Goodreads Ireland discussion
Stuff Worth Sharing
>
Recently bought (acquired) books!
message 1501:
by
Allan
(new)
Mar 07, 2015 04:19PM
Just keep adding them to the pile, Barbara! :)
reply
|
flag
I was browsing through my Amazon 'saved for later' basket there, and noticed that an OCR reproduction of The History and Antiquities of the County of the Town of Carrickfergus, from the Earliest Records Till 1839: Also a Statistical Survey of Said County was available for £2, down from around a tenner when I'd put it in my basket a number of years ago. I couldn't resist, and in order to get free postage, also ordered My Brilliant Friend, which I know that Cathleen really enjoyed, and I've been meaning to buy for a while. Given that both were bought with part of a voucher that I got for my birthday, I'm very pleased with my purchase! :)
So, I ended up also purchasing Someone by Alice McDermott as well this evening, having seen it pop up in my recommendations after going on to Amazon to try to get a cheap copy of one of the books mentioned in the SF article, which unfortunately had been snapped up. Barbara's 5 star review swung it for me, although the NYC setting and the penny plus postage was also a factor!
I went back to the P&P sale spurred on by Allan's branching out to British fiction. Us by David Nichols is an expensive hardcover here but I found it on Kobo for $2.99. Also picked up John Connolly's Every Dead Thing for $1.99 on Kindle today. At the bookstore, I was looking for new fiction but only came up with The Transcriptionist: A Novel set in a New York newspaper. Also got Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting, Lonely Planet Scotland and Rick Steves' Snapshot Scotland and a CD Tango by Ruben Blades (he has a great voice so I am interested as he usually sings salsa).
I came back a few days ago from a fantastic spring break trip with colleagues and students and visited some stellar bookshops. In Bath, I visited Mr. B's Emporium of Reading Delights and met two of the friendliest, most helpful booksellers I could imagine. When we were chatting, I mentioned that I was interested in new books that I wouldn't be able to get in Boston. They asked me what I liked to read and based upon that, they recommended (and I bought)-- The Break, Elizabeth Is Missing,
Weathering,
Butterflies in Novemberand
What Was Lost
Then, once in London, I visited Foyles, Hatchard's, London Review Bookshop, and Persephone and bought:The Female Detective,
London Stories
Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog
The Unknown Unknown: Bookshops and the Delight of Not Getting What You Wanted
The Wyndham Case and
A House in the Country. It would have been so easy for me to buy more, but I only had a suitcase and a backpack!
I loved Elizabeth is Missing, Cathleen. The older I get, the more I like women with memory problems.The Female Detective sounds great. I can't wait to hear what you think.
Mod
Those were:
Reporting Civil Rights, Part One: American Journalism 1941-1963
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: A George Smiley Novel
Blackout
Deadline
I also still have two Gerard Stembridge books and Frog Music borrowed from Barbara.
Cathleen - books and international trips are difficult since our baggage allowance was reduced in 2009 to one checked bag. I remember because that's the summer I went to Queen's for a week and bought loads of books in Belfast and Dublin. And now the cost of an extra bag is $100 and even more on some airlines (Icelandic is more like E100) - yikes!But it looks like you got some great books! I'm envious.
Barbara wrote: "Cathleen - books and international trips are difficult since our baggage allowance was reduced in 2009 to one checked bag. I remember because that's the summer I went to Queen's for a week and boug..."Could be cheaper to ship them back to yourself via fedex.
Barbara wrote: "Cathleen - books and international trips are difficult since our baggage allowance was reduced in 2009 to one checked bag. I remember because that's the summer I went to Queen's for a week and boug..."I knew I would be buying books, and since it wasn't a conference or anything like that--I could scrimp on the other things I packed--just a few outfits all in the same color and just one dress. I used my backpack to its full potential, that's for sure :)
Gavin wrote: "Barbara wrote: "Cathleen - books and international trips are difficult since our baggage allowance was reduced in 2009 to one checked bag. I remember because that's the summer I went to Queen's for..."I was curious as I couldn't imagine how FedEx could be cheaper. Last year it cost me $65 to send a 2 page document from Washington DC to Barcelona. International Economy rate - the cheapest of 3 rates is $336.50 for 25 lbs. Dublin to my home in Maryland. An extra suitcase can weigh up to 50 Lbs. and that's $100. Parcelforce from the UK is £110 for 10 kilos (about 22 lbs.).
Mod
I've just ordered three books by Sebastian Faulks from Awesome. Chapters didn't have any of them either second hand or new and I really want to read more of his stuff. I ordered The Girl at the Lion d'Or, On Green Dolphin Street and Engleby.
I just ordered The Buried Giant by Kizuo Ishaguro . Premise sounds very interesting and its a chance to try an author I haven't read. I had to order the US edition as the cover is much nicer.
Paul wrote: "I just ordered The Buried Giant by Kizuo Ishaguro . Premise sounds very interesting and its a chance to try an author I haven't read. I had to order the US edition as the cover is much nicer."I'll be so curious to hear how you find that, Paul. I love Kazuo Ishiguro--he hasn't come out with a novel in quite a while, if I remember correctly. I think his last one was Never Let Me Go
Just ordered The Dirty Dust from An Siopa Leabhar, I had forgotten it was released at the end of February. Looking forward to it's arrival.
Kevin wrote: "Just ordered The Dirty Dust from An Siopa Leabhar, I had forgotten it was released at the end of February. Looking forward to it's arrival."I see this is the first English translation of this book. Glad to know An Siopa Leabhar is still around.
Mod
Paul wrote: "I just ordered The Buried Giant by Kizuo Ishaguro . Premise sounds very interesting and its a chance to try an author I haven't read. I had to order the US edition as the cover is much nicer."I plan on reading The Buried Giantalso.I looked UK cover an I like the US cover also.It's a funny thing about covers.The Undertaking is a prime example .The US cover
looks like a love story and the UK cover
looks like a Russian war novel.IMO.
Cathleen wrote: "Paul wrote: "I just ordered The Buried Giant by Kizuo Ishaguro . Premise sounds very interesting and its a chance to try an author I haven't read. I had to order the US edition as the cover is much..."I really liked Never Let Me Go
Not only are the covers different but so are the blurbs, Colleen. That was funny.
Interesting how different publushers view the same book
Mod
I got the audiobook of The Girl on the Train today, as well as Wee Rockets by Gerard Brennan on Kindle (only $3.79) and Spider Woman's Daughter yesterday as a daily special. Tuesday I got Sebastian Barry's book The Secret Scripture on Audible as the daily deal. Also a few books arrived by mail Summer of '49, a baseball book from Paperback Swap, The Word on the Street: Rock Lyrics by Paul Muldoon and The Irish Novel: 1960-2010 by George O'Brien.Have ordered several more but will wait til they arrive...
Colleen wrote: "Cathleen wrote: "Paul wrote: "I just ordered The Buried Giant by Kizuo Ishaguro . Premise sounds very interesting and its a chance to try an author I haven't read. I had to order the US edition as ..."I've always marvelled at his writing style--his sentences are exquisite.
Barbara wrote: "I got the audiobook of The Girl on the Train today, as well as Wee Rockets by Gerard Brennan on Kindle (only $3.79) and Spider Woman's Daughter yeste..."Several friends at work were talking about The Girl on the Train. I'll be curious what you think of it, Barbara.
Cathleen wrote: "Barbara wrote: "I got the audiobook of The Girl on the Train today, as well as Wee Rockets by Gerard Brennan on Kindle (only $3.79) and [book:Spider Woman's Daughter..."It may be easier to follow reading rather than listening. There are 3 narrators and early on you have to figure out who is who. But the story is intriguing so far.
Emma wrote: "Today I went out on my lunch break and somehow ended up in Hodges Figgis. I had no intention of buying anything.....so of course I bought 4 books. It's ok though because they were only a euro each...."Emma, your comment that "you had no intention of buying anything..." but ended up buying 4 books made me laugh. Isn't that always the way it happens at a bookstore? I saw those Penguin little black classics in London at Foyle's. Now I'm regretting not buying several.
I've never heard of The Old Nurses by Gaskell nor have I seen the Penguin little black classics. I need to get to a bookshop soon!
Emma wrote: "Today I went out on my lunch break and somehow ended up in Hodges Figgis. I had no intention of buying anything.....so of course I bought 4 books. It's ok though because they were only a euro each...."Who could resist at 1 euro!
Emma, are those Penguin titles full books or extracts? I saw a bookcase of them yesterday in Waterstones in town, and they seemed to be pretty small and thin?
I see. I love the story behind the original idea for the paperback, and have one or two of the numbered red fiction titles that were published. None of the blue or green titles, though. Penguin Books celebrates 75th birthday
http://gu.com/p/2typh
Allan wrote: "I see. I love the story behind the original idea for the paperback, and have one or two of the numbered red fiction titles that were published. None of the blue or green titles, though. Penguin B..."
Terrific article. It makes me want to go out and scout some out. I don't think I've ever seen any of the blue or green titles--and the red titles are very rare over here, too.
So, despite having controlled myself on a visit to Waterstones and the second hand bookstore in town yesterday, on a quick trip in to the supermarket to pick up a couple of items I'd neglected to put on our delivery order, I purchased Frog Music by Emma Donoghue, for £3.50, which isn't bad-it's one I'd been interested in for a while, and it'll take a while before it comes down to that price with postage on Amazon (he says justifying the purchase to himself...)!
Mod
After that I went upstairs to pick up a couple of holds.
Soul Music
An Officer and a Spy
I also did a little browsing and found two other books.
Blacksad
Blackmail, My Love: A Murder Mystery
I love Soul Music Sara. I only watched to old animated series a few months back. We have a signed framed picture of Death from the book .Love the music references in it.
Cathleen wrote: "Allan wrote: "I see. I love the story behind the original idea for the paperback, and have one or two of the numbered red fiction titles that were published. None of the blue or green titles, thoug..."I never realized Penguins were colored coded in that way - boy I wasn't paying attention. I read recently about paperbacks being developed so soldiers could easily carry them. I thought it was WWII but obviously paperbacks were already popular before then, at least in England.
I am amazed at the rise in cost of paperbacks. I have some old ones that cost 75 cents when they came out but they were even cheaper decades earlier. I would love to see an analysis of the price of books in terms of inflation and wages. Someone, somewhere, has probably done it.
Sara - I dropped off 18 books to donate at the Wheaton library yesterday. Even though I had a look around, I managed not to buy anything. And also avoided making any purchases in the yarn store.
Sara / Barbara, I'm impressed by your restraint in stopping yourselves from buying anything at the library store this weekend-kudos from me! :)I've had the remains of an Amazon voucher burning a hole in my virtual pocket since my birthday, so I decided to widen the scope of my tbr shelf, which is pretty Irish centric at present, by buying three recent US titles-High as the Horses' Bridles: A Novel, Sweet Nothing: Stories and Astonish Me. I know that I'm taking a risk with the third one, but I was intrigued by the blurb in Waterstones yesterday, and I'm hoping that the sometime NYC setting will appeal to me.
All told, three hardcovers released in the last year for £12 including postage (or nothing with a voucher!) is a pretty good deal, I reckon!
Allan wrote: "Sara / Barbara, I'm impressed by your restraint in stopping yourselves from buying anything at the library store this weekend-kudos from me! :)I've had the remains of an Amazon voucher burning a ..."
All those titles are new to me and it seems you got good bargains. Sara and I are both trying to reduce our libraries, and I think my TBR list on GR is almost 800 books! Fortunately, not all are in my library:)
Reading has been slow lately...2 months to wedding so today I picked up a couple new reads. Dodger was really expensive, I presume pricing has gone up because of his death but I picked up Nation and also one highly recommended by a friend Modern Classics the Grass Arena: An Autobiography
Reading has been slow lately...2 months to wedding so today I picked up a couple new reads. Dodger was really expensive, I presume pricing has gone up because of his death but I picked up Nation and also one highly recommended by a friend Modern Classics the Grass Arena: An Autobiography
When I was in work yesterday i came across some books that were going to be discarded so I rescued Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. I have seen it in Eason's a few times and been tempted so I was delighted to get a free copy. I also rescued a novel by Sheridan Le Fanu for Paul.
Well they probably would have just languished under a countersomewhere but I saw them and askef if anyone wanted them. Since nobody did, I have rehomed them :-)
My copy of the Buried Giant by Kizuo Ishiguro arrived today. I ordered the US edition as I prefered the look to the UK edition. The cover is even better in reality . Its one of the nicest I've seen in a while. I also got a copy of Knights Shadow by Sebastian de Castell , its a sequel to Traitors Blade which is pretty much a fantasy version of The Three Muskateers. The cover art is stunning and I bought a signed numbered edition (i have both books as 34 of 250)Probably be a while to my next book purchase as I have a pre birthday book buying ban.
Mod
Mod
I was there to only get Stand on Zanzibar (a permitted buy since it's for my April science fiction book group), but was also seduced byThe Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil.
I also picked up Here's the Story: New Irish Writing from Solas Nua which is the book that was given away on St. Patrick's Day by the Irish literary/culture group Barbara and I both belong to. If folks are curious and have access to a Kindle or the Kindle app, it can be downloaded for free (http://www.amazon.com/Heres-Story-Iri...).
Even the texture of the US cover is amazing Sara Hopefully I enjoy the content :-)
That's weird Emma. Just for people's information you can get a signed copy of Young Skins from the Stinging Fly website.
Goodreads Ireland
Books mentioned in this topic
From a Low and Quiet Sea (other topics)The Watson Girl (other topics)
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey (other topics)
Gabriela Mistral: A Reader (other topics)
The Convictions of John Delahunt (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Donal Ryan (other topics)Lisa Scottoline (other topics)
Edward Rutherfurd (other topics)
Rudolph Belarski (other topics)
Emma Donoghue (other topics)
More...
