Book Hauls!

[aarti]

@ JD, Nesacat, Aarti:

Yea, I'm a grand fan of Amar Chitra Katha comics as well.

Btw ACK has a website from where you can order comics Click here.

Ooh, good to know. Though I haven't bought new comic books in a long time. I always liked the ones with Emperor Akbar. Though those were history, not religion.

Anyway if you're interested in the Mahabharata, I also highly recommend a companion piece called Krishnavatara - written by K.M. Munshi as a series of 7 short books, unfortunately incomplete because he passed away and it ends on something of a cliffhanger note, this series offers a striking frieze of the events in the life of Krishna who is also one of the cenral figures of the Mahabharata, beautifully shows how his actions at every point of time are guided by what he sees as the fulfilment of his Dharma or religious duty, and provides a wonderful tie-in with the events and characters of the Mahabharata.

Thank you for the suggestion. It has been a VERY long time since I read the Mahabharata through, and from what I know, I didn't read a very good edition of the book.

I have also heard of the book Blue God: A Life of Krishna, by Ramesh Menon, which puts the Bhagavad-Gita into context with Krishna's life. It sounds excellent.

I also love the Mahabharata mini-series! Much better than the Ramayana.

 

[j d worthington]

Ravenus: Thanks for the input. As I said earlier, I'd held off on reading the Mahabharata because I had no guide to which editions/translations were good and which were not. So Nesa has been kindly helping me by providing me with suggestions on translations at various levels, and sent me this one to introduce me to this great work... others will follow (though it's going to take me quite a while to get around to any translations of the entire work, I do want very much to get there). I must say, though, that I'm enjoying it, and I find the style very appealing because of its ability to blend simplicity and accessibility with vivid imagery, wry wit, and a warm human sympathy. It also tends to make it very obvious which sections are being left out, by at least briefly mentioning them, so that the reader is aware of their existence and can, if interested, know what to look for elsewhere ... much better than shortened translations of a lot of other works I've encountered, where the reader simply wouldn't have known about the missing material unless they read the original for themselves.

 

[Nesacat]

Ravenus ... have been carefully avoiding the Amar Chitra Katha site since I first discovered it a couple of months ago. However, I will be in India in a couple of weeks and shall look out for the Munshi book and will probably buy more Amar Chitra Katha and other books as well.

Yes, quite a lot goes on after the Great War and I have some versions which continue right up to the death of Krishna and the Pandavas as well, thereby ending that age. It does give a sense of completion to the whole epic. Too many of the recent translations have stripped out everything to concentrate on the War, which is a shame.

Taltos ... well 13 days is alright. Almost two whole weeks.

 

[ravenus]

@Nesa:
Hey cool. If you're in Bombay maybe we can get meet a bit. The Krishnavatara books you're not likely to find readily available in most retail bookstores. If you have relatives in India it might be better for you to ask them to get hold of it so you don't have to hunt. It's published by Bhavan's Book University.

They have an online store Click here

 

[j d worthington]

Oh, my! Two more packages arrived in the mail today, packed full of goodies:

Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, by Kiran Desai
Chinnamani's World, by Mukunda Rao
The Adventures of Feluda, by Satyajit Ray
The Crow Eaters, by Bapsi Sidhwa
another retelling of The Mahabharata, by R. K. Narayan

and, to top it off, a cookbook called Malaysian Hawker Favourites (which look and sound absolutely wonderful ... going to have to polish up my rusty cooking skills, I see) and a DVD of Nang-Nak, which sounds a perfectly wonderful story....

Thank you very, very much Nesa! Much appreciated!

 

[elvet]

I picked up Lessek's Key, the follow up book to The Hickory Staff. I was sad to here that one of the co-authors, Jay Gordon, succumbed to ALS early last year.
I also got my own copy of Fionavar Tapestry (the one I had read was borrowed), as I know I'll be visiting it soon again. Lastly I bought another book by Kim Williams, The Autumn Castle.

 

[bruno-1012]

I am currently in Dubai where the choice is fairly restricted. Have been here for 4 months and getting bad withdrawal symptoms since I read about 4 books a week and buy around 6-10 a month.

Plus I am worried about my baggage allowance when I go back home so the 20 or so I have managed to aquire here will have to make it home some other way.

The worst time for me was when I was living in Omagh, Northern Ireland for 8 months. The SF section in the book store consisted of a single shelf about 2/3 feet long.

Among those I have picked up here are Robin Hobb (Soldiers Son), Pratchet (Wintersmith) and Ben Bova (the moon duology).

Roll on Christmas and the chance to get reunited with my library...even if its only for a couple of weeks.

 

[Taltos]

Picked up my order, which consisted of:
Gibson/Sterling The Difference Engine
Mieville Perdido Street Station - would have never guessed, that this book will have so many pages
Wolfe Wizard/Knight

Looked around the bookshop, but got out without another book ... a little victory

 

[Nesacat]

Ravenus ... am not going to be in Bombay this time I'm afraid. Am going to several places in the South. Might head to Bombay next year though. Would be great to meet up for a bit. Thank you for the link.

Received Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman as a gift. Looks like a lovely read thus far.

j.d. You're most welcome. Glad you like the books and that they arrived safely. I shall release my hostage postal department officials now.

From a remaindered books sale:
Dark Water - Koji Suzuki
Christ The Lord: Out Of Egypt - Anne Rice
Pinkerton's Sister - Peter Rushforth
The Witch's Boy - Michael Grober
The God Of Mischief - Paul Bajoria
The Planets - Dava Sobel
Curry: A Biography - Lizzie Collingham

 

[beenorthern]

Had an appointment downtown quite close to The World's Biggest Bookstore so naturally ...

Actually went in the big used bookstore nextdoor first and found:

John Barnes *Earth Made of Glass*
-- read this first, since I'd already taken in books 1 & 3 -- Excellent!!!
Laura Joh Rowland *Black Lotus* and *Bundori*
Alexander Jablokov *Nimbus*
Juliet Marillier *Daughter of the Forest*
Anne Perry *Long Spoon Lane*
Louise Anderson *Perception of Death*
-- read this second -- was not familiar with this mystery writer,
but liked it enough that I will google and see if she has more
S. Andrew Swann *Revolutionary*
-- as I suspected I already have it, but it was only $1

Then to the World's Biggest and extravagantly purchased:

Sergei Lukyanenko *The Night Watch* [trade paperback]
-- two clerks saw me with this and each told me how wonderful this
fantasy is -- I'd read about it here already -- tomorrow!
Kristine Kathryn Rusch *Buried Deep*
R.M. Meluch *The Myriad*

 

[j d worthington]

Nesa: Sounds like quite a spread there.... I'd be interested in your thoughts on several of those.... and by all means, feel free to post some more of those reviews -- they give a much better idea than most of the professionally published reviews I've seen for quite some time....

 

[Taltos]

Got my last book in this year:
S.R. Greens A Walk on the Nightside - a collection containing the first three books about Nightside.

(OK, OK - beeing in the bookshop couldn't resist and asked about Hamiltons Nano Flower to conclude that trilogy - they said that they probaly have one in the stock proposed to write me back on the monday - NOW where is my email ? Not that I'm addicted or anything ... )

 

[Nesacat]

Last book of the year Taltos? Really?

From a book sale:
The Paper House - Carlos Maria Dominquez (offers a whole new way to shelve books)
King Matt The First - Janisz Korczak
The Wreckers - Bella Bathurst
Leornardo & The Death Machine - Robert J Harris
The Secret Country - Jane Johnson
Maddigan's Fantasia - Margaret Mahy
Is & Could Shoulder Road - Joan Aiken
The Vesuvius Club - Mark Gatiss

 

[Taltos]

Last book of the year Taltos? Really?

Well, at least I hope so, I'm trying to shrink my bought but not read book pile. But if they call/write me from the bookshop and tell me that they have Nano Flower I'm gonna break that promise again

And a nitpick:

King Matt The First - Janisz Korczak

That should read Janusz Korczak

And a question: Nesa do you really have time to read all those books or are you just collecting them ?

 

[Nesacat]

Thanks Taltos. I do have the time to read but not as much as I would like; though I do have the habit of taking time off work and not doing anything but read. Also tend to read through the night and almost all the time on weekends. My parents have taken to calling up once a day if they are away to tell me to 'eat now' and we will call in a while to check.

This particular sale happens twice a year and is really too good to miss. The owner of this particular bookstore heads down to Australia and buys out remainder warehouses so I can pick up hardbacks and tradebacks for less than a quarter of the retail price and they are almost always first editions; ofen unavailable in Malaysia and usually several months ahead of when the books finally make it to Malaysia.

 

[Nikitta]

I just got an email from my boyfriend that The Girl Who Was Plugged In (James Tiptree Jr.), which we ordered online has finally arrived!

 

[j d worthington]

I just got an email from my boyfriend that The Girl Who Was Plugged In (James Tiptree Jr.), which we ordered online has finally arrived!

Congratulations! Enjoy!

 

[Nikitta]

Congratulations! Enjoy!

Thanks! It's part of a double book and much shorter than I remembered it to be, but definitely woth it. I can see how it could get stuck in my head in the first place because it's very well written and disturbing in just the right way. Mmm - enjoyable and re-readable.

I'll look into the other story in the book and see if it's any good.

 

[Rosemary]

Luck was with me for a little while today...Bought R.A.Salvatore's 'The Cleric Quintet' Collectores Edition. Usually priced around $AU43...I was very lucky as one page was turned over on a corner, only a small amount but enought to bring the price down to just $AU20. As I bought my son a book for Christmas as well, I got a $AU15 voucher!!

 

[HoopyFrood]

Woot!!! I was just toddling back to my halls from campus and I walk through the local club/cafe/bar place and what do I see in there? A book sale! Yay! And ah, there are some gems in there! I was tempted to buy so many, but I had to take into consideration that I have to cart them all home on the train next week, so I had to limit myself (it sounds like the stall is there every week though...yay!) Anyway, so for a mere £6.25 (less than the average book bought new from a book shop!) I bought The Eye of the World by Robert Jordon, The Amityville Horror part II and Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos volume I by H.P Lovecraft and others. Woo!