Recently Purchased.

[megladon8]

Ah, that sucks. If I come across one when I am there, I'll pick it up for ya.

Oh, wow, thanks man

I'll give you $13.00 for shipping!

[Sycophant]

Just ordered:
Piercing (Ryu Murakami)
Slaughterhouse Five (Vonnegut)
The Stranger (Camus)
To Marry Medusa (Sturgeon)

[Llopin]

For 3 € each.

[transmogrifier]

Slaughterhouse Five (Vonnegut)

I want to suffer a severe knock to the head just so I can get amnesia and re-read this book.

[SpaceOddity]

I got The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake

[Kurosawa Fan]

Found this at my library in the used book section for $2:

[D_Davis]

I want to suffer a severe knock to the head just so I can get amnesia and re-read this book.

I totally understand this wish. I would love to be a virgin to The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, To Marry Medusa, and a few others again.

[D_Davis]

This edition is gorgeous. It's printed on heavy paper, it has a nice binding, and it just feels classy. I am reading this next, after I finish Time is the Simplest Thing.

[Morris Schæffer]

[Duncan]

That's written by my best friend's brother. Not that that really matters.

[Morris Schæffer]

That's written by my best friend's brother. Not that that really matters.

It doesn't. I won't rep you. Anyway, I've read great things about this, leading me to believe it truly is definitive.

[Skitch]

....must...buy....

[Qrazy]

Pascal - The Provincial Letters
The Shorter Novels of Herman Melville
Beckett - Eh Joe

[D_Davis]

This is going to rock. From Amazon:

In this smoothly written memoir, 98-pound weakling Polly makes the age-old decision to turn his nerdy self into a fighting machine. Polly's quest for manhood leads this guy from Topeka, Kans., to the Shaolin Temple, ancient home of the fighting monks and setting for 10,000 chop-socky movies. As much a student of Chinese culture as he is a martial artist, Polly derives a great deal of humor from the misunderstandings that follow a six-foot-three laowai (white foreigner) in a China taking its first awkward steps into capitalism after Tiananmen Square. Polly has a good eye for characters and introduces the reader to a Finnish messiah, a practitioner of "iron crotch" kung fu, and his nagging girlfriend. We get the inside dope on Chinese dating, Chinese drinking games and a medical system apparently modeled on the Spanish Inquisition. The last hundred pages of the book lose focus, and Polly doesn't convincingly demonstrate how he transforms himself from a stumbling geek to a kickboxing stud who can stand toe-to-toe with the highest-ranked fighter in the world. Although Polly may fall short in sharing Shaolin's secrets, as a chronicler of human absurdity he makes all the right moves.

I've heard it is really good.

[Saya]

My local bookstore had a sale today so I picked up a couple of books.

A Game of Thrones (George RR Martin)
A Clash of Kings (George RR Martin)
Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov)
Crime & Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Caroll)
1984 (George Orwell)

[D_Davis]

Behold the Man - Michael Moorcock
The Iron Dragon's Daughter - Michael Swanwick
Dr. Bloodmoney - Philip K. Dick

[megladon8]

I got these free after being overcharged by the Science Fiction Book Club a few months ago...

[transmogrifier]

[Melville]

I've been on a Buddhism binge.

[D_Davis]

I got the following at Powell's yesterday:

1. Solaris - Lem
2. A Choice of Gods - Simak
3. Where the Evil Dwells - Simak
4. Thorns - Silverberg
5. The Drowned World - Ballard
6. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea - Sturgeon
7. Venus Plus X - Sturgeon
8. The Enemy Stars - Poul Anderson
9. Act of God - Richard Ashby
10. Non-Stop - Brian Aldiss
11. Book of Skulls/Nightwings/Dying Inside - Silverberg
12. A Rendezvous in Averoign - Clark Ashton Smith
13. Cemetery World - Simak
14. Inside Outside - Farmer
15. The Crack in Space - Dick
16. The Cosmic Puppets - Dick
17. Dark Harvest - Partridge
18. Tales of Pirx the Pilot - Lem
19. Cities in Flight - Blish
20. The Last Dragon - McDermott
21. The Fifth Head of Cerberus - Wolfe


All in all, it was a good day of shopping. Powell's is so awesome; it is so overwhelmingly huge.

I saw a first edition Hobbit for $9,500 - it was awesome.

[megladon8]

Oh, nice, "The Crack in Space"!

I really hope you enjoy that one as much as I did. Granted I'm not nearly as versed in PKD's works as you are, but I thought it was quite brilliant.

[lovejuice]

I've been on a Buddhism binge.

speaking as a buddhist, the thing i most hate about my religion is its lack of any definite text. unlike the bible, we are not encouraged to read tripitaka. they take it that average person is too stupid to understand the text, so it's our monks' duty to read and translate it to us. i don't know...there's a lot of anti-intellectual going on here. (perhaps not unlike christianity.)

[Melville]

unlike the bible, we are not encouraged to read tripitaka. they take it that average person is too stupid to understand the text, so it's our monks' duty to read and translate it to us. i don't know...there's a lot of anti-intellectual going on here. (perhaps not unlike christianity.)

That's somewhat surprising, considering the densely philosophical material and intellectual tone of many Buddhist scriptures; I would have thought that the religious leaders would try to encourage individuals to engage with the ancient texts, especially in Theravada Buddhism. However, Buddhist texts do refer to "the foolish common people" quite often, so maybe their intellectual tone is only meant for non-foolish, non-common people. (Also, Theravada Buddhism seems to emphasize the idea that one must slowly work toward enlightenment over many life times, and that the foolish common people need to accumulate larger heaps of merit before they become ready for the monk's enlightened life, which might serve as an excuse for the elitism that you describe.)

[lovejuice]

Theravada Buddhism seems to emphasize the idea that one must slowly work toward enlightenment over many life times, and that the foolish common people need to accumulate larger heaps of merit before they become ready for the monk's enlightened life, which might serve as an excuse for the elitism that you describe.

"work" is a keyword here. theravada has a lot in common with marxism in that both are philosophies of praxis. you are supposed to act buddhism not just study it.

[Melville]

"work" is a keyword here. theravada has a lot in common with marxism in that both are philosophies of praxis. you are supposed to act buddhism not just study it.

Are you saying that's a part of the anti-intellectualism that you dislike?