Recently Purchased.

[Kurosawa Fan]

http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yQY4VWKgL.jpg
http://cdn.harpercollins.com/harperimages/isbn/large/5/9780061147715.jpg

[D_Davis]

KF, have you read The Company, A Novel of the CIA?

I just got this in the mail:

http://www.sacredartofliving.org/catalog/images/The-Marriage-of-East-and-west.jpg

[Kurosawa Fan]

KF, have you read The Company, A Novel of the CIA?


I haven't. In fact, Legacy of Ashes was an impulse purchase. We always visit the same small bookstore where we vacation, and the guy that owns it is very cool and usually recommends great stuff. It's not something I'd normally read, but after his recommendation last year (The Zero, which I LOVED), I figured I'd trust him and give this book a whirl.

[D_Davis]

I haven't. In fact, Legacy of Ashes was an impulse purchase. We always visit the same small bookstore where we vacation, and the guy that owns it is very cool and usually recommends great stuff. It's not something I'd normally read, but after his recommendation last year (The Zero, which I LOVED), I figured I'd trust him and give this book a whirl.

I see. I've heard great things about The Company. I started it, and then I ended up losing my copy. :(

[Duncan]

I bought The Complete Rimbaud by Rimbaud (obv) and Love in the Time of Cholera by Marquez the other day. Hope to read the latter over the Canadian Thanksgiving break.

[D_Davis]

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/bestselling-sci-fi-fantasy-2006/1240-1.jpg

This is a massive, 1000 page chronological anthology of horror. It has stories from Charles Dickens, Bierce, and on to King and Barker, including Lovecraft, Dick, Jackson, Oats, Disch, and tons more.

[Kurosawa Fan]

http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/13770000/13774438.JPG
http://gardnerlinn.com/jest.jpg

[Malickfan]

http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/13770000/13774438.JPG
http://gardnerlinn.com/jest.jpg

Very nice.

[D_Davis]

Just ordered this:

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/c0/c365.jpg

For a pretty decent price.

This is Ligotti's first collection. While I've read that it is more Lovecraftian in tone, Ligotti had not yet truly found his own uniquely poetic voice, I've also heard that it contains some amazing fiction.

[D_Davis]

A new RPG:

Don't Rest Your Head

http://www.evilhat.com/pics/dryh-220.jpg




You can’t sleep. It started like that for all of us, back when we were garden variety insomniacs. Maybe you had nightmares (God knows we all do now), or maybe you just had problems that wouldn’t let you sleep. Hell, maybe you were just over-caffienated. But then something clicked.

That was when you took a long walk down the streets of the Mad City, stopped being a Sleeper, and started being Awake. But that click you heard wasn’t from the secret world snapping into place.


It was the sound of the Nightmares flicking off the safety and pointing a gun at your head.

They can smell you. The Paper Boys are closing in, and you’d better pray you don’t become a headline. You’re chum in the water, my friend, and it’s time you got ready for it… before the clock chimes thirteen again. Now that you’re one of us, there’s just one simple rule left that must dominate your life.

Stay Awake. Don’t Rest Your Head.

Don’t Rest Your Head is a sleek, dangerous little game, where your players are all insomniac protagonists with superpowers, fighting — and using — exhaustion and madness to stay alive, and awake for just one more night, in a reality gone way wrong called the Mad City. It features its own system, and is contained entirely within one book.

[megladon8]

http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/47/rzteddybearcannibalmassly9.gif

[Duncan]

Bought:
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beautiful Losers
Everything is Illuminated

Have people read the last one? Any good?

[Kurosawa Fan]

My local library had their book sale again, and I grabbed the following:

It - Stephen King
The Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux
The Ministry of Fear - Graham Greene
The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler
House of Sand and Fog - Andre Dubus III
Florence of Arabia - Christopher Buckley
The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields
The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
The Metamorphosis and Other Stories - Franz Kafka


The last two are hardcover and cost a buck apiece. The rest are soft cover and were $.50 apiece. $6.50 in total for all those books. Man I love that sale.

[D_Davis]

http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/27750000/27756547.JPG

From Barnes and Noble publishing. 1000+ pages containing every piece of original fiction Lovecraft wrote. All for $15.00. Probably the best buy I've ever encountered. This is the only HPL book you will ever need.

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0803293518.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZ Z_V65593052_.jpg

[SirNewt]

I bought The Complete Rimbaud by Rimbaud (obv) and Love in the Time of Cholera by Marquez the other day. Hope to read the latter over the Canadian Thanksgiving break.

Speaking of Marquez, I'm about to read my first by him. I bought a copy of "100 Years of Solitude" a week ago and will start it when I finish Gulag volume 2.

[Ezee E]

I need to find me a library sale.

[Duncan]

Speaking of Marquez, I'm about to read my first by him. I bought a copy of "100 Years of Solitude" a week ago and will start it when I finish Gulag volume 2.
It's one of my favourites. Hope you like it.

[D_Davis]

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/RESOURCE/MEDIA/IMAGES/bookcovers/Original/BookCovers13/978/0/7/2/0/9780720611526.jpg

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Books/Pix/covers/2004/12/02/ghost1.jpg

[SirNewt]

^^^^^^^^^

Dude, you will never read all the books you buy. You just won't live that long.

[D_Davis]

^^^^^^^^^

Dude, you will never read all the books you buy. You just won't live that long.

You're probably right, but I hope you're wrong!

Someday I am going to either a) be retired with lots of time to read, or b) have a job that's not as good and therefor I will be unable to buy the books I want to read (or C) dead, in which case I will probably have them donated to a library or school).

I figure that right now I have a good paying job, and I there are a ton of used book stores around so I am just stocking up for the future. Just taking advantage of these good times. But I try to at least read 1 book per week, usually closer to 2 on average. I'll have about 100 books read by the end of this year.

But yes, for the past year I have been on a major book buying binge. Most of them I've gotten for under $5 each, and I just can't pass that up! I guess I do have a problem....

:)

[SirNewt]

But I try to at least read 1 book per week, usually closer to 2 on average. I'll have about 100 books read by the end of this year.



Holy cats, even at my most focused on reading I can manage 1 a week. I'm doing about two a month right now but I've read several whoppers this year (Les Miserables) that put me a little behind.

[D_Davis]

Holy cats, even at my most focused on reading I can manage 1 a week. I'm doing about two a month right now but I've read several whoppers this year (Les Miserables) that put me a little behind.

Most of the books I read are short. I don't like long books. I've rarely come across a long book that a) needed to be that long, and b) was worth the time.

Right now, I'm really into short stories and novellas. I wish more authors wrote novella-length fiction these days.

[Grouchy]

Most of the books I read are short. I don't like long books. I've rarely come across a long book that a) needed to be that long, and b) was worth the time.
Huh... I agree in principle that short is usually more powerful, but I can think of a lot of examples where you're wrong.

Don Quixote? Notre-Dame de Paris? The Savage Detectives? Fuckin' Lord of the Rings?

[D_Davis]

Huh... I agree in principle that short is usually more powerful, but I can think of a lot of examples where you're wrong.

Don Quixote? Notre-Dame de Paris? The Savage Detectives? Fuckin' Lord of the Rings?

I'm not talking about all books, just about the long books I've read. Of all the books I've read, I can think of very few long novels that really needed to be as long as they were.

It's just a bang for the time kind of thing. I rarely get more out something long, so I figure I might as well get just as much out of something short, and read that many more shorter novels

I, for the most part, simply prefer shorter novels.

Just one of my own personal reading habits/quirks, nothing more.

And things could change. I used to not like short stories much, but right now I am only digging short stories.

[Grouchy]

I'm not talking about all books, just about the long books I've read. Of all the books I've read, I can think of very few long novels that really needed to be as long as they were.

It's just a bang for the time kind of thing. I rarely get more out something long, so I figure I might as well get just as much out of something short, and read that many more shorter novels

I, for the most part, simply prefer shorter novels.

Just one of my own personal reading habits/quirks, nothing more.

And things could change. I used to not like short stories much, but right now I am only digging short stories.
Yeah, and I agree.

By the way, off-topic, but sorry I left you hanging on the Haxan deal. I'm currently saving money for a Brazil-Colombia trip on January, so I'm basically spending just for eating and *ahem* drinking purposes.

And dvd rentals, because I suck at torrents.

[D_Davis]

By the way, off-topic, but sorry I left you hanging on the Haxan deal. I'm currently saving money for a Brazil-Colombia trip on January, so I'm basically spending just for eating and *ahem* drinking purposes.

And dvd rentals, because I suck at torrents.

No worries man.

Just last night I saw the DVD on my shelf and was reminded that you might want it.

It's still sitting there!

:)

[SirNewt]

I haven't read a lot of novellas. I tend toward novels or toward short stories and poetry. Recommend some and I'll track them down.

[D_Davis]

Recommend some and I'll track them down.

Most of the novellas, or novella-length fiction (some older SF is more novella than novel), tend to be genre related. Horror seems to be a great genre for novella-length fiction.

The best I've read in a long time, and the best thing I've read all year:

The Divinity Student by Michael Cisco. Definitely not for everyone, but it totally won me over. This is among the most imaginative and creative things I've ever read. (You can get this in The San Veneficio Canon, containing two novellas - it is quite expensive to get The Divinity Student on its own).

H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, and Shadow Over Innsmouth are all fantastic novellas (or longer short stories as they reside on the border of the two forms).

Elsewhere by William Peter Blatty is a fantastic little ghost story.

Dark Gods, by T.E.D. Klein is a collection of four awesome horror novellas.

My Work is Not Yet Done by Thomas Ligotti.

Don't know if you're into this kind of weird fiction or not.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I love Goodwill. Their book collections are always a mix of college coursework, Michael Crichton paperbacks, and at least one copy of The Celestine Prophecy.

The other day I picked up Cabal, Wuthering Heights, and A Tale of Two Cities. Three bucks.

[D_Davis]

I love Goodwill. Their book collections are always a mix of college coursework, Michael Crichton paperbacks, and at least one copy of The Celestine Prophecy.

I once relieved them of a copy of The Celestine Prophecy.

[SirNewt]

Don't know if you're into this kind of weird fiction or not.

No, I'm pretty much a sheep when it comes to lit and stick to the classics. I also dig poetry so I spend a lot of time reading and memorizing that. I'll check some of these out for sure, though. I need a bit of a break from the blowhards.

[D_Davis]

No, I'm pretty much a sheep when it comes to lit and stick to the classics.

Heh.

I'm like the exact opposite.

I hope you enjoy, or at least don't hate, some of those if you decide to check them out.

[Benny Profane]

No, I'm pretty much a sheep when it comes to lit and stick to the classics.

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy is a MUST read novella.

[D_Davis]

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy is a MUST read novella.

I should read this.

Also, two more awesome novellas, both by the master of urban dystopia JG Ballard:

Concrete Island
Running Wild

[Duncan]

White Nights is a good example of early Dostoevsky and only like 60 pages.

[D_Davis]

White Nights is a good example of early Dostoevsky and only like 60 pages.

Didn't he also write a novella about a gambler or something? I remember picking it up, and I'd like to actually read it some time.

[Melville]

Didn't he also write a novella about a gambler or something? I remember picking it up, and I'd like to actually read it some time.
The Gambler. It's not one of his best, but it's still very good. It paints a pretty good picture of dissolution into gambling addiction, both as a spontaneous excitement and as a weary withdrawal from the rest of the world.

I'm not sure if they count as novellas, but Dostoevsk'y Notes from Underground and The Double are both amazing.

[D_Davis]

The Gambler. It's not one of his best, but it's still very good. It paints a pretty good picture of dissolution into gambling addiction, both as a spontaneous excitement and as a weary withdrawal from the rest of the world.


:)

Should have remembered that. I think I'll pick it up. I saw it at Half Price books for only 59 cents.

I want to read him, but his longer stuff scares me. I think if I start small, and work my way through his material, I will have a better chance.

[Duncan]

:)

Should have remembered that. I think I'll pick it up. I saw it at Half Price books for only 59 cents.

I want to read him, but his longer stuff scares me. I think if I start small, and work my way through his material, I will have a better chance. You should definitely try Notes From Underground as well. There are a bunch of Dostoevsky collections that you can get for like 4 bucks. I bought one that had Notes from Underground, The Double, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (which you can find online, only like 20 pages).

[D_Davis]

You should definitely try Notes From Underground as well. There are a bunch of Dostoevsky collections that you can get for like 4 bucks. I bought one that had Notes from Underground, The Double, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (which you can find online, only like 20 pages).

Cool, I will.

I noticed that there were a ton of those Dover Thrift Editions, or similar, at the used book store the last time I was there, and there were all ridiculously cheap.

[Kurosawa Fan]

:)

Should have remembered that. I think I'll pick it up. I saw it at Half Price books for only 59 cents.

I want to read him, but his longer stuff scares me. I think if I start small, and work my way through his material, I will have a better chance.

You would have no trouble with Crime and Punishment. That's one of the easiest books I've read, and at the time I was also intimidated by longer novels. So long as you get to that eventually though, we're good.

[Malickfan]

The Book of Lazarus by Richard Grossman
The Given Day by Dennis Lehane
Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman
Anathem by Neal Stephenson

[thefourthwall]

But I try to at least read 1 book per week, usually closer to 2 on average. I'll have about 100 books read by the end of this year.

You are my hero.


Most of the books I read are short. I don't like long books.

Makes sense that you're a movie lover then--movies are short stories, tv shows are the novels.

[thefourthwall]

No, I'm pretty much a sheep when it comes to lit and stick to the classics. I also dig poetry so I spend a lot of time reading and memorizing that. I'll check some of these out for sure, though. I need a bit of a break from the blowhards.

How do you decide what to memorize? I'm thinking of making my students do some memorizing next semester since it's a dying/lost art, but I'm unsure if I'll choose a passage for them or let them do so themselves.

[thefourthwall]

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n19/n97550.jpg

[D_Davis]

Makes sense that you're a movie lover then--movies are short stories, tv shows are the novels.

That's kind of true. I find most TV series far too long - their narratives are often stretched past the necessary point.

Although my heavy reading schedule this year is directly related to the fact that I no longer watch many movies. I've seen less than 15 films this year.

While I've always loved reading, this year I've found my passion for prose to be insatiable. I am devouring books, and loving every minute of it.

[megladon8]

That's kind of true. I find most TV series far too long - their narratives are often stretched past the necessary point.

Although my heavy reading schedule this year is directly related to the fact that I no longer watch many movies. I've seen less than 15 films this year.

While I've always loved reading, this year I've found my passion for prose to be insatiable. I am devouring books, and loving every minute of it.


You're lucky.

I wish my reading bug would kick in again. The two-fer of "Angel Dust Apocalypse" and "Hell" really knocked the desire to read out of me, and I haven't been able to read more than a couple pages of anything since.

[SirNewt]

How do you decide what to memorize? I'm thinking of making my students do some memorizing next semester since it's a dying/lost art, but I'm unsure if I'll choose a passage for them or let them do so themselves.

Didn't mean to leave this discussion twistin' in the wind but I've been at school from 9 to 8 most days this week.

Sometimes I memorize something because it seems pretty essential, like Blake's "The Tyger" or Hopkins' "The Windhover" or Stevens' "Anecdote of the Jar". Other times something just strikes me as clever or funny or it has a spirit I like such as "Sir Ptarick Spens" or Shelley's "Ozymandias". Lately I've started memorizing some things because of the challenge they pose. I'm also looking for more romantic poetry of late, not sure why.

It's hard to make a recommendation without knowing what level of school you teach. I can say, however, that I don't think letting them choose whatever they want is a good idea. Maybe giving them a pool of choices is a good idea or even assigning them a poet for the semester to focus on may help them develop a deeper connection to the poetry.

[SirNewt]

So this is the novella reading list I've made. I'm not sure when I'll start reading these but I think I'll post a few thoughts on them as I read them. If things keep going as they are, I'll have to make those thoughts very few.

-The Death of Ivan Ilyich

-The Divinity Student

after I read this,

"The Divinity Student is thrown out of the seminary after he is apparently struck dead by lightning. He is brought back to life by a mysterious group of people who gut his corpse and stuff him full of pages from a mysterious book."

I just stopped and knew I had to check this out.

-At the Mountains of Madness
-The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
-Shadow Over Innsmouth

checking these out as, and I'm loathe to admit this, I've never read any Lovecraft. (Largely because, and again I am loathe to admit this, I always kind of thought of him as a poor man's Edgar Allan Poe.)

-Dark Gods

-White Nights

This really sounds like something I'll dig.

EDIT: I have mention real quick that of the few novellas I've read Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" is among my favorite. I see why it's oft filmed. If you've ever felt that certain animosity or ambivalence toward festivity the Dickens condemns, the story can be pretty powerful.

[D_Davis]

Sounds good man!

Hope you like some of these - especially The Divinity Student (by the way, you should buy the version called The San Veneficio Canon, which contains 2 novellas. The original version of the DS is quite expensive).

And just so you know, most horror scholars (yes there are such things, see S.T. Joshi - the world's leading Lovecraft expert) agree that Lovecraft is the second pillar of horror, the first of which being Poe. Lovecraft is not a "poor man's Poe" but he is, instead, the next scion. Some people are arguing that Thomas Ligotti is the third pillar, but it is probably too soon to tell. However, we should feel lucky to have someone of Lovecraft's caliber alive during our time.

Hey, if you do end up liking some of these weird tales, please check out my article over here:

http://www.playtime-magazine.com/press/2008/10/the-horrors-are-real-a-reading-journal/

[SirNewt]

WOW! what happened to my sense of grammar during that last edit? I was all over the place.

[thefourthwall]

It's hard to make a recommendation without knowing what level of school you teach. I can say, however, that I don't think letting them choose whatever they want is a good idea. Maybe giving them a pool of choices is a good idea or even assigning them a poet for the semester to focus on may help them develop a deeper connection to the poetry.

I teach college, and I do like the idea of giving them a choice between a couple different options--thanks!

[SirNewt]

A trip to half priced books to find some of the novellas on my list utterly failed. This is my first time in a HPB and I have to say it's a pretty harrible place. They break everything down into too many genres and the help there is worthless ignoring those assides, you can get some pretty good deals.

http://screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/the-road.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51jDyp8PHdL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/14490000/14490052.JPG

The fist few pages of which were really crappy, it's a totally cool cover though.

and I got a copy of the Death of Ivan Ilyich but it's the older penguin classics and I can't kype a photo from google.

[Benny Profane]

Little Green Men -- Christopher Buckley

[D_Davis]

Time and the Gods - Lord Dunsany
The Terror and Other Stories - Arthur Machen
Eyes of the God: The Weird Fiction and Poetry of R. H. Barlow
Professor Dowell's Head - Alexander Beliaev

[megladon8]

Little Green Men -- Christopher Buckley


I have this up on my shelf but haven't gotten to reading it yet.

[SirNewt]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2008/06/19/2008007062.jpg

http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2008/summer_preview/books_atmospheric_disturbance. jpg

http://moviesmedia.ign.com/movies/image/article/739/739225/AtTheMountainsOfMadness_116103 0580.jpg

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n4/n24616.jpg

[D_Davis]

Hope you enjoy the Cisco and Lovecraft, and I hope you didn't pay too much for The Divinity Student.

I recently finished the second part of the San Veneficio Canon - The Golem - and while not as good as The Divinity Student, it was still interesting and incredibly well written.

I want to reread the DS and write a much longer, more in depth review than the one I did for my recently published article. I really want to experience that world again.

Next up from Cisco for me is The Traitor, another novella.

[SirNewt]

Hope you enjoy the Cisco and Lovecraft, and I hope you didn't pay too much for The Divinity Student.

I recently finished the second part of the San Veneficio Canon - The Golem - and while not as good as The Divinity Student, it was still interesting and incredibly well written.

I want to reread the DS and write a much longer, more in depth review than the one I did for my recently published article. I really want to experience that world again.

Next up from Cisco for me is The Traitor, another novella.

Yeah, I bought "The Divinity Student" from Amazon for $5.98. It's a library book but they say it's in pretty good shape. I'll have to wait and see.

I finished "At the Mountains of Madness" which I really enjoyed. I found it much more menacing in the beginning and middle sections than the end. The oppressiveness of the vast and dead natural world overshadowed the corporeal threats of the ending.

I doubt I'll be finishing "The Divinity Student" so soon, though. My class's game projects are really ramping up and there's a lot to be done in three weeks.

[D_Davis]

Nice - glad you enjoyed the Lovecraft. I think that is his longest single work if I am not mistaken. I need to read it again. My next Lovecraft is going to be the dream cycle.

What is your game project?

[SirNewt]

Nice - glad you enjoyed the Lovecraft. I think that is his longest single work if I am not mistaken. I need to read it again. My next Lovecraft is going to be the dream cycle.

What is your game project?

My personal project is just a single screen, flash type game. You are a rabbit with a plate. You catch waffles that are falling from the sky. As you catch them the stack gets taller and taller and the centre of gravity moves up the stack. If you're not careful your stack will tip over. I'm pretty sure I'll have to add to the design to make it fun but I'm just trying to get it working first.

[D_Davis]

Sounds cool man.

Are you handling all the assets yourself?

[D_Davis]

The Tyrant by Michael Cisco.

Ligotti says this is Cisco's masterpiece. Better than The Divinity Student? We'll see about that.

[SirNewt]

Sounds cool man.

Are you handling all the assets yourself?

Probably, It's unlikely I'll be able to find someone to do them for me. I'm a pretty good at pixel art if it comes down to that. I'm more worried about sound FX right now. I don't want to use library stuff but I might not have enough time to record effects.

[D_Davis]

Probably, It's unlikely I'll be able to find someone to do them for me. I'm a pretty good at pixel art if it comes down to that. I'm more worried about sound FX right now. I don't want to use library stuff but I might not have enough time to record effects.

Need a quirky little tune?

Hit me up.

[SirNewt]

Need a quirky little tune?

Hit me up.

Some kind of friendly little tune would be awesome. Unfortunately, you won't own it anymore and neither will I for that matter.

I know you play trumpet, right, but would this be keyboard or synth or software or something?

[Duncan]

Actual Air, by David Berman
Either/Or, by Soren Kierkegaard
The Gift, by Lewis Hyde

I'm not familiar with Hyde at all, but I hear good things. We shall see.

[Melville]

Either/Or, by Soren Kierkegaard

Did you get the full version, or the abridged Penguin version?

[dreamdead]

Once the semester's done I'll be tackling Kierkegaard's Works of Love.

[Duncan]

Did you get the full version, or the abridged Penguin version?

Oh. I got the Penguin edition. I didn't realize it was abridged though. Which version did you read?

[Melville]

Oh. I got the Penguin edition. I didn't realize it was abridged though. Which version did you read?
The abridged version. I think it only cuts about one-quarter of the text, mostly from the second half. I found the second half to be very repetitive even in its abridged form, so hopefully I only missed out on more repetition rather than interesting digressions.

[Duncan]

The abridged version. I think it only cuts about one-quarter of the text, mostly from the second half. I found the second half to be very repetitive even in its abridged form, so hopefully I only missed out on more repetition rather than interesting digressions.

Cool. It's ~640 pages, and I've got to believe that's enough anxiety-fueled philosophy for one book.

[D_Davis]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4133PAXW8AL._SS500_.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YXGYY45ZL._SS500_.jpg

http://www.philsp.com/comingattractions/Images_2003/talesoflovecraft.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Js-NGs5SL._SL160_.jpg

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n0/n988.jpg

[Grouchy]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4133PAXW8AL._SS500_.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YXGYY45ZL._SS500_.jpg

http://www.philsp.com/comingattractions/Images_2003/talesoflovecraft.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Js-NGs5SL._SL160_.jpg

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n0/n988.jpg
How do you sleep nights?

[D_Davis]

How do you sleep nights?

On a large pile of money with many beautiful women.

[D_Davis]

Went to BnN last night to buy my sister some presents.

I got her:

The Raw Shark Tales by Steven Hall
Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff
The Ant King and Other Stories by Benjamin Rosenbaum - I really like the quote from the New York Times on this one, "No weirder than your average Flaming Lips album."

I also bought a couple of things for myself:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5109vb9QE7L._SS500_.jpg

http://www.dandossantos.com/gallery/illustrations/full_butcher_bird.jpg


The Butcher Bird one was a total blind buy. I can't even really tell what drew me to it. Maybe it's the pierced nipples. I don't know.

Actually, it just sounds like a ton of fun.


Spyder Lee is a happy man who lives in San Francisco and owns a tattoo shop. One night an angry demon tries to bite his head off before he's saved by a stranger. The demon infected Spyder with something awful - the truth. He can suddenly see the world as it really is: full of angels and demons and monsters and monster-hunters. A world full of black magic and mysteries. These are the Dominions, parallel worlds full of wonder, beauty and horror. The Black Clerks, infinitely old and infinitely powerful beings whose job it is to keep the Dominions in balance, seem to have new interests and a whole new agenda. Dropped into the middle of a conflict between the Black Clerks and other forces he doesn't fully understand, Spyder finds himself looking for a magic book with the blind swordswoman who saved him. Their journey will take them from deserts to lush palaces, to underground caverns, to the heart of Hell itself. William Gibson calls says if these were a painting it'd be kicking the ass of low brow culture in the pages of Juxtapose, and I kind of like that.


It sounds super hip, and not really my thing, but sometimes I just like to take a chance on a something.

[Duncan]

Nausea - Sartre
Disgrace - Coetzee
The Crying of Lot 49 - Pynchon

I find buying books is getting uncomfortably revealing. The cashiers keep reading the titles and looking at me weird. Then when I tell them that yes, I am aware of their rewards program, and no, I don't want to be a part of it, and yes, I realize there is no tangible drawback to not participating, they look at me weirder. And no, Mr. Gay Cashier, I don't want to flirt with you even though I'm wearing a bright pink sweater.

[Mara]

Then when I tell them that yes, I am aware of their rewards program, and no, I don't want to be a part of it, and yes, I realize there is no tangible drawback to not participating, they look at me weirder.

I have perfected this conversation.

They say, content to bask in the glow of logic: "Signing up today will actually save you $25 on today's purchase."

You look at them levelly, and reply:

"It's worth $25 to not have another card in my life."

In my experience, that shuts them up.

[Benny Profane]

I have perfected this conversation.

They say, content to bask in the glow of logic: "Signing up today will actually save you $25 on today's purchase."

You look at them levelly, and reply:

"It's worth $25 to not have another card in my life."

In my experience, that shuts them up.

I like it, Mara.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Davis, is that first book you purchased above really a monster story called The Taint?

As for purchasing books, I constantly get asked, "Are these for school?". I'm actually looking forward to the day when I don't look young enough to still be in college anymore, and they'll stop acting like it's a chore to read the books I'm reading.

[Malickfan]

Nausea - Sartre
Disgrace - Coetzee
The Crying of Lot 49 - Pynchon

I find buying books is getting uncomfortably revealing. The cashiers keep reading the titles and looking at me weird. Then when I tell them that yes, I am aware of their rewards program, and no, I don't want to be a part of it, and yes, I realize there is no tangible drawback to not participating, they look at me weirder. And no, Mr. Gay Cashier, I don't want to flirt with you even though I'm wearing a bright pink sweater.

But with the high number of books you buy, a discount card would be useful.

EDIT: I got you mixed up with Daniel Davis. So not sure if you buy a shitload of books a year.

[D_Davis]

Davis, is that first book you purchased above really a monster story called The Taint?


Taint nothing wrong with that.

:)

I love the looks I get from the clerks when I shop at Half Price books. I'll usually get some horror, some SF, and then I usually hit up the religion section. One time I went to the counter with some books from Clive Barker, Joe R. Lansdale, HP Lovecraft, CS Lewis, Thomas Merton, and Nhat Han. The dude must have thought I was crazy.

[D_Davis]

But with the high number of books you buy, a discount card would be useful.

EDIT: I got you mixed up with Daniel Davis. So not sure if you buy a shitload of books a year.

I get most of my books from the Amazon Market Place and Half Price books, and rarely pay cover price.

I'm a smart shopper!

:)

[megladon8]

I definitely approve that Lumley purchase, D.

He's great. Writes awesome short stories - greatly superior to his novels.

[D_Davis]

I definitely approve that Lumley purchase, D.

He's great. Writes awesome short stories - greatly superior to his novels.

I am looking forward to reading this. I've never read Lumley before, and I'm excited that this is a collection of novellas.

[Duncan]

But with the high number of books you buy, a discount card would be useful.

EDIT: I got you mixed up with Daniel Davis. So not sure if you buy a shitload of books a year.
Do you work at Chapters?

[thefourthwall]

Went to BnN last night to buy my sister some presents.

I got her:

The Raw Shark Tales by Steven Hall

Is this good? or is it violent? One member of my book club is contemplating this, but I thought it might be too graphic for other members based on a couple scattered reviews I read online... Looks really interesting though.

[Malickfan]

Do you work at Chapters?

No. Barnes & Noble.

[D_Davis]

Is this good? or is it violent? One member of my book club is contemplating this, but I thought it might be too graphic for other members based on a couple scattered reviews I read online... Looks really interesting though.

I haven't read it.

I've heard it's pretty good. I'm not sure about the level violence. It does look interesting.

[Duncan]

No. Barnes & Noble.

Well, it had to be some book store chain.

[Malickfan]

Well, it had to be some book store chain.

Well...like I said, if you buy a shitload of books a year, it just makes sense.

[D_Davis]

One of the worst covers I've ever seen:

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n54/n270258.jpg

Looks like Mal from Firefly fighting Chia Pet Ewoks.

[Benny Profane]

2666 by Roberto Bolano. All 900 pages of it.

By the way, how do you write the Spanish "tilde" that goes over the "n"?

[Kurosawa Fan]

My Barnes & Noble trip last night consisted of:

2666 by Roberto Bolaño (How do you like that tilde Benny? Suck it.)
Election by Tom Perrotta
Between the Bridge and the River by Craig Ferguson
World War Z by Max Brooks

[Benny Profane]

My Barnes & Noble trip last night consisted of:

2666 by Roberto Bolaño (How do you like that tilde Benny? Suck it.)


It's beyond great. Finished it yesterday. It is a highly intellectual and academic novel, but very accessible. More thoughts to come. Read it.

[Kurosawa Fan]

It's beyond great. Finished it yesterday. It is a highly intellectual and academic novel, but very accessible. More thoughts to come. Read it.

Too many people have been raving about it for me to pass it up again. Even my wife wants to read it (she's heard great things as well), and that's not the type of novel she usually reads.

[Benny Profane]

Blood Meridian -- Cormac McCarthy.

[Duncan]

It seems like there are multiple shelves of 2666 in every book store I enter. I bet it's a book that tons of people buy then never read. Then again, it does have a sick cover. A neat cover will inspire me to read the first few pages of a book and go from there. I think I'm going to avoid super long novels for at least a month after I final finish Infinite Jest though. That book is killing me.

[Benny Profane]

It seems like there are multiple shelves of 2666 in every book store I enter. I bet it's a book that tons of people buy then never read. Then again, it does have a sick cover. A neat cover will inspire me to read the first few pages of a book and go from there. I think I'm going to avoid super long novels for at least a month after I final finish Infinite Jest though. That book is killing me.


It definitely does not meet literary expectations. There are five stories loosely revolving around a crime wave in a city in Northern Mexico where women are being brutally raped and murdered. None of these stories has much closure, so I can see your average person getting pretty far into the book but getting frustrated because it doesn't give them the usual satisfaction of knowing what happens next. But goddamn it is interesting. Like a Pynchon novel, it is all over the map, literally and figuratively.

[megladon8]

Got this one yesterday...

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5109vb9QE7L._SS500_.jpg

I love Brian Lumley. I love Cthulhu Mythos works. I hope this adds up to double awesome.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I'm still floored that there's a horror novel/story called The Taint.

[megladon8]

I'm still floored that there's a horror novel/story called The Taint.


Does the word have some hidden meaning I'm not aware of?

[Kurosawa Fan]

Does the word have some hidden meaning I'm not aware of?

Yes. Yes it does. (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=taint)

[megladon8]

Yes. Yes it does. (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=taint)


:eek:

I definitely never heard that one before.

[Amnesiac]

http://www.taschen.com/media/images/480/cover_xl_kubrick_0706011105_id _8132.jpg

http://www.slovart.sk/buxus/images/obalky_velke/TA500235.jpg

I ordered both of these today. :)

[megladon8]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51QVDEP24SL._SS500_.jpg

[D_Davis]

Look at Us, etc. etc. - William Saroyan and Arthur Rothstein
Chance Meetings - William Saroyan
The House on the Borderland
The Boats of the "Glen Carrig" - William Hope Hodgson
As She Climbed Across the Table - Johnathan Lethem
The Dark Haired Girl - Philip K. Dick
The Mind Parasites - Colin Wilson
Kaeti on Tour - Keith Roberts
Lilith - George MacDonald
The Old Gods Waken - Manly Wade Wellman

[Mara]

As She Climbed Across the Table - Johnathan Lethem


This frustrated the living crap out of me. It wavered somewhere between "delightfully quirky" and "strange for strange's sake." Let me know what you think.

Also, let me know what you think of Lilith. I've always had trouble reading MacDonald, but keep having an itch to try that one out.

[Kurosawa Fan]

While waiting for our movie to start after dinner, my wife and I went to Barnes and Noble with the intention of just killing time. My intentions were dashed when I purchased:

http://a2.vox.com/6a00e398a0ed8f000300fa9693bd9a 0003-500pi
http://a5.vox.com/6a00cdf7e4ee06094f0100a7eec775 000e-500pi
http://blogs.gelman.gwu.edu/blogs/eckles/files/2008/10/gomorrah.jpg

[megladon8]

KF, that last one has a really pretty cover :)

[Kurosawa Fan]

KF, that last one has a really pretty cover :)

That actually isn't the cover of the book I purchased, but mine isn't any prettier. Here's mine. (http://www.amazon.com/Gomorrah-Personal-Journey-International-Organized/dp/0312427794/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236020145&sr=8-1#reader)

[megladon8]

I picked this (http://www.amazon.com/Loud-Humming-Sound-Came-Above/dp/0977895203/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236736131&sr=8-1) up today, and it totally sounds like something D_Davis would like.

This is what the back cover says...


"A Loud Humming Sound Came From Above" collects twelve of Johnny Strike's genre-bending stories, six of them previously unpublished. Among the settings are a hellish prison workshop, a mercenary methadone clinic, and a hotel where the suicidal find a terrible reason to live; among the characters are the unlucky, the sociopathic, the absurdly delusional, and those who see reality with crippling clarity.

[D_Davis]

Sounds kind a cool, Meg. You'll have to let me know how it is.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Bought this today:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ghu276tsL._SL500_.jpg

Finally back on shelves after being out of print for years. I've wanted to read it for a long time, but all the copies at my local library had been stolen long ago, and they haven't restocked it since the new printing.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Library had it's sale of used books again today. Grabbed these:

The Farewell Party - Milan Kundera
The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster
Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis
Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway
Emma - Jane Austen
The Search for Delicious - Natalie Babbitt
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Jean-Dominique Bauby
Speaking With the Angels - Various (incl. Nick Hornby, Zadie Smith, Irvine Welsh, & Patrick Marber)
The Lost Weekend - Charles Jackson
Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres


Total cost: $7.50

All in very good condition. I love that sale.

[Mara]

The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster
The Search for Delicious - Natalie Babbitt

Sweet. Two favorites.

I was actually sort of named after Natalie Babbit.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Sweet. Two favorites.

I was actually sort of named after Natalie Babbit.

Your old list was the reason I grabbed them. They're for my son, but I'll be reading them too.

[Derek]

Coinstarred all my change from the last 4-5 months and got a nice fat Amazon gift card. Picked up:

Girl With Curious Hair (David Foster Wallace)
Oblivion: Stories (David Foster Wallace)
Me Talk Pretty One Day (David Sedaris)
Gravity's Rainbow (Thomas Pynchon)

My first from Sedaris or Pynchon, though both are authors I've been wanting to get around to for a while.

[megladon8]

Hope you enjoy the Pynchon, Derek.

Benny's raving about him got me interested, so last year I read "The Crying of Lot 49". It was wonderful.

I have "V." on my shelf, for whenever I get back into reading again.

[Kurosawa Fan]

http://jordanhoffman.com/wp-content/uploads/006095557001_sclzzzzzzz_.jpg

Saw it at Barnes and Noble and couldn't resist.

[Benny Profane]

http://jordanhoffman.com/wp-content/uploads/006095557001_sclzzzzzzz_.jpg

Saw it at Barnes and Noble and couldn't resist.

It's real good. You will enjoy.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Picked up Gravity's Rainbow today. I'm confident that I will really dig this book.

[EvilShoe]

I ordered this:
http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/bestselling-comics-2006/25-1.jpg

I was surprised by how cheap it was! 30 euros for over 1300 pages.

[lovejuice]

I ordered this:
http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/bestselling-comics-2006/25-1.jpg

I was surprised by how cheap it was! 30 euros for over 1300 pages.
is that completed? i'm always interested in bone, but still waiting for its completeness.

[EvilShoe]

is that completed? i'm always interested in bone, but still waiting for its completeness.
Yeah, it's the complete b&w thing.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Yeah, it's the complete b&w thing.

I take it I should read that?

[EvilShoe]

I take it I should read that?
Let me put it this way: even if the comic's bad you can still use it as a good murder weapon.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Let me put it this way: even if it's bad you'll at least keep a good murder weapon out of it.

Nice. And the odds that this ever makes it's way to BookMooch?

[EvilShoe]

Nice. And the odds that this ever makes it's way to BookMooch?
Only in bloodstained condition, I'd say.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Only in bloodstained condition, I'd say.

I'd take it.

[EvilShoe]

I'd take it.
Absolutely no moral standards: That's the Belgian in you talking.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Absolutely no moral standards: That's the Belgian in you talking.

I was under the impression that most books I received would be soaked in blood. I know most of my collection is.

[EvilShoe]

I was under the impression that most books I received would be soaked in blood. I know most of my collection is.
All of a sudden I'm not looking forward to those Palahniuk books anymore.

[Kurosawa Fan]

All of a sudden I'm not looking forward to those Palahniuk books anymore.

And here I thought you'd find that a touching gesture.

[D_Davis]

I take it I should read that?

There are two kinds of people in the world:

1. those who love Bone
2. those who don't

I'm in the first camp.

If I ever came across someone in the second camp, I'd bonk 'em on the head with the Complete Bone.

[Grouchy]

There are two kinds of people in the world:

1. those who love Bone
2. those who don't

I'm in the first camp.

If I ever came across someone in the second camp, I'd bonk 'em on the head with the Complete Bone.
That's wisdom for you, right there.

[Hugh_Grant]

Picked up Rabbit, Run and Rabbit Redux--published together, pristine condition--for 50 cents at a garage sale this weekend.

[D_Davis]

http://www.criticalgamers.com/assets_c/2008/06/DMG4ed-thumb-300x300.jpg

http://www.criticalgamers.com/assets_c/2008/06/PHB4ed-thumb-300x300.jpg

http://media.gamespy.com/columns/image/article/819/819068/dungeons-dragons-the-4th-edition-interview-20070910023227735-000.jpg

[Benny Profane]

Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin
New York Trilogy - Paul Auster


Figured I'd bang out a couple quickies before I tackle Against the Day.

[Amnesiac]

Bone is the best. Don't miss out on it.

I still think I prefer the color version but I've come to realize that both are quite beautiful and carry their own advantages/disadvantages.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Bought these two last night after my wife and I went out to dinner:

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctmovies/upload/2009/04/blindside.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/P/B001TODNZ0.jpg

[Qrazy]

Demian and Rosshalde - Hesse

[Kurosawa Fan]

Bought these at a small local bookstore in NC.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/x2/x10782.jpg
http://www.stephandtonyinvestigate.co m/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/1850102.jpg

Place was great. It was a little house owned and run by the littlest old woman I've ever seen. She lives upstairs, and the downstairs is just a giant mess of books on every shelf in every room. Stacks upon stacks. She's been in business for 25 years, largely I think because she's the only game in town, but the place suited me perfectly.

[kuehnepips]

Against the Day.

10.95 Euros

[Llopin]

Herbert Marcuse's One Dimensional Man

0 euros. A friend of mine works at the editorial and gives me free books (mostly philosophical essays).

[Kurosawa Fan]

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/chhut001/uthink/tree-of-smoke.jpg
http://heightslibrary.org/wordpress/ratpack/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/forthethrillofit.jpg

[EvilShoe]

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n4/n23536.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HKID-sWAL.jpg
http://regularrumination.files.wordpr ess.com/2009/05/2666-275x415.jpg
http://img.listal.com/image/productsus/200/1857988477/books/-scanner-darkly-philip-k-dick.jpg
http://img.tesco.com/pi/Books/L/30/9781857988130.jpg
http://www.meetatthegate.net/assets_canongate/dynamic/editionCoverMedium/1847673112.jpg
http://www.dynamiteentertainment.com/images/Boys-Vol1-TPB-Cover.jpg

[trotchky]

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/2536/shamblingtowardshiroshi.jpg

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/4319/criminalvol4badnighttp.jpg

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/2816/amdended.jpg

The first story in McInerney's book is his entire first novel condensed into seven pages, which I find pretty amusing.

[Mara]

I have asked for this for my birthday:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/51Qc5l8g5OL_SS500_.jpg

And I'm buying these two as a present to myself:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/k3017.gif

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/graveyard-book.jpg

[Amnesiac]

http://rjdent.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/trial-fk.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41LJinnlSrL._SS500_.jpg

[MacGuffin]

Well, tell us how that goes, Amnesiac.

[lovejuice]

ahhh...that's happens to be the version I read.

[trotchky]

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/2036/7084.jpg
Not actually a purchase; I got it for free.

[Mara]

Not actually a purchase; I got it for free.

Dude, are you okay? Seriously.

[trotchky]

Dude, are you okay? Seriously.

Yeah, I'm okay. Thanks for asking. I have some problems with drugs, but I'm not lying in a gutter or anything like that. My psychiatrist just gave me this book and told me to read it.

[Morris Schæffer]

Just bought this:

http://www.originalprop.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/the-complete-making-of-indiana-jones-cover-x400.jpg

I've read 63 pages already.

Truly fantastic. The photographs and revelatory content is utterly fascinating.

Did you know that this:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3280/2991261712_3e9c44d370.jpg

Became this:

http://www.monstersandcritics.de/downloads/downloads/articles2/72105/article_images/image4_1207336168.jpg

Or that Danny De Vito was seriously considered for the role of Sallah?

[Kurosawa Fan]

http://blogs.nlb.gov.sg/highbrowseonline/wp-content/uploads/images/Images/rabbit_redux.jpg

Now own the entire series. I'm going to read this soon.

[Barty]

http://a3.vox.com/6a00cdf7e3ccde094f00d4141ad8a3 685e-500pi

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41d5ip6%2BPRL._SL500_AA240_.jp g

[Duncan]

Just bought this:

http://www.originalprop.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/the-complete-making-of-indiana-jones-cover-x400.jpg

I've read 63 pages already.

Truly fantastic. The photographs and revelatory content is utterly fascinating.
This was written by my best friend's brother. He does all the Lucasfilm making of books, which is a stupendously cool gig.

[Morris Schæffer]

This was written by my best friend's brother. He does all the Lucasfilm making of books, which is a stupendously cool gig.

That would be Mr. Rinzler? I also have his Star Wars book, but have yet to read that one. Looks equally stunning.

[Malickfan]

Even though he's been dead for many years, I picked up John O'Brien's (Leaving Las Vegas author) new one Better.

[Duncan]

That would be Mr. Rinzler? I also have his Star Wars book, but have yet to read that one. Looks equally stunning.

Yep.

[Milky Joe]

http://www.randomhouse.com/images/dyn/cover/?source=9780307427731&height=300&maxwidth=170
http://images.portoeditora.pt/getresourcesservlet/image?EBbDj3QnkSUjgBOkfaUbsI8x Bp%2F033q5Xpv56y8baM6B%2Bmvgb3 ZKQmZxH0pMFnoo&width=320

^ Poor quality, but is this not the worst book cover ever? Yeesh.

[D_Davis]

^ Poor quality, but is this not the worst book cover ever? Yeesh.

What the heck kind of version is that?

[Milky Joe]

The cheap kind. The publisher is something called HarperVoyager, italics their own. Strikes me as a british young-adult type thing, which is pretty hilarious if I'm right. The back cover of it makes it seem like hard sci-fi/fantasy: Will the agents of the omniscient Valis succeed in their mission of liberation? Or will the seek-and-destroy tactic of President Ferris F. Freemont extend the mind-numbing grip of the Antagonist across the parameters of the free world? Talk about missing the point...

[Qrazy]

Not recently purchased per se but I just downloaded a torrent which includes 13,000 Science Fiction and Fantasy books. I will probably read three before the end of the year.

[ContinentalOp]

http://images.indiebound.com/179/095/9781400095179.jpg

Bought it at Powell's instead of another Raymond Chandler title. I'm about 130 pages in and I find the biographical stuff related to Chandler's various careers and locales just a tad more interesting than the exploration of his relationship with his much older wife. All in all, it's a very good read so far.

[trotchky]

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/9308/n205542.jpg

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/3962/theslutsbydenniscooper1.jpg

frisk is spectacular--so great, in fact, that i've decided to finish the rest of the george miles cycle before i read the sluts.

[D_Davis]

Finally got a copy of Alfred Bester's mainstream novel, Who He?, aka Rat Race.

Looking forward to checking this out.

http://pulpfaction.net/files/images/gully/rat_race_cover.jpg

[Duncan]

American Pastoral and White Noise.

[Kurosawa Fan]

http://images.teamsugar.com/files/usr/1/13839/wonderboys.jpg
http://www.harpercollins.com/harperimages/isbn/large/2/9780060175962.jpg

Picked these both up used, but in flawless condition, for a dollar each at my library today. Of course the library didn't have anything I was looking to check out, because it's small and useless, but at least I didn't walk out empty-handed. I used to own The Professor and the Madman years ago, but loaned it to a friend before reading it and never saw it again. He now lives in Florida, so I'm pretty sure I'm not getting that one back.

[Mara]

I'm starting the Winchester book on my commute home today. Looking forward to it.

And Wonder Boys is a favorite.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Stopped at Barnes and Noble while out getting soccer stuff for my son. I have no willpower.

http://bookcoverarchive.com/images/books/the_girl_with_the_dragon_tatto o.large.jpg
http://images.filedby.com/bookimg/0316/9780316766944.jpg

[Winston*]

That Wonder Boys cover makes it look like Michael Douglas's autobiography.

[Mysterious Dude]

Yeah, I didn't realize Michael Douglas was the star of the book, too.

[Mara]

I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaated The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, but everyone else I know loved it. So maybe I'm the wrong one.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaated The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, but everyone else I know loved it. So maybe I'm the wrong one.

You're certainly the first I've heard say anything negative about it. Without spoiling anything, what were your criticisms?

[Mara]

You're certainly the first I've heard say anything negative about it. Without spoiling anything, what were your criticisms?

Hmmm. No. I'll criticize it when you're done. It's possible that I'm just not a fan of the genre.

[ledfloyd]

i hope you dig wonder boys kfan. it's a favorite of mine.

[Malickfan]

Nick Cave's second novel The Death of Bunny Monroe.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Nick Cave's second novel The Death of Bunny Monroe.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaalmost bought this tonight, but it was hardcover, and not only would I rather have a paperback, but I'd much rather pay paperback prices.

[Malickfan]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaalmost bought this tonight, but it was hardcover, and not only would I rather have a paperback, but I'd much rather pay paperback prices.

Yeah, I get 30% off.

And man...Cave is just fucking talented.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Got this for Christmas:

http://imbookingit.files.wordpress.co m/2009/10/financial-lives-of-the-poets-2.jpg


Then I got $55 in gift cards to B&N and just ordered these online:

http://www.submarinebooks.com/EscapeDeep.jpg
http://thisrecording.com/storage/4131W5SM8WL.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_ CACHEVERSION=1246880017928
http://blog.mpl.org/mke_reads/game_of_kings.jpg
http://www.uncrate.com/men/images/2009/11/book-of-basketball.jpg
http://bittergrace.files.wordpress.co m/2008/09/princessbride.jpg

[Mara]

The Princess Bride is very different than the book, but I like it. The framing device is really odd, but don't think you can skip the enormous prequel, because it seeds into the rest of the story. Unlike the film, which was quite sincere, the book is heavily ironic.

[Mara]

Oh, and I got Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters for Christmas from my seven-month-old niece, Cora. She's a spitfire.

It doesn't look as good as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but that sure doesn't mean I won't read it.

[Melville]

The Princess Bride is very different than the book, but I like it. The framing device is really odd
I thought the framing device was the best part of the book. It's funny and entertaining in itself, but what makes it so great is the contrast between the romantic novel that the book ostensibly is and the way Goldman's fictionalized self describes how he wants to cheat on his shrewish wife and how his son is so fat that he can roll faster than he can walk. The irony of it so perfectly sets up the rest of the book.

[Kurosawa Fan]

The Princess Bride is very different than the book, but I like it. The framing device is really odd, but don't think you can skip the enormous prequel, because it seeds into the rest of the story. Unlike the film, which was quite sincere, the book is heavily ironic.

There's a second book? And it's a prequel? Interesting. I wasn't aware. There isn't anything before The Princess Bride, is there?

[Mara]

There's a second book? And it's a prequel? Interesting. I wasn't aware. There isn't anything before The Princess Bride, is there?

No, no, I said it all wrong. (I'm tired.) I meant it's very different from the film.

And by "prequel" I meant prologue-- the very long introduction before we get into the Buttercup portion of the story.

[thefourthwall]

When I was in high school, The Princess Bride was one of my favorite movies, so I wanted to read the book but was put off by the fact that I couldn't find the original book by Morgenstern. It was only until I actually read it for a class as a senior that I realized that there wasn't really a Morgenstern.

A month ago I was relating this tale to dreamdead who was going on about the interesting issues of adaptation that Goldman had to deal with in revising Morgenstern's work. He wouldn't believe me until the internet confirmed it, but all my pointing and laughing may not have helped my case...

An interesting read for sure.

[Melville]

A month ago I was relating this tale to dreamdead who was going on about the interesting issues of adaptation that Goldman had to deal with in revising Morgenstern's work. He wouldn't believe me until the internet confirmed it, but all my pointing and laughing may not have helped my case...
:lol:

Awesome. When I first read it as a kid, I too didn't realize that Morgenstern's original book and the whole framing device were made up by Goldman.

[Mara]

I didn't realize it at first when I started reading it (I was maybe 14 or so) but I figured it out within a couple of chapters.

[dreamdead]

Hmm, my great ineptitude that I'd carried with me has been exposed to the masses. :|

It was one of my favorite books I read just before graduating high school. I would be curious how it holds up.

[Mara]

Hmm, my great ineptitude that I'd carried with me has been exposed to the masses. :|

It played as adorable.

[Mara]

I didn't realize it at first when I started reading it (I was maybe 14 or so) but I figured it out within a couple of chapters.

I didn't realize until I was looking at the Wikipedia article yesterday that Goldman's "real" life was also fictionalized. I'm glad, because I felt bad for his wife and son.

[Mara]

So, now I'm feeling the urge to reread the book, which I haven't in a decade or so. Naturally I wandered over to Amazon to read the one-star reviews, because I enjoy doing that with books I like.

Check this one out:


This version of The Princess Bride annoyed me in many ways. For instance, William Goldman deleted whole sections of the original story. As if he knew exactly what the reading public wanted to read. I for one, would much rather read an original classic than to read a butched story and spoon fed only selected portions. The title of this book should read "The Princess Bride as written by S. Morgenstern as destroyed by William Goldman. Shame on you Mr. Goldman for destroying what could have been an enjoyable reading experience with your pointless cuts and intrusive ramblings.

And here:


THIS IS AN EDITED VERSION WHICH I GUESS I WASN'T AWARE OF. I DON'T MIND THAT THIS EDITOR IS TRYING TO SAVE YOU FROM READING PARTS OF THE BOOK HE FOUND BORING BUT I WOULD HAVE LIKED TO HAVE READ THEM. READING THIS BOOK IS JUST LIKE WATCHING THE MOVIE. THIS MAN IS THE SAME MAN THAT WROTE THE SCREEN PLAY FOR THE MOVIE SO ALL THE THINGS HE FOUND INTERESTING ENOUGH TO PUT IN THE MVIE ARE ALSO LEFT IN THE BOOK. EVERYHING ELSE HAS BEEN REMOVED. HE'S ALSO A SPOILER. IF YOU'RE READING THIS BOOK AND DON'T ALREADY KNOW THE STORY YOU WILL NEED TO SKIP ALL THE INTERUPTED EDITOR NOTES THROUGH OUT THE BOOK. HE TELLS YOU A LOT OF WHAT IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN INSTEAD OF YOU READ IT FIRST THEN DESCUSS IT. I OVEER ALL THOUGH THE BOOK WAS GOOD BUT ONLY THE ORGINAL PARTS THAT MORGENSTERN WROTE HIMSELF. MY ADVICE IS TO GET ANOTHER COPY OF JUST THE ORGINAL, NO THIS ONE.

There seem to be a number of common misconceptions:

1. That there really was an "original" version that has been edited.

2. That Goldman was trying to "trick" the readers into believing that there was an original, therefore this book is a scam job. (Don't you think if he was doing that, he would have made his father come from a real country... not Florin?)

3. That the movie came first and the book came second, therefore pissing all over that film's sweet sentimentality with cynical bastardry.

Not surprisingly, most of the people who hated the book loved the film.

[megladon8]

Got this one and am really looking forward to cracking it open...

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/8615/rehlg.jpg

[Spun Lepton]

Got these for Xmas:

http://www.ascmag.com/store/image.php?type=P&id=16163
http://i43.tower.com/images/mm112034445/sound-effects-bible-how-create-record-hollywood-style-ric-viers-paperback-cover-art.jpg
http://www.sonicstrategies.com/Book_cover_Sound_Design_front. jpg
http://www.thomascrowell.com/sub/userimages/1169840106296528871.jpg

[Morris Schæffer]

Bought this one:

http://bibliojunkie.files.wordpress.c om/2009/04/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo.jpg

80 pages in, and the mystery surrounding the dissappearance is sinking its teeth into me.

EDIT: Heh, just saw that Kurosawa fan also purchased it. How did that turn out?

[Mara]

EDIT: Heh, just saw that Kurosawa fan also purchased it. How did that turn out?

I seriously disliked it, and KF had mixed feelings about it. Unusual, though, because pretty much the entire rest of the world loved it. Let us know what you think when you finish.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I seriously disliked it, and KF had mixed feelings about it. Unusual, though, because pretty much the entire rest of the world loved it. Let us know what you think when you finish.

I disliked it nearly as much as you, and it sours with each passing week. Left a very bad taste. I seem to only remember the objectionable parts.

[Morris Schæffer]

I seriously disliked it, and KF had mixed feelings about it. Unusual, though, because pretty much the entire rest of the world loved it. Let us know what you think when you finish.

Will do, but bear in mind I love Dan Brown. That oughta tell ya something. ;)

[D_Davis]

The final four books I will be purchasing for a year:

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/bestselling-sci-fi-fantasy-2006/2890-1.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41dnB5ANyiL.jpg

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0312890184.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

http://www.dondammassa.com/images/r834.jpg

[EvilShoe]

http://twilightzoneveritas.files.word press.com/2009/06/infinite-jest.jpg
http://blogdosadovski.files.wordpress .com/2008/08/shortcomings.jpg

[EvilShoe]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51OxjF8EuRL._SS500_.jpg
(Have read before and loved, but did not own yet.)

The rest:
http://z.about.com/d/bestsellers/1/0/C/6/-/-/friday_night_lights.jpg
(Had completely forgotten there was a book on which the movie/TV show are based. Thanks for reminding me, K_Fan!)

http://www.playbackstl.com/images/stories/paneldiscussion/0707/tricked_soft.jpg

[EvilShoe]

Did some shopping today, came back with some more secondhand books (18 euros in total!)
http://dancinfool.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/n47744.jpg
http://www.chrismasto.com/delicious/images/190
http://www.audioeditions.com/audio-book-images/Brighton-Rock-M7B160L.jpg
http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n28/n140543.jpg
http://schol.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/000654579302lzzzzzzz.jpg
http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n26/n131201.jpg
So so happy I found Neon Bible.

[Our Aurora]

Did some shopping today, came back with some more secondhand books (18 euros in total!)

http://www.audioeditions.com/audio-book-images/Brighton-Rock-M7B160L.jpg


Awesome, this is my favorite Graham Greene. That opening line is worth it alone!

[Morris Schæffer]

I seriously disliked it, and KF had mixed feelings about it. Unusual, though, because pretty much the entire rest of the world loved it. Let us know what you think when you finish.

Well, 300 pages in and I love it (Larsson's first millenium novel). The central mystery is one of the most captivating ever conceived, but I concede that journalist Blomkvist seems to deceipher some clues through luck rather than genuine investigation. His daughter's offhand remark sparking an idea for example. Nonetheless, I'm certainly, at this point, a bit stunned that it could provoke as strong a reaction as hate. The translation is at times a tiny bit clunky, but it's a cracking read so far.

[lovejuice]

http://www.drinkatwork.com/calvinbookm.jpg
yesterday i found this on a street of bangkok and bought it for 500 baths or about 15 dollars.

this transaction feels so good it should be illegal.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Lovejuice, this is the first time you've ever made me angry. That purchase is a steal, and I'm so jealous I'm practically spitting fire right now.

[lovejuice]

Lovejuice, this is the first time you've ever made me angry. That purchase is a steal, and I'm so jealous I'm practically spitting fire right now.
just so you know, they are second-handed. some torn and some loose pages, but totally worth it.

[Kurosawa Fan]

just so you know, they are second-handed. some torn and some loose pages, but totally worth it.

Well, I'm less mad. But for $15, I'm still mad.

[Mara]

For $15, I would have bought ten of them.

Which means I should probably just buy it outright. I also want the Far Side Juggernaut.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Lovejuice, this is the first time you've ever made me angry. That purchase is a steal, and I'm so jealous I'm practically spitting fire right now.

I know! WTF Lovejuice?!

[EvilShoe]

So... bought this with the 25 dollars coupon Amazon gave me for cancelling that Daredevil omnibus thing they messed up:
http://condalmo.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/cloud-atlas.jpg
http://ciccoricco.net/teaching/FinalProject07/Todd_House_of_leaves.jpg

[Winston*]

Cloud Atlas is really good.

[Morris Schæffer]

http://www.variancepublishing.com/images/variance_titles/meg4big.gif

http://www.walker.co.uk/walkerdam/getimage.aspx?id=9781406316988-1&size=webuse

And in October, I will most def buy:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nqSjmlGdL._SS500_.jpg
The first book, based on A New Hope was just a total blast to read with a ton of detail & anecdotes & amazing pictures and and and...

Btw, if anyone can point me in the direction of similarly exhaustingly researched books about specific motion pictures that would be awesome. I've already read Rinzler's Indiana Jones one however.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Time to knock the dust off this old thread. Bought a book for the first time in a long time that had nothing to do with school:

http://a4.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/61/a8027391fc9641fdb0a5fbb20d29a8 64/l.jpg

[Dukefrukem]

Holy shit.

Has anyone ever slept on a hybrid mattress before?

[Skitch]

I have not.

Been spending some of my winnings from my fantasy movie league winnings (facebook group). I really only buy movies November-January anymore. Thats when all the deals make it worth it.

Blu-rays:
Cloud Atlas
Edge of Tomorrow
Elysium
Enders Game
Everly
Punisher: War Zone
Red Lights
Sin City 2
The Drop
Dallas Buyers Club
Godzilla
Kite (2014)
The November Man
The Signal
Transformers 4

Grand total spent: $30. Some of these are blind buys obviously, so they may be headed to another exchange store, but its tough to pass up on $2 blu-rays!

[baby doll]

http://www.cinechronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/The-Deep-Blue-Good-by.jpg

Two dollars in a second-hand shop, a bit beat-up. As soon as I picked it up, the guy standing next to me started raving about it.