Book Hauls!

[ratsy]

I just got a load in from Amazon

Bloodheir - Brian Ruckley
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
All three of Brent Weeks Night Angel Series

Looking forward to all of them

[Fried Egg]

Originally Posted by ratsy

Looking forward to all of them

I'd hate to think you were ordering books you weren't looking forward to...

[GOLLUM]

Picked up....

Inverted World - Christopher Priest *One of Priest's earlier novels (1974) about a City required to be constantly propelled on rail tracks to the ignorance of its citizens. An SF classic. Priest is author of several novels including The Prestige.

White Walls (Collected Stories) - Tatyana Tolstaya *Celebrated writer of the '70s and '80s, a descendant of Leo Tolstoy and said successor to Gogol, Bulgakov and Nabokov. Little known in the West until now. Think twisted fairy-tales, eccentric characters etc...

The Post-Office Girl - Stefan Zweig *One of the forgotten greats of German and World Literature making a comeback thanks to new translations. Story steller comparable to Poe, Maupassant and Chekov.

Season Of Migration To The North - Tayeb Salih (Sudanese) *For those interested in world literature this novel first published in 1966 was recently voted as the greatest Arabic novel of the 20th Century. After recently accquiring an antholgoy on Arabic and North African writing this was a must.

Why Read The Classics? - Italo Calvino *From one of the greats of Italian (magic realism) and world literature, an interesting collection of essays on various literary figures and subjects.

Boating For Beginners - Jeantte Winterson *Rewrite of Genesis turned into a Surreal De Mille Epic by one of Magic Realism's Grand ladys.

[dask]

Thanks for the info. The only one I have is the Priest and the only other I've heard of is Calvino. All the others are unknown, but sound worth checking out.

[nj1]

Originally Posted by ratsy

Bloodheir - Brian Ruckley

That ones on my list to get, what did you think of Winterbirth?

[dask]

FORREST J. ACKERMAN'S WORLD OF SCIENCE FICTION by sf's number one fan. This is the one that almost got away. Not outrageously priced at $16.50 for a second hand book in beautiful condition it's still a little more than I'm used to paying and the more I looked at it the more I wafted between pulling out my checkbook and pushing it back in. Billed as 4E's "take on the pioneers who created this genre and the personalities who keep it thriving" this 9X11 hardback is bulging like a beer belly with magazine and book covers, movie stills and posters. Whoever the previous owner was, he/she obviously had the bent back of love caring for this tome. Even though the spine shows evidence of many viewings, the pages are clean, bright, and flat --- no dork induced thumb creases haunting so many books of this caliber mar the magnificent artwork and photos.

But all this still wasn't enough to convince me and I was all set to slip it back on the shelf when I came across the game changer: a double page spread, on the left the cover to the first issue of AMAZING STORIES (April, 1926) beautifully reproduced to the full measurements of the paper, and on the right what could be its first page (it's stamped page three but some magazines do count the cover as pages one and two). Whatever the situation, it is the editor's page, more importantly the first editorial in the first American sf magazine. The importance of this ought not to be lost on us; it wasn't lost on Hugo Gernsback who wanted it understood that AMAZING STORIES was "a new kind of fiction magazine...entirely new --- entirely different--- something that has never been done before in this country...a magazine of scientifiction..." A very important sf document, at least to one of my fannish constitution. And so --- I decided to go without food for a couple of days.

[thatollie]

I went to the bookstore on tuesday.

The Hand of Oberon - Roger Zelazny
Lord Foul's Bane - Stephen Donaldson
City of Illusions - Ursula LeGuin
The Face - Jack Vance

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by dask

Thanks for the info. The only one I have is the Priest and the only other I've heard of is Calvino. All the others are unknown, but sound worth checking out.

Well all of those authors with the exception of Salih have SFF themes running through their work and all are world class. I would have been suprised if you had heard of any of those others except possibly Winterson as they've been either lost to (in the case of Zweig) or never discovered by the West until now thanks to recent translations.

[Diggler]

I got over the past week or so...

The City, Not Long After by Pat Murphy (Think I mentioned this one before?)
Eternity Road by Jack McDevitt
The Hero Downways by Michael Coney
The Genocides by Thomas Disch
The Postman by David Brinn (currently reading)
The Children of Men by PD James
Barefoot In The Head by Brian Aldiss (I loved Greybeard so had to give more a go)
The Midwich Cukoo's by John Wyndham (I'd heard good things on this site and really enjoyed Triffids and Chrysalids)

Unuckily this will be it till Christmas, got to save money for pressies.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Diggler

Barefoot In The Head by Brian Aldiss (I loved Greybeard so had to give more a go)

Beware! If you got this particular book after being impressed by Greybeard, be prepared for a shock. Not that it's at all a bad book -- quite the contrary; simply that it is one of the most extreme examples of how different a mode a writer may work in. This one takes some patience and willingness to just experience the text, but if you can roll with the punches (even within itself, this text changes modes numerous times), it's a richly rewarding experience....

[Connavar]

The Magdalen Martyrs (Jack Taylor #3) by Ken Bruen
The Dramatist (Jack Taylor #4) by Ken Bruen

[Diggler]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

Beware! If you got this particular book after being impressed by Greybeard, be prepared for a shock. Not that it's at all a bad book -- quite the contrary; simply that it is one of the most extreme examples of how different a mode a writer may work in. This one takes some patience and willingness to just experience the text, but if you can roll with the punches (even within itself, this text changes modes numerous times), it's a richly rewarding experience....

Thanks for warning me. Judging from what people have said about it so far I hope I enjoy it. I have read some of PKD's rather bizzare literature (like VALIS). Though they were confusing and muddled, I enjoyed them for their intelligence. I'd much rather read a good book that is confusing rather than a bad book that makes sense

[j. d. worthington]

Today, on my way home from picking up lunch, I bought a copy of the second volume of The Norton Anthology of American Literature (for all of $1.00!) and, when I got home, found a copy of the latest issue of Weird Tales waiting for me in my mailbox... oddly, I don't even recall subscribing to that one, but....

[HoopyFrood]

...when I got home, found a copy of the latest issue of Weird Tales waiting for me in my mailbox... oddly, I don't even recall subscribing to that one, but....

Ooh, strange. Are you sure you haven't inadvertently stepped into the beginning of a film? Prepare yourself for weird and possibly frightening goings-on around your place.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by HoopyFrood

Ooh, strange. Are you sure you haven't inadvertently stepped into the beginning of a film? Prepare yourself for weird and possibly frightening goings-on around your place.

Nothing so romantic; or, I hope, so unsettling (I've had quite enough stressors for the last 3 months, thank you). However, it has occurred to me that it may be either: 1) I subscribed to the thing a few months ago, when ordering that Moorcock issue, and simply have forgotten; or 2) that it is being offered in lieu of the remainder of my subscription to H. P. Lovecraft's Magazine of Horror, which seems to have ceased publication....

EDIT: Ah, it would seem to be the latter:

H.P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror #5

Pity. The magazine had promise. However, this issue of WT also has an interview with Ligotti, so I shouldn't complain....