Book Hauls!

[Hilarious Joke]

I recently picked up Ice Station by Matthew Reilly for myself.

For my birthday I also got:
- My Life Brett Lee by James Knight
- This is a Call: the life and times of Dave Grohl by Paul Brannigan
- The Lincoln Lawyer Novels by Michael Connelly

And for Christmas I got:
- Standing My Ground by Matthew Hayden
- Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett

Yay!

 

[CyBeR]

I recently picked up Ice Station by Matthew Reilly for myself.

For my birthday I also got:
- My Life Brett Lee by James Knight
- This is a Call: the life and times of Dave Grohl by Paul Brannigan
- The Lincoln Lawyer Novels by Michael Connelly

And for Christmas I got:
- Standing My Ground by Matthew Hayden
- Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett

Yay!

Looking forward to opinions on that one.

I'm a sad sad camper. Did not manage to get myself any books this Christmas, and I'm still looking for that Godforsaken copy of Chapterhouse Dune by Frank Herbert. Yes, I can get it in English, EASILY, but I want it in Romanian, from Nemira's Nautilus Collection. Simply because I have the previous 5 from that collection and this would complete the set and it would look nice on the shelf.

But prior to this, got me some Strugatski brothers novel, Sign of the Unicorn from the Amber series and some other cute sci-fi novels, including something new by Orson Scott Card (new for me). I wonder if this novel will manage to wash away the filth that represented the last two Ender Wiggins books.

 

[nomadman]

For Christmas I picked up Robertson Davies's wonderful works The Deptford Trilogy, The Salterton trilogy, The Cornish Trilogy and his standalone and final work The Cunning Man.

Also got The Etymologicon, Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle as various presents for relatives.

Am reading The Cunning Man now, and thus far it's a deep and wondrous as Davies's masterpiece, Fifth Business.

 

[FireDragon-16]

For Christmas, my brother bought me Inheritance. I also recieved about $45 in Barnes and Noble gift cards so far, but we have dinner with some more family this weekend, so there will be more books to come !

 

[Fried Egg]

A nice christmas haul, two authors I've not read before and two favourite authors:

"Dark Entries" by Robert Aickman
"The Rediscovery of Man" by Cordwainer Smith
"Malpertuis" by Jean Ray
"The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson

 

[GOLLUM]

For Christmas I picked up Robertson Davies's wonderful works The Deptford Trilogy, The Salterton trilogy, The Cornish Trilogy and his standalone and final work The Cunning Man..Am reading The Cunning Man now, and thus far it's a deep and wondrous as Davies's masterpiece, Fifth Business.

I have most of Davies's work but not that final work. According to wiki, it was book 2 in a probable planned for trilogy, the first book being Murther and Walking Spirits.

Davies is not particularly well represented in online SFF forums (and not it seems that well IRL except in his native Canada and I assume North America), which is shame given he's such a good writer. It's therefore encouraging whenever one sees his name being mentioned in dispatches.

It will be interesting to read your thoughts on The Cunning Man and if you can get hold of and subsequently comment on Murther and Walking Spirits.

 

[GOLLUM]

Picked up...

Rings of Saturn - W.G Sebald *This is arguably the late great Austrian novelist's finest work now in an affordable Vintage edition. To place it into a literary context, reading Sebald for me is a treat in the same way reading anything by e.g. Italo Calvino, Umberto Eco, A.S. Byatt or Angela Carter is a treat. Anyone interested in European Literature should read Sebald given the myriad references his works make to many of its key contributors as well as its 'history', not to mention the quality and value his work presents to the reader. Blurb: Hugely original and erudite travelogue-come-memoir from one of Europe's most lauded writers...The Rings of Saturn begins as the record of a journey on foot through coastal East Anglia. From Lowestoft to Bungay, Sebald's own story becomes the conductor of evocations of people and cultures past and present: of Chateaubriand, Thomas Browne, Swinburne and Conrad, of fishing fleets, skulls and silkworms. The result is an intricately patterned and haunting book on the transience of all things human.

Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein *I became much more aware of the American Gertrude Stein and the obvious influence she had on many of the pre-modernist writers and artists during their 'occupation' of Paris in the early 1900s through to 1930 by way of an excellent documentary covering this particularly significant period in the development of 20th Century art in general. Artists like Picasso, Blaise Cendares, Ernest Hemingway & Jean Cocteau to name just a few....so the opportunity to pick up this rather excellent reader in the post Christmas sales was far too tempting an offer to refuse. Blurb: This collection, a retrospective exhibit of the work of a woman who created a unique place for herself in the world of letters, contains a sample of practically every period and every manner in Gertrude Stein's career. It includes The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas in its entirety; selected passages from The Making of Americans; "Melanctha"from Three Lives; portraits of the painters Cezanne, Matisse, and Picasso; Tender Buttons; the opera Four Saints in Three Acts; and poem, plays, lectures, articles, sketches, and a generous portion of her famous book on the Occupation of France, Wars I Have Seen.

 

[GOLLUM]

Final purchases for 2011..to bring in the New Year...

The World Of the Book - Cowley & Williamson. *This was at a sale today and thus I got this wonderful book at a bargain basement price. It is basically a coffee table book crammed full of lavish illustrations and explanatory text providing a pretty comprehensive commentary on the history of the book and printing. An excellent edition to my library. Blurb: A celebration of the book, from the Middle Ages through the present day, this resource explores volumes ranging from the rare to the iconic, from significant historical and scientific titles to classic literature and modern graphic novels. Images taken from some of the world’s most stunning books are included, such as John James Audubon’s Birds of America and William Caxton’s groundbreaking Myrrour of the Worlde. A comprehensive history of book production, design, and illustration in the Western world rounds out this stunning review.

The Art of the Personal Essay - Phillip Lopate *My research reveals that this is the best anthology available that features the art of the essay from it's foundations through to the present day. A very fine collection on this sometimes neglected but important Genre. Blurb: For more than four hundred years, the personal essay has been one of the richest and most vibrant of all literary forms. Distinguished from the detached formal essay by its friendly, conversational tone, its loose structure, and its drive toward candor and self-disclosure, the personal essay seizes on the minutiae of daily life-vanities, fashions, foibles, oddballs, seasonal rituals, love and disappointment, the pleasures of solitude, reading, taking a walk -- to offer insight into the human condition and the great social and political issues of the day. The Art of the Personal Essay is the first anthology to celebrate this fertile genre. By presenting more than seventy-five personal essays, including influential forerunners from ancient Greece, Rome, and the Far East, masterpieces from the dawn of the personal essay in the sixteenth century, and a wealth of the finest personal essays from the last four centuries, editor Phillip Lopate, himself an acclaimed essayist, displays the tradition of the personal essay in all its historical grandeur, depth, and diversity.

That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana - Carlo Emilio Gadda *NYRD edn. of what is generally regarded as one of the finest post-war Italian novels admired by authors including Alberto Moravia and Italo Calvino. Blurb: In a large apartment house in central Rome, two crimes are committed within a matter of days: a burglary, in which a good deal of money and precious jewels are taken, and a murder, as a young woman whose husband is out of town is found with her throat cut. Called in to investigate, melancholy Detective Ciccio, a secret admirer of the murdered woman and a friend of her husband’s, discovers that almost everyone in the apartment building is somehow involved in the case, and with each new development the mystery only deepens and broadens. Gadda’s sublimely different detective story presents a scathing picture of fascist Italy while tracking the elusiveness of the truth, the impossibility of proof, and the infinite complexity of the workings of fate, showing how they come into conflict with the demands of justice and love.

The Martyred - Richard E. Kim. *Penguin black classic edn. of a classic Korean novel. Blurb: During the early weeks of the Korean War, Captain Lee, a young South Korean officer, is ordered to investigate the kidnapping and mass murder of North Korean ministers by Communist forces. For propaganda purposes, the priests are declared martyrs, but as he delves into the crime, Lee finds himself asking: What if they were not martyrs? What if they renounced their faith in the face of death, failing both God and country? Should the people be fed this lie? Part thriller, part mystery, part existential treatise, The Martyred is a stunning meditation on truth, religion, and faith in times of crisis.

A Hero Of our Time - Mikhail Lemontov *Penguin black classic edn. of what is considered to be the first major Russian novel. Blurb: A Hero of Our Time was both lauded and reviled upon publication. Its dissipated hero, twenty-five-year-old Pechorin, is a beautiful and magnetic but nihilistic young army officer, bored by life and indifferent to his many sexual conquests. Chronicling his unforgettable adventures in the Caucasus involving brigands, smugglers, soldiers, rivals, and lovers, this classic tale of alienation influenced Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Chekhov in Lermontov's own century, and finds its modern-day counterparts in Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, the novels of Chuck Palahniuk, and the films and plays of Neil Labute.

The Underdogs : A novel of the Mexican revolution - Mariano Azuela *Penguin black classic edn. of the best known work of the Mexican revolution and an essential item to own for anyone interested in collecting, as I am. the best the 'Latin American' canon has to offer. Blurb: With revolution sweeping the Mexican countryside, Demetrio Macias, a poor illiterate Indian, is forced to join the rebels in order to save his family. His courage and charisma earn him important friends-and a generalship in the army of the legendary Pancho Villa-but in the face of mounting defeats and increasing factionalism, Demetrio begins to feel estranged from the cause. Mariano Azuela's stirring novel about the first great revolution of the twentieth century is a powerful portrait of the disillusionment of war, an authentic representation of Mexico's peasant life, and an iconic novel of the Latin American experience.

 

[Hilarious Joke]

Great haul Drooly One!

 

[thatollie]

A Feast for Crows - George R.R. Martin
A Song for Arbonne - Guy Gavriel Kay
5 Plays - Anton Chekhov

 

[Extollager]

If you have ever intended to buy a copy of George MacDonald's Phantastes, they're practically giving them away at Bookdepository --

http://www.bookdepository.com/Phantastes-George-MacDonald/9781842276150

I'm seeing a price for US customers of $3.87 postpaid from the UK. Which seems too insane to be true; but I just got one in the mail yesterday. It looks like a very nice paperback edition, with Arthur Hughes illustrations and some other pictures (e.g. portraits of the author, etc.). I haven't assessed the quality of the annotations yet, but this is certainly a book that might benefit from judicious notes.

I intend to order more copies, to give away.

Having said that, I'll add that I don't find Phantastes to be my favorite fantasy by MacDonald; I prefer the two "Curdie" books, tales such as "Photogen and Nycteris," "The Light Princess," and "The Golden Key," and the late romance Lilith. But Phantastes is a major Victorian work of fantasy and probably a seminal book, with considerable intrinsic interest.

Pictured here is the Ballantine Fantasy series edition.

 

[elvet]

Arrived today:
Skirmish by Michelle West
the Magister trilogy by C.S. Friedman
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Shadowheart by Tad Williams
Iron Jackal by Chris Wooding

 

[j d worthington]

If you have ever intended to buy a copy of George MacDonald's Phantastes, they're practically giving them away at Bookdepository --

http://www.bookdepository.com/Phantastes-George-MacDonald/9781842276150

I'm seeing a price for US customers of $3.87 postpaid from the UK. Which seems too insane to be true; but I just got one in the mail yesterday. It looks like a very nice paperback edition, with Arthur Hughes illustrations and some other pictures (e.g. portraits of the author, etc.). I haven't assessed the quality of the annotations yet, but this is certainly a book that might benefit from judicious notes.

I intend to order more copies, to give away.

Having said that, I'll add that I don't find Phantastes to be my favorite fantasy by MacDonald; I prefer the two "Curdie" books, tales such as "Photogen and Nycteris," "The Light Princess," and "The Golden Key," and the late romance Lilith. But Phantastes is a major Victorian work of fantasy and probably a seminal book, with considerable intrinsic interest.

I'd be very interested in looking at an annotated copy of this (and even more so at one of Lilith). I agree that the latter is a better piece overall, though it has been some time since I read either. I do recall, however, that the Ballantine edition was somewhat abridged... one thing, if memory serves, included the removal of much (if not all) of the verse....

 

[GOLLUM]

If you have ever intended to buy a copy of George MacDonald's Phantastes, they're practically giving them away at Bookdepository --

http://www.bookdepository.com/Phantastes-George-MacDonald/9781842276150

I'm seeing a price for US customers of $3.87 postpaid from the UK. Which seems too insane to be true; but I just got one in the mail yesterday. It looks like a very nice paperback edition, with Arthur Hughes illustrations and some other pictures (e.g. portraits of the author, etc.). I haven't assessed the quality of the annotations yet, but this is certainly a book that might benefit from judicious notes.

I intend to order more copies, to give away.

Huh? How do I sign up for a free copy?...

I have a George MacDonald Treasury that very handily collects a lot of his best known works, a number of which you've already alluded to, including what I'll call the 'princess books', Lilith, Phantastes and The Golden Key but this is definitely not annotated...so an annotated Phantastes would be a useful addition no doubt.

I also incidentally have an excellent George MacDonald: Complete fairy Tales published by Penguin in their black classics range. If you don't already have this I would recommend it to you. The introductory notes, whilst not a traditional annotation, are still very useful!

I shall watch this space with some interest...

 

[GOLLUM]

HMM..I got so excited about the MacDonald annotated Phnatatses that I forgot to post my own recent additions.. OH well..here goes:

The Female Eunuch - Germaine Greer *A no doubt controversial but important text in the women's movement by the Australian academic and author. I'm actually in the process of collecting 3 key feminist texts as part of my (somewhat pretentiously named) library sub category: Books that Changed The World. In fact I'll be posting a few new additions tomorrow. Blurb: A new cover re-issue of the ground-breaking, worldwide bestselling feminist tract. A worldwide bestseller, translated into over twelve languages, THE FEMALE EUNUCH is a landmark in the history of the women's movement. Drawing liberally from history, literature and popular culture, past and present, Germaine Greer's searing examination of women's oppression is at once an important social commentary and a passionately argued masterpiece of polemic. Possibly the most famous, most widely read book on feminism ever.

The Second Sex - Simone de Beauvoir *Another of the key feminist texts and not a book I've ever read. It's quite a large tome and appears to be a little daunting but I shall persevere. This is a new and comprehensive translation, reinstating a fifth of the original. Blurb: Newly translated and unabridged in English for the first time, Simone de Beauvoir’s masterwork is a powerful analysis of the Western notion of “woman,” and a groundbreaking exploration of inequality and otherness. This long-awaited new edition reinstates significant portions of the original French text that were cut in the first English translation. Vital and groundbreaking, Beauvoir’s pioneering and impressive text remains as pertinent today as it was sixty years ago, and will continue to provoke and inspire generations of men and women to come.

Literature Machine - Italo Calvino *A nice affordable edn. of a collection of Calvino essays, some of which I don't already own. I would say along with his better known and widely influential Why Read The Classics? and his autobiographical pieces collected in Hermit In Paris, you will gain an excellent insight into one of the greatest and most astute literary minds of the 20th Century. Calvino's essays are for me are on a par with authors of the caliber of Borges, Umberto Eco, A.S Byatt or Gunter Grass to name just a few. It's always been a sore point with many people that he was often cited for but never won the Nobel Prize, myself included. Blurb: In these highly praised essays Italo Calvino discusses literature in relation to science, philosophy and politics and analysis the work of the great writers of the past. The insights and interests expressed here are an important contribution to the understanding of the uses of literature and to a comprehension of the work of a modern master.

 

[Extollager]

JD, I thought that Paternoster had also published an annotated edition of Lilith, but I didn't find it just now at Bookdepository or Amazon. Perhaps it will be published eventually.

Gollum, my students often come from homes and towns in which books were not abundant. (Of course, compared to many 19th-century working people, they have had fabulous access to books, but for whatever reason haven't exploited that access.) From time to time I like to give away books that I hope student(s) will enjoy and that may help them to become more confirmed as readers. Last fall, I gave away four copies of Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White! I want to have copies of MacDonald's fantasy on hand to give to people who maybe have read some Tolkien, Harry Potter, etc. and might be receptive to exploring literary fantasy further. I already know of one student, at least, to whom I'll be offering a copy of Phantastes.

MacDonald is often writing at his best in his fantasy -- more concisely than in his realistic novels, of which I have read several (and one of which, Sir Gibbie, I am reading now). I think the reason may be that while in his novels he felt he could and should teach his readers, he believed that a fantasy should work on the imagination without the didactic overlay. It's really quite a striking difference. I hasten to say that I think some of the exposition in the novels is pretty good, e.g. in Sir Gibbie as MacDonald talks about the craving for alcohol of Gibbie's father. But readers since the second half of the 1800s tend to have little tolerance for extended "commentary" in novels. I have read all of MacDonald's fantasy and it has a lot less of that.

I gave away a copy of the Penguin Classic edition of MacDonald's fairy tales, Gollum (I had all of the stories in other books), but perhaps I will pick up a replacement for myself -- and if I happen to see some good prices, copies to give away too! I don't know if any of these books I give away will ever be read, but I'm willing to take a little risk. I don't just hand them out promiscuously -- I do look for evidence of interest before asking if a student wants one.

 

[Extollager]

I'd be very interested in looking at an annotated copy of this (and even more so at one of Lilith).

I have posted as a separate thread a set of annotations to Lilith that I prepared a dozen years ago. I think there is some good material in them, but they might benefit from some revision that I'm not taking the time to do now. Perhaps if anyone reads them, he or she will have some suggestions to make.

MacDonald really is a great fantasist with an outstandingly powerful imagination.

I like this Ballantine Fantasy series cover, but it doesn't capture very much of the pervasive weirdness of the book.

 

[HoopyFrood]

The Second Sex - Simone de Beauvoir *Another of the key feminist texts and not a book I've ever read. It's quite a large tome and appears to be a little daunting but I shall persevere. This is a new and comprehensive translation, reinstating a fifth of the original. Blurb: Newly translated and unabridged in English for the first time, Simone de Beauvoir’s masterwork is a powerful analysis of the Western notion of “woman,” and a groundbreaking exploration of inequality and otherness. This long-awaited new edition reinstates significant portions of the original French text that were cut in the first English translation. Vital and groundbreaking, Beauvoir’s pioneering and impressive text remains as pertinent today as it was sixty years ago, and will continue to provoke and inspire generations of men and women to come.

Read some of that a few years back, although at the time I'm sure a fair amount of it went over my head. Now, I love me some gender, sexuality and sex deconstruction.

Anyway, I ordered Why Does E=MC2 and Why Should We Care? from Amazon, which should be arriving soon. Want to get my head around astrophysics some more.

 

[j d worthington]

I like this Ballantine Fantasy series cover, but it doesn't capture very much of the pervasive weirdness of the book.

I would agree with you on both points; it is a lovely work by Gallardo, but the relation to the actual novel is tangential and symbolic at best....

 

[Extollager]

I would agree with you on both points; it is a lovely work by Gallardo, but the relation to the actual novel is tangential and symbolic at best....

Yes. I wonder if Gallardo didn't have time to read the whole book, or if he read a little and felt he had enough to go by to make an attractive image. His art does, as I recall, fit at least to a degree some elements early in the book. But ah! if his design had only reflected more of the book's content and atmosphere. And I do think his talent would have been able to do much with, e.g. the grotesque, horrifying, and funny dance of the skeletons, for example. Gallardo was a good choice for artist for this book.

That does, though, start a little train of thought: what if the Lilith cover had been by one of the other Ballantine artists, such as Bob Pepper, who gave us these designs? --