March's Marvellous Missals, Mammoth Manuals and Miniscule Monographs

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

March on, my fellow bookworms. The kingdom of words is ours to devour!

At present, I'm reading Hieroglyphic Tales by Horace Walpole and The Deep by John Crowley.

 

[ravenus]

Finished with Guns, Germs & Steel by Jared Diamond. Although I initially found the repetitiveness of the text irritating, I learned to appreciate its usefulness as my reading grew more sporadic and I liked how it helped me to recall the author's important arguments. Quite a good book on the whole, if you don't try to read it all in one go.

The title story in the detective collection The Menagerie & Other Stories (Byomkesh Bakshi) was quite disappointing in the sense of it having ridiculously contrived plot mechanics (even for a detective story, where one normally likes a bit of rubik's cube-ery). The film adaptation of it (Chiriakhana aka The Zoo by Satyajit Ray) had a much more streamlined and better constructed structure than its source.

 

[gully_foyle]

Still reading and enjoying Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement. It's taking a while for such a slim book, but I've been a bit busy.

 

[Hypnos164]

Finished The Swordbearer by Clen Cook on the train this morning - an interesting tale of swords and souls ... Cook's take on Elric?

For a change of pace this week I have two collections of short stories with me:

Frankensteins & Foreign Devils by Walter Jon Williams
Blood Bank by Tanya Huff

 

[GOLLUM]

Finished The Swordbearer by Clen Cook on the train this morning - an interesting tale of swords and souls ... Cook's take on Elric?

I got that one recently but am yet to read it myself. Sounds worthwhile though...

 

[rai]

I am reading "The Last Defender Of Camelot" by Roger Zelazny (collection)

I have this book since the 80's and so I was looking on Amazon for a review, they have a Zelazny collection of the same name but the stories are different.. The one I am reading is from 1980

here is a review I found of it --> Google Image Result for http://www.sfsignal.com/mt-static/images/LastDefenderOfCamelot.jpg

 

[AE35Unit]

Well,I'm just past the halfway mark of the excellent Prador Moon by Neal Asher and then I'll read Teranesia by Greg Egan

 

[CyBeR]

Finished 'Seeker'. It was such an excelent read I'm afraid I may not enjoy anything as much as that any time soon. Not anything Sci-Fi...

Started on 'Reaper Man' by Terry Prachett. I'm having quite a lot of fun with it for now. I can't believe I haven' read anything Pratchett for 3 months now, almost. Good to be back on this fantastic journey through the Discworld.

 

[Lobolover]

I am atempting to read A Master of Silence , but while I want to I have problems with summoning enough motivation to .

 

[Diggler]

I'm currently reading Down To a Sunless Sea by David Graham.

 

[Connavar]

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

The Snake Agent by Liz Williams. A book i read 110 pages of earlier and stopped reading for some dumb reason i cant remember.

One of them is a short story collection, i would never read two novels at the same time.

 

[jojajihisc]

The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson will be first.

 

[j d worthington]

GOLLUM and J.P.: Such is my understanding about that particular book. It is going to be a massive volume, an art-book style tome, lavish and beautiful, so the price isn't that surprising. It will be along the lines (production-wise) of their Lovecraft and similar volumes:

H.P. Lovecraft

(Got to admit, I'd loved to get my hands on that. While having all the fiction, I'd love to read St. Armand's introduction, as he has done some of my favorite critical pieces on HPL, and is always thought-provoking and eloquent.)

So the $300 seems about the right price range for such a volume these days -- and, for what you get, it's a good price. Which is why I'm going to be letting several other things wait as I pinch pennies until they bleed in order to afford this one....

However, The Tangled Muse is coming out from Hippocampus, so will likely be much more affordable.

As for my own reading... I have (finally!) begun Robert H. Waugh's The Monster in the Mirror: Looking for H. P. Lovecraft; a book of essays (mostly older essays, but rewritten for inclusion in this volume, with at least two substantial new pieces) of Lovecraftian criticism. I've read quite a bit of Waugh's work over the years in Lovecraft Studies, as well as his piece in An Epicure in theTerrible and The Lovecraft Centennial Conference Proceedings, and it always challenging, thought-provoking, and well-written -- though at times it does require rereading; it can be very dense and full of sudden shifts and turns, as well as insights which simply take some time to process properly. Even this early on, I can tell this is one which is likely to rest high on my list of favorites, and one I'll be reading many times over....

 

[Diggler]

GOLLUM and J.P.: Such is my understanding about that particular book. It is going to be a massive volume, an art-book style tome, lavish and beautiful, so the price isn't that surprising. It will be along the lines (production-wise) of their Lovecraft and similar volumes:

H.P. Lovecraft

I have to admit this publisher obviously takes a lot of pride in their releases, but the prices nearly gave me a coronary

 

[j d worthington]

I have to admit this publisher obviously takes a lot of pride in their releases, but the prices nearly gave me a coronary

I know what you mean. The first time I looked at their site a couple of years ago, you could almost hear my jaw hit the floor... seconds before the rest followed.

Still, as said, their productions are very high-end, and those bindings and the artwork don't come cheap. My only real complaint is that it limits the number of people who can attain these works, and I think they deserve a wider audience... but that, too, is something about which various points could be debated....

 

[Diggler]

I know what you mean. The first time I looked at their site a couple of years ago, you could almost hear my jaw hit the floor... seconds before the rest followed.

Still, as said, their productions are very high-end, and those bindings and the artwork don't come cheap. My only real complaint is that it limits the number of people who can attain these works, and I think they deserve a wider audience... but that, too, is something about which various points could be debated....

Yeah I agree... It would be nice if they released cheaper softcover versions for the commoners. Though if I had the money I probably wouldn't hesitate buying these, as they really do look fantastic.

 

[AE35Unit]

Started Teranesia last night. Hmm Greg Egan does fantasy!

 

[Lobolover]

GOLLUM and J.P.: Such is my understanding about that particular book. It is going to be a massive volume, an art-book style tome, lavish and beautiful, so the price isn't that surprising. It will be along the lines (production-wise) of their Lovecraft and similar volumes:

H.P. Lovecraft

(Got to admit, I'd loved to get my hands on that. While having all the fiction, I'd love to read St. Armand's introduction, as he has done some of my favorite critical pieces on HPL, and is always thought-provoking and eloquent.)

So the $300 seems about the right price range for such a volume these days -- and, for what you get, it's a good price. Which is why I'm going to be letting several other things wait as I pinch pennies until they bleed in order to afford this one....

However, The Tangled Muse is coming out from Hippocampus, so will likely be much more affordable.

As for my own reading... I have (finally!) begun Robert H. Waugh's The Monster in the Mirror: Looking for H. P. Lovecraft; a book of essays (mostly older essays, but rewritten for inclusion in this volume, with at least two substantial new pieces) of Lovecraftian criticism. I've read quite a bit of Waugh's work over the years in Lovecraft Studies, as well as his piece in An Epicure in theTerrible and The Lovecraft Centennial Conference Proceedings, and it always challenging, thought-provoking, and well-written -- though at times it does require rereading; it can be very dense and full of sudden shifts and turns, as well as insights which simply take some time to process properly. Even this early on, I can tell this is one which is likely to rest high on my list of favorites, and one I'll be reading many times over....

This reminds me : did you know that Hippocampus already have released their reprint of Drake's "The Shadowy Thing" ? I am stil waiting to get enough money together to get their Elixir of Life/The Lady who came to stay volume .

 

[GOLLUM]

Still, as said, their productions are very high-end, and those bindings and the artwork don't come cheap...

I assume you are referring to their production values when you mean high-end. YES the prices of some of their items are expensive but there are plenty of others that are not over the top and most importantly this publisher produces a lot of excellent content; witness my recent accquisition of Roland Topor's The Tenant in paperback.

 

[Nesacat]

Am re-re-reading Lovecraft's Supernatural Horror in Literature. I was not meaning to do so. There are huge to-be-read piles taking up half my bed and then some. However, the book insisted on being read, again. It's almost like reading several books as I keep looking up the books and stories referred to in this book.