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Saturday was the library book sale! $2 a bag!  The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy. A vintage title sold through Walmart the 90s at 2 for $1, with a round orange price "sticker" incorporated into the cover art. The publisher (and beyond the imprint name (Aerie), there's no publishing information anywhere in or on the book) used the same bar code and ISBN number for every title in the series, which just shows you what a bulk operation the whole thing was. The teaser line on the cover: "One masked man fights to save a city held hostage by Terr". Terr? Great Hoaxes and Famous Impostors by Carlson Wade. The one I just started. I'm a big fan of stories about hoaxes and frauds, but the book feels like a real grind-em-out. A quote from one of his publishers I found online seems to back up my gut feeling on this: "All we would do was give him subject matter, word count and delivery date, then forget about it, knowing we would get a publishable manuscript on the button." Anyway, we'll see how it goes. From the author of "The Complete Rice Book," "Key To Advanced Electronics," and "Home Repairs Made Easy"...which really should've been a red flag. And the rest (well, the rest that I'll admit to): The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (never quite got around to this one) Son Of Mad (One of the early Mad paperbacks. Great for bedside.) Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (revisting assigned reading from high school) Darwin For Beginners by Jonathan Miller and Borin Van Loom (because Postmodernism for Beginners was a decent, informative read) Don't Bend Over in the Garden, Granny, You Know Them Taters Got Eyes by Lewis Grizzard (Why? Because bite me, that's why.) Not too bad, but last year's haul was better.
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Jan 29, 2012 12:39
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EasyEW posted:Don't Bend Over in the Garden, Granny, You Know Them Taters Got Eyes by Lewis Grizzard (Why? Because bite me, that's why.) Awesome. It's ridiculous, tame by even standards then, and if Grizzard and his wives formed a band, they'd be Po' Boy and the Alimoneyettes.
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Jan 30, 2012 00:55
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Uh, I think I went a little overboard at the bookstore today. The Road, Blood Meridian, All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, and Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury I, Claudius by Robert Graves The Bachman Books (Rage, The Running Man, The Long Walk, Roadwork) and The Gunslinger by Stephen King The Collected Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald by... F. Scott Fitzgerald John Steinbeck Collection (Grapes of Wrath, The Moon is Down, Cannery Row, East of Eden, Of Mice and Men) by John Steinbeck Shogun by James Clavell Foundation by Isaac Asimov Small Gods by Terry Pratchett The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft by H.P. Lovecraft I have no idea what to start with.
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Jan 30, 2012 01:52
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Lovecraft. If you try and read all the Cormac works in a row, you are probably going to end up chewing on a shotgun. Dude can write, but it's depressing as hell.
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Jan 30, 2012 05:05
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Read them in order of how depressing they are, from least to most. I haven't read a lot of those but I'm guessing the last two you'll read are Blood Meridian and The Road. Bonus points if you already suffer from depression.
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Jan 30, 2012 05:08
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Marin Karin posted:Uh, I think I went a little overboard at the bookstore today. Having read about half of that list, I'd probably go with Shogun. However I read it like 25 years ago so it might not be as cool as I'm remembering. e: or maybe Foundation but I think you want to have at least the rest of the trilogy if you go that route Kekekela fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Jan 30, 2012 |
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Jan 30, 2012 05:09
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I've been wanting to read Shogun for a while, but mostly in lieu of an actual history of that time period. Is it relatively historically accurate and unbiased?
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Jan 30, 2012 05:15
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I kinda hated Shogun. There are lots of annoying stereotypes (like the japanese ladies wondering about the size of a white man's penis) but it is a pretty epic read. Some of the characters are cool, though. Gonna start Going After Cacciato and Middlemarch in February. Middlemarch has defeated me before, but this time is different. Chamberk fucked around with this message at 14:56 on Jan 30, 2012 |
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Jan 30, 2012 06:50
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Chamberk posted:I kinda hated Shogun. There are lots of annoying stereotypes (like the japanese ladies wondering about the size of a white man's penis) but it is a pretty epic read. Some of the characters are cool, though. Now that you mention that, it sounds kind of familiar. I wonder if I read it when I was a kid but don't remember it.
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Jan 30, 2012 06:58
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Oh yeah, and to the guy who got all those books, the Steinbeck stuff is great, read East of Eden.
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Jan 30, 2012 14:57
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Oh man, oh man. I just bought and finished The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. I put it off for so long after reading the first one over a year ago because I hate paying full price for a hard cover, but god drat. That was a good book. I hate the idea of waiting years for the last one.
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Feb 1, 2012 03:33
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Unexpectedly encountered a library sale the other day, had to take a few minutes to browse. Totaling all of 8 bucks: Dr. Zhivago, Pasternak. Pantheon hardcover, solid shape, with that cool drawn dustjacket (not my pic) Something Happened, Heller. Gorgeous 1st ed. Jacketless, but the cover's nicer anyway. Light in August, Faulkner. Overly fancy collector's edition. A little gaudy, but I'm a sucker for nice paper stock. An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England, Brock Clarke. Library-wrapped-and-tagged, but clean shape. Expectations aren't sky high, but this caught my eye back when it was on b&n's new release wall. Amazon pickups that arrived a week or two ago: The Tetherballs of Bougainville, Mark Leyner. 'My Cousin' was delightful, and I see his first novel in a while is coming out in a few months; might as well dip into the back catalog a little. Warlock, Oakley Hall. I read very few westerns, but this one's good enough to get a NYRB reprint and Pynchon's rave review. Like new, signed, trade pb for <$5? Thank you, amazon used. WoG fucked around with this message at 05:41 on Feb 1, 2012 |
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Feb 1, 2012 05:38
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WoG posted:Warlock, Oakley Hall. I read very few westerns, but this one's good enough to get a NYRB reprint and Pynchon's rave review. Like new, signed, trade pb for <$5? Thank you, amazon used. This is a loving great book and I'm super jealous you got a signed copy, my god :O The first part of Warlock is a typical Western, even ending in a corral battle, but the rest of the book is about Warlock (the town) post-corral battle, including a miner strike (in a Western, for christ's sake!). It's a tome of a book, but an absolutely fascinating read. You will change your mind about how you feel about each character as you read the entire thing. Just an awesome book. Bonus if you like Westerns at all.
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Feb 1, 2012 15:53
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Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground by Kevin Paulson. I am reading it as a follow up to another book I read, Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker by Kevin Mitnick because both of them were part of the same story just from different perspectives, so it will be interesting to see how they tell the same story.
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Feb 4, 2012 17:45
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Just got Hugh Laurie's The Gun Seller through Bookmooch yesterday.
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Feb 4, 2012 18:47
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Today I picked up Vol II & III of the Gulag Archipelego in hardback, possibly first editions...I just wish they'd had Vol I to complete the set. I've a paperback of Vol I but anyhoo....
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Feb 5, 2012 01:12
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Tempęte sur Byzance: La Chute de Constantinople by Vintila Corbul: Historical fiction detailing the fall of Constantinople at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. I'm only about 150 pages into it, but so far this book is awesome and definitely has the potential to be one of my all-time favorites. I haven't read anything by Corbul before (he was Romanian and as far as I know, none of his novels have been translated into English), but now I definitely want to check out more of his work.
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Feb 5, 2012 21:12
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I started reading Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy. It's enjoyable right from the Prologue.
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Feb 6, 2012 19:21
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Just started The Night Eternal, the third [and last?] book in Guillermo Del Toro's vampire series.
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Feb 6, 2012 21:57
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Just started guns, germs and steel by jared diamond. Been meaning to buy it for a while after the reviews its had. Impressed so far, its really well written and despite the reasonably heavy content its an easy read and hard to put down! Just finished chapter 1 where everything has been set-up nicely for the rest of the story of the past 13,000 years of human history to be told - Diamond painted a pretty cool picture of human populations spreading throughout different continents and discusses theories about supposed 'head starts' the first people in different areas might have had in terms of adapting well to their environment etc over populations in other continents.
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Feb 6, 2012 22:55
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I started The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle a couple days ago. It's the second Sherlock Holmes novel. I really enjoyed the first one, A Study in Scarlet, and I like the way this one is shaping up already and I'm only 3 chapters in.
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Feb 13, 2012 03:18
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I am about 200 pages into Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver and I am struggling to continue. It came highly recommended and I enjoyed The Diamond Age, so I've been giving this one a fair chance. But there is no real plot up to this point. I mean, some stuff has happened, but it's mostly of the look-how-much-research-the-author-did variety. I am not feeling a narrative arc. Has anyone read and enjoyed this book? If so, at what point does it get interesting?
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Feb 13, 2012 18:08
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I just got a Kindle, so I went a little nuts and downloaded way more books than I'll be able to read in a reasonable amount of time. Among them are: Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan The Mirage - Matt Ruff Harbour and Handling the Undead - John Ajvide Lindqvist Other Kingdoms - Richard Matheson The City & The City - China Mieville I just started Altered Carbon and it's awesome so far. Cyberpunk meets noir detective fiction. Highly recommend if you're into that kind of thing.
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Feb 13, 2012 19:36
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Marin Karin posted:Uh, I think I went a little overboard at the bookstore today. The Gunslinger (and the rest of the Dark Tower series) is pretty sick. Lovecraft's stuff is fun, but can be really dense and difficult to get through at times. It took me around 3-4 months just to get through his complete works.
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Feb 13, 2012 19:39
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Went on a shopping spree last weekend, and picked up: Cemetery Dance and Fever Dream by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Mystic and Rider and Angel-Seeker by Sharon Shinn. Deadhouse Gates, Memories of Ice, and House of Chains by Steve Erikson. Most of the Merry Gentry series by Laurell K. Hamilton. Covet by J.R. Ward. Waiting by Debra Ginsberg. And a copy of The Bachman Books. I'm pretty sure I got more, but I don't remember off the top of my head.
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Feb 13, 2012 21:19
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I just started reading Nothing To Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea this weekend and it's loving phenomenal. Going in I had a general idea of how things were screwy there already, but the stories that the author tells from people who have defected are just heartbreaking. Mixed in with a good amount of overall history too.
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Feb 14, 2012 19:33
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Tonight I am beginning the fifth book in the Malazan series, Midnight Tides. I have no idea what to expect in this novel, but I hope I get to see my beloved Bridgeburners again.
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Feb 16, 2012 04:20
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About halfway through Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra. It's interesting and I'm liking it ok, but the writing style seems odd to me. She uses prose as purple as Caesar's cloak.
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Feb 16, 2012 04:58
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I just bought House of Leaves after someone in the recommendation thread discribed it and... drat. I was not expecting a book this wide.
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Feb 16, 2012 06:50
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Fat Girl in a Strange Land, a concept anthology about overweight women in sci-fi or fantasy settings. Seems to be a very short collection, I hope it's worth the $5 I spent.
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Feb 16, 2012 11:49
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prahanormal posted:I just bought House of Leaves after someone in the recommendation thread discribed it It's definitely an interesting book that requires a lot of work to actually read. I enjoyed it, and there's a lot of discussion about it as well. It's also a  favorite. I'd be interested to see what you thought of it when you finish.
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Feb 16, 2012 14:55
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Johannes Cabal the Detective finished the first one, thought I might as well read the next two. Hopefully its like the first one in the series and maintains the same tone as the first one.
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Feb 20, 2012 17:51
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The Speaker For The Dead by Orson Scott Card. I only read Ender's Game recently, and was blown away. I can see how so many enjoy it for the "kid takes on the world" aspect and the stark brutality, but the ending was just amazing, it turned the whole story on its ear. Now I finally get into Speaker, and the goodness just continues, I can't put the damned book down. It's a stone gently caress of a mystery, and I can't wait to see how it ends up.
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Feb 20, 2012 21:31
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I used an old voucher from Christmas to buy Patrick O'Brian's Post Captain and HMS Surprise. I haven't started the former yet, but I'm excited, not least by the fact that my editions have cool covers. I just need to find somewhere to put them now that I'm desperately running out of shelf space for all my latest purchases.
Octy fucked around with this message at 07:45 on Feb 21, 2012 |
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Feb 21, 2012 07:41
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I just started Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges, and I'm loving it so far. Short stories are one of my favorite narrative methods, and Borges is clearly a master. This is my first exposure to him, but if the first 3 stories are any indication I'll probably get more of his work afterward. I think after this I'll finish Embassytown by China Meiville, which I got to about page 70 before getting distracted by Borges. After that, The Golden Argosy is next. It's Stephen King's favorite book, so I assume it's a pretty good collection.
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Feb 21, 2012 15:28
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Right now I'm 27% into Nexus: Ascension by Robert Boyczuk, which I mentioned before in this thread. Turns out it's not as horror as I thought it would be (it's published by a specialty horror publisher), but it's still a pretty compelling dark sci-fi story about the crew of a long-haul starship who return to their home planet to find out the 100 million or so residents of the planet have been dead for nearly thirty years. Has elements of mystery, survival and post-apocalyptic stories. I also just started Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi. One chapter down, and it's already boggling my mind with its bizarre concepts.
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Feb 22, 2012 01:54
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Thanks to a gift card from work I just picked up Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham and The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek. I'm going to start in on Triffids tonight.
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Feb 22, 2012 16:03
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Just started The Lincoln Lawyer. I guess it's probably airport fiction but I'm enjoying it so far and it kind of compliments my current TV obsession, Sons of Anarchy.
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Feb 23, 2012 19:43
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I just started Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, and what an intro that was. I have absolutely zero idea where this is going, but I am interested enough to find out, so mission accomplished I guess.
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Feb 24, 2012 08:56
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Truspeaker posted:I just started Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, and what an intro that was. I have absolutely zero idea where this is going, but I am interested enough to find out, so mission accomplished I guess. I stopped reading after the intro because I had absolutely zero idea where it was going and I was expecting it to be the same work of brilliance as Lolita. I was also 14, but that has nothing to do with it!
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Feb 24, 2012 09:06
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