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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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I usually get free bookmarks with nice designs from bookstores when I buy books. Hasn't this concept caught on where you live? If I don't have a bookmark at hand, i remember the page number - tough concept to grasp, I know.
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Mar 26, 2010 22:05
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Juanito posted:I can usually remember what page number I was on, but I hate leafing through a book trying to get to the page I was at. I'm the person who will accidentally read something near the end of the book and not forget it. Are you reading The Secret History? 
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Mar 27, 2010 07:55
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FRANCIS
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barkingclam posted:Has anybody here used The Book Depository before? They're a UK-based bookseller that promises free worldwide shipping. I just bought a couple books from them. It was pretty cheap, but I have no idea how long it'll take to get my books. It's ranged between 1 and 3 weeks for me (I'm in Australia). They're pretty much the best website ever and I buy all my books there. I don't mind the wait. It's so cheap and the free postage is just awesome. Isn't there a US version of the site now, though?
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Mar 29, 2010 00:14
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freebooter posted:edit: Never mind. I forgot that, as with video games, books are priced ridiculously high in Australia for some reason. True. Average cost of a new, small-sized paperback in Australia = AUD$23 (USD$21, GBP£14) Average cost of the same paperback on Book Depository = AUD$11 (USD$10, GBP£6.5) Edit: It's also amazing for textbooks. I got two books I needed there for $70-80 each, whereas at my uni's bookstore, even with student discount they would have been $120-130.
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Mar 29, 2010 12:48
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Time to play the Wangernumb round, let's rotate the board!
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Apr 15, 2010 14:23
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Someone needs to start a Numberwang thread in GBS 
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Apr 16, 2010 00:42
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Van Dis posted:This forum has terrible taste but here goes nothing. It's probably not a good idea to read a book (or for that matter, post on an internet forum) while cycling. Want a suggestion? How about you keep your eyes on the road.
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May 20, 2010 00:02
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McMurphy posted:Its loving retarded to have two threads for the same series, both of which have multiple pages. This isn't games or something, christery. Space on the internet is very limited dontchaknow!
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May 22, 2010 07:01
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Might as well share mine here for now: http://www.goodreads.com/hedrigall NB: I'm using it as my "read in 2010" list, not my "every book I own or have ever read and ones I want to read" list. Hence only 35 books.
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Jun 6, 2010 01:19
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Does anyone else have trouble finding the motivation to read during certain circumstances in their life? For instance, I was going really great with my reading this year, having reached 30 books by the end of May. Since then I have begun seeing a guy, and now I can barely pick up a book without losing interest after a few pages. It's a shame since I was enjoying the books I was reading, and I was looking forward to the 50 or so I have lying around that I have yet to read. Now, I have little to no desire to read. I still haven't completed a 31st book. I still do other stuff I normally kill time with (TV, games, spend time with friends etc), but in the times I would usually read, I find myself just lying or sitting doing nothing, often listening to music, my mind racing. I guess my emotions have been in a bit of upheaval lately and for me, music gratifies my emotions more than books do. I mention this because my love life has managed to kill my reading habits in the past. It seems like I can have one or the other. When I'm single I storm through books. It sucks because I want both in my life. Maybe I have to give up something else... Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 16:40 on Jul 22, 2010 |
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Jul 22, 2010 16:35
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Underflow posted:When you're preoccupied in some way it can be hard to get into a book's narrative; nothing to worry about. Most people who like reading have binge phases anyway. But if you really feel you have to give up something, give up TV... I think I will try this, thanks. Gonna drop my current books (includes some goony sci-fi, a book of Allen Ginsberg poems, and Ken Follett's Pillars Of The Earth) and pick up one of the biographies I've bought recently. Any recommendations on what to try out of the following? Life on Air by David Attenborough John Lennon: The Life by Philip Norman The Mayor of Castro Street: The Times of Harvey Milk by Randy Shilts Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey Stephen Sondheim: A Life by Meryle Secrest
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Jul 22, 2010 16:52
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rasser posted:I'll stop derailing and ask a question instead: How do you BB goons deal with the loneliness of your literaty taste, which I believe must be common for most of us? I really need that someone to share my interests with - and my beloved girlfriend just reads chick lit and Stieg Larsen while I'm keen on discussing Arendt, Levi, Calvino, Miller etc etc. My best friend loves SFF, YA and literature, which is all what I read the most. We swap books. The last 10 books she's read are ones that I've recently read and loved. I read them in about 2-3 weeks, give them to her and she reads them in one or two nights, then we talk obsessively about them. It's awesome.  We're going to see China Mieville and get our books signed at the end of this month
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Aug 24, 2010 02:11
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7 y.o. bitch posted:Is he the one whose hatred of gay people becomes increasingly pronounced in his space operas? Wow. Whatever this book is, I want to read it 
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Sep 20, 2010 06:20
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Ah yes, OSC and his vitriolic hatred of the gays. I don't need to read his books to see that sort of stuff though, it's all over his website.
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Sep 20, 2010 07:00
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Plates are inserted photographs which are on a different kind of paper, because old printing presses couldn't handle images and text on the same page I guess.
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Sep 28, 2010 05:26
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I was going through my old books today, helping my Mum rid our house of excess clutter before she buys a new house and we move. I got rid of about 40 old books into two boxes. It feels so great to look at my shelves at home now and see nothing but books I love, and no more crappy Clive Cusslers or similar. A question: what do you guys do with old books you don't want? A lot of mine are in good condition but I couldn't honestly be bothered putting them up on ebay. The second hand stores I know are always reluctant to take boxes of books from people, and libraries around here don't bother accepting donations anymore. I'm thinking of just donating them to a Rotary book sale.
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Oct 10, 2010 14:32
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I have a near-mint paperback of A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin, willing to swap for The Republic Of Thieves by Scott Lynch.
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Oct 11, 2010 01:28
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Umph posted:Can anyone recommend a website that I can plug in my favorite 10 books (or similar) and get recommendations based off user reviews or anything? Goodreads doesn't do this, which is totally baffling, as they have the community and the reviews and the lists. I looked around GR for an hour before I realized they literally don't have it. I want another really good historical fiction or weird fiction series to read like Termiere/ASOIAF/Perdido I have no idea why Goodreads doesn't do this, there are so many user ratings at their disposal for them to include a recommendation system :\ Librarything.com can kinda do it, it has 2 cool features: 1) If you search a particular book, it will list the top 10 books similar, based on who owns it. Usually it's other books in the same series but there's a way to only see books by different authors in the top 10 I think. I have found some good books that way. Here's an example: http://www.librarything.com/work/129 - Perdido Street Station. Some of those top 10 books are pretty good and similar to Miéville in writing style, world building, etc. 2) Tag mashes. You can search a number of tags at once (eg: "sci-fi, first contact") to see the books most tagged as those things* Hope those help. If you want good historical fiction similar to ASOIAF, try The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. It is similar (many character POVs, lots of rape and violence, family sagas, action from POV of both peasants and nobles) but just take out the dragons and fantasy aspects, and set it in 11th century England. It's loving awesome. There is a sequel too. * edit: one cool thing it also does is combine all the different ways people might type the same tag, so for example you don't have to worry if "sci-fi" should have a hyphen or not when you search for it: 
Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 11:22 on Dec 7, 2010 |
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Dec 7, 2010 09:26
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Umph posted:Thanks man, I ordered The Pillars of the Earth and City of Saints and Madmen using your suggestions. No worries I presume you've read Miéville's other books too? Because if you liked Perdido Street Station you have to read The Scar and Iron Council. They're phenomenal.
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Dec 8, 2010 09:59
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It's a bizarre miniseries in that it's simultaneously really well made, and really goofy and cheesy. The first episode (which covers the first 400 pages or so of the book) is pretty much non-stop brilliant (apart from Harold Lauder). The disease is done really well and the victims look disgusting, so kudos to the makeup department. There are some brilliant set pieces, like the Lincoln Tunnel; and Gary Sinise as Stu and Rob Lowe as Nick are just really loving fantastic. Also included is Dr Kelso from Scrubs as Frannie's dad! It really starts to get goofy when Mother Abigail and Randall Flagg are introduced. And for some reason the production values really start to go south form the second episode on. Definitely watch it for the first episode though, because it's still great.
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Jan 30, 2011 02:00
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They turn him into a guy with a mullet and wearing double denim. Just, ugh. 
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Jan 30, 2011 17:18
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Won't they return most of their stock to the publishers for a tiny amount of the money they paid for it in the first place?
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Mar 7, 2011 08:17
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Talking of book sales, I hate when there's a Rotary book sale at my uni or wherever, and some douchebag who owns a second hand bookstore is there with his brothers or friends, all holding enormous boxes and just piling books in without even looking at the titles. They're getting good-condition paperbacks for a buck a piece then selling them for $9 or more at their own stores, and by the time other people get to the tables a ton of the good stuff is gone.
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Mar 8, 2011 08:20
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Whaaaaaat I am going to my nearby Borders & A&R tomorrow.
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Mar 10, 2011 12:08
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freebooter posted:OK, I was right - Borders is 20% off today and Angus & Robertson is 50% off. Why, that's almost as cheap as ordering from overseas in the first place! Just an update on this, it's only the stores that are closing. Which is none near me (although apparently the Town Hall Square A&R store in the Sydney CBD is one, so I might go check that out some day soon).
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Mar 12, 2011 15:06
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freebooter posted:That may just be Angus & Robertson - I'm pretty sure the Borders I went to wasn't closing down. 37 A&R stores are closing and only 1 Borders store. I think most of the closing ones are in Victoria. Sometimes I will buy a book in an Aus. bookstore because I simply MUST have it that day because I'm dying to read it, but I'll at least go to the CBD, Sydney has a ton of excellent bookstores (Kinokuniya, massive Dymocks, Abbeys, sci-fi specialist Galaxy Books, gay bookstore in Taylor Square, etc) and I can find it as cheap as possible. The $5-10 more that I end up paying is worth having it now instead of waiting 2 weeks for Book Depository to deliver.
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Mar 13, 2011 08:46
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vegaji posted:Other than the usual suspects, you really, really should check out Better World Books: Oh, is their free worldwide shipping thing new? I remember buying from them ages ago but I thought I paid for shipping. Basically it's good to know there's an alternative to Bookdepository, because I'm sick of my books arriving damaged or, in one case, with a live cricket sealed inside the packaging.
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Mar 24, 2011 13:22
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My university's library is generally good about stopping noisy people. The worst thing is the computers: there's a row of short-use computers which are just for printing, checking the catalogue, etc. Once I saw like three people at once using them to play Farmville while there was a queue for computer use.
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Apr 14, 2011 02:42
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Saw this in Borders today, laughed. I had to take a picture. That is just a hilarious title for a book.
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Apr 20, 2011 16:25
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BobMcFartsens posted:I just started reading A Game of Thrones last week (Since I heard the show was so badass I figured I should read the book first). You could watch the show along with the book. The first episode ends at the same point that you just mentioned.
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May 16, 2011 09:37
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My big rear end summer read this winter will be A Dance With Dragons.
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May 25, 2011 16:02
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Adonis Gunther posted:Has anyone read "Go the F**k to Sleep"? (http://www.amazon.com/Go-F-Sleep-Adam-Mansbach/dp/1617750255/ref=zg_bs_books_1) It seems to be the top bestseller on Amazon. It's meant to be a comical bed time story for adults, and has some good reviews. Any goons read this? It's pretty funny. Samuel L Jackson did the audiobook, which Audible released for free and you can watch/listen to it on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGDm45niITI
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Jun 19, 2011 15:40
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Chamberk posted:You should be able to walk into a store on Tuesday and pick it up. It's highly anticipated, but it's no Harry Potter or Twilight yet. I can see maybe a midnight release for book 6 and 7 though. Look at Harry Potter - the first 3 books just arrived like any other book; by the time the 4th book came out the fanbase was growing and its release was newsworthy. Then between the 4th and 5th, the movie adaptations began and the 5th book was the first real worldwide-mayhem release. With the TV show just started the ADWD release should be pretty big but by the time the 6th book rolls around we will (hopefully) have had quite a few seasons of a show that will have exploded into the mainstream with DVD sales. Also, at the moment all the new fans will still be reading through the first few books. But when the 6th book comes out the TV-show-fans will have been fans for years and there will be a much bigger audience clamouring for the release. I'm gonna predict book 6 (coming in 2019 most likely) will be a pretty big launch with midnight releases all over the world.
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Jul 12, 2011 08:39
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I just noticed this on Goodreads, I don't know if it's a new feature or something, but pages for each book now have recommendations for other books, based on user ratings. It's in the right-hand column under the genre info. They seem to be quite well matched books for an automated system. Better than Librarything's recommendations, from what I've seen. I'm going through all my favourite books now and seeing what it recommends, and I'm getting quite a few interesting looking titles 
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Aug 24, 2011 11:00
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Wow. 10 is a little extreme but I can easily have 3 or 4 going at a time. I see it less like pausing/unpausing two movies next to each other, and more like following a number of TV serials from week to week. I can easily pick up one book, read 30 or 40 pages, then move to another, then another, every day, while keeping track of storylines and characters.
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Oct 17, 2011 03:50
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dmccaff posted:I signed up to the reddit secret santa this year and this arrived yesterday. Holy crap, a stranger sent you all that for free?  I haven't read everything there, but you can't go wrong with Northern Lights, The Gunslinger, and Perdido Street Station for some modern fantasy classics.
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Dec 8, 2011 11:47
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barkingclam posted:Merry Christmas, all. Anybody get books this year? I got MetaMaus by Art Spiegelman, All Hell Let Loose by Max Hastings, The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien and a travel guide for San Francisco
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Dec 27, 2011 09:27
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Oleum Animale 68C posted:Help me find a book I don't remember. Dhalgren by Samuel Delany's first chapter is called "Prism, Mirror, Lens" and begins mid-sentence. There's a thread for identifying books, you know.
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Jan 11, 2012 23:30
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Joramun posted:Treat it like playing an RPG. Finishing a page is winning a random battle, finishing a chapter is a level-up. Actually works quite well to keep going and get into a flow state. Congratulations, you made reading even nerdier than it already is.
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Jan 16, 2012 01:57
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