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
Yes. As well as less possibility of distraction from Intranetz/ILX/email checking etc. Also I have a lot of stuff on there after all these years so the ability to search everything on the device is useful.
― Irae Louvin (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 7 November 2019 02:57 (four years ago) link
Highly recommend the old, smaller kindle oasis if you can find a cheap one on eBay or wherever. It’s very light, has a great screen and BUTTONS, plus it displays bootlegged epubs quite nicely. I use it to read bootlegs of the paper books I’m reading in bed, so I can read in the dark after my partner’s gone to sleep.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 7 November 2019 03:40 (four years ago) link
today:
eric thacker/anthony earnshaw - musrum/wintersolalan burns - europe after the rain (old school calder pb edition for $3!)
re gerhardi(e) availability: i guess there must have been a vogue for his work in nz at some point since i've found his stuff in all three of the secondhand places i tend to patronise... granted it's always the same few works in each case (though one currently does have his history of the romanovs & the pop psych book he co-authored in the thirties)
― no lime tangier, Friday, 8 November 2019 04:16 (four years ago) link
Anyone read dopesick? Tempted.
― nathom, Friday, 8 November 2019 08:45 (four years ago) link
Yesterday I bought a copy of ULYSSES: THE CORRECTED TEXT which is no longer easy to obtain ... for £1.90!
Best book bargain I've found in years.
― the pinefox, Friday, 8 November 2019 09:44 (four years ago) link
futurist manifestoscendrars - selected writingsjarry - the supermale/selected works
― no lime tangier, Sunday, 8 December 2019 06:50 (four years ago) link
Agatha Christie: THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD.
― the pinefox, Monday, 9 December 2019 12:39 (four years ago) link
I haven't posted on this thread for months. These are some of my newcomers, all purchased used:
A Book of Common Prayer, Joan Didion, hardcover Book Club edition, $1.Amnesia Moon, Jonathan Lethem, trade paperback, $1.The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann, translator: Woods, hardcover ex libris in Everyman's edition, $1.A Coffin for Demetrios, Eric Ambler, trade paperback, $2.
― A is for (Aimless), Tuesday, 10 December 2019 03:21 (four years ago) link
I've read the first two!
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 10 December 2019 09:34 (four years ago) link
Amnesia Moon is my favorite Lethem novel, not counting the Omega the Unknown comic.
last few monthsAgatha Christie - An AutobiographyPlato - Five DialoguesThe Song of Roland
ebooksArthur C. Clarke - The Collected Stories ofFriedrich - City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s
― wasdnuos (abanana), Tuesday, 10 December 2019 10:44 (four years ago) link
Last few months:
Anna Kavan - Sleep has his HousePierre Michon - Small LivesThe Ruba'iyta of Omar KhayyamElena Ferrante - Troubling LoveThomas Bernhard - On the Mountain
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 18 December 2019 17:01 (four years ago) link
Trauma and MemoryThe body keeps the scoreWqnt to process 2019 aka shit year
― nathom, Wednesday, 18 December 2019 17:07 (four years ago) link
Is there a 'best' english translation of the Rubaiyat? I've heard the FitzGerald version is very loose.
― wasdnuos (abanana), Wednesday, 18 December 2019 17:30 (four years ago) link
Tristan Gooley wild signs and star paths.Though would probably have got another copy of the Walkers guide by him cos I think it would have been more immediate to the reader it was meant for. Might keep this and give her something else now that I started it. Will see if FOPP have any of his.
Finton O'toole heroic failure.Irish political writers book on Brexit and the mentality behind it. Thought I'd see if he could make any more sense of it.This was from last year so far from up to date. He's started off talking about bits being extremely arrogant when people were originally trying to set up the common market in ghe early 60s. Being totally dismissive of the project etc.Well might make some sense as background.
― Stevolende, Wednesday, 18 December 2019 23:31 (four years ago) link
machines in the head: selected short writing of anna kavanmedea's charms: selected shorter writing of ithell colquhoun
― no lime tangier, Thursday, 19 December 2019 01:21 (four years ago) link
The FitzGerald is very loose, but having read Borges wonderful essay on it, I'm OK with it being the version I have.https://www.gwern.net/docs/borges/1951-borges-theenigmaofedwardfitzgerald.pdf
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Thursday, 19 December 2019 04:01 (four years ago) link
After publically stating on ILB my New Year resolution to read more books than I buy in 2020, today I bought copies of:
Maigret in Montmartre, Georges Simenon, used mass market paperback, $1.The Bachelors, Muriel Spark, used trade paperback, $2.An Unsuitable Attachment, Barbara Pym, used mass market paperback, $1.
Books I have finished so far in 2020: zero.
― A is for (Aimless), Friday, 3 January 2020 04:52 (four years ago) link
Not a good or worthy resolution tbh.
― Swilling Ambergris, Esq. (silby), Friday, 3 January 2020 04:53 (four years ago) link
Just buy the books that’s half the fun
― Swilling Ambergris, Esq. (silby), Friday, 3 January 2020 04:54 (four years ago) link
The Beautiful Ones the Prince cowrite. It was 1/2 price in Waterstones.
Several other things that will come back to me later.
― Stevolende, Friday, 3 January 2020 05:10 (four years ago) link
Kindle deals in the UK is currently a list a thousand books long what with Christmas. in the last week I've picked up
the owl servicethe penelopiadAmerican gods (some 4 story compilation thing)
and rescued "the haunting of hill house" from my teenage bedroom
― koogs, Friday, 3 January 2020 05:38 (four years ago) link
john cowper powys - maiden castlejocelyn brooke - the image of a drawn swordkenneth patchen - the journal of albion moonlightrainer maria rilke - the notebooks of malte laurids brigge
― no lime tangier, Friday, 3 January 2020 12:10 (four years ago) link
a thing that will bring at least two of those books together (the Brooke and the JCP - I haven’t read the Patchen ) is John Ireland’s Mai Dun Symphonic Rhapsody.
― Fizzles, Saturday, 4 January 2020 12:19 (four years ago) link
Salvador Dali the Making of an Artist by Catherine Grenier. looks like a comprehensive book on the artist. Had it put away a few months ago.
Now got a Keith Morris memoir put aside and will collect it next week.
― Stevolende, Saturday, 4 January 2020 14:05 (four years ago) link
Been gifted by various ppl:
Edward Gibbon - Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (the Abridged version)Natalia Ginzburg - Happiness, as SuchSadeq Hedayat - The Blind OwlVictor Serge - Memoirs of a RevolutionarySappho - if not, Winter (tr. Anne Carson)Joy Williams - Escapes
2nd hand find (some of these go months back)
Franz Kafka - Letter to FatherLinda Bostrom Knausgaard - The Helios DisasterVladimir Nabokov - Nikolai GogolColette - Cheri
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 5 January 2020 19:10 (four years ago) link
My last few. All second-hand except the Borges, which was a vacation souvenir. I'm going to learn to read Spanish I've decided.
Jorge Luis Borges - Inquisiciones/Otras inquisicionesJean-Jacques Rousseau – Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaireSaint Augustin (tr. Arnauld d’Andilly) – ConfessionsStephen Hawking - A Brief History of TimeCarl Sagan and Ann Druyan – CometsWilliam Carter – Marcel Proust: A Life
― jmm, Sunday, 5 January 2020 20:26 (four years ago) link
re: ireland connections, interesting thanks. coincidentally it was mention in electric eden of his great literary inspiration machen that pointed me in his direction a number of years ago (though have not pursued his work to any great length thus far)
― no lime tangier, Monday, 6 January 2020 07:21 (four years ago) link
from a thing I wrote a long while ago:
The composer John Ireland loved Machen’s works. His Legend for Piano and Orchestra, with its beckoning, pastoral motif and discordant, sinister piano was dedicated to Machen and inspired by the vision on the Sussex Downs of children in white silently dancing near the site of an old leper colony, who vanished when he glanced momentarily away.
"Oh, so you’ve seen them too?"
was the slightly terse reply from Machen when Ireland wrote to him of the event.
Wandered into Oxfam books during my lunch break yesterday, had a look at an MP Shiel, but I can get that out of the library, did end up getting:
Gross's Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour textbook, which was standard for my A-level courseFourth edition of the Norton Anthology of Poetry - canon setting classroom standard anthology, usefully diverse.Poesia Inglesa - vol 1 of the 'Obras de Fernando Pessoa', with facing page translations into the Portuguese.
― Fizzles, Saturday, 11 January 2020 08:33 (four years ago) link
Vernon Joynson A Potpourri of Of Melodies And Mayhemthe Latin America and canada volume of his extended work on psychedelia and prog etc. It grew out of being part of his Dreams, Fantasies and Nightmares from Far Away Lands which also covered the antipodes and Asia. IT's in 2 sections one being all of South America grouped together instead of by individual countries and missing things like Gato Barbieri which I thought he might have included. That section is shorter than the Canadian one which I also found a bit surprising. But I guess there was less money or record company set up down there .Anyway interesting find and i got it at a cut price.Does look like the book has been read and seems a little floppier than i would have expected from such a heavy book. Glad I got it though, somehow missed hearing about it despite getting the previous book by him which was the other one split off from “Dreams, Fantasies and Nightmares from Far Away Lands " and came out several months before this one.
I'd really like to know if his Short Sharp Shock to the System book on punk/postpunk etc etc was worth getting since I think it's a limited edition and every copy of it I've seen physically has been sealed in cellophane so i couldn't really look at it. Hope taht the standard of recent editions is what he is trying to keep up to, I heard the old punk book by him "Up Yours" wasn't as good as it could have been and regurgitated info from cd sleeves and stuff. Did used to find that his books from the early 00ies seemed to be a couple of years out of date by the time they were printed. In terms of what was and wasn't available on cd etc at least. But info technology is a lot better than it was then.Anybody got it?
― Stevolende, Saturday, 11 January 2020 11:26 (four years ago) link
Yesterday I bought a used hardcover copy of Thomas Mann's tetralogy, Joseph and His Brothers for $2. It's one Alfred has enthused about more than once on ILB, so naturally I had to nab it at that price. However, I see I am beginning to pile up a backlog of 1000+ page works waiting to be read (JaHB is 1200 pp, give or take). I need to think about tackling some of them.
― A is for (Aimless), Saturday, 11 January 2020 17:58 (four years ago) link
Poesia Inglesa - vol 1 of the 'Obras de Fernando Pessoa', with facing page translations into the Portuguese.
You know, whenever I read Pessoa's english language stuff it reads like embarrassing attempts by someone who's not too good with the language, but as Pessoa was clearly more clever than I am I'm sure I'm wrong. Would love to hear what a native speaker has to say on the matter!
IT's in 2 sections one being all of South America grouped together instead of by individual countries and missing things like Gato Barbieri which I thought he might have included. That section is shorter than the Canadian one which I also found a bit surprising. But I guess there was less money or record company set up down there .
With all due respect to the Canadian psych scene, I find it hard to believe South America as a whole has less to offer. I have two books on Brazilian psych alone!
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 13 January 2020 10:28 (four years ago) link
My wife got me the NYRB 2020 Book Club subscription for a present, so I guess I won't need to buy many books this year.
― o. nate, Monday, 13 January 2020 20:45 (four years ago) link
sold a bunch at skoob for:
Marcel Proust - Sodom & Gomorrah (I was re-reading this volume on a flight a few years ago and left it there so pleased to have the full set again)Pierre Michon - Masters and ServantsGerald Manley Hopkins - Poems and ProseHart Crane - Complete PoemsColette - The Last of Cheri
Picked up:
Antonio Tabucchi - The Woman of Porto PimP.G. Wodehhouse - The Code of the WoostersWilliam Shakeapeare - The Sonnets
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 19 January 2020 13:17 (four years ago) link
Pure reason Girls will be girls - O’TooleOn aggression LorenzDe Montaigne’s Essays
― nathom, Sunday, 19 January 2020 23:58 (four years ago) link
Found Stephen Morris' memoir Record play pause in a charity shop for 1eur today which was nioce.Do love JOy Division so have read all the other memoirs so far i think.
A book on Greek mythology from the same charity shop
The Enduring Vision A History of the American peoples from another charity shop.
A book on Ubuntu cos I still haven't really got the grip of this installation of teh OS. Hope it gets me there
― Stevolende, Wednesday, 22 January 2020 22:36 (four years ago) link
Went to a Deanery bookshop, which always has amazing stock and is ridiculously good value. They always seem to have a slew of Virago books so got two Elizabeth Taylor's I've not read (Palfrey and Lippincote's) and a Molly Keane (The Rising Tide).
― Ngolo Cantwell (Chinaski), Sunday, 26 January 2020 19:55 (four years ago) link