What Book(s) have you just Bought, Ordered or Taken Delivery Of? Showing 901-950 of 2,344

[Luke]

I wouldn't touch anything Burton translated with a fifty-nine-and-a-half-foot-pole, but that's good to know.

[ALLEN]

We are listening to the "suite" or "tone poem" called SCHEHERAZADE right now, an older (1958) recording with Anton Dorati helming the Minneapolis Orchestra. (There are many, many versions of this treat).

The music, which dates from 1888 (I think) consists of Rimsky-Korsakov's music with Borodin's orchestration. It is highly programmatic -- for example, when S. herself pleads with her master, it goes to beseeching solo violin (as if to say"Please don't kill me . . . ") and such. Many people consider it middlebrow but I like it.

[Michele]

BAM wrote: "Ok UPDATE: I have read 93 out of the 1001 books I am supposed to read before I die lol I have some catching up to do. Good news is I own quite a few of them"

Clearly you will not die for some time :)

[Franky]

ALLEN wrote: "Melanti,

Thanks for the info re the 1001 book list. That's such a huge number I can scarcely get my mind around it. (Does anyone read all of the "Thousand Nights and a Night" or "1001 Nights" as ..."

Allen, actually, I saw both film versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but it was quite awhile back, so I plan on watching both again. I remember enjoying the older version (from the 50s) much better, though.
What did you think of them?

[Melanti]

Aubrey wrote: "I wouldn't touch anything Burton translated with a fifty-nine-and-a-half-foot-pole, but that's good to know."

Yep. Lots of problems there. But if you want a "complete" choice, there's really only him and one other Victorian era translators, and the other guy also had problems.

I went with the Husain Haddawy translation and was really happy with it. Only 2 volumes long, but that was good enough for me.

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name]

Michelle, that's the plan! Infinite life span!

So Audible has a scyfy/fantasy sale right now, so I bought (with $ I dont have) Blood Song, 2001, and since so many of you discussed it-Canticle

Also I ordered the following from ThriftBooks: Light in August (ugh), Out of Africa, and 9 1/2 Weeks. ThriftBooks is currently giving 15 points for every $ spent, so that's a great deal.

[ALLEN]

OUT OF AFRICA is amazing.

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name]

Y’all! I went crazy this morning. I got on Netgalley and requested the hell out of the selections. I’ll tell you what I get.

Also I took 1001 and looked up the books in public domain; found a little over 100 of them to add to my classics shelf. As soon as one hits the twentieth century section nothing is free or even 0.99. So it’s going to take me my entire life to even collect all of these books unless I stop sleeping and utilize the library.

[ALLEN]

I couldn't find my old copy of THE SALTERTON TRILOGY (Robertson Davies), so I just ordered a new one for about four bucks from my favorite used-books site. To me, that's a real bargain: SALTERTON is one of my favorite suite of books, and while I won't say it has the stature of Davies' later DEPTFORD TRILOGY, it has a lot of laughs. Four bucks, used, for about 600 pages embracing three novels. Usually buying the middle one, LEAVEN OF MALICE, costs at least as much. (It's the one that won the annual Steven Leacock Medal for Humour in Canada, 1955).

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name]

ALLEN wrote: "I couldn't find my old copy of THE SALTERTON TRILOGY (Robertson Davies), so I just ordered a new one for about four bucks from my favorite used-books site. To me, that's a real bargain: SALTERTON i..."

Allen what is your favorite used books site?

[ALLEN]

Hi, BAM! My fave online vendor of used books is Thriftbooks. If I can figure out how to get a msg or email to you privately, I will expound on that. (I don't think it's wise for people to offer bookseller testimonials here at chat groups.)

There are other booksellers, of course. Amazon sells used, Abebooks (owned by Amazon) does too. Academics and others like Alibris. Some people use eBay. I'm sure there are some I don't know about.

[Pillsonista]

Ordered them today:



A Chill in the Air: An Italian War Diary, 1939-1940 and War in Val d'Orcia: An Italian War Diary, 1943-1944 by Iris Origo

I also picked up A Life by Italo Svevo and Daniel Mendelsohn's An Odyssey the day before yesterday.

[Darren]

recently snapped up Any Human Heart on Kindle offer for 99p

and yesterday took delivery of Folio Society edition of Pather Panchali: Song of the Road (just the 4.54 rating!)

which was my last outstanding book in the post, so I now have
nothing on its way!
:oO
(goes off to scour eBay/Amazon...)

[Pillsonista]

Darren wrote: "recently snapped up Any Human Heart on Kindle offer for 99p"

I want to read this so badly. There always seems to be some other book that distracts me at the last minute, but I absolutely loved A Good Man in Africa. Talk about an easy read...

[ALLEN]

Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime arrived today from Wordery. Hurray! It is "soon to be a major motion picture" -- by Spike Lee, in fact.

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

ALLEN wrote: "Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime arrived today from Wordery. Hurray! It is "soon to be a major motion picture" -- by Spike Lee, in fact."

Oh that looks very good. And a movie coming to boot.

[Allison]

Darren wrote: "recently snapped up Any Human Heart on Kindle offer for 99p
..."

Nice!

I should add that book to my tbr. I loved the miniseries!

[Carol]

ALLEN wrote: "Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime arrived today from Wordery. Hurray! It is "soon to be a major motion picture" -- by Spike Lee, in fact."

The trailer is most excellent.

I checked Black Klansman out from my library earlier this week.

[Carol]

I had a highly successful used book store trip!

Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe
Ocean Sea by Alessandro Baricco
Gilgi by Irmgard Keun
The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly by Sun-mi Hwang
and
I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson

[ALLEN]

I forgot to add that Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime was originally published several years ago by what sounds like a specialty pub. house (something like "Police and Fire Publishing," no kidding).

The current pbk. volume is a movie tie-in for the soon-to-be-released Spike Lee movie. Ordinarily I HATE buying tie-in paperbacks because they almost seem to announce "I never heard of this book until the movie went into production," but in my case that's quite true so I can't complain.

Image: Movie tie-in for BLACK KLANSMAN
(note medial "k" between BLACK and KLANSMAN)
I think it is based on the movie poster:

[ALLEN]

Carol wrote: "I had a highly successful used book store trip!"

Readers Corner?

[Laurie]

I had never heard of Black Klansman either until I read an article about Spike Lee a few days ago. The story sounds fascinating. I am eager to see what Allen and Carol think.

[Jess]

BAM wrote: "ALLEN wrote: "I couldn't find my old copy of THE SALTERTON TRILOGY (Robertson Davies), so I just ordered a new one for about four bucks from my favorite used-books site. To me, that's a real bargai..."

I'm not Allen (clearly) but I would also recommend Biblio. They are my preferred vendor as they invest money from book sales into building libraries in developing countries. I would also recommend BookButler as a price comparison site.

[Carol]

ALLEN wrote: "Carol wrote: "I had a highly successful used book store trip!"

Readers Corner?"

Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill.

[ALLEN]

Carol wrote: "ALLEN wrote: "Carol wrote: "I had a highly successful used book store trip!"

Readers Corner?"

Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill."

I'd love to go there sometime. If I moved to the Triangle, would I be obliged to hate Chapel Hill, the way Chicagoans loathe Evanstonians?

[ALLEN]

Jess wrote: "I'm not Allen (clearly) but I would also recommend Biblio. They are my preferred vendor as they invest money from book sales into building libraries in developing countries. I would also recommend BookButler as a price comparison site.

Jess, thank you twice! I'm going to recommend biblio to a friend of mine who is considering spending several hundred dollars for a slipcased Fellowship OTR trilogy.
And BookButler--what's better than an honest shopping bot!

[[deleted user]]

And another - Bookdonors in the UK sell second hand books & hire people who otherwise wouldn’t have work.

[Darren]

ok I lasted a whole 2 days without any books in transit to me,
before the book-buying shakes set in and I just had to order something!

bagged a nice inexpensive ex-library copy of Alfredo Véa's Gods Go Begging


the good thing is that it will take 2 weeks to arrive from the US so I can now relax for a while... ;o)

[ALLEN]

Darren wrote: "ok I lasted a whole 2 days without any books in transit to me,
before the book-buying shakes set in and I just had to order something!

bagged a nice inexpensive ex-library copy of [author:Alfredo..."

Darren, you are a man after my heart! A great deal on a great book and all the lovely agony of waaaaiiting! Have you considered thriftbooks.com (USA)? On our side of the Pond it takes about a week, probably two weeks for UK or Europe. Earlier this summer I snagged the Modern Library HC "Snopes Trilogy" for eight Yankee dollars* . . . you'd pay about an extra three bucks for semi-slow shipping. Under ten Pounds sterling!

* of course, not all "finds" are this serendipitous, but after all, that's a lot of the fun of thrift and used-book shopping.

[Darren]

ALLEN - I have used ThriftBooks actually - they list on AmazonMarketPlace in the UK and I have occasionally spotted some excellent bargains, most recently Federico de Roberto's The Viceroys (for £6something) and Heinrich Boll's Billiards at Half-Past Nine (for £4something)

oh, and keep meaning to mention: discussion threads for Confederacy of Dunces and Gorky Park are here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

[ALLEN]

Bless you, Darren! I had checked on the first but NIF.
Going there now.

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name]

Today I bought Audible versions of The Stand and The Sleeping Beauty Novels: The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty / Beauty's Release / Beauty's Punishment

Then from ThriftBooks I bought Chess Story and two more Canongate myths but I forgot which two lol

[ALLEN]

BAM wrote: "Today I bought Audible versions of The Stand and The Sleeping Beauty Novels: The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty / Beauty's Release / Beauty's Punishment

Then from Thrift..."

A little bird told me you have dipped a gentle toe into Medieval studies.
Any truth to that, B.?

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name]

Why yes Allen that is true! I received a present in the mail from a dear friend-a book with all of the facts. I can’t wait to read it my next week off.

[ALLEN]

The Gies ("Gieses" I suppose) were a husband and wife who wrote marvelous books about the era, and some others I don't recall.

Enjoy!

Right now we are watching THE LION IN WINTER (1968) for a bit of that period flavor.

[Carol]

BAM wrote: "Today I bought Audible versions of The Stand and The Sleeping Beauty Novels: The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty / Beauty's Release / Beauty's Punishment

Then from Thrift..."

That’s one hella diverse group of books!

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name]

I'm weird that way

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name]

I think I did that thing again when I buy a book I already own because I swore I didn't own it

[Melanti]

BAM wrote: "I think I did that thing again when I buy a book I already own because I swore I didn't own it"

That was the primary reason I joined Goodreads. I bought enough duplicates when I was buying paper editions and I didn't want to keep doing that with ebooks.

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name]

Well what’s stupid is I have an Own shelf. I just didn’t check it. I was that certain I needed to buy it. Luckily it was from Thriftbooks so only $3.79.

[ALLEN]

BAM wrote: "I think I did that thing again when I buy a book I already own because I swore I didn't own it"

B, it is no shame to wind up with a different edition of the same book, or even an exact duplicate. At the risk of "making lemonade from lemons," when I am so (accidentally) blessed I like to keep the books in different places in the house. I am somewhat mobility impaired, so having one copy in the living room and another by the bed is an "affordable luxury," especially since I usually have so much other stuff to lug (meds., water, other books) between the two places.

It's also lovely to have that extra book around in case you need an impromptu present or, as I have been known to do, send one to a fellow reading friend or GR friend.

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name]

True, Allen. It’s just that I do it so often. I even register for giveaways then get the book on Netgalley. So I end up with two that way too lol

[ALLEN]

It's so much fun to pull that ordering trigger, but as you imply, enough is enough and too much gets annoying -- not to mention expensive. In forty years of book reading and book collecting (some might say "book amassing"), I've only missed out on books about half a dozen times by not purchasing one right away. Especially today, it's almost always possible to pass on a book purchase and come back days, weeks, months or years later and purchase the same text then.

Here's one suggestion: Keep a hardcopy, paper-based record, like a small notebook of what you've ordered or may win. Keep it by your computer, and that way you won't have to open a new tab or make a mental note. This does not have to be an elaborate "bookkeeping" system, just something you check every week or so. Now that I am ordering more books from abroad, which can be quite slow to arrive, it's good to backstop the orders on paper.

I hasten to repeat I have wound up with duplicates or redundant copies, too. I think based on what you've told me, your goal should be to cut way down on over-ordering but don't be upset if perfection does not occur right away.

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name]

I started a preorder shelf. That’s helped a lot!

[ALLEN]

BAM wrote: "I started a preorder shelf. That’s helped a lot!"

You mean a virtual shelf here, at GR?

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name]

Yes sir. I used to have physical notebooks with various lists, but I was terrible at keeping the things updated.

[Jim]

It's your "to-buy" shelf, right, BAM? (I peeked.)

[Melanti]

I get around it by only shelving things here on GR once I've gotten a copy of my own. If I look it up on Goodreads and it's marked "To Read", I know I already own it.

[ALLEN]

The important thing is to find a system that works, and to apply it consistenly. (Again, who am I to preach?) It might help to think of every redundant book as a lost opportunity to buy one you really like, or a chance to buy lunch.)

[Luke]

Books from this month's library sale as well as my purchases from the used bookstore I always go to when visiting my sister.

Salt Fish Girl - Larissa Lai
The Pianist: The Extraordinary Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939–45 - Władysław Szpilman
The Black West: A Documentary and Pictoral History of the African American Role in the Westward Expansion of the United States - William Loren Katz
Another Life - Derek Walcott
The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor - Flannery O'Connor
Ancillary Sword - Ann Leckie (I didn't realize this was the sequel x_x Just my luck)
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism - Naomi Klein (!)
The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict - Austin Reed (!!!)

Barring the unfortunate incident of acquiring the second work in the series before the first, this is a fairly good haul. Half of these works I already had on the TBR, and I've read and liked the authors of most of the others.