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?
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Due to a random vid i ran into about Absurdism. I decided to buy this book by the poster. 
Poems for the Lost Because I'm Lost Too by Exurb1a .Hadn't planned to buy anything else this quick after my last major purchase but we have one of those free delivery trials and it suddenly occurred to me there might be a limited number of copies.
I just bought the following audiobooks: The Godfather by Mario Puzo, George Marshall: Defender of the Republic by David L Roll, It by Stephen King, The Help by Kathryn Stockett,Harry Potter and the Socerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling, The Secret History by Donna Tartt, and Atonement by Ian McEwan.In September I will finish the remaining books in my “Baker’s Dozen” challenges and increasing books made into movies - an ongoing reading goal.
I just picked up Lafcadio's Adventures by André Gide from my local thrift store, this edition is from 1953. I was intrigued by the color drawing on the cover, and that the author won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947. This book was originally published under the title Les caves du Vatican in 1914, the first English edition was published under the title: The Vatican Swindle in 1925. I didn't see it in the group's bookshelves, wondering if anyone has read it or if it has been up for nomination.
The last piece i wanted for my Biography of Manuel collection, hve finally arrived. I've read all but 4 of the books already as e-copies, but it will be nice when i finally get around to a reread of them all in physical editions.Now the real work begins :P . Since the books are from all sorts of sources and are widely different in heights and depths, i'm breaking out the cereal boxes and trying to construct a container for them.
Not only will they all be together but i'm making steps and blocks to try to make them all flush both in height and depth.
I have part of the box constructed and you can see the start of the steps below the far left book.
All the books that look medieval are print-on-demand leather bound editions, some of them are quite absurdly large but they'll do.
I'll update if i ever get this construction completed. It should be about two to three layers of cereal box thick in the end and covered by black paper.
Books I bought myself in the last month or two:Book of Queens: The True Story of the Middle Eastern Horsewomen Who Fought the War on Terror
From The Snow Leopard To Mayakovsky
Demon Copperhead
Rough Magic: Riding the World's Loneliest Horse Race
Received for Christmas:
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Books I bought my nieces and nephews for Christmas:
Greek Myths: A Wonder Book For Girls & Boys
MARINE ANIMALS Animal Encyclopedia Activity Journal, Includes Stickers & Poster
Superpowered Animals by Soledad Romero Marino
Build Up your Vehicles
Ahh January.. a time for spending xmas money on BOOKS!I have treated myself to a few that have recently arrived:
Thunder In the Mountains: The West Virginia Mine War, 1920-21 Savage, Lon 1985
The Zone Dovlatov, Sergei 1982
62: A Model Kit Cortazar, Julio 1969
Variations on Night and Day (Cities Of Salt #3) Munif, Abd al-Rahman 1989
The Face of Another Abe, Kobo 1964
and two that are on pre-order for exciting new editions later this year!
The Obscene Bird of Night: unabridged, centennial edition Donoso, José 1970
Men of Maize Asturias, Miguel Ángel 1949
+ no cover released yet for the Men of Maize!
Bright Star: A children's book with beautiful illustrations and an ambiguous and allegorical storyline about wild animals (featuring a baby deer) living on the borderland in the Sonoran desert... I gifted it to a coworker in commemoration of a new child.
Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum: I live near the facility this book was written about, and have attended meeting about what should be done now with the land. Also, Henrietta Lack's daughter was admitted to this asylum and her brief and tragic story was recorded as part of the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. This book was just released on Tuesday and I'm picking up my copy today.
Darren wrote: "...The Obscene Bird of Night: unabridged, centennial edition Donoso, José 1970..."Oh this looks like something I need...lol.
Amyzed, I saw an advert.for the Madness book. Having previously read of the heartbreak of Henrietta Lack's daughter, I am even more interested in this book. Those of us who are different not in medically recognized ways yet accepted within ethnic spaces can get caught up in medical machinery.This book Madness goes up higher in the possibility list.
Recently with a nonfiction GR group I read The Six: The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts by Loren Grush--not impressive. However another reader pointed out that Richard Feynmann wrote about the Space Shuttle Challenger in What Do You Care What Other People Think: Further Adventures of a Curious Character. Since this the sequel to Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character, I have bought both and hope to them sooner than later/never.
I just bought Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power by Leah Redmond Chang. I saw it on the long list for the Women's Prize in Nonfiction and thought it looked interesting. It seems pretty readable, and I don't actually know anything about any of these women except a tiny bit about Mary Queen of Scots, so it will be great to learn more.I won't actually start it till I finish A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599, which is almost done. And I'm part way into The Wolf Age: The Vikings, the Anglo-Saxons and the Battle for the North Sea Empire.
Picked up a cheap but nice secondhand penguin edition of The Kon-Tiki Expedition
while looking for something else at the bookshop.Wanted a hardcopy for a while but was never sure a version bought online would have the photos included. This one seems to have everything i want though.
Wreade1872 wrote: "Picked up a cheap but nice secondhand penguin edition of The Kon-Tiki Expedition while looking for something else at the bookshop.Wanted ..."
That looks pretty nice. I always frequent the "used book sales" from the local library and sometimes find some nice gems.
A book I've been interested in reading for a while
and another that I finally made the leap for
From Harvington Hall History Festival-signed by their authors who were both excellent speakers:The Son of Prophecy: The Rise of Henry Tudor and Henry VII and the Tudor Pretenders: Simnel, Warbeck, and WarwickbyNathen Amin
Young and Damned and Fair: The Life and Tragedy of Catherine Howard at the Court of Henry VIIIandThe Palace: From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 Years of Royal History at Hampton CourtbyGareth Russell
I just finished Murder By The Book: Mysteries For Bibliophiles by Martin Edwards. This was a surprise find at my local used book store. At the same visit I found The Port of London Murders by Josephine Bell, a new to me author and also from the British Library Crime Classics series. In addition I picked up Wildfire at Midnight by Mary Stewart for a reread and The Lighted Heart by Elizabeth Yates, a nonfiction memoir by an author I loved as a young girl.
Teri-K wrote: "I just finished Murder By The Book: Mysteries For Bibliophiles by Martin Edwards. This was a surprise find at my local used book store. At the same visit I found [boo..."Teri, I read [book:Nine Coaches Waiting|27695] and The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart and enjoyed them both. I'll have to look into Wildfire at Midnight
Franky wrote: "Teri-K wrote: "I just finished Murder By The Book: Mysteries For Bibliophiles by Martin Edwards. This was a surprise find at my local used book store. At the same vis..."I haven't read Wildfire in decades. I don't think it will rate with my favorites, but I'm eager to try it again. Her books are almost always fun.
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Bought the third book by Lindsay Ellis,
Apostles of Mercy.It took some doing as the store proved elusive. I had to get it in person as most of the ones online said Export Edition, i don't even know if the one i purchased is or isn't that.
However its the height and width i was worried about so this one is definitely the right size to fit beside the first two books.
Hopefully this one is also more upbeat because the last book was... rough.
I watched Genius, a truly beautiful movie about Thomas Wolfe. The movie included excepts from his writing, and now have the complete Delphi works on eBook.
Before going on vacation I bought the book (Home is where the bodies are), by Jeneva Rose, and currently while on my road trip into Florida I bought (the selected works of Edgar Allan Poe. I am currently reading both books 📚!
I have recently bought Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. Looking forward to reading it soon after avoiding spoilers for so long!
Matt wrote: "Eleanor wrote: "I have recently bought Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. Looking forward to reading it soon after avoiding spoilers for so long!"I hope you enjoy [book:Y..."
Thank you Matt! I’m on holiday in a couple of weeks so it will be my poolside read.
Matt wrote: "I did a little bit of book shopping today. Picked up some books I’m pretty excited about:
Journey to the End of the Night by [author:L..."84 Charing Cross Road is an old favorite of mine. My Dad loved Kon TIki and I remember enjoying it, too, though it's been years since I read it. I hope you enjoy your new books!
I order a lot of books that I hear about and want to read directly through Bookshop.org, but I recently was thinking about the lovely serendipitous ways that visiting a bookstore or library can introduce something unexpected.I had been trying to make time to visit a local small non-chain bookstore with a coffee shop for the past few months, envisioning taking a friend along to enjoy the experience. We finally popped in last weekend, but it was very crowded and the coffee line was very long. I found myself stuck in a little corner of the shop and found two books to take home:
Mrs. Dalloway - I am not well-read when it comes to Virginia Woolf. I was hoping to find To the Lighthouse but maybe this will be a good starting place.
The Tsar of Love and Techno- I love the power of short stories to surprise and to revitalize my reading habits. I've been reading Paradise Lost for a long time, switching up between close reading/examination of the text and a more surface-level read, and I'm finally almost done. I think some short stories if not the whole collection would be a nice change. This book partly appeals to me because the stories can stand on their own but also are interrelated and form a larger tale, as far as I can tell. Anthony Mara's name was recognizable to me, and I would love to hear any feedback from others who have read him.
Amyjzed wrote: "I order a lot of books that I hear about and want to read directly through Bookshop.org, but I recently was thinking about the lovely serendipitous ways that visiting a bookstore or library can int..."Congratulations on taking advantage of being stuck in that corner! I recently started looking for serendipity at my local library. It's very small and doesn't carry much of what I read, but one day I was in there picking up an ILL and I thought "There must be some books here I would enjoy if I tried them".
So now when I have time I pick a shelf, or letter of the alphabet, and peruse every book looking for what I might like to read. I've DNFs some things, but also found some interesting reading, too.
Mod
I recently purchased new from Amazon:His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass / The Subtle Knife / The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
The Perennial Philosophy: An Interpretation of the Great Mystics, East and West by Aldous Huxley
And purchased used from ebay:
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Right now I'm just relishing the sight and feeling of them newly resting on my bookshelves. Adding new books to your own collection is so much fun. =)
HC, nice. One of the small handful of great Shannara books. Good find.
Picked up the latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid book for my youngest grandson and that let me get 50% off The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England by Dan Jones. I've had my eye on it for a while, so I'm happy!
Matt wrote: "Teri-K wrote: "Picked up the latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid book for my youngest grandson and that let me get 50% off The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England by..."Thans, Matt. I'm excited to start it in a couple of days. I loved Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages!
I have just ordered James by Percival Everett and Held by Anne Michaels ready for a Booker Prize event I’m attending in a couple of weeks
I made a resolution this year to bring my TBR pile down from 120 to 80as of late, I had it down to 92, with a further 15 planned to read before end of 31st Dec, so leeway of 3, so going to be close...
buuuuutt... I just bought 3 more (holds head in hands weeping)
found an irresistible Folio Society edition of Balzac's "Cousin Pons", and I could get 20% off if I bought 2 more, so I got (what transpired to be a first edition) Vineland by Pynchon, and a paperback of "G." by John Berger
Darren wrote: "I made a resolution this year to bring my TBR pile down from 120 to 80as of late, I had it down to 92, with a further 15 planned to read before end of 31st Dec, so leeway of 3, so going to be clo..."
Ah, Darren, I feel your joy/pain! In 2023 I got my physical TBR from 154 to 82 - which felt great. I had a more modest goal this year of getting it to 30. But it's at 53 due to those wonderful, but pesky, great finds at thrift stores and sales. I've bought 8 just this month! sigh. Ah, well, it's an excuse to keep reading, right?
NB - Everybody's TBR is up to them; it should be at a place you feel comfortable. I dislike owning a lot of unread books, so that's me. YMMV
just for the record, I did actually bring my TBR down to 80 exactly by end of 2024 :oDthis even includes the book I asked for (and got!) for crimbo, namely Krasznahorkai's Satantango
first of the (several!) books that I will be purchasing with crimbo money arrived today:dinky little hardback of Douglas Coupland's Girlfriend In A Coma
Although I already own a Poe story collection, I just bought another version of
that I would like to read soon because I've never read this one and it seems like a very different Poe read than I'm used to.
for my birthday (back at the end of January) my daughter bought me just what I wanted:Clarice Lispector's Hour of the Star
and, finally a few days ago there arrived the (long ago pre-ordered and much deferred) UK release of the new translation of Asturias's Men of Maize
:oD
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Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)
Books mentioned in this topic
Men of Maize (other topics)Hour of the Star (other topics)
A Descent into the Maelstrom (other topics)
Girlfriend In A Coma (other topics)
Satantango (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Peter Ackroyd (other topics)Percival Everett (other topics)
Anne Michaels (other topics)
Philip Pullman (other topics)
Charles Dickens (other topics)
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So Cabell strung 20 or so of his novels together into a single mythos and Preface to the Past contains commentaries on each of them along with a couple of other essays.
It's the closest equivalent you’ll ever find in litereature to the directors commentary track on a dvd :lol . Still it wasn’t too expensive despite being from 1936 and coming with a dustcover in pretty decent shape.
An interesting artefact though as it was clearly a very cheap printing using really coarse paper (i think it would be half the width with good paper) and the cutting and pasting is actually quite bad with many pages being of different lengths.