(Except I see now that I apparently posted that dreadful Tolstoy cover in some other thread)
― Øystein, Monday, 1 December 2008 18:27 (fifteen years ago) link
there are lots of bad purdy covers! he's cursed, apparently. my trade paperback copy of narrow rooms is a photo of a gay porn muscleman cowboy lying in a pile of hay or something. i tried to get a friend of mine to read it and he refused based on the cover. and he's gay!
― scott seward, Monday, 1 December 2008 21:57 (fifteen years ago) link
i do like this old paperback copy of malcom though.i have another old paperback of malcom with another great cover too:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2182/2093996638_9400914ec9.jpg?v=0
― scott seward, Monday, 1 December 2008 21:58 (fifteen years ago) link
but this is just bonkers! ?????????????????
http://media.perseusdistribution.com/covers/high/9781852423681.jpg
― scott seward, Monday, 1 December 2008 21:59 (fifteen years ago) link
even the most recent reissues suck:
http://www.wright.edu/~martin.kich/PurdySoc/covers/eustace.jpg
― scott seward, Monday, 1 December 2008 22:01 (fifteen years ago) link
I've never even heard of this Purdy fellow! The Dorothy Parker blurb has me interested, though. Is 'Malcolm' a good place to start?
― James Morrison, Monday, 1 December 2008 22:21 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah, Malcom is a good place to start. Or one of his short story collections. If you want full speed ahead dementia then read narrow rooms. if you like one, you are probably gonna want to read more. that's what happened to me anyway. he's an amazing stylist and he's just, um, kinda bonkers! but bonkers in a very unique way. The Nephew is a good starting place too. i dunno. dive in!
from his wiki page, here is a short list of some of his fans over the years(!!!!):
"His work has been translated into more than 30 languages. It has been praised by writers as diverse as Dame Edith Sitwell (an important early advocate), Dorothy Parker, Edward Albee, James M. Cain, Terry Southern, Lillian Hellman, A.N. Wilson, Francis King and Marianne Moore. From the start, his work has often been at the edge of what was printable: Gollancz could not bring himself to print the word motherfucker in the 1957 UK edition of 63: Dream Palace; decades later, the German government tried to ban Narrow Rooms, but a court threw the case out. Although many readers were scandalized, a solid cadre of distinguished critics and scholars embraced his work from the start, including John Cowper Powys and Susan Sontag, who warmly defended him against prurient critics."
― scott seward, Monday, 1 December 2008 23:47 (fifteen years ago) link
oh, and i started reading his stuff after i read an interview where john waters said he was his favorite writer. i figured that was good enough for me.
― scott seward, Monday, 1 December 2008 23:49 (fifteen years ago) link
i can't help but picture john cowper powys and susan sontag hanging out together when i read that last wiki sentence.
― scott seward, Monday, 1 December 2008 23:50 (fifteen years ago) link
(hangs head in shame)
This past weekend I spent about $350 on new backpacking equipment. I may not have spent that much on books this entire year. I suppose this speaks volumes on my warped sense of priorities. However, if the books I bought cost from $100 to $150 a pop, they would add up much faster.
― Aimless, Tuesday, 2 December 2008 01:22 (fifteen years ago) link
i just dropped $320 on two books for my boyfriend's birthday!
― it's always funny until someone gets hurt and then it's just hilariou (Rubyredd), Friday, 5 December 2008 03:43 (fifteen years ago) link
Do you have a twin sister?
― alimosina, Friday, 5 December 2008 17:42 (fifteen years ago) link
And what were the books?
― James Morrison, Friday, 5 December 2008 22:48 (fifteen years ago) link
the lettered/slipcased edition of the black sparrow press bibliography (he's a collector of BSP stuff, particularly bukowski, john yau and paul bowles).
the numbered (1/150) and signed edition, in a beautiful clamshell box, of alex gross' art book, including a 7-colour silkscreened print.
i should mention that he bought me a $650 book very recently (limited edition ray caesar art book, in a clamshell box, linen covered, signed and numbered).
― it's always funny until someone gets hurt and then it's just hilariou (Rubyredd), Saturday, 6 December 2008 08:05 (fifteen years ago) link
i just gave them to him tonight - he's very happy!
As who wouldn't be with such a thoughtful gift.
― Aimless, Saturday, 6 December 2008 15:58 (fifteen years ago) link
Wow!
― James Morrison, Sunday, 7 December 2008 10:59 (fifteen years ago) link
Diarmaid MacCulloch - The Reformation: A HistoryKathy Acker - Blood and Guts in High School (Plus Two)Jacobus de Voragine - Legenda Aurea (selections in Norwegian translation)
― Øystein, Monday, 8 December 2008 17:48 (fifteen years ago) link
The Colours of My Life - Malcolm Allison. Read before after borrowing it from a friend, but decided that it was definitely worth having a copy of my own.
― GamalielRatsey, Monday, 8 December 2008 22:55 (fifteen years ago) link
Teehee, bought Twilight. But also Stendhal's Red 'n' Black book, No Country for Old Men, Gibson's latest Spook County (?), Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Thursday, 18 December 2008 14:13 (fifteen years ago) link
I had a feeling I already bought it. Yep, Stendhal will be returned for another book. Roffle.
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Friday, 19 December 2008 09:05 (fifteen years ago) link
Just Christmas presents
For one brother - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - PKD, Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury, We - Yevgeny ZamyatinFor girlfriend - Rings of Saturn - WG Sebald (even though I have big problems with this book, I think she'll like it)For mum's husband - the first three Flashman books and The Colours of My Life, because he's a Palace fan and because it's great (see above).For other brother - hmmm, still not sure. Was thinking of Buchan's Hannay stuff, but I got that for my mum last year - maybe Sherlock Holmes, or maybe, yes, wait! Father Brown Stories. Hmmm. Lots of standing around in bookshops to do tomorrow.
― GamalielRatsey, Monday, 22 December 2008 09:55 (fifteen years ago) link
not purchased by me, but purchased FOR me for my birthday:
'drop city' - signed first edition by t.c. boyle'call if you need me' - raymond carver, first edition'horsebucket' - carol es (1/50 edition, signed, manually typed text accompanying sketches)'proofs' - james crombie (kickshaw press), entirely letterpressed/screenprinted in way cool slipcase covered in this bizarre 'pebble' paperslipcased library of america editions of willa cather's work'the upset' - collection/analysis of contemporary lowbrow fine art'counterpoint' - robert and shana parkeharrison (photography book)
apparently these are the 'small' presents and the 'big' book present is coming in january - it's on order but not ready yet.
― just1n3, Monday, 22 December 2008 16:45 (fifteen years ago) link
(also, this rubyredd, i've just got a new user name)
― just1n3, Monday, 22 December 2008 16:46 (fifteen years ago) link
Purchased today at Half-Price w/glorious VISA gift card:
The Black Lizard Anthology of Crime FictionTaking Our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up -- Norman FischerDays of Obligation: Arguments with my Mexican Father -- Richard RodriguezGirl in Landscape -- J LethemWall of the Sky, Wall of the Eye -- J Lethem
― BIG HOOS is not a nacho purist fwiw (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Saturday, 27 December 2008 07:11 (fifteen years ago) link
just bought "the man with the axe," which is a book about alfred jarry, illustrated by bill griffith. i was stoked to find it in hardcover, since i wasn't aware one ever existed.
got a bunch of books from fantagraphics too- most excited about jimbo in purgatory and jimbo's inferno by gary panter.
― #NAME? (ytth), Saturday, 27 December 2008 07:40 (fifteen years ago) link
i have stopped buying books and started reading them, huzzah
― thomp, Saturday, 27 December 2008 11:31 (fifteen years ago) link
i try to be ambidexterous that way.
― #NAME? (ytth), Saturday, 27 December 2008 19:46 (fifteen years ago) link
I made my first bookstore run since mid-November. I bought:
Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin, used trade paperback in standard shape, at my favorite thrift shop for $3. The cashier informed me this book is very fashionable now, as it has been linked to the magical name of Obama. I expect good things from it.
The Prelude: Version of 1805, William Wordsworth, in an Oxford Standard Authors blue-cloth hardbound edition, reprint of 1949, with a dust cover (somewhat tatty), and some light pencil underlining for $10. I got this at Powell's Books, where browsing the shelves makes for as pleasant a way to spend an aimless winter's afternoon as I am ever likely to find.
― Aimless, Wednesday, 31 December 2008 01:24 (fifteen years ago) link
A really nice, compact paperback edition of Don Quixote Victor Serge - Birth of our PowerYasunuro Kawabata - Beauty and Sadness
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 13 January 2009 23:20 (fifteen years ago) link
Solzhenitsyn's 'The Gulag Archipelago', complete set. Which I may eventually get around to reading!
Anne Applebaum's 'Gulag'.
Douglas Coupland, 'Generation X'.
Granta 103 - The Rise of the British Jihad.
― AndyTheScot, Friday, 16 January 2009 01:23 (fifteen years ago) link
a coworker just bought me the 20th anniversary, 1968, edition of 'other voices, other rooms' by truman capote, as an engagement present. pretty awesome gift, considering i've had my eye on it for awhile now.
― just1n3, Friday, 16 January 2009 01:25 (fifteen years ago) link
i am still waiting for the january-surprise book gift mentioned upthread.
― just1n3, Friday, 16 January 2009 01:26 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah me too.
― #NAME? (ytth), Friday, 16 January 2009 03:01 (fifteen years ago) link
I went to my local super-cheap charity bookshop today and books kept jumping into my hand.
Treasury of American Folklore: Stories, Ballads and Traditions of the People, ed. B.A. Botkin, copyright 1944 hardcover, 918 pp. for $3. The editor was in charge of the Folk Song Archive, Library of Congress. A quick browse shows this to be a pretty good mirror of USA folkways, up to and including racism and egg-sucking dogs.
Morte D'Urban, J.F. Powers, trade paper NYRB Classics, $1. Looked interesting. Blurbs very persuasive.
Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons (Opinions), Kurt Vonnegut, mass paperback, 50 cents. Read this long ago and have forgotten every words of it. Time to re-read it.
Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein, ed. Carl Van Vechten, mass paperback, 50 cents. Not a favorite author, but she has few, if any, peers, so worth having a selection.
The Greek New Testament, Matthew, Mark, God, et. al., in a vinyl cover, for $1. I must admit I bought this mainly to resell at Powell's for more than I paid for it.
A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, Dana & Mantley, hardcover, for $1. Purchased for the same reason as above.
― Aimless, Sunday, 18 January 2009 01:12 (fifteen years ago) link
For xmas, all used:
Generation Ecstasy, Simon ReynoldsReasons and Persons, Derek ParfitThe New Biographical Dictionary of Film, David Thompson
And earlier tonight, from Half Price Books, for 67 cents,Escape From Freedom, Erich Fromm
― Kyle Clewett (bassace), Sunday, 18 January 2009 07:09 (fifteen years ago) link
i kind of wish i knew people who gave me used books for christmas.
― thomp, Sunday, 18 January 2009 14:40 (fifteen years ago) link
The Reynolds is well-written, and told me all I want to know about that world.
― alimosina, Sunday, 18 January 2009 19:51 (fifteen years ago) link
what, the 90s?
― thomp, Sunday, 18 January 2009 20:27 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah I enjoyed it and it sent me in the right direction on the things I was curious about, though I kinda lost interest 2/3rds of the way through.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Sunday, 18 January 2009 21:33 (fifteen years ago) link
John Dos Passos, The U.S.A. trilogy (in Paperback)Roberto Bolano, The Savage Detectives (reading this one right now)Warren Beck, Joyce's Dubliners: Substance, Vision, Art (just came in the mail)Will Chirstopher Baer, Kiss Me Judas (hasn't arrived yet)Dave Sim, Cerebus (mentioned this in ILC; has not arrived yet either)
― Test Tube Teens from the Year 1754 (Drugs A. Money), Sunday, 18 January 2009 23:36 (fifteen years ago) link
So do I. Bought 'em with cash.
We should be those people! Lets start doing it. So cheap, too.
― Kyle Clewett (bassace), Monday, 19 January 2009 01:56 (fifteen years ago) link
splurged on a bunch of stuff:
White Teeth Zadie SmithCorregidora Gayl JonesDrinking Coffee Elsewhere ZZ PackerA Visitation of Spirits Randall KenanRevolutionary Road Richard YatesJoe Turner's Come And Gone August WilsonAssassination of the Black Male Image Earl Ofari HutchinsonTree of Smoke Denis Johnson
― WE FUCK YOU (The Brainwasher), Tuesday, 20 January 2009 18:09 (fifteen years ago) link
I got The Plague from a charity shop today (which I've read before, but I also got The Fall, which I haven't) and then had a bit of an awwwww fuck when I opened it and saw that someone had annotations in it. But then they gave up on the third page. Phew.
Taking good advantage of offers and a £5 off voucher I also got The Corrections, Fathers and Sons, Women in Love, Revolutionary Road and White Noise from Borders for £21, which isn't too bad.
― Merdeyeux, Tuesday, 20 January 2009 21:40 (fifteen years ago) link
"A Visitation of Spirits" is one of my favorite books of all time. I re-read the last page on a weekly basis. So good.
I just picked up Cowley's "Exile's Return".
― silence dogood, Tuesday, 20 January 2009 23:25 (fifteen years ago) link
tonight:
Pride & PrejudiceInfinite JestMary Gaitskill, Two Girls, Fat and ThinWilliam Manchester, A World Lit Only By Fire
― sad man in him room (milo z), Wednesday, 21 January 2009 02:08 (fifteen years ago) link
i found a clearance table in an academic branch of waterstones.
david jenemann, adorno in americamurat aydemir, images of bliss: ejaculation, masculinity, meaning
― thomp, Sunday, 25 January 2009 11:46 (fifteen years ago) link
i found this box of books outside by the dumpster, all in really good condition. probably the most interesting books were some film books from hungary from the early '70s, a series called "szemtol szemben". small paperbacks, one book each on fellini, antonioni, welles, wajda, and bergman. can't read a damn word of them but still...
― the gush of yesterday (omar little), Tuesday, 27 January 2009 18:49 (fifteen years ago) link
lol there was a huge dumpster outside the Albion College Library full of books, and one night before it rained I climbed in and got a bunch of weird/cool textbooks abt schizophrenia, and an interesting book that has made my reading list called "The Inner World of Mental Illness" edited by Bert Kaplan...
― seppuku toothbrush (Drugs A. Money), Wednesday, 28 January 2009 01:26 (fifteen years ago) link
also:
lately I've boughtXaime Hernandez, The Girl from HOPPERs (death of Speedy Ortiz and whatnot)Xaime Hernandez, Perla La Loca (Wigwam Bam, bang on some spam)Collected Poetry of Wallace StevensShakespeare, Henry IV Part 2Frank Kermode, Shakespeare's Language (found this in Brighton abt 5 yrs ago & liked it a lot)
― seppuku toothbrush (Drugs A. Money), Wednesday, 28 January 2009 01:30 (fifteen years ago) link