The Mookse and the Gripes discussion
General Non-Book Discussions
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Café Quito: 'pub' thread for general discussions
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WndyJW
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Sep 14, 2020 01:46PM
I’ve read about him, that’s how I knew he saved Waterstones, and I hope he does the same for B&N, but I am not too hopeful that the local store will stock Fitzcarraldo, Salt, Istros, etc.
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WndyJW wrote: "I’ve read about him, that’s how I knew he saved Waterstones, and I hope he does the same for B&N, but I am not too hopeful that the local store will stock Fitzcarraldo, Salt, Istros, etc."I went in to BN to pick up a road atlas for the technophobic hubby, and noticed some indie press books, though not as many as my favorite indie.
About 200 "irreplaceable" books worth more than £2.5m ($3.2m), which were stolen from a warehouse in London, have been found buried under the floor of a house in rural Romania, police say.The works include first editions of Galileo and Isaac Newton.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe...
WndyJW wrote: "Where is your BN, Tracy?"Sorry- just now saw this. In West Des Moines IA.
Is that near the college of the famous MA in Creative Writing, Tracy?That is quite a story, thanks Jibran. It says the books were waiting to be shipped to an auction in LA. I hope the bidders were museums and not private people. The world gets as much benefits from a billionaire having a first edition Dante as it does having the first edition Dante buried under a house in rural Romania.
extremely late answer here but also a question: Robert wrote: "I only became interested in goodreads after discovering this group. Before I just saw it as a place to track my reading. Strangely I used to follow the M & G blog but never occurred to me ... Is there a thread about book blogs?"
Robert - I do think many people mention their blogs in the "introductions" post thread. Searching it would be difficult and may not pay off, but you could start there.
However, I don't know that it would hurt anyone to have a thread for people w/ blogs and/or booktube etc to list their urls/channels. I will double check w/ the other mods - but this seems like a workable idea. One post per person w/ info etc - thoughts?
WndyJW wrote: "Is that near the college of the famous MA in Creative Writing, Tracy?That is quite a story, thanks Jibran. It says the books were waiting to be shipped to an auction in LA. I hope the bidders wer..."
No- the Writers Workshop is in Iowa City- about 2 hours away from WDM. But, I live smack in the middle of the two - I went to WDM just because that week the COVID numbers were lower there.
College bookstores usually have very good selections so I thought perhaps that was why an Iowa B&N had indie press titles.
OK - here is a new Directory thread for information about your booktube or blog or whatever you do that is M&G-ish: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
My dad was diagnosed with cancer in late August, was on a ventilator 3 days later, and I was there to take him off life support a week after that. At the time I was in the middle of reading Gravity’s Rainbow and The Unconsoled. I haven’t been able to read anything but light sci-fi/fantasy for the last ~3 months. Anything realistic just brings me to a dark place and I just give up. Any recommendations?
Tom, I'm so sorry. The Wind in the Willows is my favorite book for those kind of times. Also The Once and Future King.
So sorry to hear that. My feeling would be classic mysteries (Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham) and maybe P.G. Wodehouse.
I’m very sorry, Tom. What about One Hundred Years of Solitude? Classic magical realism. Midnight's Children is another classic.
Leonard and Hungry Paul is a heartwarming book that isn’t too precious. It’s hugely popular right now.
I feel guilty saying this knowing that others are not getting books mailed at all, but I finally had 7 books show up between yesterday and today. I expect another pile of books to show up in the next week or so, books from subscriptions that are sitting among thousands of packages in US post offices or in trucks in the parking lots because the post office buildings are out of room.I know where all the books came from except one. I received a (an?) nyrb classics club Dissipatio H.G.: The Vanishing. I didn’t order it, I don’t have nyrb subscription, Asymptote sent At the Lucky Hand, RofC sent Best of British Short Stories 2020, Two Lines and Open Letter publish their own books so I can’t figure how I got this.
Did anyone get the Weatherglass Christmas gift? I forgot they promised one with a start subscription and I’m wondering if they weren’t able to do it or if I have another package in post office purgatory.
WndyJW wrote: "Did anyone get the Weatherglass Christmas gift? I forgot they promised one with a start subscription and I’m wondering if they weren’t able to do it or if I have another package in post office purgatory."I received something from them today -- a booklet with extracts from their upcoming 2021 publications: Cold New Climate by Isobel Wohl, The Angels of L19 by Jonathan Walker and Play it Hard by Luke Meddings.
I also live in Ohio, so you should also have yours any day now.
I think my weatherglass sampler (it could have also been a book I bought for my niece) arrived at my parents (because the company that handles my PO Box are now untrustworthy so I redirected all my mail) but they weren’t in so they received a notification. I asked for the mail to be transferred to my locality.
Now it’s lost and today I received a call from the postmaster general telling me that it will not be found.
This was after 3 weeks of constant phone calls and visits to my local post office.
Mod
Yes I got and have read mine. The two novels both seem intriguing from the samples. The book about 60s music, which isn’t included in the initial Founders subscription, does I think require an interest in and knowledge of 60s music which I don’t possess so I will pass on that one.
So not a gift or book, more a teaser of books we will eventually receive. It’s a nice thought, but seems to be a waste of money.The 60s music book isn’t at all interesting to me, but I might find someone interested in it.
Robert, I feel awful for you! I’ve been frustrated and I know I’ll get mine eventually, I can’t imagine being told I will not be receiving something mailed to me. Why can’t they find lost packages? Unwilling? Understaffed? Stolen? You can’t be the only one with this issue in Malta. Is anything being done about it?
First, Happy New Year everyone, I think by now it is 2021 everywhere. I hope everyone had a safe, fun, or pleasant NYE. I know many hate the idea of new year resolutions, but I’m always happy for any motivation to do better, create new habits, start fresh. With that in mind, did anyone make any reading resolutions or set new book related goals?
Our discussion of Saramago has reminded me of books and authors not read so my 2021 goal is to read at least two books by authors I hear mentioned often here that I know I am missing out on: Bernhard, Sebald, Krasznahorkai’s Satantango trilogy, more Kafka, the rest of Patrick White, the rest of Saramago, Virginia Woolf, who I haven’t read since college.
My plans include knocking out at least one long book a month and trying to get some education about world religions/belief systems.
Mine are :To stop buying books until the International Booker Prize Shortlist announcement (April 4th)
To read Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain
To read Ali Smith's Quartet in full (once I receive Summer I'll be doing this)
I am aiming to read some poetry this year - I intend to read all of Louise Glück's poetry collections having sourced them all from Carcanet Press (her UK publisher) ahead of "Winter Recipes from the Collective".
I'd like to get to some of those 'big' authors I haven't read yet: Pessoa, Marquez, Borges spring to mind.
I second Kafka and poetry (I'm starting with a Robert Lowell collection I bought last year). And I have the nebulous resolution of not buying (too many) new book until I have made a dent (but how much of a dent?) on the piles that have now spread to my kitchen. That includes ebooks, at least in theory.Happy new year all!
Every year I promise myself to read more nonfiction, but I never complete a nonfiction book. I’m going to be honest with myself and stick with essays and documentaries or podcasts. I’ve often said I will learn to appreciate poetry, that never happens either. What I would like to spend some nonfiction time on is art appreciation and art history.I love religion, Tracy: comparative religion, history of and philosophy of religion, so I’ll be interested in what you read.
Good luck not buying books, Emily and Robert! It might be easier for you Robert, since the mail is so awful now.
I share your goal, a Roman Clodia, so I probably should not have renewed all the subscriptions that I did.
Mod
I am also going to try and buy less new books and read more of the unread books I already own or borrowed.
I think my New Year’s Resolution may be to build up more of a TBR pile, perhaps let it get to 5 books on average. I tend to keep the pile so low that twice in the last 2 weeks I have run out of books to read and found myself waiting for the post to arrive. It got so worrying at one point I thought I might have to resort to re-reading a book but fortunately it didn’t come to that.
WndyJW wrote: "I probably should not have renewed all the subscriptions that I did"My usual problem as well!
Which ones did you go for for 2021
I have: Charco Press, Galley Beggar, Fitzcarraldo, Peirene, Influx Press, Weatherglass and Les Fugitives and the RoC Book Club.
For Les Fugitives I received a nice mail from Cecile thanking me for being their first 2021 subscriber - I really would strongly recommend them, although for US-based readers they typically co-publish with a US house.
I didn't subscribe to Andotherstories but instead I have ordered and paid for several of their 2021 books in advance - some of which aren't included in the subscription.
Paul wrote: "I think my New Year’s Resolution may be to build up more of a TBR pile, perhaps let it get to 5 books"Ha, are you just teasing those of us who live amidst teetering piles of TBRs? ;))
Well not teasing, as I genuinely have a TBR pile of zero (indeed arguably minus one as I ought to be reading a book). I definitely do go to one extreme on this, but I've never quite got the concept of having piles of unread books. Or indeed keeping read ones.
And to be fair my very low pile is in part as I have a large pile of TBRBNYA - To Be Read But Not Yet Arrived - books ordered but not yet arrived in the pst, or pre-ordered but not yet published, or as part of a subscription, or pending Netgalley requests.
Paul wrote: "Well not teasing, as I genuinely have a TBR pile of zero (indeed arguably minus one as I ought to be reading a book). I definitely do go to one extreme on this, but I've never quite got the conce..."
Ha, I like your style (but could never live that way myself). But maybe you need a kindle so you don't have to wait by the post box?!
I'm hyperventilating at just the thought of not being surrounded by books read and to be read! I was once persuaded to get rid of a huge quantity having run out of shelf space and have regretted it ever since. I've even had to re-buy books to reread them. Kindle, of course, has now solved the storage problem.
I had already phased into reading older books and don't have any new reading resolutions. Will continue to split my reading into older and newer and I suppose I will try and get back in the habit of listing my reads on Goodreads and rating the books I have read, despite finding that aspect tedious.
My Galley Beggar has not yet expired and I resubscribed to Two Lines and Open Letter, both US presses of books in translation, and Asymptote Book Club, which like my RofC subscription sends books from various independent presses. So 5 currently. No 6, I forgot Fitzcarraldo I’d like to sign up to Charco as well. Oh, and Weatherglass, so 7; good lord.I’ve lost track of who is to send me what and when, which is why I can’t account for the nyrb book that showed up. My husband wondered if a subscription auto-renewed, but it’s been over a year since my nyrb subscription ended.
On the one hand it is too many books coming to the house, but on the other hand I think of them as some of my charitable contributions (we have other less self-serving charitable contributions of course) because I feel it’s important to support these publishers working to keep valuable, but not best selling, literature in print.
I don’t regret buying a book that I don’t like or don’t read because every book purchased new from the publisher or bookseller supports the industry.
Les Fugitives needs a shout out for ethical sales practices: I ordered The Living Days from them, they emailed me to give me the option of canceling my order with them so I could save on shipping by ordering it from Feminist Press, a US publisher.
I can’t imagine not having books wherever my eye lands in my house, but I can understand not wanting lots and lots of books around if one is not a bibliophile and not all avid readers are, just like many book collectors aren’t readers, but I think people who don’t reread miss out by not rereading some of their best loved books. We see different things in books when reading them at different stages of our lives. I don’t reread on a regular basis, but there are some books that deserve to be read every few years.
I agree with you totally but I’m at a point where I want these books to be read so I’m hoping my book ban - until April will help lower those numbers
I’m hoping not to buy books other than what come with subscriptions, but in 2021 I’ve already ordered 3 books: the only Saramago I don’t have, 2 Bernhards, and 2 Patrick White books, so 5, not 3, books in 2021. Not a good start to a year of less book buying. Less book buying is a pointless resolution for me and others here I’m guessing. I love books and it’s the only thing I spend money on other than food and shelter.
Haha I’m going to try my hardest not to - I will have a fitzcarraldo coming in but with awful maltapost on my side that should arrive in April
Do you have any good independent bookstores that sell indie press books, Robert? I guess the silver lining for rotten mail service in Malta is clearing out your TBR. And living on the island of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea!
Not until too long ago I was very passionate about the idea of building a private library, which meant I would buy, read, shelf, and arrange my books with great care and spend a great deal of time being a 'librarian.' The other 'problem' was buying more books than I could or would read, which gave me a large physical TBR pile. Another 'problem' I had was that I could or would not read ebooks.Over the last two or three years, however, I have managed to adopt a different approach without any consistent and conscious effort on my part. I still like the thought of a private library but have demoted it to a choice collection of the greatest books - books I want to keep and return to, books which are too important to part with. So now I have a couple of loaded bookracks (about half of my entire collection) which I'm ready to get rid of or at least pack them away until I can. I don't see myself re-reading those books ever again or returning to them even for reference. So why keep them?
I have not bought many books during the last two or three years; only those which I wanted to read and mostly did. I have also started reading ebooks, more due to the issue of availability in print than for any other reason, and certainly not out of love for gadgets. It was inconvenient and unfamiliar at first but now I am happy to read in both formats.
Unfortunately Malta works on a supply and demand basis. This means that if a fitzcarraldo book doesn’t sell then the store will never ever stock it again. Obviously Danielle Steele and Lesley Pearse are huge sellers so those dominate. Plus Malta is dominated by one chain and the stores all follow the same philosophy. All have people who don’t understand books so it gets frustrating - these are people who have never heard of the booker prize! There is one other bookstore (the one I worked in from 2001 - 2005) who try their utmost to hire bookish people but this is not always the case so their stock quality fluctuates.
There is one light but they are not a bookstore, rather it’s two bookish guys who run a personal ordering service and they have proved to be invaluable but there is a bit of a wait involved but that’s a small gripe - they do know their stuff!
As for being in the med - I’m not much of a swimmer shut ah well.
WndyJW wrote: "I’m hoping not to buy books other than what come with subscriptions, but in 2021 I’ve already ordered 3 books: the only Saramago I don’t have, 2 Bernhards, and 2 Patrick White books, so 5, not 3, b..."My brilliant plan was to add a book to my "to read" list only after I'd taken another book off the list. Already in 2021 I've read 2 and added 8 to my "to read" list so there you go, another new year's resolution dealt with!
We can only try, Margaret. I did do a large clearing out of books in 2020. Dozens and dozens of books I know I will never read or never read again, all books that if for some reason I regret giving away I can easily replace. I was happy to see them go because they all went to a young woman who loved reading and was trying to build her own library. She was thrilled to get so many and they were good books.
I won’t give away any indie press books because there aren’t a lot of them in circulation and I keep them in as new condition, I don’t write my name in them or make notes in them. If I buy a book from a big publisher I try to buy only ones likely to be still be read years from now and in hardcover so they last. I don’t buy many because they’re not cheap.
I think of this as the family library and as my grandkids grow their mothers will have more time and will be happy to have these books available and of course my grandkids can read them also. Especially the indie press books.
I read Ducks, Newburyport on the Kindle app and found I didn’t mind it, I read the last several pages in the book though. I wish I would have done the same with my hardcover Mordew. I spilled water so the cover got ever so slightly warped and there’s a smudge of chocolate on the back cover. grrr.
My ‘library’ is used by my partner and family (mother and one of my sisters) as well. There’s something satisfying with that.
I love when one of my kids goes through my shelves and takes home a small bag of books. It was also useful when the book I ordered for one of my granddaughters for Christmas Eve didn’t arrive (still hasn’t arrived) and I could choose an unread book from my shelves to wrap for her. I gave her The Mercies. Last year my son forgot to get one of his sisters a gift so he took a new, unread book from my shelves to give her.
My first book of 2021 was a 2 star book! I almost never rate a book 2 stars because I wouldn’t finish a book I didn’t like. I loved The Wake so I bought Beast with my B&N gift card: it was not The Wake. It wasn’t written in Old English and is simply a mentally ill man, suffering delusions alone on the moors, after being injured in a storm. I kept reading thinking surely it will turn into something, it didn’t. Not for me anyway.I’m telling myself I got my one disappointing book out of the way and the rest of the year will be rewarding.
WndyJW wrote: "I love when one of my kids goes through my shelves and takes home a small bag of books. It was also useful when the book I ordered for one of my granddaughters for Christmas Eve didn’t arrive (stil..."Back in my early 20's when I was spending all my cash on books and CDs, I used to gift people books from my own shelves (they were books I liked, I thought it was unfair to just give people books that I didn't want)
WndyJW wrote: "My first book of 2021 was a 2 star book! I almost never rate a book 2 stars because I wouldn’t finish a book I didn’t like. I loved The Wake so I bought Beast with m..."My first read was disappointing as well. This has rarely happened to me though. I hope it's not an indicator of 2021!!
The Mookse and the Gripes
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