Just returned from my usual monthly (or so) visit to one of my favorite local used bookstores. Bought 26 books out of the $80 of store credit I had after trading in 40 books, with only one of those being anything related to genre fiction. My interests seem to be shifting again and I'm curious to see how long this will last. In this first photo, I have a Croatian prayer book/hymnal (I'm slowly teaching myself how to read Serbian/Croatian), an Indonesian translation of the New Testament (bringing my foreign language count up to 14), as well as nice editions of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius' writings and of Stendhal's The Red and the Black, which has been a favorite of mine since I was a 21 year-old college senior. Will certainly read/review the Stendhal in the near future, as I'm overdue for a re-read.
Been meaning to buy/read The Ox-Bow Incident for over a dozen years and 50¢ is a bargain, I believe. Starting to read some more histories (if you look at the first photo, you might see that I have now completed collecting the Easton Press leatherbound edition of Gibbon's work) and I thought it was past time that I acquire a copy of Jacob Burckhardt's The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. Also wanted to read more Cormac McCarthy and Charles Bukowski, thus copies of All the Pretty Horses and Pulp, respectively. And the final book in this picture is a seven-language dictionary that I bought out of curiosity.
Here are the foreign language books (seven French, two German) that I picked up for almost a song (I think it was something like $5 for all seven of these). Mostly famous writers, as well as one historical account of the Hitler Youth that I picked up out of nostalgia for my grad school days, I suppose.
I really do love reading what The Onion produces, so when I saw a collection of their 1996-1997 era faux news reports, I just had to have it, I suppose. Also a bit interested in Camus' non-fiction writing and even more so in the posthumous Mark Twain book that takes a few jabs at certain religious conventions. Lermontov was purchased out of curiosity. Priest's book will be the third by him that I will have read by the time I get around to it. Livy, as I noted above, was bought in part to go with the other histories I've been reading recently. Finally, another papal book because I do enjoy reading those and thinking about what is said there.
Any strike your fancy and if so, why?
Posts
6 comments:
I love Bukowski; he may be more blunt and off the cuff than Hemingway. However, he certainly isn't for everyone. McCarthy gives me headaches. I really wish he wasn't too cool for punctuation, but I do like the stories he tells. I haven't read all that he's written but All the Pretty Horses is my favorite of those I have read.
Livy is .. stiff if memory serves correctly.
The Lermontov is fun but certainly not indicative of the later Russian Romantics. I keep hoping Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky will get bored enough to translate that book, but seems they indefinitely put off my literary Christmas.
I keep meaning to ask..is the store McKay's?
I love Bukowski, but I'm not a big fan of "Pulp." I believe that one was published posthumously so it's not really a polished work (more a case of the publisher dusting off an old manuscript and looking for profit). The good Bukowski books are: "Ham on Rye," "Post Office," "Factotum," "Women," and "Hollywood." I think that's all the novels. "Notes From a Dirty Old Man" is a good collection of stories/poems, and some of his poetry collections are great.
Jeff,
It is. I love trading in books there, although I'll buy some of the rarer books occasionally from Bookman/Bookwoman in the Hillsboro area.
Chad,
I can understand that feeling of hit-or-miss (and apparently, mostly miss for you) in regards to McCarthy; I've only read three books of his (Blood Meridian, No Country for Old Men, and The Road). Not very familiar with Russian Romantics, to be honest.
Walter,
Only Bukowski I've read is Ham on Rye, so I'll keep your comments in mind when I get around to reading it.
Should "Hero of our Time" peak your interest, I'd say follow it up with Turgenev, Chekov and Gogol. They set a great foundation for the heavy hitters as far as influence and themes are concerned.
I found this sentence interesting because it raises questions of how many of the effects of a text are intended by the author. Is the author’s use of language always as “thoughtful” and intentional as Grossman suggests? An example in my own work is the
it is very interesting story
Post a Comment