When I was a kid I was very much into the Oz books, all fourteen of them
Imagine my surprise at age 9 when I went with my parents to a mall in New Jersey and saw a slew of new ones!
Unbeknownst to me, Ruth Plumly Thompson had been appointed Royal Historian of Oz after Baum and wrote 19 more in the series.
It was like pulling teeth from my dickhead father to get even two books. He assured me I could get more later and was completely indifferent to why this was such a big deal to me.
Sure enough, they went out of print soon after and became impossible for me, as a child, to find.
Of the 19, 8 were public domain and reprinted as hardcover. The remaining 11 I tracked down as an adult.
Recently I decided to upgrade them to the hardcovers with dustjacket, and now I have all of the so-called Famous Forty (yep there were more after Thompson).
I listen to the Adam Carolla Show every day, gotta love the Aceman. Last week when announcing his dates, he said he'd be at Uncle Vinnie's Comedy Club in NJ. Shit, that's only half an hour from my house. When I looked it up, turns out he'd be playing at one of their satellite locations only 6 miles from his house! He did two shows, first a live podcast taping with Joe Devito and Joe Piscapo (who looked horrible, to be honest). Second show was stand-up with Rudy Pavich and Jim Florentine opening. Great evening, tons of laughs!