Took a personal day today just so I could do a few things without feeling the need to cram everything into Saturday and Sunday. One of the things I did was trade more books at my favorite used bookstore in Nashville, McKay's. Here are some of the books I traded in (the majority were trashy romance novels of my mother's). In this first picture, you can see three leatherette books issued by the Franklin Library. Since I now own or have ordered full-leather editions of each, these were expendable. Still a nice quality book to put up, likely for $10 or so.
These were some review copies that I either never was going to read or that I received by mistake multiple copies.
These were the National Book Award or Booker Prize winners and finalists whose stories did not impress me enough to consider re-reading them in the near future. Oh, and two MMPBs of urban fantasies that do not interest me.
Here is part of what I bought in return (the majority of the purchases were books for my students to read in their spare time, based largely on requests from them). Still continuing my French self-study, as you may see when looking at these titles.
Five books, five languages. Have read samples of each of these authors before and wanted to read more in each case.
Any of these books particularly appealing to you? If so, why?
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6 comments:
Balzac appeals the most, I think. Though not, perhaps, in the original French. My French being good enough to get by in Francophone countries, but that's about it.
Mostly because of the influence that he is supposed to have had on a lot of fiction that I've enjoyed in the past.
Richard
Near the end of Au bonheur des dames, there is an stunning chapter when the heroes despairs of the woman he loves while he sort of contemplates the whole world converging towards his store and then going away - as if the store was an hourglass, an obligatory passage. Globalization and vertigo !
I don't like Zola but I got this one book because of that chapter. Zola is the epitome of realist authors in French literature, but that is sheer visionary fantasy.
I so hate that the French are cheap bastards. Yes, I mean that. For some reason they are too cheap to produce hardcover books. I can order tons of hardcover books from amazon.de for a low price - the shipment is usually as much as the cost of the books. But can I get anything other than those crappy "Folio classique" volumes for less than 50 euro a book? Non.
Seeing all those cracked spines and dog-eared covers harrows me to the core of my very soul.
I agree that it's a shame there aren't any hardcover editions readily available for us to purchase, as I have very few small paperbacks...and half of those seem to be these French editions. Even the Italians and Spanish produce some hardcovers in attractive formats that aren't too terribly expensive.
Not only are the editions expensive, but because Bibliothèque de la Pléiade versions are only issued in a limited number, they go out of print and become even harder to find and/or purchase. I ended up dumping another $250 buying Zola and Balzac because they're almost out of the Pléiade versions that came out in the 1990s and only about 10 titles come out each year for republication. Unfortunately, some of those might be things I don't want to buy (like French translations of Tolstoy).
Sounds like the problems I have finding certain Franklin Library or Easton Press editions, just multiplied by ten times or so. Too bad I just can't fly over to Paris and buy some books in nicer editions. Maybe the cost is cheaper there as well? What online service are you using to acquire the books? ABEbooks, or something else?
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