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I'm sure it varies from university to university, but one of my professors explained textbook authorship to me as basically a way of obtaining academic street cred. He told me basically a resume which says you wrote a book is infinitely more impressive than one that does not. To hear him tell it you basically can't get a job at some schools unless you've trotted out your opinions as fact in an explanatory text of some sort. He'd written a really outdated book on the Internet that he used in his class and urged us to buy second hand.
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Mar 10, 2010 08:47
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Aventine posted:
Yeah, Toppers was the place but it was about a year ago. I get quite a few books in there, you have to hunt for the good ones but it is well worth it.
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Mar 10, 2010 11:28
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Radio 4 just did a really really good production of Of Mice and Men the other day with David Tennant (AKA Dr Who) as George. I admired them for leaving the language of the story intact, a bold move considering it was broadcast in the middle of the afternoon. Thanks to Radio 4 I'm exposed to writers and genres I would never normally approach on my own. Something I heard last month during afternoon play was a story called Address Unknown, told in the form of letters between an American jew and his German fried duting the war. Fuuuck, it was just amazing and the ending still gets me when I think about it. I love that station.
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Mar 10, 2010 22:36
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At the end of some older novels, there's usually a date and a location, such as "New York, N.Y., October 1928" at the end of The Sound and the Fury. Is this the publishing city and date, or when the book was finished? Why has that stopped? What was the reason for doing that in the first place?
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Mar 10, 2010 23:32
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Stephen King and Neil Gaiman do it whenever they write a foreword or afterword - it's usually where they were when they wrote it and when it was finished. King occasionally does it for his novels. No idea why, maybe they want people to know that they have enough money not to have write a 600 page novel at their kitchen table?
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Mar 11, 2010 00:26
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I think he means at the end of the actual story, not jsut the afterword. I've noticed this too, especially in current Penguin classics (the ones with pictures on the cover, not just plain orange and white).
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Mar 11, 2010 05:01
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I have arrived at a conservative estimate of the number of books I may realistically expect to read between now and the time when I finally kick the bucket, and it hovers slightly around 1000. Life seems short when measured in unread books. (This is not viral marketing for those awful "1000 ... you need to ... before you die" volumes.)
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Mar 14, 2010 11:59
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criptozoid posted:I have arrived at a conservative estimate of the number of books I may realistically expect to read between now and the time when I finally kick the bucket, and it hovers slightly around 1000. Life seems short when measured in unread books. If you get hit by a bus next week it may only be one more book!
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Mar 14, 2010 22:19
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criptozoid posted:I have arrived at a conservative estimate of the number of books I may realistically expect to read between now and the time when I finally kick the bucket, and it hovers slightly around 1000. Life seems short when measured in unread books.
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Mar 14, 2010 22:21
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It's not that hard to figure out. For example: I read on average 30 or 40 books a year, and at 21 I can expect to live for another 60 odd years. Therefore I will probably read between 1500 and 2500 books before I die.
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Mar 15, 2010 15:41
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This is depressing to me, why would you even want to try to know how many more books you're going to be able to read? Better get cracking.
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Mar 15, 2010 17:33
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You measure how smart you are by how many books you've read. Duh. To break it down into D&D terms, I figure I gain one INT point for each 13 books I read (roughly, assuming average book length is 300 pages). So if I read a book a week I will gain 4 INT points a year and at my current age I will be a genius by the time I'm 45 (I am basing this statement on my initial INT score which I derived by calculating it off a IQ test I took). Delicious Sci Fi fucked around with this message at 17:59 on Mar 15, 2010 |
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Mar 15, 2010 17:54
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LGBT War Machine posted:Actually, they would register their protest without hesitation or repetition and sung to the tune of an entirely different complaint. And then they'd drive the minister to Mornington Crescent and stick his head under a tube train. Sorry, you used "then" twice there. One point for me!
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Mar 15, 2010 19:24
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therattle posted:Sorry, you used "then" twice there. One point for me! Nope, just the once. False challenge!! Point to me and my go. On the other hand, this may count as a deviation and so we both lose. Sandi Toksvig takes the round.
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Mar 15, 2010 21:54
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Is any other Australian/NZ goon as addicted as I am to the Popular Penguins series? I have about 12 of them, and I keep buying more. Currently I'm reading "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt. For those who don't know, Popular Penguins is a collection of excellent paperbacks sold for only AU$9.95 each, which is less than 50% of the usual paperback price in Australia. There are 99 books currently. They have the original cover design as used in the very first Penguin books back in the 30s:  The full list is on the website: http://www.popularpenguins.com ANYWAY, the next 75 books in the series were announced today, and there are so many awesome titles. I'm salivating for July, which is when they come out. You can see all the new ones in a video on the website. Why on earth hasnt this idea caught on in UK or US?
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Mar 16, 2010 02:32
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Those pop up at Powell's Books here in Portland in the sale section every now and again. They are fantastic and I have a few of them now, I wish they would release them in the US. It's interesting that their (lack of) cover art really makes them stand out on the shelves here.
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Mar 16, 2010 04:09
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I enjoy trying to collect the works of an author I like all in the same edition; it makes a book collection look much more aesthetically pleasing on a shelf and it is helpful for organizing too. Those Penguin pop books look really beautiful, but I would worry that nothing would stand out if I tried to fill a library with those. And, while I suppose that's more or less the point, I think that having 20 or more would make my eyes glaze over while browsing the shelf and that I would be turned off from reading them with each one staring me down like so many terracotta soldiers. Each to their own, I guess. Well, here's an interesting blog I came across while trying to find out more about the Penguin covers. It briefly describes the history of book cover art and it has some neat pictures: http://bookpros.blogspot.com/2008/05/chronicle-of-covers.html 
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Mar 16, 2010 05:59
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Hedrigall posted:Why on earth hasnt this idea caught on in UK or US? What I love is when I go into a really nice second hand book shop that has an entire section dedicated to these Penguin books. Sadly all my local, small, Penguin friendly bookshops have closed and even more Waterstones have opened up. Actually, in Norwich city centre you can stand at the entrance of one large, 2 floor Waterstones and look over the steet at another large, 2 floor Waterstones. They both stock the exact same books. I don't undestand the logic behind that.
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Mar 16, 2010 09:02
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Hedrigall posted:
Those are awesome. Maybe it hasn't caught on in the UK or US because the books are still selling strongly enough in their original forms; or there might be issues with who holds the rights and how they can be sold. Perhaps they are trialling it in Aus? Also, having just confirmed that AU$20 = £12, I think another reason is the relatively high cost of books in Aus compared to here, where a paperback very rarely goes for that and is usually between £6-£10 listed price (with lots of specials and buy 2 get 1 free offers etc - I just picked up Wolf Hall for 50% off listed price of £9). A bargain range wouldn't be able to undercut existing books by that much.
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Mar 16, 2010 11:45
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LGBT War Machine posted:Nope, just the once. False challenge!! Point to me and my go. Bugger! I meant to say "They". False challenge indeed. I shall send an angry email on the subject to Question Time.
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Mar 16, 2010 11:47
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Dr Scoofles posted:Actually, in Norwich city centre you can stand at the entrance of one large, 2 floor Waterstones and look over the steet at another large, 2 floor Waterstones. They both stock the exact same books. I don't undestand the logic behind that. Oh! I know that one! Also, Norwich rocks. One of my favourite places.
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Mar 16, 2010 12:23
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Hedrigall posted:Why on earth hasnt this idea caught on in UK or US? It is now rumoured that Penguin will launch the series in Britain this year. Asked about his bosses' reluctance to launch the concept globally, Blake parries politely: "They think it's a terrific initiative and they are watching with a lot of interest." http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/books/novel-idea-of-an-oldfashioned-bargain-a-big-hit/2009/01/03/1230681812431.html Hope they really are coming to the UK soon.
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Mar 16, 2010 12:32
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Dr Scoofles posted:Actually, in Norwich city centre you can stand at the entrance of one large, 2 floor Waterstones and look over the steet at another large, 2 floor Waterstones. They both stock the exact same books. I don't undestand the logic behind that. It's been Waterstones policy for years to have central buying and central ordering (hey, it worked for Soviet Russia!), hence their setting up of the Hub (central distribution system), which fuckedupness was a major contributor to the disastrous Christmas the book trade just had. Its purpose is apparently to make them able to sack all the knowledgeable and inspiring booksellers, replacing them with minimum wage drones, to remove the only competitive advantage terrestrial bookshops have over Amazon; to ensure that Scottish bookshops are full of English textbooks (yes, this happened); and to bankrupt the publishing industry by automatically returning all titles after three months on the shelves and then automatically reordering them again. Oh, also, we've just been told that the super techie Hub can't read barcodes if they don't take up 1/8 of the back cover. The good news is that apparently, having just spent literally millions on the Hub, Waterstones are now changing policy back to individual ordering in shops, allowing managers to buy local interest books and ensure author events are stocked, letting shops do their own window displays and other such goodies. Here's hoping we all survive till then.
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Mar 16, 2010 13:20
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hey? A mod stickied this. Thanks, friendly mod! 
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Mar 17, 2010 11:50
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Hedrigall posted:Why on earth hasnt this idea caught on in UK or US?  The back cover blurb posted:Years ago, a P.I. out of Chicago brought justice to a dirty town. NOW HE'S GOING TO PAY. And before you ask, yes, this is a real thing you can buy.
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Mar 17, 2010 15:44
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Dr Scoofles posted:What I love is when I go into a really nice second hand book shop that has an entire section dedicated to these Penguin books. Sadly all my local, small, Penguin friendly bookshops have closed and even more Waterstones have opened up. If I remember correctly from my last visit there, doesn't Tombland Bookshop have a sizeable Penguin section? Or am I just misremembering? Surely they would have some of the vintage editions. (Unless of course they're gone too  )
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Mar 17, 2010 16:16
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Hedrigall posted:Why on earth hasnt this idea caught on in UK or US?
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Mar 17, 2010 16:22
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ColonelCurmudgeon posted:If I remember correctly from my last visit there, doesn't Tombland Bookshop have a sizeable Penguin section? Or am I just misremembering? The Tombland bookshop is just so lovely, like it exists in another century (possibly even another universe), with its higgidly piggilty interior and ye olde front. I've always wanted to own that shop. Yes I believe they do have a good Penguin selection. Last time I went in there though I blew £80 on a single book, so I avoid it for my landlords sake.
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Mar 17, 2010 16:27
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Van Dis posted:Probably because they look like poo poo. Who wants bookshelves full of identically-spined and -presented books? Yeah, I'm with you.
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Mar 17, 2010 17:19
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This has got to be the best Waterstones around http://www.flickr.com/photos/vento/412712961/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/98474855@N00/390986506/ However I find Waterstones to be a huge rip-off and don't recall the last time I bought something from there.
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Mar 17, 2010 19:29
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I don't like Waterstones much either. I did like Borders a lot, the one on the high street in Leeds had a really nice selection, which meant I cleaned up nicely when it went out of business.
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Mar 19, 2010 10:14
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I miss my Borders so much. Whenever I had a day of work I used to go there and chill for an hour or so, after dropping my kid off at daycare, before getting on with whatever I was having a day off for. A combination of an eReader and Amazon Prime means I rarely bought anything though. So it's kind of hypocritical for me to complain about it going belly up.
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Mar 19, 2010 11:25
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Gravy Jones posted:I miss my Borders so much. Whenever I had a day of work I used to go there and chill for an hour or so, after dropping my kid off at daycare, before getting on with whatever I was having a day off for. It really was a good place to chill out, even back home in the States. They aren't doing so well over there either. I had a credit card through Borders, and they canceled the program because they'll probably go belly-up in the US soon, I guess.
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Mar 19, 2010 12:17
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With Borders gone where can I pick up the occasional copy of The New Yorker in the UK for when I'm feeling all  ? Someone must know.
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Mar 19, 2010 12:33
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wickles posted:With Borders gone where can I pick up the occasional copy of The New Yorker in the UK for when I'm feeling all Depends where you are. In Soho there is a newsagent on Old Compton St that stocks them - pretty sure various other newsagents do too. My question is why you want an occasional copy when for US$112 you can get a whole YEAR'S worth delivered to you?
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Mar 19, 2010 16:03
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I miss our Borders too. Maybe I was delusional but it seemed to have a better variety of books all round than Waterstones. Sure it had the front of shop dedicated to Richard and Judy Bookclub and celebrity biographies, but shoulder your way to the back and there were some hidde gems to be found. Plus, it's magazine rack was jaw droppingly massive, where the hell can I get 'Chestnut Fancy' now?? WHSmiths? Pffft.
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Mar 19, 2010 19:22
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therattle posted:Depends where you are. In Soho there is a newsagent on Old Compton St that stocks them - pretty sure various other newsagents do too. My question is why you want an occasional copy when for US$112 you can get a whole YEAR'S worth delivered to you? Why does WHSmith still even exist? Thought it would have gone the way of Woolworths by now.
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Mar 20, 2010 04:23
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WHSmith is confusing to me, as an American. What sort of bookshop sells ready made sandwiches? However, it's the only place to pick up a decent magazine at the train station. I've got too many copies of BBC History magazine now. Used bookstores are the way of the future. Oxfam books in Headingley is claiming much of my stipend right now.
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Mar 20, 2010 08:45
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Grushenka posted:Used bookstores are the way of the future. Oxfam books in Headingley is claiming much of my stipend right now. Lords knows I've used them often enough but I fear for their effect on decent independent bookshops.
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Mar 20, 2010 15:48
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therattle posted:Lords knows I've used them often enough but I fear for their effect on decent independent bookshops. And it's hard for the indies to protest, too. "Start supporting independent shops again! This charitable organization is stealing our business!" Sticky situation.
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Mar 20, 2010 20:16
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