Late February and Early March 2010 Book, Bible, and Magazine Porn

Several types of books and magazines have been acquired over the past few weeks.  Several come from a Friday night visit to my favorite Nashville area used bookstore, McKay's, as pictured in this first picture.  Some translated, some mimetic, some speculative fiction, each part and parcel of what I enjoy reading any given month.

The two language books (yes, I'm still curious about the structures of languages and if I can acquire a grammar for a cheap rate, I usually do so on my monthly trips to McKay's) and the de Quevedo are used books, the Onetti is new and purchased, while the Pehov and Griffin books are review copies sent to me by Tor and Orbit US.

The bottom two books are review copies sent by Orbit US, while the rest are purchases.  I reviewed the Bolaño Sunday afternoon.  Read the Aira and thought it was mostly good fare and I will purchase more of his works in the near future.  Calvino's works were excellent, as is almost always the case for me. Currently reading the Roberto Arlt and Leopoldo Lugones books.  Nice to be reminded just how much writing talent there was in Buenos Aires between 1920 and 1986.

The Herodotus I acquired at McKay's this past Friday.  The others are review copies sent to me; the bottom two from Night Shade, the other one from Prometheus Books, the parent company of Pyr Books.  First two are non-fiction works, the rest are best of 2009 collections (which I'll read after I finish a few more journals, since I don't want other editors to influence my longlist).

All but the Stover book (which was a serendipitous find, especially when it was only $4.50 for a book that normally goes $30+ used these days.  Nice replacement copy, even if I tend to avoid books with creased spines if possible) are review copies.  The top book is from Orbit US, the rest from Pyr.  Already read the Kenyon book and it is comparable in quality to the first three volumes in this fine SF quadrilogy.  Didn't have time to review it at the time I read it, but I would highly recommend the series and this book to most readers.

Bible Porn!  This time, it's the New Testament translations into Czech and Romanian, along with the full French translation.  Almost bought an Armenian translation, but I didn't have an Armenian grammar and thus couldn't learn the alphabet and basic grammar.  Maybe next time.  This brings my total of translations of either the New Testament or the entire Bible to 12 (English, Greek, Latin, Haitian, Spanish, French, Serbian, Czech, Russian, Portuguese, Gullah, and Romanian).  Perhaps one of these days I'll get around to reading the entire thing in any language...

Received three magazines for consideration for Best American Fantasy 4:  Not One of Us, Witness, and Epiphany.  Bought the Fall 2009 issue of Tin House.  So far, what little I've read of these, I've been quite pleased.

And that about does it for this installment of Book/Bible/Magazine porn.  Any of these you want to know more about or hope that I review at length later (I won't review at length anything being considered for BAF4 until I submit my longlist to the guest editor, Minister Faust, this summer).