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Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion
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Archived Chit Chat & All That
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What Book(s) have you just Bought, Ordered or Taken Delivery Of?
Tahs wrote: "Did you manage to find any independant online books stores? I've wanted to contribute to independant stores but i have none locally never thought about trying to find some online. So, if you did find any and it isn't a lot of trouble could you link them please. Thank you so muchhh!!"Not a problem. Here's the link: https://bookshop.org/
ex-library (Bradford Mechanics Institute, motto "Knowledge Is Power")1966 Heinemann first re-issue of 1956 first Great Britain edition hardback of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr Ripley, with original dust-cover in great condition (albeit covered in sticky-backed plastic)
:oD
Lanzarote by Michel Houellebecq. I really enjoyed Soumission, and want to get back into reading French again.
An absolute gem:
Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968 by Heda Margolis-Kovály
Received it in the mail two days ago and I'm already finished.
This was one of those books that makes me feel inadequate, because I have no life experience to compare to even a fraction of a fraction of what the author not only endured, but over which she eventually triumphed.
It's seems a miracle that she was able to keep any sanity at all. That she kept such incisive clear-sightedness amidst these cumulative horrors is a testament to Margolis-Kovaly's extraordinary character and humanity.
The Coral Merchant by Joseph Roth
Had to order this from overseas and I wasn't expecting to receive it until late November, so I was delighted that it came so soon.
Darren wrote: "snapped up 99p Kindle of Elizabeth Taylor's Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
"That one's been sitting on my TBR since 2012. The eternal struggle of catching up.
Probably my best haul since the quarantine began and it's kinda all over the place:www.bookshop.org has been a revelation. One-stop shop to support my favorite publishers and independent bookstores without having to resort to Amazon.
A number of the most recent NYRB Classics & Notting Hill Editions:
São Bernardo by Graciliano Ramos
Surviving: Stories, Essays, Interviews by Henry Green
Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson
Still Life With a Bridle: Essay and Apocryphas by Zbigniew Herbert
Journey to Armenia & Conversation about Dante by Osip Mandelstam
Words of Fire by Ahad Ha'am !!!
A variety of fiction:
Stefan Zweig's Amok
William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra & The Winter's Tale
Anton Checkov's Plays: Ivanov; The Seagull; Uncle Vanya; Three Sisters; The Cherry Orchard
Black Swans: Stories by Eve Babitz
Reproduction by Ian Williams
And then topped off with history, philosophy, and literary analysis:
A Confession and Other Religious Writings by Leo Tolstoy
K. by Roberto Calasso
The Music of Time: Poetry in the Twentieth Century by John Burnside
Philosophy Between the Lines: The Lost History of Esoteric Writing by Arthur M. Melzer
The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, & the End of an Empire by Kyle Harper
Bryan Ward-Perkins's The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization
Diary of a Provincial Lady. According to The Guardian, it's the Downton Abbey version of Bridget Jones' Diary. Can't wait!
Michele, that sounds great! It just went on my TBR list.
1989 1st edition hardback (with dustcover in v.good condition) of Jeanette Winterson's Sexing the Cherry
wacky cover art:
Darren wrote: "1989 1st edition hardback (with dustcover in v.good condition) of Jeanette Winterson's Sexing the Cherry
wacky cover art:
"That's... that's certainly a cover there. O_O
Cendaquenta wrote: "Darren wrote: "1989 1st edition hardback (with dustcover in v.good condition) of Jeanette Winterson's Sexing the Cherry
wacky cover art:
"That's... that's certainly a cover there. O_O "
it is, isn't it?!
strangely enough, it wasn't used on any later editions ;o)
Cendaquenta wrote: That's... that's certainly a cover there. O_O"Almost as weird as the book itself seems to be.
DaytimeRiot, what a fantastic selection! Clicking through some of your titles, I got the feeling I get while I'm in a used bookstore, browsing my favorite shelves. Thanks for sharing your list.
Kaila wrote: "DaytimeRiot, what a fantastic selection! Clicking through some of your titles, I got the feeling I get while I'm in a used bookstore, browsing my favorite shelves. Thanks for sharing your list."Thank you, Kaila!
I'm glad my list was able to give you even a moment of nostalgic happiness.
One of the things that I most miss is just being able to get lost among the shelves of my favorite local bookstore, because I took for granted, during times of "normalcy", that things could ever be any other way.
Maybe I should join some of the challenge threads, if only to be able, through my love of reading, to browse my shelves again? Who knows what surprises might turn up.
And to keep on topic, I did order another book and I. can. not. wait. to read it:
Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World by Tom Holland
His Rubicon and Dynasty were absolutely addicting reads that I couldn't put down.
The greatest compliment I can pay Tom Holland is that he is not an academic (though he may well be). He's a scholar. A genuine scholar who makes history not only accessible to the everyday reader, but downright entertaining without diminishing the significance of the events he's writing about.
A host of writers whom I respect have had nothing but glowing praise for Dominion, so I can't wait to get my hands on it. And if it measures up to the quality, let alone the enjoyableness, of Rubicon and Dynasty, then I'm in for a gift.
And for good measure I also ordered his book The Forge of Christendom: The End of Days and the Epic Rise of the West , just to see how the whole thing started:
Plus a couple of late arrivals:
On the Natural History of Destruction by W.G. Sebald
The Collected Poems of James Laughlin
& Uncle Fred in Springtime by P.G. Wodehouse
DaytimeRiot wrote: "Kaila wrote: "DaytimeRiot, what a fantastic selection! Clicking through some of your titles, I got the feeling I get while I'm in a used bookstore, browsing my favorite shelves. Thanks for sharing ..."I'm glad to see your praise of Tom Holland. I have Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic on my shelf and I've been meaning to read it for a few years. I need to bump it up my TBR.
I’m fortunate to live in an area with 2 independent book stores that deliver. They’re...not fast... but I do want to see them both survive. My recent deliveries included Excellent Women, The Plague and I, The Slaves of Solitude, and Corregidora. Can anyone tell I’m a Backlisted fan?Started The Plague and I which is very amusing and definitely the thing to read right now.
Irphen wrote: "I just bought Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters, which I started reading right away^^"I've been wanting to read that one one of these days.
Franky wrote: "Irphen wrote: "I just bought Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters, which I started reading right away^^"I've been wanting to read that one one of these days."
I enjoy it pretty much until now through unfortunally enough I don't have that much time to read this days!
Mod
Pavilion of Women: A Novel of Life in the Women's Quarters by Pearl S. Buck
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry - which I have been talking about reading for at least a year now.
and
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré
I also bought a few kindle items recently. I use Bookbub for kindle bargains:
The Comedians by Graham Greene
and
East of Eden by John Steinbeck This will be a reread, but since I checked it out from my High School library many years ago, I ordered a copy. I have only the vaguest memories of this book.
From a Buick 8. For some reason I thought this was a short story collection and that I'd read it ages ago. Very happy to discover I was wrong on both counts -- like Christmas in June to find I have an unknown SK to read!
I got all 7 novels of Jane Austen as well as Dracula and Rebecca
Aila wrote: "I got all 7 novels of Jane Austen as well as Dracula and Rebecca"Nice haul! Have you read all of them before, or will some of them be a "first" for you?
Lynn, you have some great reading ahead!
not if you read the first couple, decide you don't like Jane Austen, then you're stuck with the other five!;o)
Good thing there are libraries and used book stores that would be happy to take such off your hands (outside of quarantine, of course).
by Dorinda OutramHave recently ordered the third edition of this book and looking forward to reading the extra content and comparing it with the first edition.
It just came in the mail this morning!
The End of Me by Alfred Hayes (and what great use of a Saul Leiter photograph)
So now, along with In Love and My Face for the World to See, I have Hayes's thematic trilogy about the death of modern love. He's an example of truly great forgotten author.
I picked up
The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke and
Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut at the Kindle Store this morning.
I just got this delivered:
. It's an alternate history fantasy set in the Congo, sounds fascinating.
Kirsten #blacklivesmatter #keeppoliceaccountable wrote: "I picked up The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke and [bookcover:Arctic Summer|1880..."I'd like to think Clarke will release the sequel to JS&MN sometime in my lifetime. Here's hoping.
Cendaquenta wrote: "I just got this delivered: . It's an alternate history fantasy set in the Congo, sounds fascinating."I saw someone talk about this yesterday on Booktube and it does sound interesting.
Cendaquenta wrote: "I just got this delivered: Everfair. It's an alternate history fantasy set in the Congo, sounds fascinating."I've had that on my list for a while, it looks really interesting.
I think that I’ve mostly bought true crime the last couple of months. The main used bookstore just opened last weekend, but I need to purge my shelves badly before I buy anything new.
Our local used bookstore, Nine Lives, was open for business again (everyone wearing masks) and I was happy to visit again at last and thrilled to find a 1977 Folio edition of the Lord of the Rings trilogy in excellent condition! I feel like a found a treasure! =D
Mod
I wasn't planning on buying many books this year anyway, in an attempt to reduce the height of my TBR pile - which peaked at 200 and I now have down to 120
I have noticed that second-hand prices on eBay and Amazon have been creeping up - presumably cos of increased demand and reduced supply during lockdown
I still manage to find the odd bargain though ;o)
Just received TOWARDS A NEW ARCHITECTURE, first published in 1923 by le Corbusier.
Just picked up the 1940s memoir
No Picnic on Mount Kenya: The Story of Three POWs' Escape to Adventure by Felice Benuzzi and the historical spy thriller
Then We Take Berlin by John Lawton at the Kindle Store.
Indy bookstores in the UK are about to re-open: https://www.theguardian.com/books/pic...
(courtesy of Guardian)
ALLEN wrote: "Indy bookstores in the UK are about to re-open..."Yay bookstores!!!!
Just ordered it today:
De Gaulle by Julian Jackson, one of the leading historians of 20th century France.
A 900 page+ biography about the Man of Destiny.
The English translations of De Gualle's own writings (not to mention his speeches) are multi-volume, so it's great to find a worthy single volume about his life, which is also the history of 20th century France (just because De Gaulle himself also believed the two were one and the same does not mean that he was wrong).
And man, for better or worse, they don't make them like this anymore.
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Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)
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One of the great things about Bookshop.org is that it's a conglomeration of independent publishers and bookshops, so you can search for a particular bookstore or book publisher.
So if you, say, type in the title of a book you're looking for or even just a general subject like 'fiction' or 'fantasy' or whatever, it will automatically direct you to the bookstores and/or publishers carrying that book (or books). And the money goes directly back to the bookshops and publishers.