Book Hauls!

[AE35Unit]

It is a good end to the series. I bought that set in the same edition in a bookshop in Kitsilano, Vancouver called Pulp Fiction in 2005. Ah, nostalgia.

Just a shame someone decided to put stickers on it which are hard to remove

 

[J-Sun]

Just a shame someone decided to put stickers on it which are hard to remove

Careful use of razor blades (bend the outer edges upward so the corners don't dig into the book) and, if necessary, this magic stuff called "Goo Gone." If really, really, necessary, then you can actually briefly blast it with a hairdryer if you have one to soften the sticker adhesive (it's not ideal but not as dangerous to the book as it sounds). And, yeah, I *hate* stickers. (If anyone has better methodology, I'm all ears.)

I always preferentially patronize online sellers who don't idiotically stick stickers everywhere, often to the point of paying extra. Besides which, anyone who sticks a sticker on a book and then sells it as "good" condition or up is automatically lying, IMO.

 

[Vince W]

Just a shame someone decided to put stickers on it which are hard to remove

I've had some luck with freezing the books. Put the book in an airtight bag and freeze it for at least 48 hours. Then while it's still cold carefully remove the sticker. A sharp knife can help with this. Sometimes it works, sometime not. It depends on the adhesive.

 

[AE35Unit]

I've had some luck with freezing the books. Put the book in an airtight bag and freeze it for at least 48 hours. Then while it's still cold carefully remove the sticker. A sharp knife can help with this. Sometimes it works, sometime not. It depends on the adhesive.

I'm gonna give that a go.

 

[Paul_C]

I recently had a s/h book arrive with a sticker right in the middle of the front cover - my first attempt left some of it left on the cover but with the top layer removed, so I applied a little white spirit with a cotton bud and managed to remove the sticker and the last of the glue residue with too much drama.

My determination to avoid any more book buying sprees for a while has taken a blow, as work this month has proved surprisingly profitable (I'm self employed) and I've sold a bass ukulele that's been hanging on the wall unused for a while, so there is no reason except common sense to stop me now . .

 

[Extollager]

Ouch, Paul -- your "buying sprees" finds me. A little while ago I posted here about trying, this year, really to cut my book buying. But I've been buying about a book a week.

Really gotta rein that in.

 

[Vince W]

Ouch, Paul -- your "buying sprees" finds me. A little while ago I posted here about trying, this year, really to cut my book buying. But I've been buying about a book a week.

Really gotta rein that in.

I have the same goal to cut my book purchase. I've done well so far, but it feels like an itch behind my eyes I can't scratch.

 

[Extollager]

Maybe Chrons should have a second thread, complementary to the Book Hauls! one, for Book Buyers Anonymous, who are trying to rein in their habit.

 

[Paul_C]

Heh, in my case filled with lists of recent failures to resist

 

[Extollager]

How it could be made truly "anonymous" at Chrons I'm not sure!

 

[The Big Peat]

Today's haul was from the library, so at least its not too bad on the wallet

Daniel Polansky - The Straight Razor Cure
Robert Jackson Bennett - City of Stairs
David Gemmell - Lord of the Silver Bow
Juliet Marillier - The Black Mirror
Kameron Hurley - God's War
Neil Gaiman - Anansi Boys
Miles Cameron - The Fell Sword

And two Raymond Chandlers

Decent wee pick up.

 

[Paul_C]

I've had a stressful couple of days so felt some retail therapy might cheer me up

Having scoured eBay's Sci-Fi paperbacks from cheapest up to £2.99 (inc. postage) I now have the following arriving in the next week or so:

The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
The World of Null-A - A E Van Vogt
Slan - A E Van Vogt
Involution Ocean - Bruce Sterling
Fairyland - Paul McAuley
Cyteen - C J Cherryh
The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell
Double Star - Robert A Heinlein
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
Gradisil - Adam Roberts
The Fabulous Riverboat - Philip José Farmer

. . . and a couple of toys ahead of my youngest's birthday in April (while they're still available)

 

[Bick]

The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
Slan - A E Van Vogt
Double Star - Robert A Heinlein
The Fabulous Riverboat - Philip José Farmer

Nice little haul there Paul. I've read and enjoyed the ones above - in fact they are some of my favourites. You got/read the preceding Farmer?

 

[Paul_C]

Nice little haul there Paul. I've read and enjoyed the ones above - in fact they are some of my favourites. You got/read the preceding Farmer?

I haven't, it's on my list* so I shall acquire it, the only P J Farmer book I currently have is Dare.




* My list has been gleaned from various Top 50/100 lists plus recommendations from here - I've uploaded it if anyone feels like reading it, anything with a * has been purchased, and there are a number of omissions from authors who I already had bought lots of (Iain M Banks / Asimov / Alastair Reynolds).

http://www.arrowheadguitars.co.uk/pics/Sci-Fi Books List.txt

Any new author suggestions are welcome, as are books by the authors listed as the list is really a starting point rather than a complete thing.

 

[J-Sun]

The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
The World of Null-A - A E Van Vogt
Slan - A E Van Vogt
Cyteen - C J Cherryh
Double Star - Robert A Heinlein
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny

I agree with Bick - that's a nice haul. My list of "read and enjoyed" looks like the quoted part above. I didn't actually care for the Riverworld series after To Your Scattered Bodies Go, but that one was excellent. And they are also some of my favorites except Cyteen which was still okay. And Involution Ocean is in the Pile.

* My list has been gleaned from various Top 50/100 lists plus recommendations from here - I've uploaded it if anyone feels like reading it, anything with a * has been purchased, and there are a number of omissions from authors who I already had bought lots of (Iain M Banks / Asimov / Alastair Reynolds).

http://www.arrowheadguitars.co.uk/pics/Sci-Fi Books List.txt

Any new author suggestions are welcome, as are books by the authors listed as the list is really a starting point rather than a complete thing.

Also a good looking list. There are many things that looked really good to me. For a sort of top 10 of the unpurchased items (IMO, and actually more than 10 books, as some bring along companions), I'd say something like:

Poul Anderson - The Enemy Stars [and many more, but that's a very good one]
Greg Bear - Blood Music [I love Queen of Angels and really like several but this is probably my second favorite]
James L Cambias - A Darkling Sea
Arthur C Clarke - The Fountains of Paradise [almost everything Clarke did from 1953-1982 was great except Imperial Earth]
Hal Clement - Mission Of Gravity [again, many good ones, but this the One]
Greg Egan - Diaspora / Permutation City / Axiomatic [especially Diaspora and Axiomatic but I love basically everything I've ever read by Egan]
Robert L Forward - Dragon's Egg [That's his best; The Flight of the Dragonfly (aka Rocheworld) is nowhere near as good but is still great ]
Frederick Pohl - The Space Merchants
Clifford D Simak - Way Station
Michael Swanwick - Vacuum Flowers

I see you've got Sterling's Schismatrix Plus but I don't know what else you've got. Crystal Express also includes the Shaper/Mechanist stories but there are still good non-Shaper/Mechanist stories in it and his other collections are also great (especially A Good Old-Fashioned Future). And I like Cadigan's Synners and Fools (and Mindplayers isn't bad, either) but my favorite is her collection, Patterns.

As far as additions, again, I don't know what you have but, based on the list, you might like some Ben Bova such as The Kinsman Saga or Mars and he's got a "Best of" series of his stories coming out now, up to #2 of 3. If you have The Space Merchants on your list and have The Best of C.L. Moore, I'd recommend The Best of volumes of Kornbluth and Kuttner (and a bunch more of both of them). And you don't have enough S's. Charles Sheffield's Between the Strokes of Night and The Compleat MacAndrew, John Shirley's Eclipse, Norman Spinrad's The Void Captain's Tale, Allen Steele's Orbital Decay and Sex and Violence in Zero-G and many more by all of them and other S's.

 

[Bick]

Great comments from J-Sun on your list. I won't make much commentary on it, as this could get away from us, but just to say that it's a fine list, with lots good on it. I would make a few additions or tweaks, and I can't resist just a few comments:

There's no Harry Harrison. Maybe try some if you've not done so; For Vance I would prioritise The Demon Princes; J-Sun is right about more P Anderson - Tau Zero, and The Boat of a Million Years should, I think, be on any list; also I would recommend cast a wider search for late 60's, early 70's Silverberg.

 

[Paul_C]

Thank you both for those, if a list of what I have would be interesting then here you go:

http://www.arrowheadguitars.co.uk/pics/My Sci-Fi Books List.txt

I have read a number of other Arthur C Clarke books in my youth (library) as well as the ones I own, the same goes for Harry Harrison and Tau Zero, and there may well be others I've forgotten.

I'm enjoying discovering a lot of new (to me) authors both old and new, so every suggestion is gratefully received and considered.

 

[Extollager]

Ouch, Paul -- your "buying sprees" finds me. A little while ago I posted here about trying, this year, really to cut my book buying. But I've been buying about a book a week.

Really gotta rein that in.

Yeah. And I've made two book orders so far already this week.

I try to cut back but they keep publishing them.

And I keep learning of old books that are new to me.

That's how the Internet works for some book-buyers. In that pre-technological Golden Age, we didn't know those books were Out There. Now we learn that they are, and we can order them with a few clicks in favor of abebooks.com.

 

[Extollager]

Tolkien's The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun arrived. I hadn't realized before that the cover image is art by Tolkien himself.

I'm looking forward to this. I'd got hold of a photocopy of the original magazine appearance of the finished poem years ago, and enjoyed it as a "dark Faerie" work. I think Tolkien's and C. S. Lewis's fantastic verse are sometimes insufficiently known by readers who might enjoy them.

Fantastic Poetry: "The Nameless Isle"/"In a Spring Season I Sailed Away" & Others

 

[Paul_C]

another couple yesterday

Weaveworld - Clive Barker for Kindle is 99p at the moment, I read it many years ago and 99p is a good excuse to revisit it.

The Enemy Stars - Poul Anderson for £2 from ebay.