This first photo is of the books I bought yesterday in Nashville at Davis Kidd (my favorite physical bookstore) after taking care of a teaching-related matter. The three on top I bought from a remainder pile for classics at $3.99 each and since I do love my 18th and early 19th century writers/poets as much as ancient Greek ones...Top-left: Lucian, Selected Dialogues; John Dryden, The Major Works; Robert Browning, The Major Works.
Bottom-left: Vladimir Nabokov, Pnin; Charles Stross, Halting State; Yasmina Traboulsi, Bahia Blues.
This second set of books consists of books bought today while attending a new teacher orientation in my new school district, ordered online, or is an Advance Review Copy. See if you can pick out the ARC here...Top-left: Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet; Peter F. Hamilton, Misspent Youth; John Julius Norwich, A Short History of Byzantium.
Bottom-left: Orhan Pamuk, My Name is Red; Jeff VanderMeer, Secret Lives.
Hopefully, I'll have more to say on some of these books at least in the coming months. Now back to mourning my fading youth...
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21 comments:
I've got My Name is Red sitting here in the tbr waiting for a re-read.
I've been meaning to read his work for some time now. Today was just the day I finally remembered to buy it while I had 30 minutes to waste during a lunch break.
Still confused by time zones, but since it's Thursday here at least, Happy birthday! And enjoy the books.
Very nice books you have bought and received, Larry :) I'm not sure which one is the ARC, because I think all of them were published before 2006 *shrugh*
Happy Birthday, Larry, and may all your wishes come true :)
Thanks, both of you! I'm all set to be lazy today, after spending much of two days out of town :D
Happy Birthday!
Norwich's Byzantium book is superb - though I have the full 3 volume set and I am not sure how the abridgment works - reads like a novel
It is popular history, but very well done.
The arc is the white/patterned covered one typical of Del Rey arcs, Misspent Youth - I am just reading the Caine 3 arc which looks exactly the same. I read Misspent Youth when published in the UK and while a non-typical and very minor Hamilton it is better than the usual review will let you think it is
Thanks, Liviu! I thumbed through the Norwich, as I just wanted any sort of history on Byzantium just then (a course on it was never offered when I was in school, sadly) and it does read very, very well, even if I'll want more analysis in the future :P
As for the Hamilton, I haven't tried any of his works yet, so it might be a while. Hoping to get the Caine ARC soon, or else I'll have to fire off an email about it!
I have a brother in law who has a PhD in Byzantine history - small slice about numismatics in the early centuries - and once in a while I got him books from here and it seems the general reference work on Byzantine history is Ostrogorsky History of the Byzantine State. Norwich quotes it quite a few times from what I remember. I read the Norwich books several times, they are very absorbing.
I own or read most of his other works, Venice, Sicily and the Normans, and more recently the all purpose history of the Mediterranean - Middle Sea - but none is as good as this one
Happy birthday, Larry. We're the same age.
"My Name is Red" is an absolutely brilliant book! - murder mystery, historical fiction and musings on Western and Eastern conceptions of art and artists, presented in a postmodernist narrativeform. Enjoy.
I was, however, a little disappointed in "Snow", but I've heard good things about his "Black Book", which is on my TRP.
Liviu,
I'll have to look for that book in the future then!
Rob,
Thanks. The older I get, the more convinced I am that those born in the mid-70s had the best of so many worlds compared to those older and younger than us :D
Trinuviel,
I hope to read it sometime in the next week or so, but I have a lot of new things to do for my new job, alas. Physical, laptop pickup, in-service meetings, etc. Joy.
The abridged Byzantine Norwich is okay, but nothing compared to the glory of the three-volume set. A huge influence on City of Saints. I also have his other books, although now that I think about it, I never actually acquired the sun kingdom set, I think. I did read them.
Happy birthday!
Jeff VanderMeer
Thanks, Jeff! And I'll keep that in mind, as the little I've read makes me really curious about the unabridged set. Much as I love cultural histories, narrative histories like this are beloved by me as well and I'm impressed with his writing style.
I might post something later about it, but I have so many other pots on the fire right now, alas.
Happy Birthday, Larry!
Thanks, Kathy! :D
Happy Birthday Larry! If I'm not too late.
Thanks, Anne! And there's still almost six hours remaining (plus I was born just before 7 PM CDT, so you're very close to getting it on the dot) :D
Happy Birthday!
I picked up Naguib Mahfouz's Seventh Heaven based on your post about him some time back and thoroughly enjoyed it. Will be cheking out his other works.
Thanks and you're welcome! :D Glad you enjoyed it as well :D
Happy Birthday.
Your book porn posts are so not good for my To Be Bought pile and my purse. ;)
Thanks! And it's nice to know that these book porn posts are tempting people to indulge in their book lust :D
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