a little longer, but works for me.

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

Also paperbacks fit in small jiffybags which fit through your letterbox (well 99% of people's, not mine sadly), so you don't have to trek to the sorting office to collect your parcel.

I think I prefer the school stories (a world I'm more familiar with, maybe) but the others are well worth reading. Thuggery is somewhat different - perhaps more interesting after reading the others and getting to know Patrick better (at which point people love or loathe him. I love him, myself).

[ex-lizzzar998.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip - I mistakenly logged in as Anonymous before.