Recently bought (acquired) books! Showing 1,551-1,600 of 2,634

[Kevin]

Yup. It's nice to see a successful book coming from a fairly small lit magazine.

[Allan]

Emma, Stinging Fly published this edition of Young Skins: Stories, but it was then picked up by Vintage, whose edition looks like this - Young Skins: Stories.

It's pretty bizarre that you aren't able to pick it up on Amazon, but I'd say you'll get a cheap copy in Dublin-given its paperback release and success, I'd be surprised if it wasn't on offer in the likes of Easons etc.

I'd say the Stinging Fly version is expensive, Kevin, is it? I didn't buy that edition when it came out principally because I thought it was overpriced.

[Kevin]

12.99 at the moment from Stinging Fly, Allan but I can't remember what I paid for it. It's under a big pile of precariously stacked books so I won't even attempt to see if my book is signed.

[Kevin]

I'd agree with you there Emma. There seems to be a lot of young Irish writers coming to the fore lately, like Rob Doyle and Colin Barrett. For such a small
island I think we do pretty well when it comes to writers and writing.

[Seraphina]

Easons is where I picked up my copy of young skins so surprised amazon haven't a copy

[Allan]

Liberties Press have a very strong catalogue at the minute as well-I've probably bought more from them than any other Irish publisher recently, including two novels by NI writers, Poets Are Eaten as a Delicacy in Japan and Sinker.

I hope the Dublin based publishers continue to thrive, as up here last week, the Dept of Culture stopped completely their funding of Blackstaff Press and Guildhall Press, due to a cut in their budget, which is worrying for local literature.

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/bla...

[Paul]

Book Depository have both editions for about ten euro.

[Allan]

I received an offer this morning to rejoin Audible UK for £3.99 for the first 6 months. Given that I was going to up my Audible US membership to 2 credits a month with summer in mind, I had a look at the UK catalogue, and while not a patch still on the US site, it had at least 6 titles I want to listen to.

I ended up signing up again, and bought My Brilliant Friend, one of the books I want to read over the holiday anyway, the bonus being that it's not on the US site.

[Barbara]

I got a copy of John Hewitt's Kites in Spring: A Belfast Boyhood which is (unexpectedly) a book of poems, and book by Paul Muldoon's The End of the Poem: Oxford Lectures. On Kindle I picked up Charles Todd's Bess Crawford series An Unwilling Accomplice and on Audible I got The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon and The Invisible Woman for 1 credit, and Norwegian by Night. Last week I got the audible version of Not My Father's Son.

[Allan]

Barbara, is there a 2 for 1 on Audible? I'll have to have a look! Funny, I bought the Norwegian by Night daily deal as well. :)

[Barbara]

It was but it expired last night.

[Trelawn]

@ Emma I am only about a third of the way through Lady Audley's Secret but I think you'll like it

[Trelawn]

Chapters second hand classics are relatively inexpensive so even if it is only ok you haven't wasted a lot of money.

[Barbara]

Today because I was quite close for brunch in a French restaurant, I stopped at Politics and Prose to look for James Salter books. I bought 2 collections of short stories Dusk and Other Stories and Last Night: Stories, and a new Denise Mina The Red Road (Tartan Noir). I read the first story in Dusk and it was exquisite. I am going to savor these stories.

[Paul]

Dodger sometimes gets put i the YA section in shops so it might have been there.It confuses booksellers when its by Pratchett but not fantasy .

[Paul]

Not a bad bargain at all.

[Sara]

So despite my current efforts to pare down my "TBR but Owned" stack," I got some more books today. It's particularly hard to turn down books when they're free...It was also even harder because they belong to an elderly friend of mine who is moving into assisted living (in between independent living and full time nursing care) and has to dramatically pare down her belongings. I've been helping her and her family with this process and other things (tax prep...paperwork organization, taking some paintings from MD to MA for her son, etc. Her and her family told me to take a look at their books and see if there was anything I wanted...which is like letting a kid loose in a candy shop.

I got:
The World In The Evening
Composing a Life
Peripheral Visions: Learning along the Way
Cosmicomics even though I ownThe Complete Cosmicomics because the 1982 UK version (which doesn't seem to be on Goodreads) has a particularly nice cover
Bayard Rustin: Troubles I've Seen: A Biography (a biography of a 60s civil rights leader who was the organizational genius behind the March on Washington and doesn't get the recognition he deserves...in part due to his being gay)
An American Childhood
Marcovaldo

[Seraphina]

The sound like some amazing books to own Sara, some rich American history there

[Sara]

Thanks gals for your support of my addiction.

[Allan]

That's a great haul alright, Sara-perfect decluttering to assist you in your move! :) I've generally enjoyed the Isherwood novels I've read so far, and The World in the Evening sounds interesting in itself.

Aside from the Lucy Caldwell novels that I purchased this morning and posted about on the NI thread, on the strength of the writing in the first 50 pages of Irish author Paul Lynch's debut Red Sky in Morning, this evening I bought a second hand copy of his second novel The Black Snow for a penny plus postage.

[Kevin]

I had to read Marcovaldo in Italian for my Leaving Cert, Sara, and it is a pretty nice, straightforward novel though a bit weird at times. It's almost poetic at times when he is conparing/daydreaming about the country and city life. The bits I read of it were anyway although I was pretty lazy when it came to my Italian.

[Cathleen]

Sara wrote: "So despite my current efforts to pare down my "TBR but Owned" stack," I got some more books today. It's particularly hard to turn down books when they're free...It was also even harder because they..."

Sara, you've gotten some fantastic books there. I've always wanted to read Composing a Life. Plus...you did a good deed helping your friend clear out her bookshelves ;)

[Cathleen]

I had a little bit of time this afternoon, so I went to a used bookstore and found three really good books on teaching, plus
Lies Of Silence, by Brian Moore
Long Way Home by Eva Dolan and
All the Light We Cannot See. That is a "new" book but was sold at less than half the cover price.

[Barbara]

Great haul Sara and Cathleen too.
One of these days I want to read the Bayard Ruskin book.

[Veronica]

Here is my book pile for Spring Break:
Roddy Doyle's, A Star Called Henry, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, The Woman Who Walked into Doors, Barrytown Trilogy.
William Trevor's A Bit on the Side, and After Rain
Charles Dickens' Great Expectations
Awfully good to have something to read, isn't it?

[Veronica]

Excellent! It will be fun!

[Sara]

And two more:

From my friend's shelves James Joyce: A Critical Introduction

And bought new at Barbara and I's local indie bookstore last night:

Young Skins: Stories

[Barbara]

Veronica wrote: "Here is my book pile for Spring Break:
Roddy Doyle's, A Star Called Henry, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, The Woman Who Walked into Doors, Barrytown Trilogy.
William Trevor's A Bit on the Side, and After R..."

Impressive pile. I especially liked The Woman Who Walked Into Doors which is a departure into a serious topic for Roddy Doyle.

[Allan]

One of the benefits of rejoining Audible UK is that they have recently started their own version of the Daily Deal-as a result, I was able to purchase George Orwell's novel Burmese Days for £2 today. I also used my Audible US credit to purchase All the Light We Cannot See, and given the positive reviews from those who have read it in the group, I'm looking forward to getting stuck in! :)

[Allan]

Cathleen wrote: "I had a little bit of time this afternoon, so I went to a used bookstore and found three really good books on teaching, plus
Lies Of Silence, by Brian Moore
[book:Long Way Home|1813..."

Cathleen, I just saw this post. Good to see you buy a Brian Moore novel. It's one of his later books, and very different from the earlier ones that I've been reading, but still an excellent read (although those that have had to study it have different opinions!) I'll keep an eye out for your verdict on what you think! :)

[Allan]

Emma wrote: "I'd say it'll be a nice one to listen to Allan. The language is quite descriptive and it's an easy read so I'd say it'll be an easy fast listen."

Particularly when you listen at double speed, like I do! :)

[Barbara]

Allan wrote: "Emma wrote: "I'd say it'll be a nice one to listen to Allan. The language is quite descriptive and it's an easy read so I'd say it'll be an easy fast listen."

Particularly when you listen at doubl..."

I have picked up a couple of strategies from Allan for getting through my audiobooks faster. One is to plug in while doing household tasks and the other is to experiment with the narration speed. The fastest I seem to be able to do is 1.5. More often 1.25 is my choice, and sometimes I listen at the normal speed. I have the sense that some narrations are intentionally slow, as some listeners may want that, and there is the option of speeding up the narration.

This weekend I have been considering my piles of books and realizing that audiobooks and ebooks don't help diminish them. I am trying to be more deliberate in my choices of audiobooks and ebooks so that are books that I would actually read. The Daily Deals and Kindle deals suck me in. But recently Sara listed the number of audiobooks she had and I realized I wasn't doing too bad as I only have 11 audiobooks I haven't listened to.

[Allan]

Barbara, including the two I bought today, I only have 8 audiobooks that I haven't listened to, but two of these are Ulysses and Naked Lunch, both of which were daily deals but also pretty impenetrable and will probably never be listened to.

Considering the number of audiobooks I buy, I do pretty well getting through them-I'd say I get through 4 a month minimum, and maybe double that in the summer when I'm off.

[Barbara]

Brought in more books this past week or so than I realized:
Paperback Swap Independent People by Halldór Laxness
Arrived from Kenny's The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes
Politics & Prose Burning the Days: Recollection by James Salter
From Sara:
Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics
The Cure For Death By Lightning
Kindle Daily Deals:
Silent Scream
The Mystery of Smugglers CoveDeath By Cashmere
Crime and Punishment
An Unwilling Accomplice
AND Audible:
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
We Are Not Ourselves

So many books...too little time

[Sandra]

You guys are such a bad influence :-) Since I became part of this group I bought 3 new books: Where They Were Missed, All the Light We Cannot See, The International Please keep up with the recommendations ;-)

[Allan]

Barbara, an impressive haul as always! I'm assuming that there are a load of daily deals on Kindle? You seem to do well picking those up!

Cphe, Black Robe isn't one of the Moore novels I have in my collection, but I may well see if I can find it in town and make it one of my monthly Moore reads-I'll let you know what I think of it if I do!

Sandra, one of the things you'll not be short of receiving in this group is recommendations! Enjoy the books you have bought so far, and be sure to post your thoughts on the two group reads in the discussion threads! :)

[Barbara]

Cphe wrote: "Barbara wrote: "Veronica wrote: "Here is my book pile for Spring Break:
Roddy Doyle's, A Star Called Henry, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, The Woman Who Walked into Doors, Barrytown Trilogy.
William Trevor..."

I felt Doyle did a good job writing about working class women suffering from domestic abuse. He also wrote a follow up novel Paula Spencer.

[Barbara]

Sandra wrote: "You guys are such a bad influence :-) Since I became part of this group I bought 3 new books: Where They Were Missed, All the Light We Cannot See, [book:The Internati..."

Sandra - you have caught the book buying buy from us right away:)

[Sandra]

Barbara wrote: "Sandra wrote: "You guys are such a bad influence :-) Since I became part of this group I bought 3 new books: Where They Were Missed, All the Light We Cannot See, [boo..."

Yeah, but I was an easy target anyway. If I'm not careful I'm able to spend a months payroll on books. They are my biggest weakness - after chocolate :) I had to switch to buying ebooks because my ex was going crazy where all the books should go. When Ken Follett posted a picture of his new library on FB recently I was struck with library-envy :D

[Paul]

If it makes you feel any better Ken Folletts library was partially put together by corrupt expense claims.

[Colleen]

I was at Barnes and Noble today(I have $50 Gift card)and saw Academy Street for $22 but was really surprised at how thin it was so I didn't buy it.I really want to read it but I think I'll wait but it's getting really good reviews but I could read it in one sitting....I could check the library ...lol

[Paul]

Colleen . Its on $9 on Book depository including delivery. $22 for less than 200 pages is crazy

http://m.bookdepository.com/Academy-S...

[Barbara]

Colleen wrote: "I was at Barnes and Noble today(I have $50 Gift card)and saw Academy Street for $22 but was really surprised at how thin it was so I didn't buy it.I really want to read it but I thi..."

Book Depository as Paul suggests or Kennys which also offers free delivery and is an Irish business for $11.28. I've heard the Book Depository was bought by Amazon. I tend to go with Kennys as they are an independent bookstore and want to see them stay around.

[Paul]

I'm ashamed to admit I always forget about Kennys.

[Colleen]

Thanks Paul and Barbara that is more reasonable :)

[Paul]

Definitely better value for money

[Colleen]

I just got it from Book Depository.I have to admit that I like The UK/Irish cover better.I really would have used kennys if I had thought of it.Next time.

[Colleen]

I plan on reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry soon.You looks good also

[Trelawn]

I absolutely loved Harold Fry! I practically read the whole book on the flight to Berlin. Such a great story.

[Sandra]

Paul wrote: "If it makes you feel any better Ken Folletts library was partially put together by corrupt expense claims."

Makes me feel a lot better. Still a whole room for books - sigh. Would be great.