Wish Lists

69 books at the moment, but the number changes every week.

#1 spot is Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock.

And I'd just like to say what a crock of shit the Amazon "Wish List" is. Has anyone ever gotten items off their list as a gift from someone? I know I haven't. It's more of a "I'm eventually going to buy these for myself" List.

Just this morning I read about a young man who kept a diary as he struggled with AIDS for 15 years. He left the diary to a former English teacher and asked her to write a book about him.
"A Boy I Once Knew" by Elizabeth Stone. This sounds interesting to me.

francois auissemain's 'pensées' - I think he's actually just a figment of d*n p*t*rs*n's imagination. the more I come to think about it.

it's top of my wishlist.

cozen,
see, it's stuff like that that makes me certain I am the dumbest person here.

What books are on your bedside table? A little Erasmus? Some Euclid and sherry after dinner? A bit of Aeschylus before sleep?

You should read to my kids. You do any Dr.Seuss?

Oh dear. I have 18 items on my wish list and only two of them are fiction: Complete Works of Oscar Wilde and the 1001 Nights. I don't actually give out my wish list; I use it for keeping tabs on what I want to buy.

I have 300 and something on my wishlist. My friends tend to make fun of me for my list as it has "The Bedside Book of Death" right next to "101 Bread Recipes".

I currently have *ducking* 323 items on my Wish List. Kind of embarassing to be such a conspicuous consumer (or, rather, a wishful conspicuous consumer, which, really, isn't that bad, right?) But I also have a spreadsheet floating around my HD that has 42 pages to it - I went with the spreadsheet when the Wish List became too unweildy, though I must admit to liking the new "Printable View" option; it's a bit easier to navigate/maintain. (I still wish it was possible to organize the thing, though.)

I've actually had some good luck with my Wish List - back when it was searchable I had some "Amazon Fairy" who kept sending my surprise packages from my list (probably a family member, I'm guessing). It backfired a bit, though, because not only do I use the list as a storage space for books that I want, I also use it for storage of gift ideas for others. So I ended-up receiving a few things that I'll never read - so I passed them along to their intended recipients.

Clellie - have you looked at Virent Ova! Viret Perna!!, which is Green Eggs and Ham in Latin? Or the ever-popular Quomodo Invidiosulus Nomine Grinchus Christi Natalem Abrogaverit? The later was a big hit around the Christmas tree this year. Delightfully pretentious and great fun to listen to us trying to sound educated and multi-lingual.

Jessa - I once had The Body Emblazoned: Dissection and the Human Body in Renaissance Culture next to The Very Hungry Caterpillar Board Book.

Top of my list (well, figuratively, at least):
1. The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon
2. Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words
3. A Short History of a Small Place: A Novel (on the list twice - once in hardcover, once in soft - oops.)
4. The Book of Disquietude: By Bernardo Soares, Assistant Bookkeeper in the City of Lisbon
5. Sleazoid Express: A Mind-Twisting Tour Through the Grindhouse Cinema of Times Square
6. The Radioactive Boy Scout: The True Story of a Boy and His Backyard Nuclear Reactor
7. The Salt Eaters
8. The Revolution of Little Girls
9. The Shadow of the Sun
10. Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard

I need an Amazon Wishlist fairy. Where do I get one of those?

Okay, here's the top list of books from the list I want:

A Chorus of Stones by Susan Griffin
Hermit in Paris by Italo Calvino
Essential Acker by Kathy Acker
Handbook on Hanging by Charles Duff
London: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd
Eclipse by John Banville
This Man's Pill by Carl Djerassi
Another Day of Life by Ryszard Kapuscinski
The Art of Eating by M F K Fisher
War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges

I like that list of yours, Jessa. As far as Amazon WishList Faeries, well, maybe you should first make sure that you don't have Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book anywhere on your list or in your ordering history. Second, close your eyes, picture your fairy, and cry "I believe, I believe!"

Let me know if any of this works. If so, I'm going to write a self-help book on the topic and go on tour.

Maybe you should set up a nonprofit organization. "Creating Connections Between Those With Too Much Money and Those With Too Many Books on Their Amazon.com Wishlists."

I know how to fill out the 501(c)(3) forms for nonprofits, I'd be willing to donate that skill for such an org!

Jessa, I may have to send you that MFK Fisher book as I ADORE Fisher - she sent me into the whirlpool of foodie reading, gods love her...

I don't understand why publishers aren't sending all their new books to Jessa.

Honestly.

Whatup wit dat?

If you want to ask them yourself, you could start with Pantheon. Oh, Pantheon, why have you spurned me? I want copies of your delicious, shiny graphic novels! Damn you!

jessa,
i picked up 'the art of eating' for less than a dollar at a local sunday book bazaar... will gladly pass it on when i visit the states in a few months
cheers