Since I had about 5 hours to waste, I spent the time shopping in a few stores in Nashville, including visits to a B&N and the local Davis-Kidd. 11 out of the 16 books pictured here are from that splurge. In addition, I received another 5 books in the mail either after yesterday's post or today. However, all but two these are purchases and one of those that isn't ought to be quite obvious by its spine.
Top: Roberto Bolaño, The Romantic Dogs (Bilingual poetry collection of the late, great Chilean/Spanish writer. While not as immediately eye-grabbing as his novels, these poems are viscerally raw and to the point. Recommended highly, as I read this while waiting for the MRI.); Carlos Ruiz Zafón, El principe de la niebla; Las luces de septiembre, El palacio de la medianoche (Before The Shadow of the Wind, Zafón made his mark as a YA author. Sometimes, some of those who look askance at YA lit and yet who praise Zafón's work might want to consider the origins of his writing career ;)); Alexandre Dumas, Georges (It's a Dumas story that I've yet to read. Enough said, right?); Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Martian Tales Trilogy (so I was in the mood for something a bit "campy" - sue me?).
Top: W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk (This will be quite helpful in some of my lesson planning for early next week, plus I've wanted to read more about DuBois for years now); F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise (Just buying a hardcover to replace the MMPB of one of my favorite Fitzgerald tales); Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr.,The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction (Just so I can keep up to date with the SF criticism models...); Dean Koontz, Frankenstein: Prodigal Son (Graphic novel story from the Dabel Brothers and Del Rey. Don't know anything else about it yet, to be honest, as it is a review copy sent to me).
Top: Ferenc Karinthy, Metropole (Purchased this recently after reading E.L. Fay praising it. Read it last night. It is worthy of such praise.); Junot Díaz, Drown (Been meaning to buy this for a while, ever since I read and loved his The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao in late 2007); Roland Topor, The Tenant (I've had my eye on this horror book for a while now, so when I saw it in the bookstore today, I just had to get it); G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (I wanted to read his apologia for Christianity and why he became a Catholic. Will read this one in the very near future, likely before Ash Wednesday begins on 2/25); Juan José Millás, El Mundo (This won the 2007 Premio Planeta and is a mixture of imaginative storytelling and a relation of the author's inspirations to write); Aaron Allston, Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi (This is the first of a trilogy dealing with events after yet another series, the Legacy one, I think).
Not bad for a self-pitying buying splurge, huh? I'll forego photographing the clothes and other things I bought as well.
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6 comments:
Have you read the Chevalier de Saint-Hermine - tr. Last Cavalier - the missing Dumas novel that he was working on when he died, found after 100+ years in the archives?
Georges is a weird read from a modern perspective.
Clearly inspired by Dumas racist encounters - he was a quarter black, the grandson of a black slave and her impoverished aristocrat owner, while his father was known as The Black General and was for obvious reasons one of the most loyal generals of the Revolution, later Napoleon marginalized him and he died in poverty and Napoleon did not even want to pay his widow and children the well deserved pension -
Georges is still tinged by the racist views of the 19th century, so the mulatto hero is oppressed by the white aristocracy, but in turn the black slaves are portrayed mostly as "children"
I was very surprised by this book when I read it many years ago and only later when I read Dumas biography I sort of understood where it came from
Good luck with the knee debacle. I'd be terrified.
'Orthodoxy' is very interesting. I read it back in college...found myself on a Chesterton binge. I especially thought his comments on the imagination were fascinating. And though I'm Protestant I read as much Chesterton as I can find. The man was a colossus.
I just remembered reading that he was all of 34 yrs. old when Chesterton wrote 'Orthodoxy.' Still a relatively young age for a magnum opus. And how appropriate that you should be reading it this year!
Even though Metropole is on the longlist for Best Translated Book of 2008, I'm actually hoping Victor Serge's Unforgiving Years wins. It's a damn crying shame how Serge has been neglected for decades as a major Russian writer.
I am curious about how the Dean Koontz graphic novel turns out. Much as I love Koontz (Phantoms has always been one of my favorite books), most of his recent works have become so preachy and over-sentimental. I don't think he's ever been good a writing realistically nuanced characters (that aren't either flawlessly virtuous heroes or irredeemably evil villains) but lately he's gone completely overboard. (From the Corner of His Eye actually had people named Seraphim, Celestina, Grace, and Angel.)
Liviu: I was quite disappointed by Chevalier du Saint-Hermine. The Napoleon passages were brilliant, but the chevalier as main character was just beyond... somethingorother.
And Larry: I came across this comment on Chesterton by Edmund Wilson:
"...whose writing here as elsewhere is always
melting way into that peculiar pseudo-poetic booziness which verbalizes with large conceptions and
ignores the most obtrusive actualities."
And then I laughed. It is funny because it is true.
Fate of the Jedi is actually a 9 book series which takes place sometime after the Legacy of the Force series.
Just in case it really mattered to you. ;)
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