Getting Your Hands on I Still Dream About You Fannie Flagg
I've been ordering used and rare books for about fifteen years, and I Still Dream About You by Fannie Flagg comes up more often than you'd think. Most people know her from Fried Green Tomatoes, but this 1993 novel gets a surprisingly steady trickle of requests. I figured I'd write down how to actually track down a copy, since the process is a bit more annoying than it should be. It's a contemporary women's fiction novel set partly in Alabama, following a woman named Callie whose life gets upended when she inherits her aunt's house and uncovers some family secrets. The tone is similar to her other work - warm, small-town Southern setting, a bit of mystery threaded through domestic drama. Flagg's prose isn't literary pretension. It's straightforward storytelling aimed at readers who want something comfortable but with a decent plot to hold onto. The hardcover first edition came out in 1993 with a dust jacket that had a somewhat generic floral design. The paperback followed a year or so later. Neither is particularly rare, but certain editions sell out faster than others on reseller sites.
Where to actually find it
Amazon generally has used copies in the $3 to $8 range, mostly paperbacks in fair to good condition. That's the fastest route if you just want to read it. BookFinder.com and AbeBooks aggregate listings from smaller dealers, and you'll occasionally find a cleaner used copy there for similar prices. Half Price Books has them sometimes, though their inventory shifts constantly depending on whatever their regional buyers pulled that season. For the first edition hardcover, you're looking at AbeBooks or Etsy sellers who specialize in vintage trade paperbacks and hardcovers. Prices run anywhere from $15 to $50 depending on dust jacket condition. The dust jacket is where most people get burned - copy the jacket condition carefully before buying. I once spent twenty minutes writing to a seller who described a jacket as "fine" only to find it had a partial tear along the top edge and significant fading. The listing photos made it look fine too, so I learned to ask for close-up shots of the spine and corners specifically.
Edition specifics and what to watch for
There are a few different printings of the paperback, and the ISBNs shift between them. The original Bantam paperback carries ISBN 978-0-553-08177-0. Later reprints may have different ISBNs. If you're collecting and need the true first printing, look for the copyright page that says "First Edition" or has the numeral line reading 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1. Most bookstores don't bother listing that detail, which is why I always check the photo of the copyright page before purchasing a first edition. Audiobook versions exist through Random House Audio, narrated by Fullers. They're widely available on Audible and through library apps like Libby. If you just want to experience the story, the audiobook is a perfectly reasonable route and takes about nine hours.
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Pitfalls I keep running into
The biggest issue is availability in libraries. Many public libraries rotated their Flagg backlist out of circulation a few years ago, so if you're hoping to borrow it through Interlibrary Loan, you might get bounced around between three or four systems before something surfaces. Not impossible, just time-consuming. Check your local library's catalog first before jumping through those hoops. Another thing: Fannie Flagg still writes and publishes occasionally, so listings sometimes conflate her newer releases with I Still Dream About You. I've accidentally ordered the wrong book twice because the search results mixed up titles. Double-check the publication year and the cover image before confirming any purchase. Takes thirty seconds and saves you the return shipping headache. For anyone who wants to read this one, it's readily available at decent prices. Nothing obscure or expensive here. The main friction is just making sure you actually get the right version and that the condition matches what you're paying for.
