Book Hauls!

[pyan]

Finally spent the last of my Christmas Book Tokens on Night Watch, Day Watch and Twilight Watch, by Sergei Lukyanenko, plus Book IX of the The History of Middle-earth, Sauron Defeated (Tolkien, ed.Tolkien)

[nomadman]

The Palace of Dreams by Ismail Kadare
The Russian Doll and Other Stories by Adolfo Bioy Casares
The House of Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories by Yasunari Kawabata
The Barnum Museum by Steven Millhauser
Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar
All Fires the Fire by Julio Cortazar
Memories of the Future by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky
Pan by Knut Hamsun
The Damned Yard and Other Stories by Ivo Andric
Short Stories by Jack London
Interzone by William S Burroughs
Yage Letters by William S Burroughs
Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead by William S Burroughs
The Lost District by Joel Lane

[dask]

Sun was out today so I decided to walk downtown and visit one of the used bookstores I haven't been to for a while. Stopped for a "walking break" at the library and while there found the above on the freebie shelf. The BEETHOVEN is called by the New York Daily News a "thriller for thinkers." I'll give it a try anyway. The LORD JIM, while not an especially old edition --- 1975 --- does sport a Richard Powers cover. Also found two 3-in-1 Book Club Editions of Michael McDowell's "Blackwater" series.

Volume One: THE FLOOD; THE LEVEE; THE HOUSE
Volume Two: THE WAR; THE FORTUNE; RAIN

All free. So rather than continue on my way to the bookstore, I turned around and went back home. Nice day for a walk.

[Connavar]

History of the Thirteen by Honorè de Balzac

I was real surprised to see this book in a second hand store and i was glad to get it so i can finally read Balzac.

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Originally Posted by nomadman

The Palace of Dreams by Ismail Kadare
The Russian Doll and Other Stories by Adolfo Bioy Casares
The House of Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories by Yasunari Kawabata
The Barnum Museum by Steven Millhauser
Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar
All Fires the Fire by Julio Cortazar
Memories of the Future by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky
Pan by Knut Hamsun
The Damned Yard and Other Stories by Ivo Andric
Short Stories by Jack London
Interzone by William S Burroughs
Yage Letters by William S Burroughs
Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead by William S Burroughs
The Lost District by Joel Lane

Great haul! I look forward to reading your views on several of these books in the current reads threads. I read a lot of Burroughs at one time, although it's been a while since I've re-read anything except My Education: A Book Of Dreams.

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by nomadman

The Palace of Dreams by Ismail Kadare
The House of Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories by Yasunari Kawabata
Pan by Knut Hamsun

Nice haul that. We appear to have similar tastes when in comes to our indivudal pursuits of World Literature....

I've got the Cortazars and already read my NYRB edn. of Krzhizhanovsky's heavily satirical stories. I think you'll enjoy that collection by Borges' protege Casares! He's excellent, which reminds me I should have listed him in the Fantasy Outside Genre thread.

Of those I have quoted, I'll be interested to see what you think of Pan. Having read Hamsun's Hunger last year I was quite impressed by this author, whilst Palace Of Dreams is something I've got on order.

The House Of Sleeping Beauties is a particular favourite of mine in the Kawabata canon. I have a fairly extensive collection of his Palm Of The Hand (distilled plots) stories. Is this your first Kawabata collection? I hope your collection includes Gleanings From A Snow Country, which in itself makes for an instructive comparative study with the novel Snow Country.

I hope you can elaborate on Ivo Andric and perchance post some thoughts once you've read that collection. I only know he's a Nobel laureate.

[Diggler]

The wife went back to the dentist (dry socket is not fun), so hit up the second hand bookstore (which usually has nothing), and the op-shop. I picked up:

2 x Three More Novels of the Future which include 3 novels per book by HG Wells. Both have Introductions by Isaac Asimov.
The Sixth Winter by Douglas Orgill and John Gribbin
Indecent Exposure by Tom Sharpe
Bloom by Wil McCarthy
Chimera by John Barth
Fantastic Voyage by Isaac Asimov
The World is Round by Tony Rothman

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

First new haul in a while.

The Collegians by Gerald Griffin (A classic crime novel set in Ireland, first published in 1829).
Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers. I like Sayer's witty, clever detective novels a lot, and I believe there is some reference to Le Fanu in this one.

[GOLLUM]

You certainly seem to be keen on Sayers.

I've never read a single work of hers.

Is there something you could recommend?

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Well, The Unpleasantness At The Bellona Club seems like a good place to start. Imagine a cross of Agatha Christie and P.G. Wodehouse and you've got a rough idea of what to expect. Sayers also wrote several books on theology, essays on women's rights and did several translations including a well-regarded translation of The Divine Comedy.

[GOLLUM]

Thanks!

Given my interest in Woodehouse and Christie this could be just the ticket....

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Oh yes, definitely.

Sayers was also a sort of peripheral member of the Inklings circle, although Lewis claimed to hate detective novels and apparently Tolkien did not care for her later novels.

[GOLLUM]

Interesting, I never knew that.

I wanted to add that I've heard of Griffin's novel in name only but it appears from what I've googled that it is something of a neglected classic. Who published your copy?

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Atlantic Books, who have a small but very good selection of Crime Classics.

[GOLLUM]

AH I thought it may be a small press publisher given it's underrated status.

I just had a look at their site. That series is tiny but they have some very good titles including the classic Raffles, Bleak House: one of Dicken's finest novels, Lady Audley's Secret and of course Man Who Was Thursday, which is a masterpiece. Not as great a fan of Bulldog Drummond.

...and blow me down. They have a copy of Le Clezio's Desert! I'd given up trying to even find a copy of that. Thanks, you've just made my evening....