Book Hauls!

[Extollager]

That's Will the Grey Gentleman with the book that came in the mail this afternoon. Tom Shippey referred to it in an essay on Tolkien in Roots and Branches, and abebooks.com had a copy on offer at a nice price. Shippey also said that the editor's name isn't pronounced like the familiar garden vegetable, but "on-aye-ons."

 

[Rodders]

I bought a signed Forbidden Planet copy of Sophie Aldred’s Dr. Who novel “At Childhoods End“.

I wasn’t into Dr. Who at this point in the series, but I liked the idea of a character writing her own novel.

 

[Extollager]

Dann, thanks again for your help in identifying this book, which arrived this afternoon. Tess is enjoying the warm early-spring sunshine. By the way, I'll bet many other Chronsters remember that library label (here, upside down) for SF with affection. Was that strictly a U.S. thing, though?

 

[dask]

The Tome Of Tabbia. What Poe could have done with that.

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

Another freebie from the library:
View attachment 61011
Reading the introduction right now. Really good.

That looks like a lot of fun. I love Johnson and Boswell. I think I have most, if not all, of those selections in other books, but I'm tempted to look for a copy of this one too.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I definitely remember the little rocket-going-through-an-atom symbol of science fiction books. Also the little magnifying glass on mystery books.

 

[dask]

Okay, now that I feel left out having missed the hardback, I did manage to score this back in high school:

 

[Extollager]

Sachiko was doubtful about these freebies from Philadelphia, so I took them away as soon as I shot this picture.

The orange book is about the culture of the shtetl. Iyer's Tropical Classical is a collection of short pieces. The two Sherlock Holmes books are the last story collections, which I actually didn't have here till now.

 

[CrystalMinis]

Definitely intrigued by the cover and blurb for this one — another thrift store find from past weekend

 

[dask]

Library freebie:

Thrift store finds (fifty cents apiece):

 

[Randy M.]

Thrift store finds (fifty cents apiece):
View attachment 61297

I've read about 1/2 of this and Lardner was very, very good, and sometimes even better. I think because he often wrote about sports -- "Alibi Ike" for instance -- he's not taken that seriously, but "Haircut," for one, is one of the great American short stories, as good as anything else that came out at that time (early 1920s), and Lardner's short stories are probably as influential as Sherwood Anderson's on the upcoming generation of writers like Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Steinbeck.

Randy M.

 

[Extollager]

Well, today all my interlibrary loan items on hand will be returned to the university library, so I won't be finishing Woolrich's Nightwebs collection; but I suppose I read most of the stories. Returning these things was my idea -- I thought the ILL librarian might like to be able to clear her desk as much as possible, since a shutdown of the library, except for electronic transactions, seems imminent. I asked her to cancel a couple of requests I made late Friday.

How about other Chronsters? Has the current situation already affected your library arrangements?

 

[dask]

I heard as of today our city library will be closed for the duration.

 

[Extollager]

That’s in Washington?

 

[dask]

Yes, on the outskirts of the "epicenter".

 

[Hilarious Joke]

View attachment 61112

Definitely intrigued by the cover and blurb for this one — another thrift store find from past weekend

I'm intrigued too - can you keep us posted with what it's like?

 

[Rodders]

Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker hardback.

I haven't read any of the Star Wars books for many a year, but i have been collecting the hardback books since Heir to the Empire was released in '92 (?) Some habits are hard to kill.

 

[Vince W]

I've been scouring the interwebs for free ebooks. Downloaded about 25 titles today from amazon alone. Mostly H. Rider Haggard, Arthur Conan Doyle, and other public domain classics and adventure stories. There have been many generous authors giving away ebooks as well. It really helps to scratch the book acquiring itch during isolation.

 

[Extollager]

Haggard! Doyle!

Great storytellers.

I must've read 20 or so of Haggard's romances.

 

[Overread]

Vince there's a lot of older authors who's works are legally free because they are old and the copyright has expired. Though Iv'e found that on Amazon there's a good few collected editions up for nominal costs where someone has taken the time to collate them and at least put them into a sensible book order for the kindle. There's some big free libraries around the net that legally display the works though most are in text file format so you tend to need Calibre to make them into proper books for ease of searching etc...