Book Hauls!

[Connavar]

The last gift card i had left i bought Complete Novels by my fav american stylist. The Library of America list of literature will get alot of more money from me.

 

[AE35Unit]

That's odd. I'd agree that that's where to start with her novels (being her best, unless you just wanted to start at the beginning with Mindplayers) but she was really one of the best short fiction writers of the 80s and isn't a novelist in the way she was a short fiction writer. So, if you have an interest in short fiction and can get a-hold of it, I'd recommend Patterns. But she's her and I'm just me, so there ya go.

To be honest it doesnt sound my cup of tea- kinda cyber punky and I want space opera but Ill give any author a go.

 

[J-Sun]

To be honest it doesnt sound my cup of tea- kinda cyber punky and I want space opera but Ill give any author a go.

Yeah, very cyberpunk. Her stories are often cyberpunk but cover a range - though, even there, aside from a couple of "aliens show up here" stories, she hardly touches on space at all - but her novels are all pretty much right smack in the middle of cyberpunk.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I looked around a used bookstore here in Chattanooga (which is a story in itself -- horribly messy, disorganized place, and half the store was full of various kinds of yarn -- that's not a pun, it was literally yarn) and got this old paperback:

 

[AE35Unit]

I looked around a used bookstore here in Chattanooga (which is a story in itself -- horribly messy, disorganized place, and half the store was full of various kinds of yarn -- that's not a pun, it was literally yarn) and got this old paperback:

hmmm interesting! According to fantastic fiction its part of a series called Hortum Scholeum:

" Dolph Haertel had made history. His discovery of an anti-gravity drive had won him the race to be the first man to set foot on Mars. But now he was marooned, missing a vital spare part, and hoping that the one person to whom he'd revealed the secret of the drive could reach him in time."

 

[j d worthington]

Dask and JDW, I share your enthusiasm for Hawthorne. The Dover Thrift edition has several superb stories. When Hawthorne is mentioned, though, I like to recommend his American Notebooks too. Many of the entries enable us to become "time travelers" accompanied by Hawthorne as he roams around. He also includes ideas for stories in his notes. The volume includes 20 Days with Julian and Little Bunny by Papa, which was published separately a few years ago by New York Review Books, one of the publishing lines dear to Gollum. 20 Days is short, but I would say must be one of the great works about being an adult with a young child. It's a side of Hawthorne that would surprise many people who have a somewhat oversimplified view of NH as a grim chronicler of guilt. The American Notebooks also includes the priceless glimpse of Hawthorne companionably floating with Thoreau on an icefloe on the way back to Concord from a walk. Hawthorne had a fine weird imagination, and the American Notebooks volume takes you into his imagination and shows you he relished more than the strange.

I would second the recommendation. Though there are many things of interest in the English Notebooks (as well as those dealing with other parts of Europe), it seems to me he let his imagination and discourse flow more freely in the American notebooks than elsewhere....

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

hmmm interesting! According to fantastic fiction its part of a series called Hortum Scholeum:

" Dolph Haertel had made history. His discovery of an anti-gravity drive had won him the race to be the first man to set foot on Mars. But now he was marooned, missing a vital spare part, and hoping that the one person to whom he'd revealed the secret of the drive could reach him in time."

So Close to Home is a short story collection, so I suppose one or more of the stories it contains are set in that universe.

 

[AE35Unit]

So Close to Home is a short story collection, so I suppose one or more of the stories it contains are set in that universe.

Ah good old FF, as reliable almost as wikipedia

 

[dask]

I looked around a used bookstore here in Chattanooga (which is a story in itself -- horribly messy, disorganized place, and half the store was full of various kinds of yarn -- that's not a pun, it was literally yarn) and got this old paperback:

I've neither seen nor heard of it. Looks really cool.

 

[dask]

Dask: Modern Library has an inexpensive edition currently in print which is also nicely annotated; you could probably find a used copy for very little. It is also in print in a number of other editions ranging from quite cheap to horrendously expensive, but you should also be aware that the contents of the volume have been altered in various editions as well. Look up the contents of the original, and then look for editions which reproduce the selections from either of those done during Hawthorne's lifetime:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosses_from_an_Old_Manse#Contents

Thanks for the tip and link. I'm certainly going to seek Manse out and try to get the original contents.

 

[dask]

Dask and JDW, I share your enthusiasm for Hawthorne. The Dover Thrift edition has several superb stories. When Hawthorne is mentioned, though, I like to recommend his American Notebooks too. Many of the entries enable us to become "time travelers" accompanied by Hawthorne as he roams around. He also includes ideas for stories in his notes. The volume includes 20 Days with Julian and Little Bunny by Papa, which was published separately a few years ago by New York Review Books, one of the publishing lines dear to Gollum. 20 Days is short, but I would say must be one of the great works about being an adult with a young child. It's a side of Hawthorne that would surprise many people who have a somewhat oversimplified view of NH as a grim chronicler of guilt. The American Notebooks also includes the priceless glimpse of Hawthorne companionably floating with Thoreau on an icefloe on the way back to Concord from a walk. Hawthorne had a fine weird imagination, and the American Notebooks volume takes you into his imagination and shows you he relished more than the strange.

Didn't know about either of the Notebooks. Many thanks again. Will be snooping around second hand bookstores soon.

 

[Extollager]

Dask, be sure that you get the Yale UP edition of Hawthorne's American Notebooks. It is edited by Randall Stewart. Hawthorne's widow prepared an edition but was embarrassed by her husband's frankness on occasion. Stewart restores readings of Hawthorne's manuscript journals that Sophia omitted. I hope no one will be too hard on Sophia for that; but I want to read what Hawthorne actually wrote!

Three or four years ago a couple of friends and I undertook an exercise: supposing we had to winnow our personal libraries down to 200 books, what, of the books we then owned, would we keep? I began by choosing twenty keepers and the American Notebooks was one of them.

Used copies aren't cheap:

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=hawthorne&kn=stewart&sts=t&tn=american+notebooks

But I, personally, if I didn't have my present copy (which cost me about $10!), would willingly lay out $45 or even $85 for a replacement.

 

[dask]

Ouch! Them's big bucks. But I'll keep my eye open (and my wallet under armed guard). Maybe I'll stumble across a deal.

 

[j d worthington]

Another possibility is Ohio State University Press's Centenary Edition. Getting it from them would be cost prohibitive (as you can see if you go to their website and search for this edition) from the link below), but I have come across various volumes of the set in pristine condition for under $10 (I picked up three of his letters, as well as the volume on the Elixir of Life Manuscripts; I'd love to have the American Claimant Manuscripts volume if I can ever find it for an affordable price).

 

[Extollager]

Another possibility is Ohio State University Press's Centenary Edition. Getting it from them would be cost prohibitive

Wow! Thank you for pointing this out, JD. I had thought that the great Ohio Hawthorne series did not include the American Notebooks -- or the English. It does. How good to have these books in the series.

Since I would assume that the excellent bookmaking that I have seen for other volumes of the Ohio edition would apply here, I would say that the Amazon prices for the American Notebooks are very reasonable.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0814201598/?tag=brite-21


I have the Ohio edition of the French and Italian Notebooks, which I expect to start reading this month after I finish reading as much as I intend to of the engraver Bewick's Memoirs.

 

[j d worthington]

Yes, the same standards apply, and I would agree that the prices are very reasonable... much less than I had seen them last time I looked on Amazon.....

 

[Connavar]

Last book hauls with my christmas gift cards. I wanted an important short story author and an interesting African author so i bought these books:


Complete Tales by Flannery O'Connor
Under the Frangipani by Mia Couto

 

[dask]

Dask, be sure that you get the Yale UP edition of Hawthorne's American Notebooks. It is edited by Randall Stewart.

Randall Stewart wrote the article on Hawthorne in my edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica if anyone's interested.

 

[Mischov]

My last trip to a second-hand bookseller left me with:

Dune Messiah, by Frank Herbert
Cowl, by Neal Asher
Recursion, by Tony Ballantyne

and

Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman

Currently most of the way through Anansi Boys, which hasn't disappointed.

 

[Southern Geologist]

A nice haul this month.

For Kindle:

Isaac Asimov - I, Robot
Gene Wolf - Shadow & Claw, Sword & Citadel (Book of the New Sun vols. 1 & 2)

In the mail:

Library of America - American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s
Isaac Asimov - Complete Stories: Vol. 1
Ray Bradbury - The Martian Chronicles
Arthur C. Clarke - The City and the Stars
Richard Garfinkle - Celestial Matters
Robert Heinlein - Past Through Tomorrow
Roger Zelazny - Lord of Light