Book Hauls!

[Rodders]

I picked up the Hardcover novelisation of Solo: A Star Wars Story.

 

[soulsinging]

I recently bought my first ever kindle and it lead to a bit of a binge on some good deals I found.

Classics:
Our Mutual Friend - Charles Dickens
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Complete Works of Shakespeare

SF:
Revelation Space - Alastair Reynolds
Pandora's Star - Peter Hamilton
Leviathan Wakes - James Corey

Fantasy:
Crooked Kingdom - Leigh Bardugo
Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow - David Gemmell

 

[Rodders]

I bought the Millennium Falcon 3d Owners Guide for the sequel trilogy.



It’s very well done. I hope they do one for the Falcon from Solo.

 

[BrightStar*]

I'm reading Jules Verne's Propeller Island at the moment. I haven't read Verne since I was a teenager, but as always he is a lot of fun.

 

[dask]

Never even heard of this one.

 

[BrightStar*]

Its not as famous as his other works but its very scfi oriented. Its about a floating island populated by rich ppl, and its interesting because its like you can buy groceries from home, or get engaged over a phone or some device he invents in the book. Something like an early idea for the internet. There are moving pavements that carry people trough the island and futuristic things. I guess its a interesting steampunk adventure. Check it out.

 

[Rodders]

I bought home a copy of the Star Wars Archive from Taschen.

It's quite a beast and I'm looking forward to looking through.

 

[Rodders]

After starting the second series of The Expanse this week, I thought that i'd catch up on the novels and downloaded Volumes 4 to 7 of the series.

Book 4: Cibola Burn
Book 5: Nemeses Games
Book 6: Babylon's Ashes
Book 7: Persepolis Rising

I also noticed that there were some shorter Novella's too. Should these be read in any specific order?

 

[Extollager]

This 1850 Hand-Book of London by Peter Cunningham, original binding, cost under $40 with shipping from the UK, which I thought was a nice bargain. Arthur Machen regarded Cunningham's book as a favorite (vide Things Near and Far). It's about 600 pages of small print, double columns, eminently browsable, especially on a blizzardy day like today. The cat is Tess, born in the spring of this year.

 

[Anthoney]

Spiffy looking kitty. The book is also cool.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

My Christmas presents included:
The Caves of Steel
The Naked Sun
Robots and Empire
The Currents of Space
The Stars, Like Dust
Pebble in the Sky

which I will be reading in that order, as recommended here Series Guide - Kaedrin's Guide to Isaac Asimov

 

[Hilarious Joke]

I got:
No Spin by Shane Warne
Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff
The Aeneid by Virgil

 

[dask]

Hmff! I've heard of Virgil.

 

[hitmouse]

Presumably the Shane Warne book is not SF.

 

[Hugh]

Today's Tom Gauld in the Guardian:

Tom Gauld on how to deal with owning too many books – cartoon

Years ago I noticed this pattern in my book buying:
(1) On way home from work, stop in at bookshop (Compendium in Camden) and see book that interests me.
(2) Next day go back to bookshop on way home from work and look at book again.
(3) Spend next three or four days wondering whether to buy book.
(4) Buy book
(5) Don't read book
(6) Three or four days after (4), repeat (1).
A complicating factor was that I really did not have much money at the time.

 

[hitmouse]

Today's Tom Gauld in the Guardian:

View attachment 49417
Tom Gauld on how to deal with owning too many books – cartoon

Years ago I noticed this pattern in my book buying:
(1) On way home from work, stop in at bookshop (Compendium in Camden) and see book that interests me.
(2) Next day go back to bookshop on way home from work and look at book again.
(3) Spend next three or four days wondering whether to buy book.
(4) Buy book
(5) Don't read book
(6) Three or four days after (4), repeat (1).
A complicating factor was that I really did not have much money at the time.

Compendium was a marvellous bookshop. Used to have some uncommon imported US SF that was not available most anywere else in the 1980s. I dragged my parents there on a quest for this stuff after Dark They Were With Golden Eyes shut. Their other content became more interesting as I got older.

 

[dask]

Sounds like a great place to live close to.

 

[Hugh]

I thought Compendium was wonderful. Not the biggest space, but it had separate sections for literature, sf, feminism, politics, psychology, spirituality with a really knowledgeable person running each section, plus those massive tomes that enabled you to look up/ trace and then order difficult-to-find books (pre-internet days). From what I heard (not necessarily correct) the cooperative/ managers just decided they'd had enough and wanted to retire. I know that leases in the area were being renewed for ridiculous prices, so that might also have been an issue. Likewise the internet was just beginning to hit its stride. However I think they just decided the time was right rather than being forced out of business by financial circumstances. Camden had become such a popular place for people to visit that they would always have had plenty of footfall. They'd been going for a while, back to the early days when they used to have to hide comix etc under the carpets in case of police raids.
When it closed I missed it greatly: it gave a whole purpose to visiting London for the day.

I knew "Dark they were and Golden Eyed" less well. I think I made the pilgrimage just a few times when visiting London. I moved to live in London in 1982 and it might already have closed by then.

 

[hitmouse]

I thought Compendium was wonderful. Not the biggest space, but it had separate sections for literature, sf, feminism, politics, psychology, spirituality with a really knowledgeable person running each section, plus those massive tomes that enabled you to look up/ trace and then order difficult-to-find books (pre-internet days). From what I heard (not necessarily correct) the cooperative/ managers just decided they'd had enough and wanted to retire. I know that leases in the area were being renewed for ridiculous prices, so that might also have been an issue. Likewise the internet was just beginning to hit its stride. However I think they just decided the time was right rather than being forced out of business by financial circumstances. Camden had become such a popular place for people to visit that they would always have had plenty of footfall. They'd been going for a while, back to the early days when they used to have to hide comix etc under the carpets in case of police raids.
When it closed I missed it greatly: it gave a whole purpose to visiting London for the day.

I knew "Dark they were and Golden Eyed" less well. I think I made the pilgrimage just a few times when visiting London. I moved to live in London in 1982 and it might already have closed by then.

I convinced my parents to take me to London to go to DTWAGE. It must have been late 70s or very early 80s. We walked around a very eye opening Soho to find the shop was no longer there. Went to Camden as consolation which was terrific.

 

[Hugh]

Good on your parents!