After being laid up much of the past eight days or so with a severe cold/bronchial infection, I finally had the opportunity to go trade in more of my books (and about three dozen of my dad's that he gave to me in order to clear his own shelves) for books to purchase for my students, for class sets, and a few for my own.
Some of these books were good, yet not the sort that I'd need (or want) to re-read a second time, a few more were merely mediocre, a couple were distinctly full of suckitude (like the Huso), and three were never read due to lack of interest.
Perhaps a few of you might be reading this and wonder to yourselves, "How could he get rid of _____? That's a very good book!", but then again, compare that to the books that I did buy for myself with the store credit received from these books and from the $71 I had left over from three weeks ago:
Bilingual Greek and Latin editions of two early historians, a translation of a famous medieval German poem, Zweig in Italian translation, and two very old editions of two Twain novels that I have yet to read.
Then there's Schiller in the original German, Parzival in the original German, Rousseau in French, Calvino in Italian, a couple more Italian writers, all of which is worth more to me now than recently-published work that is much more likely to end up remaindered than being remembered two years from now. And then there are three earlier purchases: two Easton Press editions and the unexpurgated first volume of Twain's autobiography. Guess I'm gearing up for a Twain reading session in the coming weeks, much of it dealing with his lesser-known works.
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8 comments:
Good stuff.
Just reading Foucault's Pendulum now myself, which makes many references to von Eschenbach's Parzival.
Better read the Twain quickly before it gets sanitized. :)
I thought this was supposed to be a fantasy blog, but all you read is foreign drivel. When's the last time you even read an SFF book? Pat's Hotlist is so much better.
PAT! PAT! PAT! PAT!
Do you even read any books at all these days? Is this even a blog? Who are you? I don't know you any more.
Yeah, I might comment about the Twain bowdlerization later this month, since that seems to be a "hot topic." I might have a few new things to add to that, though. As for Foucault, it's been 3-4 years since I last read that Eco book, so I might have to re-read it after I read von Eschenbach.
Anon,
Four legs good, two legs bad? :P
You know, if you *really* want to get in the Eschenbach mood, play Wagner's Parsifal in the background while you're reading it. (Or sit down and just watch the whole 4 hour opera first to get its sound world in your head.) It's obviously not to everyone's taste, but man... I lived and breathed this opera for about a month a few years ago. That'll make a Templar out of you.
Too bad I am pretty sure anon's post was a joke, otherwise one could mention how Pat's fans and supporters clearly lack either the focus to read further than the top post or the basic reading ability needed to understand last week's post.
Jason, I for one am over the Twain 'sanitation' movement. I had an opinion about it last night, but now I'm over it. The originals will still be out there as will this new bastardization.
I imagine we'll have to wait until after the books publication in February, but I hope the publishing world finds something else to talk about in the time in between.
It looks like you've moved A Short History of Fantasy, but that's one I've had my eye on purchasing. Have you read it? Amazon.com has no recommendations and if you could I'd like to get your opinion.
Anon, this blog has been taken over by squirrels long ago, and you know those fluffy-tailed critters have a short attention span and read all over the place. :)
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