13 replies to this topic

[Qwerty]

How old were you when you first read the James Bond short story collection, Octopussy & The Living Daylights? Anything stand out about it to you? Was it one of the first Bond novels/collections you had ever read?

[Daddy Bond]

Don't know how old I was. Haven't read it yet.

[Johnboy007]

I was 17 (it was only three weeks ago ). I was surprised how alike the story of TLD was to the bit in the film. I found Octopussy interesting, James Bond coming to confront the man that killed his skiing instructor. It was the last novel/short story of James Bond that I have read. No reasonable explanation as to why that is.

[OVERLORD]

It was the first Bond novel that I read, I think I was 11 at the time, I read The Hunt for Red October after it (just before the film came out).

[clinkeroo]

I was twelve. I was struggling through a French version (it wasn't available new in English in the late 70's) when I found a copy at a used bookstore.

Great stuff, with Octopussy, the story, being absolutely haunting.

[TortillaFactory]

I was 18 (I'm 19 now), it was the last I read - I was struck by the way Fleming paints Bond in TLD, and how it seems likely he'll get in trouble for what he did...again. Bond's forever in trouble with the boss. Insubordinate little S.O.B.

[MarcAngeDraco]

I was probably about 13 or so. I had read several of the Fleming novels previously, but it would have been the first short stories that I read. A Signet paperback version (so it included The Property of a Lady).

I don't recall my exact impressions (it was more than a few years ago now, ok so it was 20+ years ago), but I do recall the The Living Daylights was my favorite of the three stories at the time.

[Qwerty]

I'm guessing I was about 13 or 14. I remember getting the Signet paperback from a used bookstore and the “Octopussy” and “The Living Daylights” stories being my favourite.

[Jim]

Probably three. Or thirteen. Or eleven.

[TheSaint]

I read it before the movie came out so, I was probably 15. The funny thing about it is that I had to BEG my mom to buy it for me because I didn't have enough money. One would think that a parent would be glad to buy their teenaged child an actual novel.

[Johnboy007]

Is there any indication that Solange got her name from this collection?

[Flash1087]

I was 18, as I only read it last December.

Finished it on New Year's Eve, it was the last Fleming novel I had to read before I was finished with them. I wanted to have them all done by the end of the year.

Edited by Flash1087, 02 May 2006 - 04:02 AM.

[Robert Watts]

I was 14 and I read it on Saturday night and Sunday morning- somewhere between 11:45pm and 1:30am. Though I did read 'The Living Daylights' a week earlier, between Thunderball and The Spy Who Loved Me (it apparently takes place between the two chronologically) Now that I've finished them all I am on to On Her Majesty's Secret Service. So it came in between my 9th Fleming, my 10th and after the tenth, so technically it would be my 11th.

(Aren't I a mathematical genius )

[ACE]

It must have been Summer 1982.

I had spent that summer on a trip around continental Europe and had just come from Germany and Austria so could picture the scene.

I still love the description of the garlic sausage Oberhauser and Dexter-Smythe have on the mountain. I had a lot of that for picnic lunches. Didn't like it but the story made it sound delicious.

"Brrrr. How wincingly well Fleming writes!"