Book Hauls!
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FireDragon-16
Chelsea
Ok, so I haven't bought anything recently (funds are a little low) but I have been checking stuff out from the library and I plan on buying copies eventually. Anyway, I recently stumbled across The Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne, and I really like them.
I am also in the middle of reading Tiger's Quest, book 2 in the Tiger Saga by Colleen Houck. Again, very good read.
I am also in the middle of reading Tiger's Quest, book 2 in the Tiger Saga by Colleen Houck. Again, very good read.
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Dask I have a copy of this and it is excellent. Easily the best (comprehensive) Russian SF anthology I've come a across; a history of Russian SF in fact. The editors are also planning on a sequel post-Sputnik to modern day, which if it goes ahead I will definitely be acquiring.Never heard of it but it's now on my radar. Many thanks.
Here's some recent acquisitions:
I wrote a piece on this antholgoy, so if I can locate it I'll repost here, I have not read the entire anthology to date but enough to get a sense of things. Like a lot of anthologies, I think it is best appreciated in smallish doses and generally between other reads rather than attempting to read the entire collection in one go. The size of a collection can also figure in this approach and in this case this is a reasonably large sized collection.
Today...
The Aenid - Virgil trans Robert Eagles *Following a recent discussion I thought I would check my copy of The Aenid only to discover I no longer had a copy, so today there was a sale on and hey presto..a lovely Penguin Black Classic edn. of Virgil's The Aenid is now in my possession. Blurb: Troy has been ransacked by conquering Greeks and lies in smoldering ruins. A warrior, Aeneas, manages to escape from the ashes. He will go on to change the history of the world …The Aeneid tells the story of an epic seven year journey that sees Aeneas cross stormy seas, become entangled in a tragic love affair with Dido of Carthage, visit the world of the dead – all the way tormented by the vengeful Juno, Queen of the Gods – and finally reach Italy, where he will fulfil his destiny: to found the Roman people. A sweeping epic of arms and heroism, dispossession and defeat, and a searching portrait of a man caught between love, duty and fate, The Aeneid brings to life a whole human world of passion, nobility and courage.
The Republic - Plato *Another Penguin sale. I have a copy of Sophocles and other plays but not this cornerstone work by Plato. Blurb: Plato's Republic is widely acknowledged as the cornerstone of Western philosophy. Presented in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and three different interlocutors, it is an enquiry into the notion of a perfect community and the ideal individual within it. During the conversation other questions are raised: what is goodness; what is reality; what is knowledge? The Republic also addresses the purpose of education and the role of both women and men as 'guardians' of the people. With remarkable lucidity and deft use of allegory, Plato arrives at a depiction of a state bound by harmony and ruled by 'philosopher kings'.
Petersburg - Andrei Bely *To round off my latest Penguin purchases, this work is an acknowledged masterpiece of world fiction, so I'm very happy to have finally landed myself a copy. Blurb:St Petersburg, 1905. An impressionable young university student, Nikolai, becomes involved with a revolutionary terror organization, which plans to assassinate a high government official with a time bomb. But the official is Nikolai's cold, unyielding father, Apollon, and in twenty-four hours the bomb will explode. Petersburg is a story of suspense, family dysfunction, patricide, conspiracy and revolution. It is also an impressionistic, exhilarating panorama of the city itself, watched over by the bronze statue of Peter the Great, as it tears itself apart. Considered by writers such as Vladimir Nabokov to be one of the greatest masterpieces of the twentieth century, Bely's richly textured, darkly comic and symbolic novel pulled apart the traditional techniques of storytelling and presaged the dawn of a new form of literature. This acclaimed translation captures all the idiosyncracies and rhythms of Bely's extraordinary prose. It is accompanied by an introduction by Adam Thirwell discussing the novel's themes, extraordinary style and influence
Ferdydurke - Witold Gorrbrowitz *This Polish novel written in the 1930s is seen as an important novel of 20th Century European Literature. I had heard of the book before and was aware of its 'subversive quirkiness' stirred in with elements of the absurd to make an apparently wholly unique novel but have only now acquired it in translation and like Bely's St Petersburg, am really looking forward to reading it. Blurb: Originally published in 1937, this novel was banned by the Nazis and suppressed by the Communist regime in Gombrowicz's (1904-69) native Poland. While modern readers may not find the book's satire particularly subversive, the author's exuberant humor, suggesting the absurdist drama of Eug ne Ionesco, if not the short fiction of Franz Kafka, is readily apparent in this new translation. Thirty-year-old Joe is abducted by schoolteacher Pimko and placed in a school where "daily universal impotence" is drummed into the students. This institutional belittlement exposes Joe to the brutality of the social, cultural, and political pretensions of both teachers and classmates. Trapped between the expectations of others and the perils of solitude, Joe finds refuge in his own childishness, much as the protagonist of the author's Trans-Atlantyk embraces his own immaturity. Pausing for digressions that impress upon the reader that "the child runs deep in everything," Gombrowicz recounts Joe's escape from the school, his bizarre visit to the country estate of relatives, and the ultimate flight with his cousin beneath a giant buttocks that has usurped the sun's place. Highly recommended for collections specializing in modern and Eastern European literature.
The Aenid - Virgil trans Robert Eagles *Following a recent discussion I thought I would check my copy of The Aenid only to discover I no longer had a copy, so today there was a sale on and hey presto..a lovely Penguin Black Classic edn. of Virgil's The Aenid is now in my possession. Blurb: Troy has been ransacked by conquering Greeks and lies in smoldering ruins. A warrior, Aeneas, manages to escape from the ashes. He will go on to change the history of the world …The Aeneid tells the story of an epic seven year journey that sees Aeneas cross stormy seas, become entangled in a tragic love affair with Dido of Carthage, visit the world of the dead – all the way tormented by the vengeful Juno, Queen of the Gods – and finally reach Italy, where he will fulfil his destiny: to found the Roman people. A sweeping epic of arms and heroism, dispossession and defeat, and a searching portrait of a man caught between love, duty and fate, The Aeneid brings to life a whole human world of passion, nobility and courage.
The Republic - Plato *Another Penguin sale. I have a copy of Sophocles and other plays but not this cornerstone work by Plato. Blurb: Plato's Republic is widely acknowledged as the cornerstone of Western philosophy. Presented in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and three different interlocutors, it is an enquiry into the notion of a perfect community and the ideal individual within it. During the conversation other questions are raised: what is goodness; what is reality; what is knowledge? The Republic also addresses the purpose of education and the role of both women and men as 'guardians' of the people. With remarkable lucidity and deft use of allegory, Plato arrives at a depiction of a state bound by harmony and ruled by 'philosopher kings'.
Petersburg - Andrei Bely *To round off my latest Penguin purchases, this work is an acknowledged masterpiece of world fiction, so I'm very happy to have finally landed myself a copy. Blurb:St Petersburg, 1905. An impressionable young university student, Nikolai, becomes involved with a revolutionary terror organization, which plans to assassinate a high government official with a time bomb. But the official is Nikolai's cold, unyielding father, Apollon, and in twenty-four hours the bomb will explode. Petersburg is a story of suspense, family dysfunction, patricide, conspiracy and revolution. It is also an impressionistic, exhilarating panorama of the city itself, watched over by the bronze statue of Peter the Great, as it tears itself apart. Considered by writers such as Vladimir Nabokov to be one of the greatest masterpieces of the twentieth century, Bely's richly textured, darkly comic and symbolic novel pulled apart the traditional techniques of storytelling and presaged the dawn of a new form of literature. This acclaimed translation captures all the idiosyncracies and rhythms of Bely's extraordinary prose. It is accompanied by an introduction by Adam Thirwell discussing the novel's themes, extraordinary style and influence
Ferdydurke - Witold Gorrbrowitz *This Polish novel written in the 1930s is seen as an important novel of 20th Century European Literature. I had heard of the book before and was aware of its 'subversive quirkiness' stirred in with elements of the absurd to make an apparently wholly unique novel but have only now acquired it in translation and like Bely's St Petersburg, am really looking forward to reading it. Blurb: Originally published in 1937, this novel was banned by the Nazis and suppressed by the Communist regime in Gombrowicz's (1904-69) native Poland. While modern readers may not find the book's satire particularly subversive, the author's exuberant humor, suggesting the absurdist drama of Eug ne Ionesco, if not the short fiction of Franz Kafka, is readily apparent in this new translation. Thirty-year-old Joe is abducted by schoolteacher Pimko and placed in a school where "daily universal impotence" is drummed into the students. This institutional belittlement exposes Joe to the brutality of the social, cultural, and political pretensions of both teachers and classmates. Trapped between the expectations of others and the perils of solitude, Joe finds refuge in his own childishness, much as the protagonist of the author's Trans-Atlantyk embraces his own immaturity. Pausing for digressions that impress upon the reader that "the child runs deep in everything," Gombrowicz recounts Joe's escape from the school, his bizarre visit to the country estate of relatives, and the ultimate flight with his cousin beneath a giant buttocks that has usurped the sun's place. Highly recommended for collections specializing in modern and Eastern European literature.
j d worthington
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 9, 2006
- Messages
- 13,889
Found a surprise package waiting for me when I got home today, containing a copy of one of the new Lovecraftian anthologies, The Book of Cthulhu. I've been a bit wary about some of these, but looking at the tables of contents with some, looks to me as if there's some very quality stuff coming down that particular pike... not simply rehashings of old Lovecraft stories, or sticking to the formulaic sort of "Mythos" tale so many of us are familiar with (and which, with very rare exceptions, was mined out loooong ago), but things which use the Lovecraft influence and even the mythos materials themselves in creative, original, and individualistic ways. This looks to be of that sort (despite the tongue-in-cheek hyperbole of the website):
http://www.nightshadebooks.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=201
http://www.nightshadebooks.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=201
j d worthington
Well-Known Member
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- May 9, 2006
- Messages
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A couple more items in the mail today:
Eldritch Evolutions, a book of short stories by Lois Gresh
http://hwadarkwhispers.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/eldritch-evolutions-by-hwa-member-lois-gresh/
New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird, an anthology edited by Paula Guran
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/04/toc-new-cthulhu-the-recent-weird-edited-by-paula-guran/
Eldritch Evolutions, a book of short stories by Lois Gresh
http://hwadarkwhispers.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/eldritch-evolutions-by-hwa-member-lois-gresh/
New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird, an anthology edited by Paula Guran
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/04/toc-new-cthulhu-the-recent-weird-edited-by-paula-guran/
dask
dark and stormy knight
CHARLES DICKENS' BEST STORIES edited by Morton Dauwen Zabel. My first fear was that this was along the lines of a Charles Dickens Reader where we'd be treated to a collection of chapters from all his novels and presented as stories unto themselves. Fortunately, while the format is similar the treatment is more reader friendly. The first of four sections is comprised of selections from SKETCHES BY BOZ, and the second rounds up five "Christmas And Its Ghosts" stories. The third and fourth are the treasure of the tome: Life And Its Battle, and Tales For The Dusk, present shorter fictional pieces from such magazines as Household Words and All The Year Round. Hardback, no dust jacket, fifty cents at the Savation Army on half price day. Whoopie!
nomadman
Sophomoric Mystic
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2007
- Messages
- 464
Whilst visiting some friends in Hong Kong I realized I didn`t have enough reading material to last my stay so I was very fortunate, when browsing in a bookshop in Central, to find a copy of Journey Without Maps by Graham Greene (the last major Greene book I`ve yet to own). Later I read a large bulk of it whilst hiking on Lamma Island, and the heat, the humidity, the incessent insects and large stretches of jungle-like undergrowth lent some rather apt, if unconfortable, atmosphere to the book, which chronicles Greene`s journey through the then largely unknown West African state of Liberia in the mid 30s. Later picked up The Essential Hemingway to read on the plane back, a collection of short stories, excerpts and the full text of The Sun Also Rises. I remember not being especially fond of Hemingway when I read him a few years back, and unfortunately that impression hasn`t really changed. Still, it passed the time in a reasonably painless manner.
dask
dark and stormy knight
THE SPOOR OF SPOOKS AND OTHER NONSENSE by Bergen Evans, a debunker book along the lines of Martin Gardner's FADS AND FALLACIES IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE. Hardback, kinda pricey at $10 but looks worth it.
HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART by Dr. Franz von Reber, 1900 reissue of a book first appearing in 1882. This is a normal size hardback just under 500 pages and around an inch and a quarter thick, and the thing weighs a ton. Don't know what it's made of but I'd hate to order this through the mail. Fifty cents at a thrift store downtown.
COLLECTED WORKS OF EMILE ZOLA, hardback by Greystone Press, no year listed that I can see and other than a table of contents no introductory material any kind. Fifty cents at the same thrift store.
And finally:
Got myself a copy of "Thrawn Janet" Extollager recommended. There were several different collections containing the story in the $5 -$10 range but this had, in addition to seven pieces of fiction, poetry and, more importantly, essays. Six of them, over fifty pages worth. The price? $3. Why such a bargain? Perhaps because of the ostensibly blah, maybe to some, ugly cover. But I like it. Nice sturdy paper, 502 packed pages. Whoopie!
HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART by Dr. Franz von Reber, 1900 reissue of a book first appearing in 1882. This is a normal size hardback just under 500 pages and around an inch and a quarter thick, and the thing weighs a ton. Don't know what it's made of but I'd hate to order this through the mail. Fifty cents at a thrift store downtown.
COLLECTED WORKS OF EMILE ZOLA, hardback by Greystone Press, no year listed that I can see and other than a table of contents no introductory material any kind. Fifty cents at the same thrift store.
And finally:
Got myself a copy of "Thrawn Janet" Extollager recommended. There were several different collections containing the story in the $5 -$10 range but this had, in addition to seven pieces of fiction, poetry and, more importantly, essays. Six of them, over fifty pages worth. The price? $3. Why such a bargain? Perhaps because of the ostensibly blah, maybe to some, ugly cover. But I like it. Nice sturdy paper, 502 packed pages. Whoopie!
Hilarious Joke
Fool
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. Been wanting to give him a try for a while.
A couple today...
The Complete Odes and Epodes - Horace *Nice Penguin Black Classic edn, of work by one of the great poets of antiquity. Blurb:Horace (65-8 bc) was one of the greatest poets of the Golden or Augustan age of Latin literature, a master of precision and irony who brilliantly transformed early Greek iambic and lyric poetry into sophisticated Latin verse of outstanding beauty. Offering allusive and exquisitely crafted insights into the brief joys of the present and the uncertain nature of the future, his Odes and Epodes explore such diverse themes as the virtues of pastoral life, the joys of wine, friendship and love, and the poet's personal anguish following Brutus' defeat at the battle of Phillipi. Ranging from subtle and tender hymns to the gods to bawdy celebrations of human passions, they remain among the most influential of all poems, inspiring poets from the Roman era to the European Renaissance, the Enlightenment and beyond.
Effi Briest - Theodor Fontane *Having recently acquired an NYRB edn. of Fontane's Irretrievable, I spotted this Penguin Black edn. of Fontane's best known work today. Blurb: Unworldly young Effi Briest is married off to Baron von Innstetten, an austere and ambitious civil servant twice her age, who has little time for his new wife. Isolated and bored, Effi finds comfort and distraction in a brief liaison with Major Crampas, a married man with a dangerous reputation. But years later, when Effi has almost forgotten her affair, the secret returns to haunt her, with fatal consequences. Considered to be Fontane's greatest novel, Effi Briest is a humane, unsentimental portrait of a young woman torn between her duties as a wife and mother and the instincts of her heart.
The Complete Odes and Epodes - Horace *Nice Penguin Black Classic edn, of work by one of the great poets of antiquity. Blurb:Horace (65-8 bc) was one of the greatest poets of the Golden or Augustan age of Latin literature, a master of precision and irony who brilliantly transformed early Greek iambic and lyric poetry into sophisticated Latin verse of outstanding beauty. Offering allusive and exquisitely crafted insights into the brief joys of the present and the uncertain nature of the future, his Odes and Epodes explore such diverse themes as the virtues of pastoral life, the joys of wine, friendship and love, and the poet's personal anguish following Brutus' defeat at the battle of Phillipi. Ranging from subtle and tender hymns to the gods to bawdy celebrations of human passions, they remain among the most influential of all poems, inspiring poets from the Roman era to the European Renaissance, the Enlightenment and beyond.
Effi Briest - Theodor Fontane *Having recently acquired an NYRB edn. of Fontane's Irretrievable, I spotted this Penguin Black edn. of Fontane's best known work today. Blurb: Unworldly young Effi Briest is married off to Baron von Innstetten, an austere and ambitious civil servant twice her age, who has little time for his new wife. Isolated and bored, Effi finds comfort and distraction in a brief liaison with Major Crampas, a married man with a dangerous reputation. But years later, when Effi has almost forgotten her affair, the secret returns to haunt her, with fatal consequences. Considered to be Fontane's greatest novel, Effi Briest is a humane, unsentimental portrait of a young woman torn between her duties as a wife and mother and the instincts of her heart.
JLawrenceDavis
Aspiring Author
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I've got Brian Herbert's and Kevin J. Anderson's Hellhole sitting on my coffee table to read but I recently picked up and am currently reading Fables: Blood Ties by Peter David after really enjoy his last one Fable: The Balverine Order. I've been collecting the Jim Butcher Dresden Files series and plan to start White Knight next.
I have to be careful when going to book stores, especially ones like Half-Price Books because I never leave empty handed
I have to be careful when going to book stores, especially ones like Half-Price Books because I never leave empty handed
j d worthington
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 9, 2006
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Another Lovecraftian anthology in the mail:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0982181868/?tag=brite-21
A very promising little book featuring several of today's best writers in the genre....
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0982181868/?tag=brite-21
A very promising little book featuring several of today's best writers in the genre....
nomadman
Sophomoric Mystic
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2007
- Messages
- 464
I don't know how much interest this'll be to others on here but whilst vacationing in Japan I picked up the following books:
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt - report of the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, who was responsible for the mass deportations of Jews during WW2.
An Organizer's Tale: Speeches by Cesar Chavez - collection of the Mexican American civil rights leader's speeches.
Facundo: or Civilization and Barbarism by Domingo F Sarmiento - chronicle of a famous gaucho (Argentinian cowboy) by the future president of
Dashing Diamond Dick and Other Classic Dime Novels - a selection of five dime novels written at the turn of the century and representative of early American pop culture.
And a few that some may like:
The Beautiful and the Grotesque by Ryunosuke Akutagawa - collection of the Japanese writer's short stories (including the whole of his short novella Kappa). Quite a nice companion piece to the Penguin collection without any overlapping stories that I can see; includes a good selection of his rewritten folktales as well as his more contemporary stories.
Ellery Queen's Japanese Detective Stories - previously published as Ellery Queen's Japanese Golden Dozen, this is a collection of some of Japan's best short crime fiction as compiled by that two-headed scion of the genre Ellery Queen. Whilst I gather that quite a bit of excellent Japanese crime fiction has been written since its publication (1978) it's still considered a very good representation of a genre which is massive in Japan (most of the writers included won an Edogawa Rampo award at some point).
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt - report of the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, who was responsible for the mass deportations of Jews during WW2.
An Organizer's Tale: Speeches by Cesar Chavez - collection of the Mexican American civil rights leader's speeches.
Facundo: or Civilization and Barbarism by Domingo F Sarmiento - chronicle of a famous gaucho (Argentinian cowboy) by the future president of
Dashing Diamond Dick and Other Classic Dime Novels - a selection of five dime novels written at the turn of the century and representative of early American pop culture.
And a few that some may like:
The Beautiful and the Grotesque by Ryunosuke Akutagawa - collection of the Japanese writer's short stories (including the whole of his short novella Kappa). Quite a nice companion piece to the Penguin collection without any overlapping stories that I can see; includes a good selection of his rewritten folktales as well as his more contemporary stories.
Ellery Queen's Japanese Detective Stories - previously published as Ellery Queen's Japanese Golden Dozen, this is a collection of some of Japan's best short crime fiction as compiled by that two-headed scion of the genre Ellery Queen. Whilst I gather that quite a bit of excellent Japanese crime fiction has been written since its publication (1978) it's still considered a very good representation of a genre which is massive in Japan (most of the writers included won an Edogawa Rampo award at some point).
Well nomadman there is at least one person here interested in your reading habits...
I've seen the Eichmann before but was never moved enough to purchase it. The Facundo and Chavez's speeches sound interesting. I have a copy of the Penguin edn of your Dime Store anthology. A good fun read but not a lot more than that. Also have the Akutagawa copy. It's excellent.
The 'Ellery Queen's Japanese Detective Stories' probably interests me the most out of your batch, mainly because I was not aware even of its existence.
Cheers.
I've seen the Eichmann before but was never moved enough to purchase it. The Facundo and Chavez's speeches sound interesting. I have a copy of the Penguin edn of your Dime Store anthology. A good fun read but not a lot more than that. Also have the Akutagawa copy. It's excellent.
The 'Ellery Queen's Japanese Detective Stories' probably interests me the most out of your batch, mainly because I was not aware even of its existence.
Cheers.
Extollager
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2010
- Messages
- 9,237
Never heard of it but it's now on my radar. Many thanks.
Here's some recent acquisitions:
Because I like Russian sf. Mint condition for $1.99.
I have this -- only briefly -- on interlibrary loan. What should I be sure to read?
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