Book Hauls!

[dask]

Should be interesting. Colin Wilson liked it.

 

[j d worthington]

[...]Colin Wilson liked it.

Ummmmm... not to disparage Wilson's abilities as a writer -- he has done some fine fictional works at times -- as a thinker... well, he has frankly become utterly ridiculous long since, buying into the most absurd sorts of mysticism, occultism, and sheer hogwash more than once....

The book you show, however, may indeed be interesting. It certainly sounds like something which would pique one's interest. But I wouldn't take Colin Wilson as a reliable recommendation on anything these days, I'm afraid....

 

[AE35Unit]

Ummmmm... not to disparage Wilson's abilities as a writer -- he has done some fine fictional works at times -- as a thinker... well, he has frankly become utterly ridiculous long since, buying into the most absurd sorts of mysticism, occultism, and sheer hogwash more than once....

The book you show, however, may indeed be interesting. It certainly sounds like something which would pique one's interest. But I wouldn't take Colin Wilson as a reliable recommendation on anything these days, I'm afraid....

I had his Spider World books years ago but never got round to reading them.

 

[j d worthington]

He has done a variety of things, from weird/horror to suspense, when it comes to fiction; but he has also written a large amount on the occult, largely showing a gullibility rather astounding for someone of his (then) stature.

His Lovecraftian novel, The Mind Parasites, while very much having Wilson's own philosophical slant to it (one much more optimistic than HPL's), is very much worth reading; a second, somewhat connected novel, The Philosopher's Stone, wobbles a good deal, but also has some fine stuff to it; The Space Vampires veers from quite good and atmospheric to simply bathetic and farcical, depending. Some of his other fiction is worth reading, certainly, but these are probably easier to find than others....

 

[Extollager]

A. M. Hadfield's Introduction to Charles Williams arrived in the mail. This 1959 book seems to be appreciated, by some Williams delvers, more than her later book on the author of Many Dimensions, The Place of the Lion, and All Hallows' Eve.

 

[Lord Captain Woden]

Ordered a load of classic sci-f on eBay:

Cities In Flight
The Forever War
I Am Legend
Flowers For Algernon
Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?
The Stars My Destination
Gateway
Stand On Zanzibar
Babel-17
Lord Of Light
The Fifth Head Of Cerberus

And from the used book shop:

Voyage Of The Space Beagle
A Fall Of Moondust
The John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology
A nice hardback edition of War Of The Worlds which also included A Dream Of Armageddon and The Land Of Ironclads.

Overall really happy with these purchases should keep me busy over the next month or so.

 

[Fried Egg]

Ordered a load of classic sci-f on eBay...

Nice Haul!

Here's my (unsolicited) thoughts on what you've ordered:

Cities In Flight - Variable. Feels quite dated and some parts are better than others.
The Forever War - Absolute classic.
I Am Legend - Another absolute classic.
Flowers For Algernon - Yet another classic. You're on a roll!
Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? - Good but not PKD's best IMO.
The Stars My Destination - Very good genre defining novel.
Gateway - Not read.
Stand On Zanzibar - Very overrated IMO. Not an enjoyable reading experience.
Babel-17 - No read.
Lord Of Light - Great fusion of religion, philosophy and humour.
The Fifth Head Of Cerberus - Good, but somewhat mystifying.
Voyage Of The Space Beagle - Great. My favourite Vogt.
A Fall Of Moondust - Good SF disaster novel. My favourite Clarke.
The John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology - Not read.
War Of The Worlds - Not read.

Overall really happy with these purchases should keep me busy over the next month or so.

I'll say.

 

[Haidi]

Justin Somper: Vampirates (Blood Captain etc)
Mary Hoffman: Stravaganza

and non fantasy
Ally Carter: Heist Society

all of those above were great! thnx

 

[Lord Captain Woden]

Nice Haul!

Here's my (unsolicited) thoughts on what you've ordered:

Cities In Flight - Variable. Feels quite dated and some parts are better than others.
The Forever War - Absolute classic.
I Am Legend - Another absolute classic.
Flowers For Algernon - Yet another classic. You're on a roll!
Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? - Good but not PKD's best IMO.
The Stars My Destination - Very good genre defining novel.
Gateway - Not read.
Stand On Zanzibar - Very overrated IMO. Not an enjoyable reading experience.
Babel-17 - No read.
Lord Of Light - Great fusion of religion, philosophy and humour.
The Fifth Head Of Cerberus - Good, but somewhat mystifying.
Voyage Of The Space Beagle - Great. My favourite Vogt.
A Fall Of Moondust - Good SF disaster novel. My favourite Clarke.
The John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology - Not read.
War Of The Worlds - Not read.

I'll say.

Thanks for that much appreciated. I'm a little over a third of the way through Voyage Of The Space Beagle and I'm really enjoying it, I expected to find it at least a little dated but that hasn't been the case at all so far which is a pleasant surprise.

 

[J-Sun]

My equally unsolicited comments in bold. (Mostly ditto, but I've read a couple and not read a couple vs. FE.

Nice Haul!

Here's my (unsolicited) thoughts on what you've ordered:

Cities In Flight - Variable. Feels quite dated and some parts are better than others. [Agreed - slight thumbs down overall from me.]
The Forever War - Absolute classic. [Agreed.]
I Am Legend - Another absolute classic. [Not (yet) read.]
Flowers For Algernon - Yet another classic. You're on a roll! [I prefer the story which is an all-time best but the novel's okay if you don't have the story, I guess.]
Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? - Good but not PKD's best IMO. [Yep, not his very best, but maybe even excellent, even so.]
The Stars My Destination - Very good genre defining novel. [Yeah, classic.]
Gateway - Not read. [One of the top couple-three books of the 70s - classic.]
Stand On Zanzibar - Very overrated IMO. Not an enjoyable reading experience. [Agreed.]
Babel-17 - No read. [I'm not a big Delany fan - this was okay, but skippable.]
Lord Of Light - Great fusion of religion, philosophy and humour. [Agreed.]
The Fifth Head Of Cerberus - Good, but somewhat mystifying. [Don't think I've read this one but I've never read a Wolfe I liked.]
Voyage Of The Space Beagle - Great. My favourite Vogt. [Probably not my favorite, but one of them.]
A Fall Of Moondust - Good SF disaster novel. My favourite Clarke. [Small-scale disaster. Again maybe not my very favorite but really great.]
The John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology - Not read. [Ditto.]
War Of The Worlds - Not read. [Maybe overrated because it's rated SO highly, but still a classic.]

I'll say.

Yep, great stuff.

 

[dask]

Ummmmm... not to disparage Wilson's abilities as a writer -- he has done some fine fictional works at times -- as a thinker... well, he has frankly become utterly ridiculous long since, buying into the most absurd sorts of mysticism, occultism, and sheer hogwash more than once....

The book you show, however, may indeed be interesting. It certainly sounds like something which would pique one's interest. But I wouldn't take Colin Wilson as a reliable recommendation on anything these days, I'm afraid....

I know, I experienced that with his A CRIMINAL HISTORY OF MANKIND, super till the end when he decided to pull out, as you say, some "utterly ridiculous" notion explaining why people commit crimes. I could tell he was on the verge of losing it but he can still be fun.

 

[gully_foyle]

This is a haul from the other week, but I've been a bit busy. Some of them are replacements for books that were destroyed by the flood of 2011.
On The Road - Jack Kerouac
In True Blood - Truman Capote
Emphyrio - Jack Vance
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Odyssey - Homer
The Algebraist - Iain M Banks

 

[j d worthington]

In the main, I'm in agreement with F.E. & J-Sun, but I would disagree with a couple of them: Babel-17, which I found to be a fascinating book, though flawed; and Stand On Zanzibar, which I found to be very enjoyable. Oddly, though, I think the latter works better when taken in a fairly concentrated dose. Read over too long a period, the energy of the book tends to become too attenuated, and you can find yourself out of touch with the dynamics of the characters and situation. It may also help, given the unconventional structure of the book, to look at it as a series of cross-sections of the society it depicts....

 

[Southern Geologist]

In the mail:

Iain M. Banks - Excession
Alastair Reynolds - Pushing Ice

On Kindle:

Mark Twain - The Complete Mark Twain Collection
K.M. Weiland - Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success
Iain M. Banks - Use of Weapons
Kim Stanley Robinson - Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars
Frederick Turner - Genesis: An Epic Poem of the Terraforming of Mars

 

[AE35Unit]

Finally, after many years , got it from Bookmooch. How it all began.

 

[Southern Geologist]

In the mail:

Frederik Pohl - Gateway
Clifford D. Simak - Way Station

 

[j d worthington]

Received (two days ago) in the mail: Robert A. Heinlein In Dialogue with His Century, vol. 1: Learning Curve (1907-1948), by William H. Patterson, Jr.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

During our long vacation through eastern Texas and surrounding states, we stopped at the bookstore owned by Larry McMurtry in the small town of Archer City. Although 3/4 of the stock had been auctioned off, there were still two buildings full of books, One was the more expensive stuff -- first edition and the like -- while the other held books for five dollars each. I picked up several SF anthologies as well as Trillion Year Spree -- I had read Billion Year Spree when it first came out, but never the updated version. I also bought Mad Man by Samuel R. Delany (not SF.)

 

[Lobolover]

Got my issue of Famous Fantastic Mysteries for June 1945. Bit on the fence about even wanting to read it, because a) I in fact know the Hogdeson has been abridged but more then anything b) Bradford's "Even a Worm", at less then 40 pages, must have been abridged to cut down from the cca. 300 pages of the original, and horribly so.

Thing is the cheapest one can get the Bradford in book form is for a hundred dollars. On the other hand I'm a bit disinterested in reading some snooty editors "one tenth of the text !" edition that probably wasn't even run by the original author.

 

[Southern Geologist]

I just won a first edition copy of 3 From Out There (edited by Leo Margulies) off of E-Bay, shipped for $3.99. I largely wanted it for the excellent cover*, but I'm not going to argue with picking up a first edition copy with my opening bid, and it will be interesting to see how the stories turn out.


*