Joseph ’s Comments (group member since Jul 28, 2009)

Joseph ’s comments from the Book Buying Addicts Anonymous group.

In the last week, I've picked up:

I'm starting the month off right. A couple orders from a couple different sources all were on my doorstep at the same time:

April shower bring May flowers, and books, but everything brings us books, right? Share your April book buys here.

I've read 89 of 300 books which puts me currently 16 books ahead of schedule.

Emily Jean wrote: ""7. That feeling of homecoming when you reread your favorite book (series). Again.
Oh, Harry Potter. Need I say more? Sniff."

This is me, right now.

We definitely need specific words for these se..."

That makes me think of it being something like a "reader reunion." How's that sound?

Lára wrote: "
I said I won't buy anything for a while since I have no more room for books but I failed. I bought one, just an hour ago, the temptation was just to big :("

Lára, there is always room for books. Just get rid of things in the way like the sofa or bed. ;-)

I had a blast at this weekend at C2E2, the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo. I came home with autographs from 29 different authors and illustrators. I got these books autographed:
A New Dawn signed by John Jackson Miller
ARC of Hilo Book 2: Saving the Whole Wide World signed by Judd Winick
ARC of A Hundred Thousand Worlds signed by Bob Proehl
Alice signed by Christina Henry
Working Stiff signed by Kevin J. Anderson
ARC of Age of Myth signed by Michael J. Sullivan
A Study in Charlotte signed by Brittany Cavallaro
Ink and Bone signed by Rachel Caine
Bitter Medicine, Blood Shot, Tunnel Vision, and Deadlock signed by Sara Paretsky
The Wicked Will Rise, Yellow Brick War, Dorothy Must Die: Stories, and Dorothy Must Die: Stories Vol. 2 signed by Danielle Paige

And I also got these authors' and illustrators' autographs, too:
Claudia Gray
Jody Lynne Nye
Tim Lees
Alex Gordon
Jeffrey Brown
Mikki Kendall
Grady Hendrix
Neil Hayes
Irvine Welsh
Adam Bray
Steve Bein
Mark Tompkins
Kathryn Purdie
Sarah Raasch
Lisa Yee
Michelle Hauck
Bradley Beaulieu
Rachel Dunne
Heidi Heilig
Cori McCarthy
Erika o'rourke
Christa Desir
Peter Kujawinski
Ozge Samanci
Judd Winick
Paul Tobin
Art Baltazar
Lexie Dunne
Kelley Grant

I had a blast this weekend at C2E2, the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo. I came home with 5 free ARCs:
4 free books:
and 3 books I bought:

https://www.thereadingroom.com/articl...

Published January 31, 2016

There are so many genres, and even more sub-genres; this list could go on forever. It is more than likely that you have heard of one or more of these genres, but some genres are so exact and obscure that we had no idea they existed! How many of these have you heard of?



Bangsian: Named after John Kendrick Bangs, a popular writer of this fantasy genre, Bangsian fantasy features famous literary or historical figures interacting with the afterlife. Books of this genre include:

The Ghost Bride by Yangzee Choo

Damned by Chuck Palahniuk



Shenmo:Another fantasy genre, Shenmo fiction is also known as Gods and Demons fantasy and is founded on Chinese mythology. Books of this genre include:

Journey to the West by We Cheng’en

The Investiture of the Gods by Xu Zhonglin



Bildungsroman: Chances are that you are already familiar with this genre, however you may not have known this specific German word for it. Bildungsroman encompasses a coming of age novel with specific focus on the psychological, moral, and social shaping of the a character (usually the protagonist). The genre/term was coined during the German Enlightenment. Many classic and extremely popular books are considered Bildungsroman, including:

Jane Erye by Charlotte Bronte

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky



Wuxia: The direct translation of wuxia is “martial hero.” It is a Chinese fiction, martial arts genre that features chivalrous protagonists on adventures filled with swords, sorcery, and - you guessed it - martial arts. Best-selling Chinese author Jin Yong is one of the most prolific writers of the Wuxia a genre.



Comedy of Manners: This name of this genre says it all. The comedy of manners genre is a satire of manners and the pretension of social class(es). Historically, there tended to be at least one stock character (a stereotype recognizable by audience). Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing is often regarded as the first comedy of manners. Others include:

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

Boston Marriage by David Mamet



Hard-boiled: This genre shares the setting and characters of crime fiction, but its realism and naturalism sets it apart. Detectives in hard-boiled fiction are much more cynical and somber, the (usually urban) setting is more seedy, and the writing is more graphic and violent. The dialogue is quick and filled with slang. Books of this genre include:

Double Indemnity by James M. Cain

The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson



Hard Science Fiction vs. Soft Science Fiction: It is likely that a majority of audiences have heard of hard and soft science fiction, but before researching them, I did not know what they exactly entailed. Hard science fiction features detailed, well-researched, and plausible situations, while soft science fiction is not detailed science, and focuses more on cultural, social, and political interactions. Here’s an example of each:

The Martian by Andy Weir (Hard Sci-Fi)

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (Soft Sci-Fi)



Then there are some interesting sub-genres of science fiction:

Feminist Science Fiction: This is a sub genre of soft science fiction which deals particularly with women’s roles in society, and reflect the trepidation women have about their future. Feminist sci-fi is often set in a dystopian world with heightened gender inequality, reflecting the need for continued feminist work (in the real present). Books of this genre include:

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler



Planetary Romance: Most of the action in planetary romance takes place on exotic alien planets and is focused on the interactions between the characters and their world. Books of this genre include:

Dune by Frank Herbert

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs



Punk: has numerous sub-genres, but overall the punk literary genre is categorized by the use of distinct technologies and sciences. There is usually a group of people fighting government corruption (based on the ideologies of punk rock) in a cynical or dystopian setting. Sub-genres include:



Cyberpunk: A world where people have been physically or mentally enhanced.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline



Steampunk: The story takes place around when steam power first came into use, around the 19th century during the Industrial Revolution, with elements of science fiction and fantasy. Along with science-fiction, steampunk is generally thought of as speculative fiction as well.

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld



Biopunk: Biopunk stories present genetics and biological experiments gone wrong, focusing on the harmful effects of a character’s creation when they change an animal or human’s DNA and it turns them into something violent. This sub genre also falls under ‘horror.’

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi



What genre would you add to this list?

http://bookriot.com/2014/03/24/owning...

IS OWNING BOOKS AS GOOD AS READING THEM?
RACHEL MANWILL
03-24-14
Confession: I own over 850 books that I haven’t read.

That’s more than double the number of books I own that I HAVE read. I discovered this startling number as I was organizing and cataloguing the books in my apartment in preparation for The Book Jar project. No longer confined to a small jar, the slips of paper with titles and authors quickly spilled over into a small box.

The book JarI have more books than I could possibly read in several decades (considering my average pace of 50+ books/year) but I still continue to buy new titles, adding more and more to my never-ending TBR list. Even books that I was completely over the moon for that I picked up during the last three editions of Book Expo have gone unread. In fact, the percentage of books I got at BEA that have been read is…dismally low.

Shouldn’t I get rid of some of these books, these physical reminders that there will never be enough time to read all the things I want to read? I should, I know. But I, at some point, thought that I would like each book enough that I was willing to spend money (or in the case of BEA, physical labor) on it. So presumably I still will, whenever I get around to it.

There are many “big” books in my expanding, unread library – books that had an impact when they were released and continue to have an impact on literary culture and communities. Books like Freedom by Jonathan Frazen, Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz languish. And often, so often that I’ve made a joke out of it, I will reply to a query about whether I’ve read this book or that that I “own but haven’t read it.”

But these books – especially those “big” books – I feel in some ways that just having them on my shelves means something, that it’s better than nothing. I feel like I’m doing something with those books, even if that “something” isn’t reading them. I don’t know if that feeling is about supporting the authors either through money or awareness or if its about intellectual acceptance – I know OF a book, I was current enough with the trends to buy it – or if its about none of those things and I truly believe that time will slow and someday, I will get around to reading each and every one of these unread volumes.

If there ever was a moment for me to adjust this mode of thinking, it would’ve been when I packed and unpacked so many unread books in my most recent move or when I spent hours and hours cataloguing books and then cutting strips of paper so I could fish a random slip out of a jar, one at a time. But this particular piece of baggage is not one I seem to be able to unpack (nor can I unhook myself from the compulsion to buy new books). Do I really want to?

Do you?

Got a couple more from Time-Life series books from Thriftbooks: and

Is your book buying going to start like a lion or a lamb this March? Share your March purchases here.

Don't mean to brag, just wanted to share an achievement that caught me by surprise. Back on March 1st in 2015, my personal library reached and past 7000 items, 7009 to be exact. Now today on Feb. 29, 2016, one year later, my collection totals 8018! Can you believe in one year, I've added over 1000 items to my bookcases? And this is only the last day of February! Maybe I ought to start a pool on placing bets where I'm going to end up by Dec. 31, huh? I sure have no idea, but I sure am looking forward to find out. :-) Happy collecting and reading all.

Another couple orders arrived:

Had some more shopping fun yesterday.
At Anderson's Bookshop I bought autographed copies of
and at the public library in the same neighborhood as the bookstore I bought used:

I made a killing in autographs at Anderson's Bookshop yesterday. I went to get Brandon Sanderson's autograph on The Rithmatist, Firefight, and Calamity and I also ended up buying already signed copies of Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics by Chris Grabenstein, Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit, and Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin and Jack: The True Story of Jack and the Beanstalk by Liesl Shurtliff.

Have you thought about what will happen to your books when you are gone? I don't have kids or pets to be concerned about, but from time to time I do wonder what will happen to my library when I'm gone. Do you have plans of some sort? Do you have anything in your will to designate certain titles to certain people, for example? Thanks in advance for sharing.

Ashley *Hufflepuff Kitten* wrote: " started collecting these again :)"

Got the old covers or the new ones?

I got a cute title at the local school's Scholastic book fair: