The OF Blog: March 21-28 Book Porn

Saturday, March 28, 2009

March 21-28 Book Porn



These are all purchases this week, as no review copies arrived. However, I think many here will be curious about what I am currently purchasing, as well as seeing cover art both old and new, so instead of just the spines, here are the photos of each book's cover art.

Left: David Shields and Bradford Morrow (eds.), Conjunctions 51: The Death Issue (just reviewed it last night and this is an outstanding collection of stories revolving around Death and its various aspects. Highly recommended.); Mervyn Peake, Titus Alone (this is from the first paperback edition released in the US in the late 1960s. Review will be forthcoming. Enjoyed it, but not as much as the first two. Note that this is the original edition and not the expanded, apparently better revised edition of a few years ago).




Left: Roberto Bolaño, Monsieur Pain (one of Bolaño's earlier novels, written in the 1980s but not published in Spain until later. Good, but it's obvious that he hasn't fully come into his own as a writer then); Daniel Goldhagen, A Moral Reckoning (this book complements his 1997 gadfly look at the Holocaust, Hitler's Willing Executioners. While I want to be sympathetic with some of his arguments, his methodology and tendency to make sweeping pronouncements with no primary source citation has made this book, 100 pages in, into an often-irritating read).




Left: Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: Worlds' End (eighth volume in this excellent graphic novel series, this time recasting the Bocaccio/Chaucer frame story into a setting that fits with the overall Sandman world); Hope Mirrlees, Lud-in-the-Mist (I borrowed a copy from a friend in 2005 and decided that I wanted to re-read it shortly, so I went ahead and bought a copy. Good stuff).




Left: Steph Swainston, The Year of Our War (been meaning to read Swainston for a while now, so expect a review in the next month or so); Paul Auster, The New York Trilogy (omnibus of three novellas written by Auster in the 1980s. Outstanding work. Since this book may be voted in for a future review, I'll wait until the results are done before writing more than a cursory praise).




Left: Daniel Abraham, A Betrayal in Winter (second volume of a work I've meant to return to reading for almost two years now. Will do so in the next month or so); Michael Moorcock, Byzantium Endures (first in his Pyat quartet, which many writers whose opinions I value have held up as one of his better works. Will be reading this today and perhaps tomorrow, depending on time/energy).

3 comments:

Liviu said...

I like Steph Swainston series - has some flaws and its "artificiality" can be grating, but it also has great characters and imagination.

I think in the New Weird Anth there is a story that's part of the 3rd volume with the "Hunt"

The only thing that I read by M. Moorocock is the Pyat series - tried other stuff and nothing appealed.

The first book is just superb, the second has great parts but some that did not work that well, same with #3, while #4 Vengeance of Rome is just unbelievable - wacky and unpublishable - at least by a major house - in the US as the author stated and I tend to believe it from the content; let's put it like this, not for the squeamish, with some "perversions" that either will turn your stomach or you will just laugh at them, but excellent overall

I have the original hardcover from the UK, but I see on Amazon that it's available at a reasonable price in several UK editions

Larry Nolen said...

I'm going to be reading the Swainston in a week or so, depending on how much time I devote to reading during my vacation (not much, I think, as I have a booked Monday-Wednesday at least).

As for the Moorcock, I'm about 100 pages in and I agree that it's excellent. Book 2 is on order and I'll have to wait and see on the others. And yes, my edition is a 2006 UK tradeback edition.

Liviu said...

I read the first 2 Pyat books in the early 90's, from an academic library though.

Later I bought the 1994 TPB from Phoenix of Byzantium (1st UK is 82) and the original (1st US) 1988 Random House hc of Carthage (1st UK is 86) - have no idea where from - but it took me some time to track down a 1996 tpb of Jerusalem again from Phoenix (1st UK is 94).

So when finally after 12 years Rome was published in 06 I was very excited and got the original Cape hc asap - and to this one I was referring that Mr. Moorcock claimed it's unpublishable here, but it's easily found on Amazon in UK editions.

The other 3 have had some US editions, but I think the UK ones are easier to get overall too

 
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