Lonely (or is it Lovely?) Bones. Seems to be good. Fast Food Nation (for less than 3 dollars!) Cheap ass chicken recipe book (less than a dollar!) Children Recipe book
― nathalie, Saturday, 30 June 2007 09:31 (seventeen years ago) link
I traded a bunch of books at Powell's yesterday and used up some of my credit to upgrade my paperback copy of The Dream Songs by John Berryman, to a used hardcover copy. It is a first printing (which I don't care about) in standard condition, and was heavily marked in pencil by the previous owner, so it was marked down to $15 from an overly optimistic $30. I have been busily erasing the pencil markings.
I also picked up a nice harcover edition of The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pisan and translated by Earl Richards. It was only $7.
Earlier this week I picked up a used copy of Ernie Pyle's posthumously published Home Country for $1. It's a just cobbled-together rehash of his journalism from before WWII, but I enjoy Pyle's style and observations, just as his millions of loyal newspaper readers did, so it's fine by me. He was another of those Indiana boys who mastered typing, like Vonnegut.
― Aimless, Sunday, 1 July 2007 17:36 (seventeen years ago) link
Bookmooched recently:
Jose Ortega y Gasset - History as a System Christopher Lasch - Revolt of the Elites
― o. nate, Tuesday, 3 July 2007 15:36 (seventeen years ago) link
Impulse bought Someday I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman and that Miranda July book, borrowing the new Arthur Philips and Consider the Lobster.
― Jordan, Tuesday, 3 July 2007 15:38 (seventeen years ago) link
I do like that Book of the City of Ladies.
I think I am off to the Strand now.
― Casuistry, Tuesday, 3 July 2007 20:09 (seventeen years ago) link
I bought one of those Aberystwyth detective novels, in the hope that my unread book mountain will assume critical mass and blow up the world.
― The Real Dirty Vicar, Wednesday, 4 July 2007 15:16 (seventeen years ago) link
Oh, and I also bought Gore Vidal's memoir, Palimpsest, which was on sale at the Strand Annex.
― o. nate, Thursday, 5 July 2007 20:13 (seventeen years ago) link
Yesterday:
JR by William Gaddis, in a used in-new-condition Penguin paperback edition, $4.99. Constant favorable effusions by ILBers led me to buy this book.
Plutarch's Lives VII: Demosthenes and Cicero, Alexander and Caesar in a used Loeb classical library edition, $2.99. I cannot pass up any Loeb edition less than $5. I just can't.
― Aimless, Saturday, 7 July 2007 18:57 (seventeen years ago) link
Picked up Cronopios and Famas by Cortazar and Calvino's The Baron in the Trees on some old store credit I forgot I had yesterday.
― wmlynch, Monday, 9 July 2007 18:03 (seventeen years ago) link
Not a purchase, but my mommy was in town last week and left me a couple of her books:
Wild Latitudes by Barbara Else (a Kiwi) The Law of Dreams by Peter Behrens (which was actually her Christmas present from me last year, but which I am more than happy to get back)
― franny glass, Monday, 9 July 2007 19:21 (seventeen years ago) link
my university gave me book tokens:
philip dick, 'four novels of the 1960s' - notes (tho no introduction, hrmf) from jonathan lethem. i already own all the actual novels. but it's a library of america edition of philip k dick, hey. daniil kharms, 'incidences' dee goong an, 'the celebrated cases of judge dee' - looks bizarre. an 18th-century historian's detective novel version of seventh-century chinese legal cases, englished in the 1940's by a dutchman. david foster wallace, 'infinite jest' (10th anniversary 10 dollar ed) - i don't know why i felt i needed a second copy. tove jansson, 'moomin: the complete tove jansson comic strip' - one wonders if they'll publish her brother's.
― thomp, Tuesday, 10 July 2007 19:16 (seventeen years ago) link
i picked up incidences at random, i didn't realise he was on here already. huh.
― thomp, Tuesday, 10 July 2007 19:17 (seventeen years ago) link
Found an old paperback of Elaine Dundy's "The Dud Avocado". To quote the cover: "The blithe and bubbling bestseller about an American girl who goes to Paris to be naughty-- and quite often succeeds!" Well!
Also picked up a bunch of old science fiction paperbacks for a bonus-gift for my father. Intend to wrap a stack (well, five) of them in newspaper and tie it up with some old string to make a nice hobo-gift. I got a raise at work today, so clearly I'm intoxicated by money!
― Øystein, Thursday, 26 July 2007 12:31 (seventeen years ago) link
When you read it, do tell us if it succeeds in being "blithe and bubbling", while yet remaining readable. This is a difficult feat, worthy of homage.
― Aimless, Thursday, 26 July 2007 18:17 (seventeen years ago) link
I've read a few chapters of it and so far it does succeed at that- it's like Holly Golightly telling her story in the first person. Although maybe that is a cause for worry, that all will not end well.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 26 July 2007 19:24 (seventeen years ago) link
The NYRB classics just released a new edition of Dud Avocado last month.
― Arethusa, Thursday, 26 July 2007 21:39 (seventeen years ago) link
the book sale was this weekend! three days. it's quite the affair. went the first day and spent about 30 bucks. but today, monday, everything is free! believe you me, they have a LOT left. anyway, here is what i have picked up in the last couple of weeks at the book sale/thrift store/dump:
annual world's best sci-fi volumes: 72/76/77/78/81/83
nebula award stories eleven (edited by ursula leguin)
harlan ellison - approaching oblivion
ann pyne - in the form of a person (short stories ???)
grace paley - later the same day
adam haslett - you are not a stranger here (short stories ???)
robert anderson - ice age (short stories ???)
italo calvino - marcovaldo
o*blek (literary mag)
john cowper powys - lucifer
bruce wagner - the chrysanthemum palace
kate atkinson - behind the scenes at the museum
evan s. connell - the alchymist's journal
penelope fitzgerald - the gate of angels
helen knode - the ticket out (crime novel)
paris review 40th anniversary issue (delillo and toni morrisson interviews. cheever journal excerpts.)
robert coover - the universal baseball association, inc, j henry waugh, prop.
andre dubus - dancing after hours
paule marshall - brown girl, brownstone (really nice out of print 1st edition of little-known african-american 50's lit)
tom phillips - a humument - a treated victorian novel
j.g. farrell - troubles
denis johnson - angels
pam houston - cowboys are my weakness
harold brodkey - first love & other sorrows
harlan ellison - the beast that shouted love at the heart of the world
vernor vinge - the collected stories
j.g. farrell - the singapore grip
calvin trillin - floater
william gass - in the heart of the heart of the country
five fingers review (lit mag)
graham swift - last orders
denis johnson - fiskadoro
malcom lowry - under the volcano
toni morrison - the bluest eye
brian moore - the color of blood
bizarre books (basically, long lists of weird books)
frederick barthelme - painted desert (which i'm reading now)
thomas berger - neighbors
tim powers - the drawing of the dark
marijane meaker - game of survival (couldn't resist this. weird 70's thriller about people stuck in an elevator!)
l.p. hartley - the go-between
tom drury - the end of vandalism (just finished this one)
anne lamott - hard laughter
paula fox - desperate characters (which i've read, but don't own a copy of.)
john fante - dreams from bunker hill & 1933 was a bad year
italo calvino - invisible cities
john westermann - sweet deal (soho crime)
kate atkinson - case histories
russell banks - continental drift (signed!)
alice munro - the progress of love (couldn't remember if i owned a copy)
frederick busch - harry & catherine
andre dubus - voices from the moon
paula fox - a servant's tale
dennis cooper - try
(all told, i don't even think i spent 40 bucks. beat that, amazon!)
― scott seward, Monday, 30 July 2007 15:17 (seventeen years ago) link
WOW! That's a great haul! It's probably a good thing I live on the other side of the country, I would go snap up all their free leftovers.
― Jaq, Monday, 30 July 2007 17:38 (seventeen years ago) link
Whimper.
How far away was this? Why was I not told?
― Casuistry, Tuesday, 31 July 2007 01:09 (seventeen years ago) link
this is on martha's vineyard, chris! i believe you are as far as jaq, no? and yeah, i made out like a bandit today when everything was free. and i was in such a book fog that i completely forgot about the art/architecture/photography section at the front of the gymnasium! oh well. next time. i'm not greedy. much.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 31 July 2007 02:49 (seventeen years ago) link
Well, no, I am in NYC for the summer.
― Casuistry, Tuesday, 31 July 2007 02:55 (seventeen years ago) link
ah, a mere stone's throw away!
― scott seward, Tuesday, 31 July 2007 03:36 (seventeen years ago) link
if you haven't read this yet you're in for ahem a "treat" the rockcritic character is beyond perverse. on the whole I found this book profoundly moving and utterly twisted...long after I thought there were no taboos left to be violated "try" proved me wrong (again)
― m coleman, Tuesday, 31 July 2007 12:01 (seventeen years ago) link
nice haul scott. i love brian moore, haven't read that one tho.
In between library runs lately I've bought a few used paperbacks.
patricia highsmith -- the blunderer
kingsley amis -- i like it here
bruce chatwin -- on the black hill
shiva naipaul -- north of south: an african jounrey
― m coleman, Tuesday, 31 July 2007 12:07 (seventeen years ago) link
Latest batch is:
<I>The Procedure</I>. Harry Mulisch. <I>Why I Have Not Written Any of My Books</I>. Marcel Benabou. <I>After Many a Summer Dies the Swan</I>. Aldous Huxley. <I>Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing</I>. <I>Snake Catcher.</I> Naiyer Masud. <I>Crooked Little Vein</i>. Warren Ellis. <i>Curses</I>. Kevin Huizenga.
Not sure if i'm in the mood to read any of them right now though. (Except Curses.) Too fickle.
― orb_q, Tuesday, 31 July 2007 19:45 (seventeen years ago) link
The Brian Moore (Colour of Blood) is really good - read it on the weekend.
― James Morrison, Wednesday, 1 August 2007 02:45 (seventeen years ago) link
That Benabou book is one of my favorites.
― Casuistry, Wednesday, 1 August 2007 17:58 (seventeen years ago) link
It is of course mentioned in Bartleby & Co, by Enrique Vila-Matas which I recommend to you, Chris. I tried to take it out of the library, but they only had another called something like Get Rid Of This Book Quick!, so I reserved that instead.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 1 August 2007 18:23 (seventeen years ago) link
Eager to read that Benabou. It'll be my first of his.
Yes, Bartleby & Co. is fantastic. Montano's Malady i'm still working on, as i don't want the two books conflated in my memory. The friend who recommended it is not so keen on it as he was on the first. He's slathering for Nazi Literature in the Americas.
Anyone have any idea when that Borges biography by Bioy Casares is going to make it into English translation? although i picked up the Williamson one, i have no intention of reading it. Him hanging with Bioy Casares and Ocampo slagging everyone seems more fun... at least in small doses. The TLS review interested me.
― orb_q, Wednesday, 1 August 2007 19:48 (seventeen years ago) link
I bought one of those Aberystwyth detectivey stories. I imagine it will sit in my book mountain until I donate it to Oxfam.
― The Real Dirty Vicar, Thursday, 2 August 2007 09:50 (seventeen years ago) link
From neighborhood junk store: Jean Cocteau - Beauty and the Beast: Diary of a Film William J. Schnell - 30 Years a Watchtower Slave Anna Deavere Smith - Fires in the Mirror Atul Gawande - Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science C. Vann Woodward - The Strange Career of Jim Crow
― C0L1N B..., Monday, 6 August 2007 19:24 (seventeen years ago) link
'no one belongs here more than you' by miranda july. just arrived and i can't wait to start reading it.
― Rubyredd, Tuesday, 7 August 2007 16:58 (seventeen years ago) link
online book-buying will be the death of me: spitting off tall buildings - dan fante the heart is a lonely hunter - carson mccullers the magus - john fowles mister dog: the dog who belonged to himself - margaret wise brown
the last one is a long-lost childhood favourite. i didn't realise they were still printing it, till i mentioned it to a friend and he searched it out on abebooks for me.
― Rubyredd, Friday, 10 August 2007 05:23 (seventeen years ago) link
I sold some books to Powell's Books in July and had amassed a whopping $33 in trade credit, so today I went down and overspent it. My purchases were:
Poems and Translations, Ezra Pound, in the hardcover American Library edition. This has the works: 1200pp of poems, including his uncollected chaff, plus a chronology, notes and index (those indispensible aids to time wastage). It was in great shape for a mere $32. Now I can sell my paperback edition of Personae and recoup a couple of dollars on this extravagence.
The Journal of Cardan: Together with The Quest of the Opal and The Probelm of Form, J.V. Cunningham, for $5.95. A hardcover with dust jacket, most probably a first printing, because Cunningham is presently so obscure. These are essays by a mostly-forgotten, but quite good poet.
Collected Poems in English, Joseph Brodsky, 'first edition', hardcover with dust jacket, in excellent condition for $9.95. Flipping through this he seemed to have some interesting licks - good enough to justify the Nobel he won.
Collected Poems, Stevie Smith, in an xlib hardcover with dust jacket, Oxford U. Press, for $7.95. Not a solid favorite poet of mine. She wavers between the faux-naive and the genuinely charming. The price sold me on this one.
I made some other thrift shop purchases lately:
Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples, V.S. Naipul, hardcover, dust jacket, $6.00.
One World, Ready or Not, Wm. Greider, trade paper in good shape, $4.00. I've read it already, but I kind of bought it as a tribute to Greider, who I still think has sussed out the tenor of the times better than far more celebrated pundits.
The Shaping of a City: Business and Politics in Portland, Oregon 1885 to 1915, E. Kimbark MacColl, trade paper, $1.00. This is a local history of our highly venal and typically American founders.
― Aimless, Friday, 10 August 2007 23:33 (seventeen years ago) link
my order for 'mister dog: the dog who belonged to himself' just got cancelled :(
― Rubyredd, Friday, 10 August 2007 23:42 (seventeen years ago) link
That Pound dealie includes the Cantos?
That's not a bad price on that Portland book.
― Casuistry, Saturday, 11 August 2007 04:29 (seventeen years ago) link
No Cantos included. You need 45 more box tops for that. But it has his translations of Confucius and Sophocles and the Noh plays, etc.
― Aimless, Saturday, 11 August 2007 04:32 (seventeen years ago) link
Oh hey even better really. 1200pp without the Cantos? Damn!
― Casuistry, Saturday, 11 August 2007 05:31 (seventeen years ago) link
Why do I get myself into these situations?
Anyway, I just bought another 1150pp. of scintillating prolixity that I shall someday feel obligated to read: Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Rebecca West, in a massive Penguin paperback edition that would choke an anaconda, for $5. Shoot me now.
Also, I bought Collected Poems of James Joyce, a much slimmer read, for $1.29.
― Aimless, Friday, 31 August 2007 04:19 (seventeen years ago) link
Presumably you have finished the Joyce poems by now, at least.
I keep seeing that Rebecca West book! I had never heard of it, but it keeps popping up in bookstores. I suppose $5 would have been pretty tempting.
I met up with Ned in Powell's yesterday but we did not stay long enough for me to be tempted to buy anything. This is probably a good thing!
― Casuistry, Friday, 31 August 2007 14:47 (seventeen years ago) link
It seems odd to me that the foremost inventor of twentieth-century modernist fiction wrote poetry as a pastiche of Elizabethan lyricism and Celtic Twilight romanticism. It's hard to say where he would have gone with it, had he stuck to poetry. He wasn't terribly bad at it, but I suspect he made the right choice in abandoning it.
Book purchase or no, I imagine Ned beamed upon you. Being as he is the patron saint of ILE, I imagine Ned beams aplenty upon his flock. I have been the recipient of one or two electron-composed nedbeams. May he live and prosper.
― Aimless, Friday, 31 August 2007 15:56 (seventeen years ago) link
Poems: New and Collected: 1957-1997, Wislawa Szymborska, hard cover, $17.95. (I can't decide if it was a remainder or a used book in like-new condition.) I admire her wit. She manages to be both astringent and cheerful.
― Aimless, Monday, 10 September 2007 17:40 (seventeen years ago) link
I found a 1983 Pocket Penguin edition of Edmund Crispin's Fen Country for $2 on Friday. Yay.
― franny glass, Monday, 10 September 2007 17:42 (seventeen years ago) link
i bought "the art of alex gross" (signed) for my best friend and; he bought "the raw shark texts" for me.
― Rubyredd, Tuesday, 11 September 2007 11:45 (seventeen years ago) link
I just bought a copy of David Peace's Tokyo Year Zero, based partly on teh Britishes rave reviews of The Damned Utd in the archives.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 19 September 2007 18:33 (seventeen years ago) link
david markson's detective novels. (the cashier told me he also wrote a western, albeit one that is out of print. he also gave me a copy of something called 'context: a forum for literary arts and culture', my curiosity about the topic of out-of-print markson novels apparently having qualified me as someone who would be interested in such things.)
the frank miller designed edition of gravity's rainbow.
'modern dramatists: gilbert and sullivan', by charles hayter.
psmith journalist and all omnibuses containing it seem to be out of print. bah.
― thomp, Wednesday, 19 September 2007 19:45 (seventeen years ago) link
I don't think I'm ever going to get around to finishing Markson's Down In Mexico novel, so I haven't bothered going near the detective novels.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 19 September 2007 20:16 (seventeen years ago) link
Isn't Context an organ of The Dalkey Archive?
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 19 September 2007 21:02 (seventeen years ago) link
I treated myself! A good hour of browsing in a lovely dusty old second-hand-bookstore turned up the following:
A Frolic of His Own - William Gaddis The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett Summer in Baden-Baden - Leonid Tsypkin The Barracks Thief & Selected Stories - Tobias Wolff Authority & the Individual - Bertrand Russell Mr Palomar - Italo Calvino Memoirs of Hadrian - Marguerite Yourcenar
Plus a $3 copy of Antony and Cleopatra since it's my favourite and I did't own a copy.
― franny glass, Thursday, 20 September 2007 01:02 (seventeen years ago) link
The Psmith omnibus is in print in the UK, I believe.
― James Morrison, Thursday, 20 September 2007 01:16 (seventeen years ago) link