Book Hauls!

[Nounboy]

I just ordered the following:

Altered Carbon

The Genocides

Redshirts

I'm currently reading "2312"

 

[Bick]

Just got Jack McDevitt's second Alex Benedict novel, "Polaris" in the mail. I liked A Talent for War, so I have high hopes for it.

 

[Extollager]

John Gawsworth's Life of Arthur Machen arrived in the mail. I'm too busy to do as much genre reading as I might like, but I'm gradually reading the script of the Mercury Theatre radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds.

 

[GOLLUM]

...I'm gradually reading the script of the Mercury Theatre radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds.

Interesting. Someone at work had never seen Citizen Kane before so after them watching it I had another look at my DVD copy, which also happened to include in the 'extras' the War of The Worlds recording by Orson in addition to another broadcast of his. I also reran The Third Man, another film I hadn't watched for a while.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

We found a pretty good used bookstore in the city of Gainesville, Georgia, and got several items. Of SF interest is The Status Civilization by Robert Sheckley.

 

[Randy M.]

John Gawsworth's Life of Arthur Machen arrived in the mail. I'm too busy to do as much genre reading as I might like, but I'm gradually reading the script of the Mercury Theatre radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds.

Both sound fascinating. Rereading Machen's Tales of Horror and the Supernatural now. I don't know much about Machen's life (purposely left the intro to the collection unread until later) and I'd be interested in what looks to be a sea-change in attitude sometime after writing "The Shining Pyramid." I don't think I noticed it as a kid reading these, but the later stories so far seem to come from a mellower man -- I just started "N," haven't read "Children of the Pool" in 30+ years, and recall "The Terror" as not particularly mellow, but in what I've so far reread there seems to have been a change from ghost/horror writer to fantasist.


Randy M.

 

[Extollager]

Both sound fascinating. Rereading Machen's Tales of Horror and the Supernatural now. I don't know much about Machen's life (purposely left the intro to the collection unread until later) and I'd be interested in what looks to be a sea-change in attitude sometime after writing "The Shining Pyramid." I don't think I noticed it as a kid reading these, but the later stories so far seem to come from a mellower man -- I just started "N," haven't read "Children of the Pool" in 30+ years, and recall "The Terror" as not particularly mellow, but in what I've so far reread there seems to have been a change from ghost/horror writer to fantasist.


Randy M.

If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you to continue your reading and, when you feel ready, to start a thread to discuss just this thesis. I think you're right, for what my opinion's worth!

 

[Randy M.]

If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you to continue your reading and, when you feel ready, to start a thread to discuss just this thesis. I think you're right, for what my opinion's worth!

For some reason, my reading isn't progressing all that quickly, but when I finish I'll do that.


Randy M.

 

[Rodders]

Alistair Reynolds Dr. Who: Harvest of Time
Stephen Baxter: Dr. Who: wheel of Ice.

I'm not normally in to Dr. Who, but these are two authors whose work I respect, so...

 

[sooC]

Hardly a haul, but I bought Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test and some remarks by Neal Stephenson today.

 

[Ronsworth]

Having finished "Warrior" by Marie Brennan last night I found myself unable to resist stopping by the bookstore to pick up it's sequel, "Witch".

 

[TheShadowsandSilence]

First post and a decent book haul:

Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction - S.T. Joshi
India: A History - John Keay
Elantris - Brandon Sanderson
Ship of Magic - Robin Hobb

 

[Grimward]

First SFF "haul" (for me, anyway) in quite a while (I've *gasp* been reading other stuff, like the books about Steve Jobs and Google).

Shadowheart - Tad Williams
The Solaris Book of New Fantasy - edited by George Mann
Under Cover of Darkness - edited by Julie Czerneda
The Measure of Magic - Terry Brooks

The Solaris book and Under Cover of Darkness are compilations that have been out for a while (ie, longer than the Williams or Brooks books). It's a wrench, but I'll force myself to read them!

 

[hopewrites]

I'd been putting off reading The Faul in our Stars because of some of the things i heard about it. i was pretty sure going in it was going to try and make me cry.
but i was in the grocery store buying 1/10th my waight in candy and there its was on the " gosh this line is long. you should buy a book to read while standing in it" rack so i bought it.

read half that night and finished it tonight.

ripped my soul out through my funny bone, which made it worth it.
i just left it on my moms computer with a sticky note. im excited for her to read it so we can talk about it.

 

[dask]

The Pulp Writers is one of those bare bones anthologies with no editor, no forward or introduction, and no copyright information. Just the stories which, when you think about it, are the most important part. However, when you're dealing with Gernsback era sf any background is manna. The Gunther is a "young readers of America selection" and looks to be as good as histories such as Asimov and de Camp produced.

 

[Extollager]

The Gunther is a "young readers of America selection" and looks to be as good as histories such as Asimov and de Camp produced.

This type of book is in demand among homeschooling families, as a way to impart historical knowledge and an historical sensibility in an accessible way. I think often adults as well as young readers benefit from such books. We'll have historical persons, issues, locations that we want to know about in depth -- that might be a good thread for Chrons, now I think of it -- but sometimes we want just a reminder of some basic information about names from, say, the colonial period in North America, etc.

 

[TheShadowsandSilence]

Picked up:

A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Nicholas Nickleby - Charles Dickens
Hard Times - Charles Dickens
Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch

 

[dask]

Each copy of Hawthorne says "Complete and Unabridged" on the back but I don't know. They both look pretty skimpy even for mass market paperbacks. The short story anthology is edited by Philip Van Doren Stern. Looked too good to walk away from. Also picked up THE LIFE OF CESARE BORGIA by Rafael Sabatini. Hard to say how old this book is. There is no dust jacket so it may look older than it is but the pages have the rough cut look of old twenties pulps, the backside of the illustrations are blank and are of a different quality, slicker, than the pages of text, and there's even that piece of thin tissue like paper separating the title page with the frontispiece. What would normally be the copyright page is largely blank. No date, only the words "Printed In Great Britain" in small letters in the middle of the page.

 

[j d worthington]

I would say the two Hawthornes are complete... these were written for children originally, as (to use HPL's phrase) "Teutonised" retellings of some of the classic myths.* They're delightful books, and (along with The Whole History of Grandfather's Chair) show just how good Hawthorne could be at this sort of thing when he chose....

*The relevant passage is from Supernatural Horror in Literature, and reads, in part: "Hawthorne’s intimations of the weird, always gentle, elusive, and restrained, may be traced throughout his work. The mood that produced them found one delightful vent in the Teutonised retelling of classic myths for children contained in A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales[...]."

 

[dask]

I would say the two Hawthornes are complete[...]."

Good to know my two bucks were well spent. Many thanks.