considering signing up for this: http://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/classics/the-nyrb-book-club/
― max, Tuesday, 3 January 2012 22:08 (1 year ago) Permalink
i shoulda got it for my girlfriend for christmas or something
i finished "red shift" a little bit ago and loved it, absolutely fantastic
been dipping in and out of the dwight macdonald collection too, kinda hit and miss but most is very good
just picked up this one: http://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/classics/fatale/ and this one: http://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/classics/stones-of-aran-pilgrimage/
on the "to buy and read" list: letter killers, hav, ice trilogy, three christs
― max, Tuesday, 3 January 2012 22:11 (1 year ago) Permalink
Looking forward to the upcoming Store of the Worlds: The Stories of Robert Sheckley
― WATERMELON MAYNE aka the seed driver (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 3 January 2012 22:12 (1 year ago) Permalink
i am very tempted by that but theres also at least one release each month i have zero interest in... idk might still sign up anyway.
lol ive read everything on your 'to buy and read' list. 'letter killers club' is the sort of thing im tempted to force on ppl at parties w a desperate and wild 'you have to read this' i liked it so much. i have the dwight macdonald collection but i havent started it yet. hit or miss is a good way of describing 'growing up absurd' which i more wanted to like than really enjoyed? i mean mostly i just wanted to mail it to hoos so he could stop reading like hayek and richard florida or w/e but i figure hes probably already read it.
ive also got 'the enchanted april' and 'mr. fortune' laying around unread.
― 0010101 (Lamp), Tuesday, 3 January 2012 22:16 (1 year ago) Permalink
lol we need to intervene with hoos and all his libertarian girlfriends
― max, Tuesday, 3 January 2012 22:17 (1 year ago) Permalink
Red Shift is awesome
Have just got Letter Killers and Hav. Three Christs is very interesting but ultimately too long
Didn't know about the Sheckley--that is great!!!
― Not only dermatologists hate her (James Morrison), Tuesday, 3 January 2012 22:17 (1 year ago) Permalink
i suppose i didnt mention on this thread but c.v. wedgwood's 30 years war is an NYRB book and boy is it good, cracking good i would say
― max, Tuesday, 3 January 2012 22:18 (1 year ago) Permalink
got Red Shift for my sister, kinda wish i'd gotten it for my girlfriend instead so there'd be a copy close at hand
― JoeStork, Tuesday, 3 January 2012 23:50 (1 year ago) Permalink
what is letter killers actually about? i added to my amazon basket a while ago because i liked the title ( + probably because one of the last things i read in nyrb wz 'the post office girl', and there was a subliminal connection there ) and i have no idea
oh my god the red shift you're talking about is the alan garner novel!! that is so weird
― thomp, Wednesday, 4 January 2012 00:32 (1 year ago) Permalink
do they reproduce the secret message inside the covers??
― thomp, Wednesday, 4 January 2012 00:33 (1 year ago) Permalink
what is letter killers actually about?
its one of krzhizhanovsky's strange allegories stretched out uncomfortably long - its about a group of artists who decide to create basically conceptual art projects and then instead of making them describe them to one another at club meetings, leaving no trace in order to preserve their purity and integrity. its sort of 'about' the impossibility of art under the soviets, i think? but theres a bunch of stuff abt the club members and moscow in the 20s and its really really good
― bohumil (harbl) (Lamp), Wednesday, 4 January 2012 00:41 (1 year ago) Permalink
it doesnt really match the heights of mania, clarity and despair that the best few stories from 'memories of the future' reach but its still p incredible and thoughtful and idk perceptive? gah i want to do it justice but im too fanish abt it, i think...
― bohumil (harbl) (Lamp), Wednesday, 4 January 2012 00:47 (1 year ago) Permalink
i have never read or heard of krzhizhanovsky otherwise -- that does sound kind of awesome though -- i suspect soviet era fiction is my favourite thing i know almost nothing about -- oy
― thomp, Wednesday, 4 January 2012 00:48 (1 year ago) Permalink
― thomp, Tuesday, January 3, 2012 7:33 PM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
yes!
― max, Wednesday, 4 January 2012 01:07 (1 year ago) Permalink
it seems so weird that that could be a book that could need specialist republishing, or even go out of print
― thomp, Wednesday, 4 January 2012 01:27 (1 year ago) Permalink
I know--in the UK it's pretty much constantly in print (though as a children's book)
― Not only dermatologists hate her (James Morrison), Wednesday, 4 January 2012 22:24 (1 year ago) Permalink
it might be a little "dark" for US kids? i dunno
― max, Wednesday, 4 January 2012 22:45 (1 year ago) Permalink
that being said i liked it at a lot at 26, probably would have liked it even more at 13
i think it's probably too "dark" for US parents, kids like all kinds of dark stuff
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 4 January 2012 22:47 (1 year ago) Permalink
i haven't read it, just assuming based on context
sorry yeah thats what i meant
― max, Wednesday, 4 January 2012 23:04 (1 year ago) Permalink
also i think it assumes/requires a certain baseline of knowledge about england and the english civil war that american kids wont have
― max, Wednesday, 4 January 2012 23:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
god, warlock is so good
― JoeStork, Sunday, 12 February 2012 03:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
Can someone tell me where I can find these books again?
― Only the RONG Survive (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 12 February 2012 03:45 (1 year ago) Permalink
where do you usually find books?
― President Keyes, Sunday, 12 February 2012 04:03 (1 year ago) Permalink
There's a place called Book Court on Court Street in Cobble Hill that I go to now and again, I wonder if they might have a volume or two.
― Only the RONG Survive (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 12 February 2012 06:02 (1 year ago) Permalink
http://www.nybooks.com/books/wintersale/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Winter+Sale+2012&utm_content=Winter+Sale+2012+Version+B+CID_4e5028b3d486472c305c3d2b5cfb5a71&utm_source=Email+marketing+software&utm_term=Shop+Now
― inspector george gentlyfallingblood (c sharp major), Saturday, 25 February 2012 14:26 (1 year ago) Permalink
I love this series.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 25 February 2012 14:33 (1 year ago) Permalink
spent way too much money on that sale yesterday :-/ also i appear to have signed myself up for the six month subscription
― max, Saturday, 25 February 2012 14:50 (1 year ago) Permalink
Just about all of Victor Serge now in print
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 25 February 2012 15:00 (1 year ago) Permalink
i went to city lights when i visited SF last month and they've got a whole section devoted to these. had trouble restraining myself from buying 10 of them.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Saturday, 25 February 2012 19:55 (1 year ago) Permalink
ive heard theres a bookstore in cobble hill that has a nice selection
― max, Saturday, 25 February 2012 19:57 (1 year ago) Permalink
If only I could remember where that place was.
― Can You Please POLL Out Your Window? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 25 February 2012 20:11 (1 year ago) Permalink
gd i wish i didnt have to pay rent
― 99x (Lamp), Sunday, 26 February 2012 03:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
didn't know there was an nyrb edition, but jean stafford's the mountain lion is an awesome, creepy book and is on sale.
― horseshoe, Sunday, 26 February 2012 20:10 (1 year ago) Permalink
http://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/classics/the-mountain-lion/
― horseshoe, Sunday, 26 February 2012 20:11 (1 year ago) Permalink
seriously why is my cats food like $70
― a life ___________ (Lamp), Sunday, 26 February 2012 20:12 (1 year ago) Permalink
haha i know i am just lalala pretending that sale isn't happening btw
― horseshoe, Sunday, 26 February 2012 20:12 (1 year ago) Permalink
I was gonna say go to libraries or something, but then I realized I always return my books late so that doesn't really help w/ $$$$
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Sunday, 26 February 2012 20:14 (1 year ago) Permalink
books are like one of the few things i think are really worth spending money on but i already spent soo much money this month on like sweaters and plane tickets
― a life ___________ (Lamp), Sunday, 26 February 2012 20:14 (1 year ago) Permalink
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Sunday, February 26, 2012 3:14 PM (25 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
i just paid $40 in late fees for library books. :( i am a deadbeat and only finished half of them, too.
― horseshoe, Sunday, 26 February 2012 20:15 (1 year ago) Permalink
i havent taken anything out of the library since the summer because i have $24.56 in late fees
― a life ___________ (Lamp), Sunday, 26 February 2012 20:16 (1 year ago) Permalink
Was thinking about The Mountain Lion while reading the recently revived Harper's thread. Back in the 80s, when Michael Kinsley was editing it (and well!), James Wolcott wrote about Stafford, who I (and all the people I mentioned the article to) had forgotten mostly forgotten about. To us, she was mostly the wife whose nose was broken twice by hubby Robert Lowell, as graphically described in Ian Hamilton's Lowell bio.Stafford also got some material, for both fiction and poetry, I think out of those experiences; don't know Lowell's confessional verses go that far, but he also became literally a textbook example of bipolarity)Nevertheless, Wolcott got us into The Mountain Lion, Boston Adventure (novel), and I still need to read the non-fiction A Mother In History, Stafford's encounters with Lee Harvey's mom. Way later, an interviewer mentioned this column, and Wocott said people were still thanking him for it. As well they might. the main character of The Mountain Lion seems like somebody you might never want to bother having compassion for, but she compells it, a sympathetic sub-villain (maybe like Lowell to her? Although she did get the hell out--the mother in Boston Adventure is somewhat similar)
― dow, Sunday, 26 February 2012 20:33 (1 year ago) Permalink
sorry about stupid typos
― dow, Sunday, 26 February 2012 20:34 (1 year ago) Permalink
i've never read Boston Adventure! i should check it out. i think of Molly as a character that defies any attempt at readerly sentimental identification, but i don't know if she's a villain, exactly. she's terrifying.
― horseshoe, Sunday, 26 February 2012 20:43 (1 year ago) Permalink
She does defy it, and she's scary, but o shit, where Stafford takes her and the reader, the ending o shit
― dow, Sunday, 26 February 2012 21:00 (1 year ago) Permalink
paging scott seward btw; have you read jean stafford? i think you would enjoy jean stafford.
― horseshoe, Sunday, 26 February 2012 21:01 (1 year ago) Permalink
I saw The Mountain Lion at my local bookstore last year and didn't buy it -- a mistake. Should I start with that one or BA?
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 26 February 2012 21:04 (1 year ago) Permalink
Hard to say--The Mountain Lion is shorter, not as dense, which might be good or bad; you can't forage for so many consolation prizes if you get tired of the main line of development. Boston Adventure starts like its title suggests, oh a plucky underdog's gonna make it after all. Might have some tense moments, but some wry me resolutions, not so unusual then. Probably got into some school libraries that way. But it keeps tunneling into, for instance, scenes with a mental mother, very convincing, beyond standard coming of age etc novels then; It's not only about such relationships, doesn't settle even for them, though could have, re merited reviewer-bait.
― dow, Sunday, 26 February 2012 21:27 (1 year ago) Permalink