Book Hauls!

[GOLLUM]

I have this -- only briefly -- on interlibrary loan. What should I be sure to read?

I don't know if that question is directed to everyone here or Dask in particular Extollager? ... but as I alluded to previously, I have a copy of that Russian anthology. Of what I've read I've quite liked but I literally started at the beginning and have not covered enough of the specific stories yet to be confident of providing you with a good answer. Perhaps Dask has read further?

What I can say though with a qualifier is that both of what I've read here and based upon works by the following authors independent of this collection that I have read, that you should certainly take note of Andrei Platonov, Yuri Olesha (Pushkin, Turgenev, Gogol, Bulgakov, Tolstoy and Lermontov only if you haven’t already read what is contained in here by them) and Andrei Bely (recall from our recent discussion). Not a complete answer but perhaps it forms a solid starting point?

How long do you have the book for?

 

[nomadman]

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 read a few of the stories already. Some aren't bad, others are pretty contrived. Like a lot of early translations of Japanese works it's a little stilted in places but generally quite easy to read. It's interesting to see the different motives behind the crimes that might strike us as unusual or even quaint, dishonor, unfaithfulness and so on, and of course the theme of suicide runs through a lot of the tales in various guises. It's probably worth picking up if you've never read any Japanese detective fiction before and are interested in doing so but I wouldn't beg, borrow or steal to get a copy.

The Akutagawa is, of course, excellent, and a very nice book overall.

 

[thatollie]

King Solomon's Mines - H. Rider Haggard

 

[GOLLUM]

Today I picked up....

Who Fears Death - Nnendi Okorafor *A Nigerian born professor of English at Chicago State University, Nnendi has recently carried off this year's World Fantasy Award in the novel category. I've read and heard nothing but high praise for this dystopian novel which takes place in a post apocalyptic Africa. Blurb: In a far future, post-nuclear-holocaust Africa, genocide plagues one region. The aggressors, the Nuru, have decided to follow the Great Book and exterminate the Okeke. But when the only surviving member of a slain Okeke village is brutally raped, she manages to escape, wandering farther into the desert. She gives birth to a baby girl with hair and skin the color of sand and instinctively knows that her daughter is different. She names her daughter Onyesonwu, which means "Who Fears Death?" in an ancient African tongue. Reared under the tutelage of a mysterious and traditional shaman, Onyesonwu discovers her magical destiny-to end the genocide of her people. The journey to fulfill her destiny will force her to grapple with nature, tradition, history, true love, the spiritual mysteries of her culture-and eventually death itself.

 

[Rangerton]

A bit late with this one.

As I'm newish to fantasy reading, bought the Belgariad series by David Eddings.

I seem to remember seeing (I think it was here) that it was a good place to start reading fantasy.

Nearly finished the third book, and although I struggled, a little, to like the first book, I'm now really enjoying them.

 

[JLawrenceDavis]

I've been recommended David Eddings works before but haven't gotten around to checking any of them out. However, I've taken note of this series and will check it out.

 

[Extollager]

I don't know if that question is directed to everyone here or Dask in particular Extollager? ... but as I alluded to previously, I have a copy of that Russian anthology. Of what I've read I've quite liked but I literally started at the beginning and have not covered enough of the specific stories yet to be confident of providing you with a good answer. Perhaps Dask has read further?

What I can say though with a qualifier is that both of what I've read here and based upon works by the following authors independent of this collection that I have read, that you should certainly take note of Andrei Platonov, Yuri Olesha (Pushkin, Turgenev, Gogol, Bulgakov, Tolstoy and Lermontov only if you haven’t already read what is contained in here by them) and Andrei Bely (recall from our recent discussion). Not a complete answer but perhaps it forms a solid starting point?

How long do you have the book for?

It's due the 22nd. I would be glad to hear from anyone who said a certain item(s) was not to be missed. Right now, though, I'm actually mostly absorbed by Ian Frazier's On the Rez (i.e. Indian reservation)

and it would take something exceptionally good in the sf or fantasy vein to secure my interest, I think.

Also I have a couple of Philip K. Dick's novels coming on interlibrary loan -- at least I hope I do -- and I'll want to get into E. T. A. Hoffmann's "The Mines at Falun" before too long -- so I am emotionally prepared to return the Russian sf book without reading any of it unless someone says, "No! You really must read X!"

I've decided that Ian Frazier is one of my favorite living authors. This is the fourth book I have read by him.

 

[Extollager]

King Solomon's Mines - H. Rider Haggard

I must have read that about five times by now.

 

[hopewrites]

Jurassic Park *Free

The History of the Lord of the Rings Box set; The Return of the Shadow, The Treason of Isengard The War of the Ring, The End of the Third Age. $10


*so I was looking for jeans in a couple of local thrift stores today and instead came home with books. (who needs cloths anyway right?) the first one I picked up was the box set (and a super cute dress) the next store we went to I only found the one book it was on super sale, $0.33 but when I got inline behind a lady who had an over-cart-full of things she insisted i go before her, and when I realized i had no cash and would have to run my card she pulled out some change and bought the book for me.
mega-mad props to her for being an uber-sweetheart!!

 

[Connavar]

It's due the 22nd. I would be glad to hear from anyone who said a certain item(s) was not to be missed. Right now, though, I'm actually mostly absorbed by Ian Frazier's On the Rez (i.e. Indian reservation)

and it would take something exceptionally good in the sf or fantasy vein to secure my interest, I think.

Also I have a couple of Philip K. Dick's novels coming on interlibrary loan -- at least I hope I do -- and I'll want to get into E. T. A. Hoffmann's "The Mines at Falun" before too long -- so I am emotionally prepared to return the Russian sf book without reading any of it unless someone says, "No! You really must read X!"

I've decided that Ian Frazier is one of my favorite living authors. This is the fourth book I have read by him.

Ian Frazing ? Is it a novel about Indian Rez life today ?

I have read a great Vertigo comics series Scalped based on South Dakota Indian Rez.

The series focuses on the Oglala Lakota inhabitants of the fictional Prairie Rose Indian Reservation in modern-day South Dakota as they grapple with organized crime, rampant poverty and alcoholism, local politics and the preservation of their cultural identity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalped

Rez, mags rate the series to that they see a series that looks Native american issues today in a Rez.

 

[Fried Egg]

In the post today turned up two more of Ian Whates' anthologies: "Celebration" and "Subterfuge". That should keep me happy for a while...

 

[GOLLUM]

Today...

RUR & War With The Newts - Karel Capek *Latest in the SF Masterwork series and one I've been hanging out for. Capek is one of Czechoslovakia 's best known novelists from the last century and RUR or Rossum's Universal Robots, is the legendary play where Capek first coined the term "Robot". I have some of Capek's other works including War With The Newts but never owned a copy of RUR until now. Blurb: Written against the background of the rise of Nazism, War With the Newts concerns the discovery in the South Pacific of a sea-dwelling race, which is enslaved and exploited by mankind. In time they rebel, laying siege to the strongholds of their former masters in a global war for supremacy. R.U.R., or Rossum's Universal Robots, seen by many as a modern interpretation of the 'golem' myth, is regarded as the most important play in the history of SF. It introduced the word 'robot' and gave the genre one of its most enduring tropes.

 

[j d worthington]

And when I got back from work I found the mailman had left another for me:

H. P. Lovecraft and the Modernist Grotesque, by Sean Elliot Martin, Ph.D. This is actually his doctoral dissertation (Doctor of Philosophy), and that makes it, in some ways, even more interesting to me. The cover blurb says, in part:

Various authors are mentioned with reference to both modernist and grotesque literary tendencies, and Lovecraft's "modernist grotesque" characteristics are analyzed in their connection to the three concepts that are prominent in both modernism and the grotesque: alienation, subjectivity, and absurdity. Biographical information about Lovecraft is used minimally in this study, which focuses on textual analysis of many elements of Lovecraft's writing that seem to have been previously overlooked, including religious satire, scrutiny of scientific practices, and the modernist concep of "literary difficulty." This dissertation serves to establish a new place for Lovecraft in the larger context of English literature, and to establish a new way of thinking about modernism with reference to its possible roots in the experimental and "diagnostic" impulses of the literary grotesque.

Surprisingly, this is given quite a high rating on Amazon (5 stars), and though there are only a handful of reviews, they are all intelligent and insightful, and all recommend the book quite highly....

 

[MontyCircus]

Picked up some Sci-Fi Classics for my birthday:

Ender's Game
Fahrenheit 451
2001: A Space Odyssey
I, Robot
Neuromancer

Looking forward to them!

 

[GOLLUM]

Just arrived....Christmas has come early for me...

The Art of the Hobbit - W.G. Hammond *Special 75th Anniversary Slipcase edn. I've already had a brief look over this and it's quite magnificent! Very strong production values with over 100 colour & B&W fold-out plates featuring Tolkien's drawing for The Hobbit in addition to some excellent notes that help place the drawings into context with Tolkien's development of the Hobbit. Lengthy Blurb:When J.R.R. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit, he was already an accomplished amateur artist, and drew illustrations for his book while it was still in manuscript. The Hobbit as first printed had ten black and white pictures, two maps, and binding and dust-jacket designs by its author. Later, Tolkien also painted five scenes for colour plates which are some of his best work. His illustrations for The Hobbit add an extra dimension to that remarkable book, and have long influenced how readers imagine Bilbo Baggins and his world. To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit, the complete artwork created by the author for his story has been collected in The Art of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. Including related pictures, more than one hundred sketches, drawings, paintings, maps, and plans are presented here, preliminary and alternate versions and experimental designs as well as finished art. Some of these images are now published for the first time, and others for the first time in colour. Fresh digital scans from the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford and Marquette University in Wisconsin allow Tolkien’s Hobbit pictures to be seen more vividly than ever before.

 

[dask]

And when I got back from work I found the mailman had left another for me:

H. P. Lovecraft and the Modernist Grotesque, by Sean Elliot Martin, Ph.D. This is actually his doctoral dissertation (Doctor of Philosophy), and that makes it, in some ways, even more interesting to me. The cover blurb says, in part:



Surprisingly, this is given quite a high rating on Amazon (5 stars), and though there are only a handful of reviews, they are all intelligent and insightful, and all recommend the book quite highly....

One can now earn a Ph.D. writing about HPL? This IS cool! Perhaps civilization really is progressing.

 

[Diggler]

I picked up a big hard cover anthology og Kurt Vonnegut novels. These include

Slaughterhouse-five
The Sirens of Titan
Player Piano
Cat's Cradle
Breakfast of Champions
Mother Night

I also picked up Diaspora by Greg Egan.

On the Kindle I bought a pile of Permuted Press zombie books that are currently on special. While these books are far from literary master works, they are still good fun.

 

[Diggler]

Picked up some Sci-Fi Classics for my birthday:

Ender's Game
Fahrenheit 451
2001: A Space Odyssey
I, Robot
Neuromancer

Looking forward to them!

Loved Ender's Game and Fahrenheit 451. I was amazed at how much of what was allayed in Fahrenheit 451 is actually becoming a reality, and not in a good way either.

 

[dask]

THE LAST MUSTANG edited by Bill Pronzini. Third in a series of short story collections by prolific western author Frank Bonham from Five Star Books. Near perfect condition hardback originally selling for $26. Got it for a buck at a local thrift shop. Merry Christmas!

 

[j d worthington]

One can now earn a Ph.D. writing about HPL? This IS cool! Perhaps civilization really is progressing.

That one got a chuckle out of me.... To be pedantic, this wasn't for his Ph.D., but his Masters', on the way to the former. Still, nice point.

In fact, Joshi's recent revised bibliography of Lovecraft and Lovecraftian criticism lists six pages' worth of academic papers on HPL (pp. 562-67, should you wish to look them up); a total of 58 papers, from Arthur James Anderson's "Out of the Shadows: A Structuralist Approach to Understanding the Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Rhode Island, 1992), to David Zittelli's "L'esperienza onirica nell'opera lovecraftiana" (M.A. thesis, University of Catania, 2000). I do own a copy of one other: Barton L. St. Armand's "H. P. Lovecraft: The Outsider in Legend and Myth" (M.A., Brown, 1966); a very interesting and enjoyable read, though not on the same level as his New England Decadent or The Roots of Horror in the Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft....