Book Hauls!

[Connavar]

The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann

The swedish translation for this book was just terrible and a 1000 pages long so....

[antiloquax]

Originally Posted by D_Davis

Finally found a used copy of the second book in Steve Perry's Matador trilogy. Now I can read it, and the third part. Hopefully they are as good as The Man Who Never Missed.

Trilogy? I think there are 8.

The Man Who Never Missed
Matadora
The Machiavelli Interface
The Omega Cage
The 97th Step
The Albino Knife
Brother Death
Black Steel

Haven't read any of them. How good is the first?
a

[Radix]

In the Flesh (Books Of Blood vol. 5) Clive Barker &
The Innswich Horror Edward Lee

going to be an early Autumn this year~

[D_Davis]

Originally Posted by antiloquax

Trilogy? I think there are 8.


Haven't read any of them. How good is the first?
a

The first three comprise an original trilogy, the rest were written later, and, if I'm not mistaken, focus on different characters. Probably won't read those.

The first is one of the best books I've read this year; it's a total blast. I'm a huge kung fu fan, and Perry really nails the feeling of the old kung fu films. It reads a lot like a SF-themed Shaw Brothers film, mixed in with a bit of The Stainless Steel Rat. Not exactly original, or very deep, buy incredibly entertaining and well-told.

[soulsinging]

collected from Borders' going out of business sale:

The Passage- Justin Cronin
Neuromancer- William Gibson
Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War- Karl Marlantes
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage- Alfred Lansing
Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe- Laurence Bergreen
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West- Dee Brown

[Bugg]

Went into Waterstones and they're doing a '3 for 2' on all sf paperbacks at the moment, so I got three Alastair Reynolds books (was only intending to get one until I saw the offer ):

Revelation Space (which I've already read years ago, but got rid of and now want to re-read)
House of Suns
Terminal World

Also got China Mieville's Perdido Street Station for Kindle, another one I had, read, got rid of, want to re-read. I wish I had infinite shelves so I didn't have to keep giving books away to make more room

[antiloquax]

Just got hold of a 2nd hand copy of Nicholls and Clute's "Encylopedia of Science Fiction" (the 1995 edition)!
They are making the most recent version available online free next month, I think, but I couldn't resist this ...
a

[nomadman]

Zeno's Conscience by Italo Sveno - classic Italian comic-tale of a man who tries to make sense of his life through his futile attempts to quit smoking. Wasn't particularly interested in getting this till a friend of mine assured me I'd like it.
If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi - novel following a group of Jewish partisans in their attempt to sabotage the German war machine.
The Dreaming Jewels by Theodore Sturgeon - Theo's first novel. Not his best, by most people's reckoning, but I would assume still worth reading.
The Seedling Stars by James Blish - a collection of four short stories about adapting humans to alien worlds. Important influence on Pohl's Man Plus I believe.
The Periodic Table by Primo Levi - classic series of semi-autobiographical sketches loosely related to the elements from the periodic table, Argon for static and unchanging family members, hydrogen for more explosive events in the author's life, and so on.
Memoirs of an Anti-Semite by Gregor Von Rezzori - an understandably controversial work upon publication, this autobiographical work relates, through a series of episodes, the gradual warping of an intelligent and cultured mind into a darkness which claimed millions of lives.
The Wandering Jew by Stefan Heym - got this on a whim after flicking through a few pages and finding the style (and premise) intriguing. Have already started in on the first few chapters, and feel I made a first-rate purchase. The basic premise of the book is an exploration of man's place and nature in God's universe through a series of meetings between Lucifer and the angel Ahasvesus in various times and places, but this doesn't begin to approach the mesemerising and compelling style with which Heym writes. I have a feeling this book will be one I'll cherish once I'm done.
Selected Stories by Theodore Sturgeon - rather than going for the complete collections of his works, which would set me back quite a bit, I decided to get this best of collection.
The Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov - short, allegorical fantasy of a dog whose heart is transplanted into a man.

[mithril]

Got 4 books about a week back.. Had a book exhibition at our office...

A Game of Thrones - George R R martin - reading
The Immortals of Meluha - Amish Tripathi (read)
The Secret of the Nagas - Amish Tripathi (read)
The Palace of Illusions - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (read)

[antiloquax]

@Nomadman - that's an excellent haul! The only one I've read is von Rezzori, although I have read some other Levi, Bulgakov and Sturgeon.

a

[GOLLUM]

Ditto on the excellent haul nomadman....

You have at least 4 bone fide classics there in Zeno's Conscience one of the great novels of World Literature along with Memoirs of an Anti-Semite and Heart of a Dog, well anything by Bulgakov is worth getting and Levi's Periodic Table I'm planning on reviewing and then there's.....The Wandering Jew, a less known masterwork of European Literature that I read, given my linguistic background, in its native German.

The Sturgeon and Blish will no doubt turn out to be good reads as well.

[J-Sun]

Originally Posted by nomadman

The Dreaming Jewels by Theodore Sturgeon - Theo's first novel. Not his best, by most people's reckoning, but I would assume still worth reading.

Very much so. I'd have a hard time sequencing his novels, but I wouldn't single it out as "not his best", myself. It's "among his best".

Originally Posted by nomadman

Selected Stories by Theodore Sturgeon - rather than going for the complete collections of his works, which would set me back quite a bit, I decided to get this best of collection.

My method was to buy virtually all his collections used for 50 cents to a dollar or two each. 6 cost $5.70 (US) and the other 8 probably cost less and all I'm missing is a handful of early unpublished stories, a handful of uncollected ones, and a handful of late ones. 'Course, I was at it before the complete collection began. One way or the other, I'd recommend getting a lot of the stories.

Originally Posted by nomadman

The Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov - short, allegorical fantasy of a dog whose heart is transplanted into a man.

Hope you enjoy this but I recall not liking it much - at least not as much as The Master and Margarita. If you don't have that, try it.

[nomadman]

Originally Posted by antiloquax

@Nomadman - that's an excellent haul! The only one I've read is von Rezzori, although I have read some other Levi, Bulgakov and Sturgeon.

a

Originally Posted by GOLLUM

Ditto on the excellent haul nomadman....

You have at least 4 bone fide classics there in Zeno's Conscience one of the great novels of World Literature along with Memoirs of an Anti-Semite and Heart of a Dog, well anything by Bulgakov is worth getting and Levi's Periodic Table I'm planning on reviewing and then there's.....The Wandering Jew, a less known masterwork of European Literature that I read, given my linguistic background, in its native German.

The Sturgeon and Blish will no doubt turn out to be good reads as well.

Cheers, guys. Gollum, I'm about a third of the way through The Wandering Jew and my initial impression hasn't waned; if anything it's become more pronounced. This is truly a superb book filled with deep meaning and mystery, one of the best books I've read this year, and I've been getting through them at quite a rate. Amazingly, the English translation was done by the author himself. Considering English isn't his native language, Heym's efforts thus far have to be on par with Nabokov. Why haven't I heard of this book before?

Originally Posted by J-Sun

Very much so. I'd have a hard time sequencing his novels, but I wouldn't single it out as "not his best", myself. It's "among his best".

My method was to buy virtually all his collections used for 50 cents to a dollar or two each. 6 cost $5.70 (US) and the other 8 probably cost less and all I'm missing is a handful of early unpublished stories, a handful of uncollected ones, and a handful of late ones. 'Course, I was at it before the complete collection began. One way or the other, I'd recommend getting a lot of the stories.

Hope you enjoy this but I recall not liking it much - at least not as much as The Master and Margarita. If you don't have that, try it.

I already have two volumes of Sturgeon's complete stories: Microcosmic God (vol 2) and Saucer of Loneliness (vol 7) as well as a few miscellaneous older collections I picked up second hand. Ideally I'd like one day to pick up the entire collection but can't afford it at present. I'm not going to wait too long however, since most of the volumes are already out of print and these things have a habit of rocketing in price on the used and new market. The second hand option might be worth pursuing if I can find a book sale on somewhere; used bookshops here in London rarely price their items any lower than about £3 and ordering online isn't much cheaper due to P&P.

[Fried Egg]

All this talk about Sturgeon makes me want to buy another of his collections. I must be strong and resist...

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by nomadman

Cheers, guys. Gollum, I'm about a third of the way through The Wandering Jew and my initial impression hasn't waned; if anything it's become more pronounced. This is truly a superb book filled with deep meaning and mystery, one of the best books I've read this year, and I've been getting through them at quite a rate. Amazingly, the English translation was done by the author himself. Considering English isn't his native language, Heym's efforts thus far have to be on par with Nabokov. Why haven't I heard of this book before?

Weel..I realise that might be a rhetrocial question on your part but it's not surprising Heym is less well known in the 'West' (in spite of as you say his self translations) as he was an active voice living in and a constant thorn to the side of the then East German Government and his publications would often be restricted to limited print runs and not receive the level of fanfare some of his contemporaries received during that same period. Since reunification Heym has definitely become better known in 'the West, I know this from both personal experience and anecdotal evidence. Also, The Wandering Jew is Heym's best work, written at the peak of his powers which were considerable, so it is no surprise to me you appear to be so taken by this novel and left wondering why he isn't more of a household name...