Book Hauls!

[AE35Unit]

I hope everything's been OK JD!

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by AE35Unit

I hope everything's been OK JD!

Thankee kindly!

[AE35Unit]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

Thankee kindly!

No problem!

[Extollager]

[QUOTE=GOLLUM;1517493]Today....

Victoria - Knut Hamsun *Penguin edn. Another in the discounted range. Hamsun is one of the cornerstone novelists of 20th Century European Literature and deserving recipient of the Nobel Prize. I have most of his major works but this slim volume is generally viewed as one of his 4 great novels produced in the 1890s.



Hamsun! I think part of his appeal is that his protagonists are basically adolescents in grown men's bodies. They seem to have no need to show up for work somewhere and can where where they will. When she smiles, the birds sing and gravity weakens. They act impulsively (e.g. the guy who spits in his rival's ear -- do I remember that incident correctly?) and suffer troughs of humiliation and contemplate dramatic suicides. I think there are outright fantasy novels that have their feet more firmly planted in the reality of human experience than, say, Mysteries or Pan (which I know only in the translations issued by Farrar Straus Giroux), but I did enjoy them. Victoria I don't remember so well. Hunger was more of a down-and-out book than these others.

[GOLLUM]

[QUOTE=Extollager;1517643]

Originally Posted by GOLLUM

Today....

Victoria - Knut Hamsun *Penguin edn. Another in the discounted range. Hamsun is one of the cornerstone novelists of 20th Century European Literature and deserving recipient of the Nobel Prize. I have most of his major works but this slim volume is generally viewed as one of his 4 great novels produced in the 1890s.

Hamsun! I think part of his appeal is that his protagonists are basically adolescents in grown men's bodies. They seem to have no need to show up for work somewhere and can where where they will. When she smiles, the birds sing and gravity weakens. They act impulsively (e.g. the guy who spits in his rival's ear -- do I remember that incident correctly?) and suffer troughs of humiliation and contemplate dramatic suicides. I think there are outright fantasy novels that have their feet more firmly planted in the reality of human experience than, say, Mysteries or Pan (which I know only in the translations issued by Farrar Straus Giroux), but I did enjoy them. Victoria I don't remember so well. Hunger was more of a down-and-out book than these others.

Those are interesting observations you make regarding Hamsun. I have only read Hunger so far but was impressed enough to collect his other major works including Pan, Mysteries, Growth of the Soil and Victoria. I will want to read the Hamsun works I have before being able to make a proper assessment in terms of what idiosyncratic trends or core themes may be reflected in the writing. I found Hunger to be a fascinating psychological novel definitely as you say rooted in reality, almost painfully so given the central character's self-imposed plight and Hamsun's ability to describe the human condition in such a revealing and honest manner....

[Extollager]

[QUOTE=GOLLUM;1517722]

Originally Posted by Extollager

Those are interesting observations you make regarding Hamsun. I have only read Hunger so far but was impressed enough to collect his other major works including Pan, Mysteries, Growth of the Soil and Victoria. I will want to read the Hamsun works I have before being able to make a proper assessment in terms of what idiosyncratic trends or core themes may be reflected in the writing. I found Hunger to be a fascinating psychological novel definitely as you say rooted in reality, almost painfully so given the central character's self-imposed plight and Hamsun's ability to describe the human condition in such a revealing and honest manner....

I meant to write that Hamsun's characters are "adolescents" who can go where and when they want to -- I suppose mainly I'm thinking of the protagonists of Mysteries and Pan, my two favorites; and really it's been long enough since my last reading of Pan that my generalization might be shaky there. But I think it would hold. They are physically strong, isolated, thoughtful, sometimes paranoid, given to romantic infatuation, uncomfortable with authority, disdainful of bourgeois politics ("Buskerud"!) never lack for money (obviously I am not generalizing about Hunger), and so on; it's really a pretty complete outfit of what a certain type of adolescent feels or fantasizes about!

[D_Davis]

Arrived in the mail today...

The Circus of Dr. Lao
The Unholy City/The Magician out of Manchuria - Charles G. Finney
Painted Devils: Strange Stories by Robert Aickman (thanks to the thread here...)

[slack]

So, I headed to Borders this morning because I heard everything was 80 percent off. In truth it was only a 20 percent discount, and I should've stopped there at the door, I really should have, but instead bought:

Underworld, Don DeLillo
Just Kids, Patti Smith
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
Stein On Writing, Sol Stein

[Extollager]

D. Davis, is that Aickman book the one with "The Houses of the Russians"?

I won't say that's his greatest story. But it is the one that I would have written if I were Robert Aickman.

[D_Davis]

Originally Posted by Extollager

D. Davis, is that Aickman book the one with "The Houses of the Russians"?

I won't say that's his greatest story. But it is the one that I would have written if I were Robert Aickman.

Yep, it's in there. Looking forward to reading it based on all the positive talk in the Aickman thread.

[Diggler]

Some of my last physical books due to finally ordering a Kindle.

Brother In the Land by Robert Swindells
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Through Darkest America by Neal Barrett Jr
Night of Power by Spider Robinson

[Fried Egg]

Finally, "Citadel of the Autarch" turned up today so now I will be able to complete the Book of the New sun series by Gene Wolfe.

[GOLLUM]

Hooray to that F.E.

Recently at a very good price...

The Box - Gunter Grass *A sequel of sorts to Grass's revealing Peeling The Onion. Blurb: Functioning both as experimental fiction and as a sequel of sorts to Peeling the Onion, Grass's latest sheds light on a role the revered German author has thus far only touched upon: fatherhood. Grass gathers his eight children to recount memories of their childhoods and of their often absent father. The conversations are being recorded at the fictional Grass's request, and the memories--and speakers--often overlap as the adult children fall into well-worn patterns of sibling rivalries, though it is Marie, a photographer who is Grass's constant companion and artistic inspiration, who is the dominant presence in the children's memories. Her ever-present camera (the box of the title), the children were convinced, was magic. "It sees things that weren't there. Or shows you things that you'd never in your wildest dreams imagine. It's all-seeing, my box." Marie says. Though he controls the puppet strings of his fictionalized progeny, Grass allows their resentments and shared passions to come through as he eloquently opens up his life, once again, to public scrutiny.

While The Women Are Sleeping - Javier Marias. *This is the second Marias collection I've stumbled across in as many weeks. It will be interesting to see how his short fiction compares to his longer works. Blurb: These 10 stories underscore Marias's mastery of the surreal and evasive, written throughout Marías’ writing life, they include his first published story, written at the tender age of 14. It serves the role of primer well, as it showcases the threads that wind through his other works—uncertainty of roles, of relationships, of having one’s own voice, and of choosing when to abdicate that voice

[ktabic]

Neuromancer by William Gibson. Read it long ago, when I got it from the local library. Wanted to reread it and found it in epub format on Waterstones.

[Connavar]

Soldat från Jorden by Denís Lindholm
Three Gothic Novels: The Castle of Otranto; Vathek; Frankenstein
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
I Nationens Intresse by Jan Guillou
Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny


The first 4 books is my best ever second hand haul in real second hand bookstore. I bought all those books for 20 swedish kronor each or 2 pounds each or 12 dollars each.