Book Hauls!

[D_Davis]

I just got my copy of Haunted Legends, ed. Datlow.

The quality is just terrible, especially for a $30 HB. The paper is just a tad better than news print, and the ink totally smudges with a gentle rub.

Had I known it was so cheaply made, I would not have purchased it.

[J-Sun]

D_Davis: who published it?

[D_Davis]

Originally Posted by J-Sun

D_Davis: who published it?

Tor

It was this year's Bram Stoker winner for best anthology, and contains Lansdale's story "The Folding Man" which won the award for best short.

[J-Sun]

Originally Posted by D_Davis

Tor

Huh. That sucks. I understand them to be a reputable publisher and I don't recall any specific problems with them in the past (though I don't know that I have a hardcover from them). Thanks for the warning.

The only book I recall being upset with recently was a Cosmos book (which is an imprint I'd never heard of before) that had incomplete text and an incomplete ToC and was just generally incompetently typeset, though it was a physically fine paperback (of Asher's The Engineer Reconditioned - which I'd definitely recommend in any other edition).

[D_Davis]

Yeah - it's a $30 HB with the paper of a really poor-quality mass market. Really bizarre, because, like you said, Tor is usually really good.

[Mouse]

Just been paid for a short story, so I spent the money on um... books. As if I don't already have a gazillion on my to-read pile.

So I got:
The Back Passage by James Lear
De Profundis, Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Writings by Oscar Wilde
and The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference book.

Oh and I pre-ordered A Dance with Dragons by that Martin fella.

[Rodders]

A nice haul for me today including a couple of new authors for me.

I got the final Lost Fleet nevel "Victorious" by Jack Campbell. I'mm looking forward to this and will read it first.

I also got Neal Asher's "The Gabble" and "Prador Moon".

After reading so much on how good Neil Gaimen is i've been meaning to read him for a long time. I got "American Gods".

Lastly i got Veteran by Gavin Smith. I read a review of this in SFX magizine some time ago and quite liked the sound of it.

[GOLLUM]

Got....

Timescape - Gregory Benford *Latest SF Masterwork Blurb: 1962: A young Californian scientist finds his experiments spoiled by mysterious interference. Gradually his suspicions lead him to a shattering truth: scientists from the end of the century are using subatomic particles to send a message into the past, in the hope that history can be changed and a world-threatening catastrophe averted.

The Conservationist - Nadine Gordimer *1991 South African winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Blurb: Mehring is rich. He has all the privileges and possessions that South Africa has to offer, but his possessions refuse to remain objects. His wife, son and mistress leave him; his foreman and workers become increasingly indifferent to his stewardship; even the land rises up, as drought, then flood, destroy his farm. As the upheaval in Mehring's world increasingly resembles that in the country as a whole, it becomes clear that only a seismic shift in ideas and concrete action can avert annihilation.

Complete Short Stories of Evelyn Waugh *Waugh was one of the masters of English prose, so I'm very happy to have obtained this discounted copy. Blurb: In this unique collection of short stories composed between 1910-62, Evelyn Waugh's early juvenilia are brought together with later pieces, some of which became the inspirations for his novels. 'Mr Loveday's Little Outing' is a blackly comic tale of a mental asylum and its favourite resident; 'Cruise' sees a hilarious series of letters from a naïve young woman as she travels with her family; 'A House of Gentlefolks' observes a group of elderly eccentric aristocrats and their young heir; and in 'The Sympathetic Passenger' a radio-loathing retiree picks up exactly the wrong hitchhiker. These witty and immaculately crafted stories display the finest writing of a master of satire and comic twists.

[LittleMissy]

My most recent purchases are: -

Trudi Canavan's The Ambassador's Mission - I've been waiting for this one to come out in paperback (since that's what the rest of my collection is, and I don't like mixing PB and HB in the same series). I love her Black Magician's trilogy and thought the prequel, Magician's Apprentice, was a good read too, so I am really hoping this one will be as well.

Lesley Downer's The Courtesan and the Samurai - I read and loved The Last Concubine by her so thought I'd give this one a go too. She really has researched hard to ensure she gets the historical elements right in her books, and I personally find something truly evocative in books about Japan. Plus, the 'ole romantic in me can't help but be pulled into the lives and emotions of the characters and heir love for one another that she creates

And last but not least, Lee Carroll's Black Swan Rising - This was an off-the-cuff purchase (3 for 2 deal) and, I know they say 'never judge a book by its cover'... but, the cover of this one draw me to it's space on the shelf. By the blurb it looks to be a vampire novel, and the first in a trilogy! I do hope it's going to have been worth the purchase

Edited to add: Oh yes, and having installed the Kindle for PC application from Amazon, I have also downloaded about 30 books from there! Although, since they were free I don't think they count as purchases!!! It could take some time to get through them though because it does mean sitting at the PC all day to read 'em

[D_Davis]

Originally Posted by LittleMissy

... I know they say 'never judge a book by its cover'...

Some of my favorite books were purchased based solely on their covers.

[D_Davis]

I picked this up last night at a used store for only $25:



In almost perfect condition. I'm stoked. Going to read it this year.

[Lady of Winterfell]

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. I'm trying to read some more classics, so I picked this up in the used bookshop.

[HoopyFrood]

Originally Posted by GOLLUM

Complete Short Stories of Evelyn Waugh[/B] *Waugh was one of the masters of English prose, so I'm very happy to have obtained this discounted copy. Blurb: In this unique collection of short stories composed between 1910-62, Evelyn Waugh's early juvenilia are brought together with later pieces, some of which became the inspirations for his novels. 'Mr Loveday's Little Outing' is a blackly comic tale of a mental asylum and its favourite resident; 'Cruise' sees a hilarious series of letters from a naïve young woman as she travels with her family; 'A House of Gentlefolks' observes a group of elderly eccentric aristocrats and their young heir; and in 'The Sympathetic Passenger' a radio-loathing retiree picks up exactly the wrong hitchhiker. These witty and immaculately crafted stories display the finest writing of a master of satire and comic twists.

Looooooooove Evelyn Waugh! Truly do! Have you read any of his longer works? I am a big fan of Decline and Fall.

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by HoopyFrood

Looooooooove Evelyn Waugh! Truly do! Have you read any of his longer works? I am a big fan of Decline and Fall.

You ask the Library Keeper if he has read anythnig else by Waugh?.. I say, I say I'm shocked, truly shocked I tell you...

I have Brideshead Revisited which is great and Handful Of Dust is to my way of thinking a masterpiece but whilst being aware of Decline and Fall I have not read that one yet....

If you like great prose stylists and you've probably read most if not all of these but I'll mention them anyway, you should certainly try Vladimir Nabokov, Joseph Conrad, Virginia Wolf, George Orwell, P G Wodehouse, F Scott Fitzgerald, Andrei Platonov, James Joyce, Rudyard Kipling, Italo Calvino, Marcel Proust, Somerset Maugham, Herman Melville, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Isaac Babel, Yasunari Kawabata, Tobias Wolfe, Stefan Zweig, Saul Bellow amongst others.

Cheers.

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by D_Davis

I picked this up last night at a used store for only $25:



In almost perfect condition. I'm stoked. Going to read it this year.

Sweet. One of the 4 so-called great Chinese Classical novels recognised by most people in the West as "Monkey" is a very nice purchase indeed. I have an abbreviated version only, so it will be interesting to read the thoughts of someone who is to read the entire work...