A couple of cheap used bookstore purchases:
Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963, Taylor Branch, a paperback in like new condition, $4. Some 900+ pages of stirring, inspiring, infuriating history. It's ground that needs to be visited and revisited until we get it right.
The Ten Thousand Things, Maria Dermout, a NYRB Classic paperback in like new condition, $3. I generally trust NYRB to print things I want to read. The title reference to the Tao-Teh-Ch'ing helps to coax my interest, too.
― A is for (Aimless), Wednesday, 26 June 2019 23:47 (four years ago) link
Got Raphael Bob-Waksberg’s (Bojack Horseman creator) book of short stories, gonna crack it over the July 4th weekend
― old cloud yells at man (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 26 June 2019 23:50 (four years ago) link
Wolfhound Empire is wonderful. I just finished his latest book, Dragon Heart, which sadly was just ooooookay.
― And according to some websites, there were “sexcapades.” (James Morrison), Thursday, 27 June 2019 00:09 (four years ago) link
An early hardcover copy of Colonel Sun, Kingsley Amis's Bond novel, $2
― adam the (abanana), Thursday, 27 June 2019 09:38 (four years ago) link
2nd hand finds:
Wolfgang Hilbig - The Tidings of the TreesHoracio Castellanos Moya - Revulsion: Thomas Bernhard in El SalvadorBorder Districts - Gerald MurnaneYasunari Kawabata - Thousand Cranes Yasunari Kawabata - The Old Capital (both of these Kawabata's are in the classic Tuttle covers)Ovid - Metamorpheses (tr. Arthur Golding)
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 5 July 2019 15:58 (four years ago) link
Fuck me, that's a good haul
― And according to some websites, there were “sexcapades.” (James Morrison), Sunday, 7 July 2019 07:55 (four years ago) link
Love Kawabata. Often unfairly overshadowed by his deranged protegé.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 8 July 2019 10:12 (four years ago) link
Amy Schumer The Girl with The Lower Back Tattoo, was €1 in a charity shop so I thought it might be worth a shot.
The Body Shop book same price same charity shop. 70s or 80s healthy advice stuff thought it might be some good.
― Stevolende, Monday, 8 July 2019 18:24 (four years ago) link
Christopher Hitchens ArguablyCompilation of various short pieces
THe treasured THangkas in Yonghegong Palacea book with reproductions of a load of buddhist i9mages from Tibet. Some of it is quit ebeautiful but it is a bit small since it is an A4 book and i Assume the original images are much much bigger.
A History of Irish Thought Thomas Duddy.book by a NUIG Philosophy lecturer who I was taught by. I think I may have already gtot a copy of this when it first came out but it appeared for €1 in a charity shop.
got a few other bits and pieces over the last few weeks too.
― Stevolende, Monday, 8 July 2019 18:45 (four years ago) link
Not a purchase per se, but for xmas last year I was lucky to receive a Galley Beggar annual subscription. Their first book of the year arrived yesterday: "Ducks, Newburyport" by Lucy Ellmann. It seems to have some long sentences in it. I am thinking in particular of the sentence that runs from page twelve to page nine hundred and ninety eight, the others (found on pages eleven and twelve) seem less unusual in their length.
I am looking forward it and feeling daunted by it in roughly equal measure.
― Tim, Thursday, 11 July 2019 06:41 (four years ago) link
not long enough
― mark s, Thursday, 11 July 2019 09:40 (four years ago) link
…preordered (out in September in USA)
― president of deluded fruitcakes anonymous (silby), Thursday, 11 July 2019 23:32 (four years ago) link
bought murmur by will eaves on yalls recommendation
― flopson, Thursday, 11 July 2019 23:34 (four years ago) link
I used to love Lucy Ellmann and then she suddenly started writing books HALF OF THEM IN HYSTERICAL CAPITAL LETTERS AND DELIBERATELY FUCKING WITH REALISM IN A WAY THAT WAS IRRITATING RATHER THAN CLEVER
― And according to some websites, there were “sexcapades.” (James Morrison), Friday, 12 July 2019 01:01 (four years ago) link
Theatatus, Plato, used Penguins Classics paperback, 99 cents.
― A is for (Aimless), Friday, 12 July 2019 04:04 (four years ago) link
finally bought guns germs and steel and it's mainly irritating in ways i can't quite definealso reading Don Quijote for the first time since a teenager and it's amazing. half the stories i didn't remember and the other half I'm seeing entirely new details in. i love how so many of the stories use reported speech - it's a lot of tell-not-show, but the effect, slightly distancing, makes it effortlessly comic, your mind filling in all the blanks. i know there have been some doomed movie versions but genuinely surprised there haven't been more.
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Friday, 12 July 2019 08:32 (four years ago) link
Yesterday I picked up a used paperback copy of Austerlitz, W.G. Sebald for $1.50. It's unmarked and in good readable shape. When I bailed out of Vertigo earlier this year, many ILBers said Austerlitz was the one to read. Now I can test that theory, some time or other.
― A is for (Aimless), Friday, 26 July 2019 18:21 (four years ago) link
Went to an exhibition in the local art college as part of the Arts Festival found they had a trolley of Free books that they had withdrawn from the library there.So not bought but acquired
Cutting Room Floor Movie Scenes which never made it to the Screen Laurent Bouzereau
The Film Editing Room Handbook third edition Norman Hollyn
Print The Legend Photography and The American West Martha A Sandweiss
The Archaeology of Knowledge The Discourse on language Michel foucault.
haven't really looked at them much yet. Was pretty busy with things today.
― Stevolende, Friday, 26 July 2019 19:30 (four years ago) link
Krakatoa The Day The World Exploded Simon Winchester
The Establishment and How They Get Away With It Owen Jones
The Blessings Of A Good Thick Skirt Women Travellers and Their World Mary Russellthink I may have heard of this, but subject matter looks interesting anyway. Not really looked at it to see exactly what time period it covers assume it's 18th, 19th centuries maybe longer.
Nopt really had a look at any of these so far. But look interesting.
― Stevolende, Thursday, 1 August 2019 16:39 (four years ago) link
Sold a bunch for:
Lewis Carroll - Through the Looking Glass and Alice's Adventures in WonderlandAlexander Pope - SelectedUrsula Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 1 August 2019 20:18 (four years ago) link
I'm going to have to sell a bunch soon. Shelves are getting crowded. But today I went to a charity shop where I bought:
Ferdydurke, Witold Gombrowicz, used paperback like-new, $4. This has been name-checked so often on ILB I figured it had to go home with me so I could check it out.
Notes from Underground, Dostoevsky, (the Pevear/Volokohnsky translation) used paperback, very good, $3. They are Dostoevsky specialists and I like their work. Been playing around for a couple of years with the idea of reading this again.
Collected Poems, Vachel Lindsay, 1941 hardcover edition, no dust jacket, unmarked, in very good condition, $3. I'm not his biggest fan. He was bruited as an 'authentic American primitive' by people like Carl Sandburg, but is he a good poet? Not especially, but I'd like to browse this one a bit to see if it stays or goes.
― A is for (Aimless), Saturday, 24 August 2019 23:34 (four years ago) link
The name Vachel Lindsay appears a dozen times in The Collected Essays of Elizabeth Hardwick, trying to remember which section in particular struck me when I was reading it last year. Think it was something to do with Robert Frost.
― The Fearless Thread Killers (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 25 August 2019 02:54 (four years ago) link
found a lovely paperback of antal szerb's the pendragon legend, with what i believe are called, er, "french flaps". so far it's quite gentle, erudite and funny. terrific translation, you'd never know.
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 25 August 2019 13:56 (four years ago) link
Pere Ubu the Scrapbookblooming nice collectio9n of press reprints lyrics and things.do wish somebody would write a full biography dedicated to them and covering the Cleveland scene. But thi sis a nice thing to have.
― Stevolende, Sunday, 25 August 2019 17:00 (four years ago) link
pleasingly one of pere ubu's songs is based on a vachel lindsey poem (=the voice of the sand)
This is the voice of sandThe sailors understandThere is far more sea than sandThere is far more sea than landYo ho yo ho yo ho (ho)
― mark s, Sunday, 25 August 2019 17:15 (four years ago) link
Now if we could only discover Vachel Lindsay's connection to Kevin Bacon...
― A is for (Aimless), Sunday, 25 August 2019 19:57 (four years ago) link
2nd hand racks:
Italo Svevo - As a Man Grows OlderHaldor Laxness - The Fish can SingAntonio Tabucchi - Tristano DiesMarie Darrieussecq - My Phantom Husband
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 2 September 2019 10:57 (four years ago) link
i am finally reading tristram shandy (tho i bought it years ago)
― mark s, Monday, 2 September 2019 11:19 (four years ago) link
Russell Hoban - Riddley WalkerHerman Melville - Moby Dick
― hot dog go to bathroom (cajunsunday), Monday, 2 September 2019 11:52 (four years ago) link
Sold about 25 books at Powell's Books a couple of days ago, then came home with:
Five Tang Poets, David Young (translator), paperback, $7.95.Less Than Angels, Barbara Pym, mass market paperback, $3.95.At Freddie's, Penelope Fitzgerald, trade paperback, $4.95.Froissart's Chronicles, used Penguin paperback, $1.Fong and the Indians, Paul Theroux, used mass market, $1.
― A is for (Aimless), Monday, 2 September 2019 15:25 (four years ago) link
I went to Hay on Wye and now I am broken,broke and divorced.
― Tim, Sunday, 8 September 2019 20:59 (four years ago) link
Was trying to buy the new Henry Cow by Benjamin Piekut but it seems to be appearing on the 27th. is that a delay on the paperback
― Stevolende, Sunday, 8 September 2019 21:02 (four years ago) link
xp Read that as "Ham on Wye".
― A is for (Aimless), Sunday, 8 September 2019 21:03 (four years ago) link
I think this has to be the be
Sold about 25 books at Powell's Books a couple of days ago, then came home with:/Five Tang Poets/, David Young (translator), paperback, $7.95./Less Than Angels/, Barbara Pym, mass market paperback, $3.95./At Freddie's/, Penelope Fitzgerald, trade paperback, $4.95./Froissart's Chronicles/, used Penguin paperback, $1./Fong and the Indians/, Paul Theroux, used mass market, $1.
― The Fearless Thread Killers (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 8 September 2019 21:59 (four years ago) link
Picked up Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth from someone's stoop who was giving it away.
― o. nate, Monday, 9 September 2019 00:42 (four years ago) link
my recent finds (for the most part) skewing very much mid-twentieth century & english:
josephine tey - the franchise affairelizabeth taylor - complete short storiesjocelyn brooke - the orchid trilogyanthony powell - a dance to the music of timewilliam gerhardie - the polyglots
― no lime tangier, Tuesday, 5 November 2019 08:06 (four years ago) link
Dirk DeWachter: the art of buying unhappyHe’s awesome.
― nathom, Tuesday, 5 November 2019 10:02 (four years ago) link
extremely late 19th century lately
- the portrait of a lady - h james- sentimental education (in French!) - flaubert- house of mirth (1905 ok, ok)
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 5 November 2019 12:52 (four years ago) link
xpost Nice score on the Gerhardie, don't often see his books s/h (in the UK, anyway)
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 5 November 2019 12:54 (four years ago) link
Broken Stars anthologyLucia Berlin - A Manual for Cleaning WomenArthur C. Clarke - The City and the StarsTomas Transtromer - The Great EnigmaI read some wonderful (translated) TT poems in a New Yorker essay, soon after he won the Nobel, and people who over here were saying Who is that man: he seemed like a true Transtromer, and thanks for reminding me to read some more.Mean to finally catch up with The City and the Stars and Broken Stars too. Berlin collection is one of my all-time-space fave raves: the way she places and shines a window between fiction and non-fiction, if there's any fiction in there at all---stuff I assumed she made up about her life turned out to be verified, but then again it's the telling, in any case. Coming from the way she experienced it: like she mentions the time and place out West frequented by her and a ripe bunch of other citizens (and others, maybe) of all ages, who would party all around bands that were like big ol' recombinant jukeboxes, reflecting the mix of the crowd, incl. moods and other tides--she never heard anything like the bands at this particular joint afterwards, until she got to New York and caught the Ornette Coleman Quartet.Vachel Lindsay's poems seem better for performance than on the page, like a lot of Poe--VL was associated with the Chautauqua arts & entertainment circuit, I think--favorably mentioned by Allen Ginsberg, and good 'un by xpost Pere Ubu yeah.
― dow, Tuesday, 5 November 2019 17:55 (four years ago) link
"Better for performance than on the page," but then again you can hear them as you read them.
― dow, Tuesday, 5 November 2019 17:59 (four years ago) link
dow, were those kindle daily deals? i bought all those there.
― wasdnuos (abanana), Tuesday, 5 November 2019 20:30 (four years ago) link
Bought Fitting Pieces to The Jigsaw the book on Dr Strangely Strange cos I found out I could get a further discount on Book depositary stuff a couple of weeks back. Heard about it in either teh Monthly mainstream rock mags or Ugly THings a coupl eo fmonths back.Quite like Kip of the Serenes and probably oughta have Heavy petting.
bought Buddy Guy autobiography and a biography of Sam Phillips on sunday.
Got a copy of the Marquis de sade book a couple of weeks ago in a mass purchase from a local 2nd hand/remainder shop's anniversary sale.alongside a book on the 85 ways to tie a tie by Thoams Fink & Yong MaoCowboys & Indies the book on record companies by Gareth MurphyThe Vatican cellars by Andre GideThe Big Oyster A Molluscular History of New York by Mark Kurlansky
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 5 November 2019 22:10 (four years ago) link
THat is the Grove Press version of Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom and other Writings to be specific
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 5 November 2019 22:20 (four years ago) link
dow, were those kindle daily deals? i bought all those there.No, these are the only kindle books I have (via free app on my laptop, but after using it for work I can't stand to read for pleasure on a screen, turns out):
Shots From The Hip: Notes From the Counterculture by Charles Shaar Murray (got it after reading interviews etc in mark s anthology A Hidden Landscape Once a Week: The Unruly Curiosity of the UK Music Press in the 1960s-80s, In the Words of Those Who Were There).Atomsk by Carmichael (AKA Cordwainer) Smith (early Cold War thriller). Sleep Donation by Karen Smith (contemporary speculative etc fiction; she's one of my favorites).
These are all ebook-only, apparently, so I hope I'll get to where I can stand to read for pleasure on a screen.
― dow, Tuesday, 5 November 2019 23:38 (four years ago) link
Maybe try an actual Kindle. I find the reading experience more pleasant than a laptop or tablet screen.
― o. nate, Wednesday, 6 November 2019 14:53 (four years ago) link
Seems that an actual Kindle, with a smaller screen, might be--different, for better or worse---which version of it do you like?
― dow, Thursday, 7 November 2019 01:47 (four years ago) link
I guess a smaller device would be handier, and maybe more personal, since you could take it around---?
― dow, Thursday, 7 November 2019 01:48 (four years ago) link
Kindle you can slip in a lot of jacket pockets
― Irae Louvin (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 7 November 2019 02:01 (four years ago) link
I've only used an older version of Kindle, but I don't think the screens have changed too much. It's a different experience and I find it less fatiguing to read an e-ink screen than a regular screen. It's that aspect I like more than the size.
― o. nate, Thursday, 7 November 2019 02:36 (four years ago) link