Book Hauls!

[dask]

Found this on sale for a buck at of all places Barnes & Noble:



Collection of short stories. Probably a mixture of kooky and cool.

 

[ratsy]

I got an old copy of The Running Man by King (or Bachman if you prefer) for 2 bucks. I have never read it so looking forward to getting to it someday.

 

[nomadman]

Still on a bit of spy kick, finally got round to picking up Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by le Carre, which I'm loving at the moment. Much more accessible than I thought it would be, and a great example of how a novel can be gripping without resorting to huge amounts of action, with much of the intrigue coming from the relating of backstory by various characters, and the gradual unveiling of the central mystery. Will be picking up Smiley's People next (gonna skip The Honorable Schoolboy for now), then maybe a few of the later le Carres.

 

[dask]

Every year a bookstore on the south side of town offers their customers 25% off any book in the store and a free cup of coffee from the café upstairs. What can be better than that?

 

[Randy M.]

Still on a bit of spy kick, finally got round to picking up Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by le Carre, which I'm loving at the moment. Much more accessible than I thought it would be, and a great example of how a novel can be gripping without resorting to huge amounts of action, with much of the intrigue coming from the relating of backstory by various characters, and the gradual unveiling of the central mystery. Will be picking up Smiley's People next (gonna skip The Honorable Schoolboy for now), then maybe a few of the later le Carres.

I'd probably be more patient with it now than I was when I read it in the late 1970s -- at the time Le Carre just didn't seem to be for me.

Anyway, I recently saw the film version starring Gary Oldman and a sizable cross-section of the male acting community of England, and it was very good.

Randy M.

 

[nomadman]

I'd probably be more patient with it now than I was when I read it in the late 1970s -- at the time Le Carre just didn't seem to be for me.

Anyway, I recently saw the film version starring Gary Oldman and a sizable cross-section of the male acting community of England, and it was very good.

Randy M.

I wasn't that impressed with the film, to be honest. Just found it all a bit too unrelentingly glum and dour. The TV series on the other hand, I loved, and having now read the novel feel did great justice to the source material.

 

[dask]

Found these on the library's freebie shelf. Couldn't leave without them.

 

[monsterchic]

Just bought the entire ASOIAF series for $35, pretty excited. Already through two books Now to start with the TV series...should be interesting enough.

 

[Extollager]

Found these on the library's freebie shelf. Couldn't leave without them.

Ha! I have, or anyway had, those very editions. I'm sure I have the Hyman still.

 

[Silver Owl]

I've just bought myself David Dalglish's A Dance of Cloaks trilogy and the first book of Brian Mccellan's powder Mage trilogy - A Promise of Blood!

 

[dask]

Ha! I have, or anyway had, those very editions. I'm sure I have the Hyman still.

Do you like Hyman? He seems to have a strong dislike for everything except his strong dislike for everything.

 

[Hilarious Joke]

On the weekend I finally got The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch

 

[dask]

Do you like Hyman? He seems to have a strong dislike for everything except his strong dislike for everything.

Read him a little more closely tonight I may have been a bit premature in my assessment. He can be irksome but is still interesting and even fun. Will probably see him through.

 

[Extollager]

Do you like Hyman? He seems to have a strong dislike for everything except his strong dislike for everything.

Ha! I couldn't say. I don't have the book at hand. It might have markings that would refresh my memory. I certainly remembered the look of the cover you reproduced, though.

I haven't posted much in Book Hauls lately as I am succeeding in reducing my book buying. However, I did receive a couple of bound volumes of back issues of the Tolkien 'zine Beyond Bree. Among many other items of note, my quick review of the two volumes finds a couple of sections in which readers wrote about their personal discoveries of Tolkien -- this was before the Jackson movies. Just as was the case for me, others, it seems, can often remember how they discovered this author, sometimes quite a few years ago.

 

[steelyglint]

Over the past three weeks or so I ordered and took delivery of 14 Neal Asher titles with another two on their way. I already had a copy of 'Brass Man'.

I've now only to obtain two titles, one of which is his latest offering, 'The Jupiter War', and shouldn't be a problem.

The one problem title appears to be 'Runcible Tales', a short story collection. I've seen one copy being offered for sale, though at over £40 for a used paperback it seems a bit excessive.

It may take some time (and a medium-weight lottery win) before I'd be willing to pay that sort of amount for anything other than a signed hardcover first edition. Sadly, it doesn't appear to have been published in hardcover as yet.

.

 

[Grimward]

Time again for my elder daughter's high school to sell used books. Usually, that's cause for acquisition in bulk (as if procuring SFF NEEDS a reason!). Sadly this year, the SFF section was much reduced.

I did, however, find Westmark, by Lloyd Alexander, and given that I've only read his Chronicles of Prydain previously, am curious (I wasn't even in High School when I read the Prydain books for the first time).

Also picked up Deep Wizardry, by Diane Duane. Have only read a short story or two by Ms. Duane previously, and had been meaning to sample a longer work, so we'll see.

Otherwise, the sale is nowhere near as deep in SFF titles as it has been in years past. Is this e-books' influence, people hanging onto their SFF (bad for me, good for them!), or just an aberration? Can't say...

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

While I spent a rather boring two days getting continuing education (required for my pharmacist license; at least there was a cat in the building where I had to sit with a bunch of other folks learning about new drugs and new laws) my better half went and did more interesting things, including visiting a small bookstore. The report I got was that the place was a mess, but we managed to get some stuff. Those items of SFF interest include Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein (the only novel in the Library of America's recent collection of nine American SF novels from the 1950's which I have not yet read), Bill the Galactic Hero: The Planet of Robot Slaves by Harry Harrison (the first of many sequels to his famous parody of Starship Troopers, and the only one without a co-author credited), and a novel by Joan Aiken, the title of which escapes me; it was published as a Gothic Romance, so it shows the usual frightened young woman running away from a dark building.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Found it! This is the Joan Aiken book:

Original UK title The Ribs of Death. Appears to be a modern suspense novel packaged as a Gothic Romance for the US audience.

 

[Extollager]

Got this Harlan Ellison Ace Double --

-- but found that a bunch of pages are missing from Touch (it begins on page 29). I don't mind if the seller can find and send those missing pages; I just wanted a reading copy, hoping for some stories that will be akin to Ellison's nifty pair of Outer Limits scripts. Otherwise, I hope to get a refund.

 

[j d worthington]

Got this Harlan Ellison Ace Double --

-- but found that a bunch of pages are missing from Touch (it begins on page 29). I don't mind if the seller can find and send those missing pages; I just wanted a reading copy, hoping for some stories that will be akin to Ellison's nifty pair of Outer Limits scripts. Otherwise, I hope to get a refund.

Not exactly Harlan's best, but Touch of Infinity was his first sff collection. Interestingly, the stories in there were slightly revised in different later collections -- usually subtle touches, but sometimes in ways which rather pull the reader familiar with them up short. The Man with Nine Lives (a.k.a. The Sound of a Scythe) has been revised and reprinted lately, though I've not been able to get a copy. (I'd be very interested in seeing what he has done with it after this long a time; just as I'd like to see what he might do with "Doomsman" should he ever reprint that one; both are flawed but, to me, very interesting for much of what they offer.)