Book Hauls 3: Witty subtitle about cheap books

FYI: For those Vollmanniacs among us, Amazon is selling Vollmann's monstrous epic Imperial for $22. Retail price: $55. This is a 1300 page hardcover.

Just so you know ...

I still have to grab a copy of EUROPE CENTRAL--I got it as an inter-library loan and ran out of time, getting only halfway through the book before I had to return it. IMPERIAL is 1300 pages? Must be the size of a Chevy engine block...

It's also available as an e-book, but of course that wouldn't work as good as a door-stopper :-P

2: I'm considering to do a back-to-back read of Europe Central and Littell's The Kindly Ones, since both are controversial epics about WW 2. And probably doing the same thing for Les Miserables and War and Peace, since both center around the Napoleonic Wars.

Hopefully Imperial won't disappoint like the similarly huge Under the Dome But if Vollmann is anything, it isn't lazy. Guy's an unstoppable writing machine.

Re: Vollmann--I'm in awe of the combination of productivity and talent. Not too many out there who can touch him in that regard.

The only ones who come close are Honore de Balzac, Emile Zola, and Karl Marx

Quite a few years ago I couldn't believe my luck to find an early edition hard cover copy of The God of Small Things- by Arundhati Roy for only AU$2. It's lovely, none of the covers on LT match it exactly. How do I find out if it's a first edition, any ideas? Might it be worth something if it is?

7: Check the copyright page. If there's only a single date on it, then you might have something there. And if it's a little-known cover, that's an added bonus.

Thanks for that- I see only one date. I guess I can only assume that its first edition. Being my shallow and consumerist self- I shall love it even more now.

first edn has full numberline & India Ink, 1997. shows Rs395 on flap Printed and bound in India by Thomson Press. it's worth a bit. You can find copies on ABE with cover, etc

9: Don't worry, you're not alone. Occasionally I scan Abebooks on prices for Rising Up and Rising Down, the 7 volume edition. I scored it a few years ago ... retail! Currently, the cheapest copy -- an ex-library edition -- is going for twice what I paid for it. It might warm my consumerist cockles, but I'd have to be in very hard financial straits to give it up. The old books vs. food conundrum and such. Probably start gnawing my own arm before I give up that particular Vollmann. (And I'm sure I'm not the only one on LT with that predilection.)

I've been away for a while with my latest obsession: PaperBackSwap. I just spent a fortune on postage, immediately shipping about 25 of my books. That was a surprising percentage of what I posted. Ah, the cost of being popular (or having popluar books).

I'm looking forward to that subsequent pile of credits. My first incoming volume: a pristine edition of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

Inventing the Nation by Gore Vidal
Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner
The Salterton Trilogy by Robertson Davies -- sorry Cliff, I bought another passive Canuck novel.

My local Books-a-Million had about ten shelves and tables full of clearance books today. :)
I got two YA dystopias (hardcover!) for $4 each, The Other Side of the Island and Restoring Harmony, and the Penguin Editions of She and Sunjata for $2 each.

I braved the snow to pop through to Glasgow, to the hallowed Voltaire and Rousseau.
Bagged myself a 2-volume shorter Oxford English dictionary, just like this one: http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/jsp/id/Shorter_Oxford_English_Dictionary/9780199... but in a 1931 edition. It's a bit bashed and battered, but they were a pound a volume. I've always wanted one, but never been able to justify it. I couldn't not though, at that price. Just got to find somewhere to put them now.

Sorry benchritchley

Today I got a 1989 2 volume Shorter Oxford, still with dust jackets - £3.60 charity bookshop.

Aaaaaaaauuuuugggggghhhh!

Auntie, that's one in a million.

Oh, to own a decent set of Oxfords...

I just spent a $30 Books on board coupon I won in a contest. I have to say that of the three books I bought, two were inspired by comments I read here.

I bought:
Blood Meridian
The Portrait
Imperial

Now I've got to find the time to read all these, plus the 2 or 3 I've bought and not yet read, plus at least some of the classics I downloaded...

18: You can always use Imperial to prop our car when you need to a change a tire. Like Australian table wines, it has a wonderful nose and can be used in hand-to-hand combat.

19: That's an idea but (a) I have no car and (b) that's one area where e-book don't really cut it :-P

I guess I'll just have to read it...

Haha

2666 - £1.95 Bwhahahahahahah

21: congratulations! Another door-stopper, I understand?

AuntieCatherine - you win!
Have I missed a memo or something? Are shorter Oxfords now unsaleable in the age of wiki?

23:

Apparently.

Before I snagged a complete Oxford (albeit the miniaturized version), I purchased my two-volume shorter Oxford for $1 per volume at a local library book sale.

The World as Will and Representation
Cooking and Dining in Imperial Rome by Apicius
Memoirs of an Anti-Semite by Gregor von Rezzori
The Kalevala

Passing by the discount book stall at the local shopping centre with Christmas money in my pocket. Came away with:

The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Dark Matter by Juli Zeh
The Library of Shadows by Mikkel Birkegaard

Particularly happy with the Zeh, as I'd been eyeing that one off full price the last few months, nice to find it half price.

NC Archives and History Publications has a holiday sale, so my mom and I bought a bunch of books, most less than half price.
Mine:
The Prehistory of North Carolina
The Formative Cultures of the Carolina Piedmont by Joffree Lanning Coe
The Captain's Bride and The Deserter's Daughter by William D. Herrington (both of these seem to be Civil War-era chapbooks)
And I got Phantastes by George MacDonald and The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton with a year-old gift certificate to the local Christian bookstore (whose selection is awful - all the fiction is historical romance or Amish; they don't stock any of the fantasy/science fiction allegories that are more than 10 years old, so I had to order the books online; my dad's a minister, so people often give us gift cards there and are always surprised when we can't find anything good at the bookstore).

I'm always--well, not ALWAYS but frequently surprised by what turns up at library or thrift shop sales. Some really astonishing and hard-to-find works that literally make me chortle for joy when I see them (& I'm cheered even more by the realization that they cost only 50 cents).

Argall by Vollmann
Book of Martyrdom and Artifice by Ginsberg
Letters of Heidegger and Arendt
Midrash collection from Schocken

Indian Summer by William Dean Howells
The Book of Imaginary Beings by Borges, illustrated by Peter Sis
Wealth and Democracy by Kevin Phillips

Since it was New Year's Day, Goodwill had everything 50% off. All 3 for $2.50. Starting the year off right!

from the last few months:

The Armies of the Night by Mailer
Correction by Bernhard
The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis
San Camilo 1936 Camilo Jose Cela
Zone by Mathias Enard
Seaview by Olson
Faraway Places by Spanbauer
Haywire by Rutkowski
Lectures Cambridge by Wittgenstein
Logic: a Brief Insight by Graham Priest
Fate, Time, and Language by David Foster Wallace
Love in a Bottle by Szerb
The Freudian Slip by Timpanaro
Hitch-22 by Hitchens

I keep looking at that Lydia Davis book - one day I'll succumb, but I'm not really familiar with her work so it's a bit daunting

Concord Mills' Books-a-Million was having a great sale today (bins and bins and shelves and shelves of $1-5 books!!!), and since I conveniently had a $30 gift certificate from Christmas...
Female Playwrights of the Nineteenth Century - Everyman anthology
both Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte (which were on my Xmas wishlist)
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
A Modern Utopia by H.G. Wells (also on my wishlist)
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

Since getting my "Nook" for Christmas I have purchased:

-100 great mysteries for $0.99
-50 classics for $0.99
-Complete Shakespeare, all poetry and plays, for $2.99
-Complete Mark Twain for $2.99 (not including the recently released autobiography, of course)

I have spent the past several days deep in the G. K. Chesterton mysteries of Father Brown and the Man who Knew Too Much. I re-read R.L. Stevenson's The Black Arrow as well as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and 1601. I also read some shorter essays by Mark Twain, one that was about killing his conscience (I think it was called "A Crime Spree in Connecticut") and others that were equally funny.

I really am happy with the e-reader for its access to older stuff that is out of copyright.

My book group is reading a 3-part poem/play by Schiller that I have reserved for pick up at Powell's so there is that to look forward to as well.

I'm still moochin' like a fiend. I've received:

Independent People
The Translator
Dispatches
The Satanic Verses
Heat & Dust
My Name is Red
Brazillian Adventure
A Far Off Place
The Scramble for Africa
Great Books

YOU, dear sir, are a first-class moocher.

I gave up on bookmooch. Too many members were US-based and unwilling to send abroad, and the UK-based members didn't have the books I wanted. I've still got over 170 points to use.

A small but perfectly-formed haul from the local charity shops today: The Right True End, Stan Barstow (third book of the A Kind of Loving trilogy, of which I've seen and reviewed the television adaptation, see here; just need to find the first books now); A Scientific Romance, Ronald Wright (mainstream author gets playful with Wells' oeuvre, from the 1990s); and finally, a DH Lawrence omnibus which contains Sons and Lovers, The White Peacock, Lady Chatterley's Lover (which I've already read), and four novellas: St Mawr, The Fox, Love Among the Haystacks and The Virgin and the Gypsy.

Never heard of "bookmooch"... an interesting idea after I looked it up. I'll admit I don't usually have books I want to give away and when I'm loaning even to the best of friends I tend to be a bit controlling; a "mind-the-dust-jacket" type.

The D.H. Lawrence omnibus sounds great, I need to put more of his works on my TBR list, I really enjoyed Sons and Lovers and was just thinking about that book last night.

I've been using BookMooch for about three years now, and even if I have to wait sometimes to get books that I really want, it's worth it. Every once in a while some rather obscure book that's on my wishlist that I would never have expected to show up shows up...

'Received a BookMOOCH copy of The Laurel Poetry Series Milton and it contains a BookCROSS ID tag.

So, when I'm done reading, does anyone have any clever ideas as to where I can stick it?

Ok, no need to comment on that one...

Sunday morn, and I just returned from the local used book barn with several books, including a $ 0.75 paperback copy of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Also picked up A Writer at War.

'And a cheap old Modern Library copy of Great Modern Short Stories. Gotta love thse old art deco volumes.

That's funny, I almost picked up The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich from my used book sale this weekend...

The only reason I held back was because it was in desperate need of repair that I could not provide.

Happy Days by Sam Beckett
London Bridge by Ferdinand Celine

Got them at Half.com for cheap.

Got some review copies:

The Double Life of Alfred Buber by David Schmahmann -- Walter Mitty meets William Vollmann, a lawyer may or may not have a relationship with a Thai woman.

The Singular Exploits of Wonder Mom & Party Girl by Marc Schuster -- about a suburban mom who becomes a coke dealer.

It will be fun to discover what these new voices have to say.

Do you have Celine's GUIGNOL'S BAND? I think that's kind of a companion volume to LONDON BRIDGE.

I've probably received around 300 books via Bookmooch. I send out paperback books I buy for next to nothing at library sales and receive all kinds of amazing stuff in return.

I dont "book mooch" but, I do trade at my favorite bookstores. I bring in books I find at library sales and friend shops and I trade for books I want to read and/or for books I will sell on the net. Booksellers usually offer a better deal for credit than for cash and it is also possible to get trade and cash as I have done recently. It works very well for bookscouts like me and for any one who just wants good books to read. As a matter of fact you can turn books by authors we hate around here for books we like.

44: Unfortunately, I don't. I didn't realize it was a sequel until I bought it. Well ... I'll put it with the other Celines on my bookshelf. I do have all 3 volumes of his "Postwar Trilogy" -- Castle to Castle, North, and Rigadoon

Celine is a wonderful antidote to, say, Henry James and Marcel Proust

I have a Celine bio I want to look at, along with a lit crit book called The Novel as Delirium Looks promising.

Also picked up the Savage Detectives for $3. I think I paid more for shipping. Score!

Oh dear. Just went a bit mad on Amazon and bought half a dozen not-very-cheap books.

Four for the space books collection:
The Apollo Guidance Computer, Frank O'Brien
Sizing the Universe, J. Richard Gott III & Robert J. Vanderbei
Spacesuits, Amanda Young
Voices from the Moon, Andrew Chaikin

One on sf criticism:
Evaporating Genres, Gary K Wolfe

And this:
Spomenik, Jan Kempenaers

I'll do a book haul post on my blog when they arrive, of course.

Chaikin seems like THE Moon guy, doesn't he?

He does a bit.

Just broke down and got The Autobiography of Mark Twain for my new e-reader since it is about 1/4 the cost of buying the actual book. So far so funny. I'm in the midst of his travails with the automatic print setting machine that he rather stupidly invested way too much money in.

51> I am looking forward to reading that, I got it last month, but it's in another state since it was kind of heavy to travel with, haha. I ordered the book off of Amazon for about $19, which to me was worth it.

Well that new year's resolution didn't last long...

Twenty One Stories by Graham Greene
Collected Stories by EM Forster
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman
Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving
Room by Emma Donoghue
Even The Dogs by Jon McGregor
Fatherland by Robert Harris
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
Blackwater by Kerstin Ekman
When the Devil Holds the Candle by Karin Fossum

Good haul.

I should be getting Going Bovine, The Running Dream by Wendelin van Draanen, Badd by Tim Tharp, and The Maze Runner soon. Free from Random House - they have this online community/contest thing called Random Buzzers. Shipping seems to take forever, though.

Being and Nothingness by Sartre. A 1st edition hardcover. For $10. The original price of the 1951 hardcover, $10.
The Rector of Justin by Louis Auchincloss
Faust by Robert Nye ... he wrote Falstaff
A Balcony in the Forest by Julien Gracq
Lanark by Alasdair Gray

Disgrace and Elizabeth Costello by J.M. Coetzee
A Dream Deferred by Shelby Steele
Living to Tell the Tale by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

all for $5...

Fear and Trembling / Repetition by Kierkegaard (the nice Hong translations too)

The End of White World Supremacy by Malcolm X

Museum of the Occupation of Latvia: 1940 - 1991 An interesting guidebook for the museum.

Nabbed from a Saskatoon thrift shop:

UP IN THE AIR (Walter Kirn)
AUSTERLITZ (W.G. Sebald)
PLAINSONG (Kent Haruf)
LADIES' MAN (Richard Price)
THE GIVEN DAY (Dennis Lehane)

The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt
The Loser by Peter Ustinov -- not the similarly titled Thomas Bernhard book.
Castle Rackrent and the Absentee by Maria Edgeworth -- an Everyman Library edition from 1952.
Bangkok Tattoo by John Burdett
To Deny our Nothingness by Maurice Friedman -- Analysis of Jung, TS Eliot, Beckett, Camus, Greene, etc. From 1967, looks worth reading.

Had some good luck on BookMooch lately (like Ian above, most people don't want to post outside their country - I don't for one, it does cost far too much; and those within Australia tend to mooch stuff I'm not interested in). Got an alert saying that Petals of Blood was available, and when I browsed further in the moocher's inventory, also found Some Prefer Nettles.

Snaffled them both, and they arrived nice and quickly. And Mt TBR is groaning gently, and swaying alarmingly.

And that used up all my bookmooch points. I'd better get my act into gear and add some more books to my inventory to send out. (I usually bookcross books I don't want to keep any more, and pass them on directly to other bookcrossers in Au.)

Free for reviewing and from book giveaways:
How I Stole Johnny Depp's Alien Girlfriend by Gary Ghislain
The Radleys by Matt Haig
Under the Moons of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Scribbling Women by Marthe Jocelyn
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After by Steve Hockensmith

From BookMooch:
After by Francine Prose
The Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds

Curious what you think of THE RADLEYS--that one seems to be garnering some attention in certain quarters.

The Radleys - I've heard it's a vampire book that's not like other vampire books (i.e., Twilight). I was expecting it to be absolutely amazing, and so far it's not. It's just an unsentimental vampire book, and I haven't found anything really unique about it yet.

I would recommend the BBC series "Being Human." The premise sounds like a bad joke: a vampire and a werewolf move into a house haunted by a ghost. But it is a wonderful series with great characters and fun plots. The vampire guy can walk around in the sunlight, but there is no glittering or secret Mormon agenda like with Twilight.

I just finished reading The Radleys, funnily enough. I really enjoyed it, actually - it's a lot of fun. It's a shame that vampires are everywhere at the moment. I'd written another paragraph, but I'll hold that back until you've finished it

Look what I just got: Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed. It is enormous, and filled with lovely photos of modernist buildings. Cool or what.

(Touchstone not working. Sigh. So I've linked to the publisher's web site.)

That's a great find, Ian. Jesus, lookit that architecture...

The Theory of the Leisure Class by Veblen

The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy -- a nice NYRB edition. Never heard of Dundy, but it looks promising. Plus, NYRB edition with an intro by Terry Teachout They sure make durn fine books.

Those NYRB editions are lovely.

It's almost my birthday, and I scored as presents Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris and a non-fiction book, The Keys of Egypt: The Race to read the Hieroglyphs which does look interesting.

And on the same day, swung by the library and picked up two books that I had requested (and why do they always turn up at the same time??), Freedom and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Will have to prioritise those to read, I'm sure there's many eager readers in the queue behind me.

I went by my favorite used bookstore for the first time in over a year and got The Inheritors by William Golding, And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer (the sixth Hitchhiker's Guide book; it will be interesting to see how it turns out), and Visions of Utopia, which is a collection of three lectures given in 2000 at an Oxford University Press/New York Public Library lecture series. I was particularly thrilled about this one - I've never found utopian history books at used bookstores/book sales/antique stores before (my usual haunts).

Book hoarders--you are not alone:

http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/03/23/confessions-of-a-book-hoarder/

Ah, book hoarding. My second favorite pastime (besides reading, of course).

I've always had a ton of books in my room (both read and unread) that I can't get rid of, but lately it's gotten worse because I've gotten into reviewing books (mostly YA) on my new blog. I'm starting to figure out, however, that I should be more circumspect with what books I request or enter giveaways for. If I end up with a bunch of books that I requested merely because they looked a little bit interesting, I will end up forsaking my more "snobbish" reading. :)

I don't have a problem getting rid of multiple copies of books, etc. Also getting rid of textbooks, throwing away old computer manuals, not an issue for me. Why would anyone want to keep these things? Fire hazard.

And, until I discovered Library Thing, I didn't have a problem with owning books I hadn't read. Now I do, though. Maybe book hoarding and these other associated behaviors are contagious.

But I might use those textbooks later...actually, they all belong to my school, but there have been several that I wanted to keep. I don't have problems with getting rid of multiple copies, unless there's some special reason. I got rid of my first copies of Brave New World and The Lost World (by Doyle) when I got omnibus versions and needed bookshelf room and BookMooch points, but I wasn't thrilled about it, because I love both these books and liked the editions that I had first read simply because they were the ones I had first read.

Another BIG problem I have is buying books I think other people will like. So when I go to a library book sale or poke through bargain bins or get the latest e-mail from Better World Books, saying they're having another 50% off sale, I'm looking for something for my wife, my kids, my father-in-law, my mother (currently disabled due to bad hips), etc. etc. etc.

"Another BIG problem I have is buying books I think other people will like".

That's extremely generous and thoughtful of you, my Northern Plains friend.

As for me, I hate, hate, hate books as gifts. My TBR list is hovering around 1,300. It sounds absolutely silly, but those are the books of interest to me. The books I receive as gifts tend to be rather lame-o.

Oh, and by the way, for about 5 bucks I just snagged at a used book store, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Immortal Wilderness, Brush Up Your Shakespeare! and that amazing doorstop, The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty.

I seem to have some kinda intuitive understanding of people's reading tastes. I'm rarely wrong and never so far off base that the recipient will say "What the f--- were you thinking, dude?".

I hate to see a good book sit on a shelf unread, or maybe get snapped up by someone who doesn't deserve it--silly, eh?

Oh, I'm a strange one, Dawg, that goes without saying...

No, it sounds like you have a gift at gifting!

Good at gifting or possessed of polite friends and relations.

Good point, Auntie.

Another one of my becoming-far-too-regular-for-comfort book haul posts here.

82

And possessed of well-read, literate friends and relations. Alas, what would I do without LT and the snobs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DohRa9lsx0Q

Hey, Ian, when I was visiting the Regina library, I was passing by a trolley full of books waiting to be shelved and my eye fell on the new Philip Kerr/Bernie Gunther book, IF THE DEAD RISE NOT. Whoo hoo!

Also found a Ron Hanson novel, ATTICUS (I love Hanson's stuff), MEMOIRS OF AN INFANTRY OFFICER (Siegfried Sassoon), THE RUSSIAN DEBUTANTE'S HANDBOOK (Gary Shteyngart) and a big swack of non-fiction hard-covers including Neal Gabler's LIFE, THE MOVIE, THE SPIKE by Damien Broderick, etc...

Message 86: I have yet to read any Shteyngart; have you read him? Did you like what you read?

Cliff, the latest one is Field Grey, not If the Dead Rise Not. I'm a bit behind on them - I have them all but the last one I read was The One From the Other.

I also have a copy of Sassoon's Memoirs of an Infantry Officer somewhere too.

My local Borders (where I worked until recently) is closing and while I hate to see the vultures tear the place apart or, worse, become one, the discount is now up to 70%. So I fell off the wagon:

The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
The Outlander by Gil Adamson
The Cave by Jose Saramago
The End by Salvatore Scibona
The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo
A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cossé

Borders, for a big box, was once a wonderful bookstore, with knowledgeable staff and an impressive selection. It hasn't been for some years. But I hate to see it go. I worked there for 3 years, after a long high-tech career and a lifelong fantasy (like many here, I'd guess) of working in a bookstore. We sold a lot of crap but once or twice a day I'd get to talk with a real reader and trade recommendations. And I'd get to answer questions like: "Do you have anything new by the guy who wrote Les Miserables?"

Shoot, I'm in arrears TWO Gunther novels? How the Hell did that happen?

So that one goes on my list too. Mebbe it hasn't been released in North America yet. IF THE DEAD RISE NOT is set back in Nazi Germany again--1934, I believe. I prefer the Nazi era mysteries of the "Berlin Noir" trilogy--the others are good but those first 3 are quite stunning.

I skimmed the beginning pages of the Sassoon book as I took my leisure in a lovely, run-down Irish pub in Moose Jaw called "Bobby's". Perfectly poured Guinness and a table full of books. It doesn't get any better than that.

Rufe, I haven't read Shteyngart but I've heard such good things about him I couldn't let another one slip past. Also on the lookout for his novel ABSURDISTAN, which folks have been raving about for some time...

A-ha!

The new Philip Kerr doesn't get its North American release until later this month.

Found 100 Views of Edo by Hiroshige in the "Last Chance!" bin at Barnes & Noble. A very nice Taschen edition for $20. (Not sure what the original retail price for this was -- Amazon has 2 editions ranging from $150 to $40 -- and my version came sans slipcase. But hey, it's Taschen, so that equals pure awesomeness.)

Cliff Burns: Same for me. I keep meaning to read Shteyngart, but I haven't yet. The story of my life isn't what I have read, it's what I haven't read yet. I kinda wish I was like the post-op Charley in Flowers for Algernon; able to absorb a page a second.

I wish I had more time to read.

Visited a *different* branch of the library today, so left my husband minding the kids while I dashed upstairs to the fiction section with my post-it notes with all the LT recommendations I've been jotting down, in case I ever got to that branch...

I now have:

The Killing of the Tinkers, Ken Bruen
Every Man Dies Alone, Hans Fallada
Bonk, Mary Roach
The Lost Books of the Odyssey, Zachary Mason
Homer and Langley, E.L. Doctorow
A Very Private Gentleman, Martin Booth

Not all of these were recommended here on Literary Snobs, of course. Nearly broke my back carrying them (plus the kids' books, plus my husband's books) home - my backpack was chockers, and we also had a shopping bag full. We looked like lunatics at the checkout counter, trying to juggle it all.

Bonk is great, although it's pretty squirm-inducing. Friends of mine bought the audiobook to listen to while driving to work. You'll understand why this was a bad idea when you read it.

I can't imagine listening to Bonk. I've read two of her others, Stiff and Spook. I did read the chapter in Stiff on determining how a plane fell apart from the scattering of human remains following air disasters, while on a plane. I hope none of my fellow travellers were reading over my shoulder.

Stiff is such an interesting book. Strange that Bonk was more disturbing....

I've got Spook and Packing for Mars in my to-read pile. Now if only I had some time in my to-read pile.

Library book sale today! Everything 50 cents a pop.

Brought home three cloth bags bulging with books. The choicest bits:

A tattered but serviceable copy of my favorite Richard Russo novel, STRAIGHT MAN.

Also nabbed Yann Martel's BEATRICE AND VIRGIL (because I was curious), THE GOD DELUSION by Richard Dawkins (ditto); Paul Ferris's biography DYLAN THOMAS and GBS, Hesketh Pearson's take on Shaw; OLD GRINGO by Carlos Fuentes, Ernest Lindgren's THE ART OF THE FILM, T.C. Boyle's TALK TALK, PLUTARCH ON SPARTA, I.B. Singer's THE SLAVE, etc. etc.

Now if you'll excuse me, I must go and lie down...

A coming apart, pages falling on the floor copy of Straight Man is a good find.

I snagged the first two In Search of Lost Time books in a blog giveaway. I've gotten a lot of YA books from these giveaways, but this is the first time I've gotten "classics." :)

Mental bench-pressing. Good luck with Monsieur Proust.

Took a mini-road trip to La Crosse, WI and scored another massive haul:

The Indifferent Children by Louis Auchincloss -- I really should start reading his stuff, since I'm collecting it at a brisk rate.
The Dark Labyrinth by Lawrence Durrell -- Tip of the hat to Ian Sales, Emeritus of the Realm.
Pope Joan by Emmanuel Royidis, translated by Lawrence Durrell.
Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis -- I've been wanting to find some de Assis ever since reading about him in Genius by Harold Bloom
A Vision by W.B. Yeats
The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll by Alvaro Mutis -- A NYRB Classic ... so, yeah ... it's a given I would snatch it up.
Earth by the Daily Show

A little more expensive than I usually do, but it was a rare splurge. My general rule is: I'll pay more if it means better selection and quality. (The bookstore is generally really good, except it does have some ex-library books that are rather pricey.)

At the La Crosse Goodwill I found:

Henry Esmond by Thackeray
Brighton Rock and Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
The Bedroom Companion -- a book of humor and advice for the American male, circa 1935.

The Bedroom Companion, from the thirties. That sounds like fun.

It is funny. I read the opening article, that sounded like a 30s version of The Bro Code -- for those who know about How I Met Your Mother. It includes a one-act play about etiquette, a few poems by Ogden Nash and a few illustrations (two of them by Dr Seuss) It was a "What the hell" purchase that turned out to be pretty cool. (I saw a copy on Ebay for $15 and I got it for $3. Life's little rewards.)

http://www.horntip.com/html/books_%26_MSS/1930s/1935_the_bedroom_companion_%28HC...

RE: Straight Man Just about the time the paperback came out some years ago, I wandered into Bookland in Brunswick, Maine (now gone) and found a whole table of signed copies. A staff person told me Russo had come in unannounced and offered to sign them. She said he was the world's nicest guy, which didn't surprise me at all. A writer who is that generous to his characters would have to be a nice guy.

#105: Russo certainly seems like the kind of guy I'd like to have a beer with. But then, I often wish I lived in Nobody's Fool.

#104: I wonder if a copy can be found through inter library loan. . .

106: I could certainly have a beer with Ayn Rand, but only because beer bottles are easy to break and I'd like to see her argue her way out of a drunken bar brawl with stevedores unemployed because of her irresponsible outlook on economic deregulation. I'd prefer if some Dead Kennedys or Iggy and the Stooges blared over the bar's loudspeakers.

That's not to speak ill of the dead, since Rand was never really alive to begin with. She was mainly a quasi-sentient gold piece attached to a martini glass.

The Compact Edition of The Oxford English Dictionary 2 vols in slip case with the magnifying glass for about $7 at an FOL shop.

#108

THAT is my dream haul. I would love a beautiful set of Oxfords. I pine each day and dream each night about a scenario exactly like the one you described. Fantastic dictionaries, obscenely low price. (Sob)

I got a bunch of Everyman's Library books for absurdly low prices, including complete works of Montaigne and vols 1-3 of Gibbons Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

108> Brilliant find!!

110: The Everyman Library are so beautiful. I have some of their poetry collections, the little pocket editions. Congrats! Also 108, I am envious but also say congrats.

Oooh, Montaigne. That's sweet. And the Gibbon is the cherry on top.

At a local antique store I picked up a few old sci-fi/fantasy books for about $17 total:

The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughts (Bison Frontiers of Imagination edition!)
The People of the Mist by H. Rider Haggard
Grendel by John Gardner

And a book on the Wandering Jew, and vol. 1 of the 1956 edition of H.G. Wells' The Outline of History.

Bargains from Half.com:

The Birth of Biopolitics
Security, Territory, Population

Hardcover editions of Foucault's lectures at the College de France at far below retail.

@114: Call me old-fashioned, but I love Gardner's Grendel. Fun read.

More from Borders liquidation sale:

The Master by Colm Toibin
The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason
Old Filth by Jane Gardam
The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam
When Will There Be Good News by Kate Atkinson
Blame by Michelle Huneven

'Scrounged a 1/2 dozen from the local library sale, for $3, including New Grub Street, Spanish and Portuguese Short Stories, and Notes from a Small Island

Made a surprisingly small haul at his year's Eastercon on the weekend just gone. Not sure why. Normally I buy 30 or 40 books, but this year I came away with around fifteen. You can see photos of them here.

Some good oldies---and the novel the movie "Metropolis" was based on. Nice grab. Unlike Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou was an avid, unrepentant Nazi. Fascinating woman.

Fifty cents for Borges's Collected Fictions at an unwanted book drop-off one of the nearby grocery stores has set up for charity.

121: That book is kinda hard to find! Also, expensive! So congrats.

@121: Unwanted Borges? Unimaginable!

Vancouver Public Library Book Sale today:

A Good Fall by Ha Jin
Liquidation by Imre Kertesz
Modern Hungarian Poetry edited by Miklos Vajda
The Spoils of Poynton and other stories by Henry James
Clark Gifford's Body by Kenneth Fearing
Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
The Portable Matthew Arnold by Matthew Arnold
2666 by Roberto Bolano - a duplicate, but for that price I picked it up for a friend

75 cents each.

Enjoy the Kertesz!

The Auster's a dud, I'm sorry to say. Only diehard fans or masochists will derive much joy from that one. When he's on (NEW YORK TRILOGY, IN THE COUNTRY OF LAST THINGS), he's one of my faves. But, boy, SCRIPTORIUM was/is a turkey!

Pan by Knut Hamsun
Tales of Horror and the Supernatural by Arthur Machen
A Godless Jew by Peter Gay -- about Freud and psychoanalysis.
Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavic
American Country Churches by William Morgan

For the price of postage (yes, I admit, I Mooch), a copy of The Varieties of Religious Experience. Also, for a couple bucks, a copy of Clifton Fadiman's compilation of short stories.

The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets by Helen Vendler
Last and First Man and Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
Nine Gates to the Chassidic Mysteries by Jiri Langer
3 plays by Aristophanes -- the Wasps; The Poet and the Women; the Frogs
The Portable Dorothy Parker

Total price, less than $20.

The Bone People
Islam in Focus
Seven Years in Tibet
The Future of Life
The Radetzky March

All in mint condition, all for a couple bucks. Now THAT is what libraries are for (ie, book sales).

A friend of mine unexpectedly sent me a copy of Ron Rosenbaum's new book, HOW THE END BEGINS: THE ROAD TO NUCLEAR WORLD WAR III. Looks smashing--cheerio, Dan!

(Why no touchstone? Where touchstone?)

130: I do not recommend Islam in Focus. It is very Salafi in its tone.

Tying into the discussion of libraries, my local library (conveniently located less than five blocks from my house, as there was not a car available today) is having a book sale, and I snagged 18 books for $3. I snagged some children's/YA historical fiction, science fiction, and classics. Highlights:
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding
The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht
and the first three Obernewtyn series by Isobelle Carmody

Thanks for the heads-up, Oregon-Anna.

Terminal by Andrew Vachss
Charlie Trotter Cooks at Home
And volumes 2,3, and 4 of the Raj Quartet -- each for a $1! It sucks not getting the entire series, but the price can't be beat.

The Stranger (my copy is called The Outsider...)
The Great Gatsby (intended as a gift)
The Picture of Dorian Gray
And a Penguin Classics Catalogue

Happy happy me

Got Guignol's Band by Celine via Half.com. The book looks crazy-good.

Went to the Twin Cities and had a mini-boon of bookish awesomeness.

From the Minnesota Institute of Arts gift shop:

Berlin: Hotels & More by Angelika Taschen
Rivera by Andrea Kettenmann
Balthus by Gilles Neret
Wagner by August Sarnitz
The last 3 are those small artist profiles published by Taschen.

From a used bookstore in Uptown, following a lunch at Felafel King:

What Maisie Knew by Henry James
Your Face Tomorrow: Fever and Spear, Volume 1, by Javier Marais -- I think this trilogy will be remembered like Bolano's 2666
Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household -- NYRB FTW!
Babylon Babies by Maurice C. Dantec -- a sci fi novel published by the theory-mongers at Semiotext(e)
Poor People by William Vollmann

And 3 by Burgess:

On Going to Bed
The Eve of St Venus
The Novel Now -- Now, being 1967ish. Kind of a precursor to his 99 Novels TNN doesn't even mention Pynchon.

The only sf book by Semiotext(e) I own is, er Semiotext(e) SF.

139: Er, indeed. I never really associated that press with fiction, except in the case of literary criticism. Babylon Babies also had mixed reviews, but I see that as a good thing. (The same thing attracted me to actually read Atlas Shrugged "Why do people really love / really hate this novel?" Then I found out that the prose was so rough and unpolished I could shave with it.)

Turns out I bought a surplus copy of What Maisie Knew ... I'm actually on the lookout for An Awkward Age Oh well, I'll compare and contrast the different editions (one is a Penguin, the other is by Oxford U Press), and then donate it to whatever thrift shop I go to.

I am keeping my copy of Atlas Shrugged, if for no other reason than to "Russian Reversal" the usual gang of idiots who love this silly novel. "You have to read this! Libertarians are insane paranoid wackjobs! The worship gold and hate cuddling! And speak in staccato sentences ending in exclamation points!"

Stopped by at the town library and grabbed a few, including a couple in mint condition, arbitrarily tossed into the "free" bin:

The Razor's Edge
Under the Volcano
Rousseau's Confessions
Virus X
God's Equation

Then it was time for the negotiations.
"How much?"
"Oh, 50 cents"
"C'mon, take $3, it's for the Library"
"Oh, I'll take a dollar"

Who needs The Book Thing,
http://www.bookthing.org/

...when you've got this?

Then it was time for the negotiations.
"How much?"
"Oh, 50 cents"
"C'mon, take $3, it's for the Library"
"Oh, I'll take a dollar"

That explains the dire financial situation of libraries too well. Then again, any institution that refuses to take extra money from willing donors deserves to sink into the quicksand of bankruptcy. "Someone's giving you a gift. Don't say, No, ya idiot!"

More on topic: Got the Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott.

Where's your town library, SD? I might stop by next time they have a sale!

Get on I-84 and head east for oh, a billion miles, get off at Hamilton Ave, turn right...oh, forget it.

My Traitor's Heart by Rian Malan
The Dwarf by Par Lagerkvist
Piece Work by Pete Hamill
Angel City, Curse of the Starving Class, & Other Plays by Sam Shepard

... for $5 total!

I just read The Dwarf last year and it was very good, but very dark, probably right up your alley.

Wow, I want a Book Thing. Only I'd probably drown in books.

Had an attack of Book Greed at the library again yesterday. (I haven't even finished the last lot! And they're due back - no more renewals allowed - this weekend! Oh help.)

This haul:

Death at the Priory - a friend of mine recommended this one *years* ago (unfortunately her copy went missing); and while I was looking for another book in the same area (a LT recommendation which I couldn't find on the shelves where it should have been), this one jumped out at me.
Britten and Brulightly - a LT recommendation.
Silence of the Rain - Brazilian crime, looked interesting.
Tainted Blood - I've known this as Jar City, and was (mildly) annoyed that the library didn't have it. Turns out, they have it under this different title, and apparently one doesn't shelve "Arnaldur Indriðason" under "INDR", but under "ARNA" so I only found it by stumbling across it, looking for another book.

A rather serendipitous bunch, I like it when I find books I've "always" meant to read when I'm looking for something else.

And the two I'd actually gone in to pick up:

Grace Williams Says it Loud
The Swarm - and if I'd known this was going to be 800 pages, I would have put one of the others back beforehand!!

I found a Penguin Red copy of The Riddle of the Sands for $1 (matches my copy of She; same edition, same store, almost same price) and the Oxford Peter Pan and Other Plays for $2 at the local Books-a-Million. Along with five other books (historical fiction and sci-fi), the total was $13.

Good score!

And today (I love vacation and going to bookstores out of my normal range) I got six more books at a used book store.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach
Laughing Boy by Oliver la Farge
The Mabinogion
Golden by Cameron Dokey
Lady Susan, The Watsons, and Sanditon by Jane Austen

Foucalt's Pendulum for a buck.

A few more of these hardcovers, and I could build a bomb shelter.

Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Spencer Kimball
When Men Become Gods by Stephen Singular -- gotta love that last name.
Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers
Marian Manual
Raintree County by Ross Lockridge
Beasts by Joyce Carol Oates
The Philosophy of the Enlightenment by Ernst Cassirer
The Sisters by Robert Littell
The Crazy Ladies and The Crazy Lovers by Joyce Elbert

$12!

Lydia Davis' translation of Madame Bovary is discounted on Amazon for $11 right now. Hardcover.

Of a Fire on the Moon by Mailer. Not a big Space Race fan, but I'm a Mailer completist.
The New Centurions by Joseph Wambaugh. A book about cops by a cop. I blame Dave Simon and "The Wire" for my new found interest in cop books.
Sin-a-Rama: Sleaze Sex Paperbacks of the Sixties -- put out by Feral House, it is a pop study of the softcore paperback craze of that decade. It is always wonderful when a publisher puts out a title that explores a disreputable genre with academic rigor, visual excellence, and has fun with it. Taschen also excels at this with its entire line of titles about sex and sexuality. Fun fact: Robert Silverberg, Donald Westlake, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Harlan Ellison were notable authors who wrote under pseudonyms for these softcore publishers. Silverberg wrote 150 titles -- sometimes 2 a month -- following the sci fi crash of the Sixties. He wrote under "sausage factory" conditions, then again, quality wasn't the issue. Then again, when it was $600 per title per month, should quality be the issue?

From the library bookstore:

A Frolic of His Own by William Gaddis
Death of a Salesman
A Vocation and a Voice by Kate Chopin
Christ Stopped at Eboli by Carlo Levi
Two Trains Running by Andrew Vachss

I stumbled upon a library friends book sale, held throughout an entire middle school, comprising 120,000 books!

Bel Canto, The rape of Nanking, Grant a Biography, Travels with My Aunt, Adolphe, Shantaram and The Legacy of Chernobyl comprised some of my haul.

Sweet haul!

Found the Compact Edition of John Galsworthy at the library book sale. 6 volumes for $25. A really good condition and from 1929.

From the local thrift store:
The Four-square Gospel by Aimee Semple McPherson
No Country for Old Men
The Recruiting Officer by George Farquhar
Nothing like the Sun by Burgess
I and Thou by Martin Buber
Shadow Warriors: Inside the Special Forces by Tom Clancy and Gen. Carl Stirner
Miss MacIntosh, My Darling by Marguerite Young

Wow, Sandy. How do library friends end up with that many books?! The largest book sales I've ever been to were still only one large room.

I should have asked one of the 50 staff members, garbed in custom red t-shirts.

I was in heaven.

There's another in Danbury, CT, in October, comprising a mere 100,000 volumes. I'll make it a point to ask that very good question.

Popped into the Big City (Saskatoon) and while I can't quite depict my takings as a "haul", I was happy with:

* one big fat book, THE WAGES OF DESTRUCTION (an examination of the financing of the Third Reich)
* a decent looking issue of CINEMA SCOPE (though I'm with Ian, SIGHT AND SOUND is the best film rag out there) and
* a couple of oldies but goodies on compact disc, "Love Over Gold" by Dire Straits and "Speaking in Tongues" by the Talking Heads

Just to show I'm no old fart, on the drive to the city my sons and I blasted System of a Down, Tool and Ministry...CDs belonging to yers truly.

Cliff, SoaD, Tool, and Ministry were all popular 10-20 years ago...

Speaking of 10-15 years ago, I've got to listen to Snoop Dog, while on the road with my kid...

I returned to Westport for a third time today and got a first American edition of On the Marble Cliffs - for 50 cents.

I must have hauled another 40 pounds of books out of there. What fun, for considerably under 20 bucks.

"So the Internet's on computer, eh?" -- Homer Simpson

I went to a small (and hot, it's 90-100 degrees up here and no air conditioning in the store building) used bookstore in Harrisonburg, VA. They had about five brand-new-looking NYRB Classics of the detective fiction/thriller type there for $3 each!!! I ended up getting That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana.

I go away from one corner of Sydney for a while, and in the meantime one of my favourite second hand bookshops that resides there closes. *sob* I'm going to miss Booked Out.

And the stalls at the local shopping centre selling remaindered books has also gone. Wah, two good sources of inexpensive books gone! No fair.

Miserable weather (it will NOT stop raining!), so I went book shopping to cheer myself up. The window display of the local bookshop had the new Ann Patchett on sale, 20% off, so I went in to buy it. Only to discover next to it on the shelf the new Alan Hollinghurst on sale, The Stranger's Child, 20% off. I spent a good five minutes humming and hawing over which one to buy. (Alan Hollinghurst won, the setting of his book - Britain in 1913 - was too enticing to resist.)

Found some gems at Goodwill:

Trilby by George du Maurier
The Children of Men by PD James
As They Were by MFK Fisher
The Emigrants by Sebald
City of the Century by Donald Miller -- a history of Chicago to the 1890s. A little beat-up, but hey, it's $1.99. Since one of my ambitions is to work and live in Chicago, it's probably useful that I get a handle on its history.

Ah, sweet home Chicago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWn57KonSiA&feature=related

I picked up an unabridged (translated) edition of The Tale of Genji at an antique store. It was $8, but the store owner lowered it to six (being a teenager who looks young for her age pays off sometimes when booksellers are surprised at what you want to read). The book's new price is $30. I really like Harrisonburg...

Library sale! Best place to buy books, 30p each! I was restrained this time though and only came away with one carrier bag full; Sarah Waters Tipping the Velvet, second book in the Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley, Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon by Mini Grey (winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal, I am attempting to collect all of them before I start having children), and Chris Riddle's wonderful Emperor of Absurdia, I have only ever owned books with black and white drawings by him, this full colour picture book is a real treat.

Bought The History of Madness by Foucault and The White-luck Warrior by R. Scott Bakker. Not much of a haul, especially since I bought them retail. I am excited for "The White-luck Warrior," since I'm an R. Scott Bakker fanatic -- at least his stuff set in the "3 Seas" world. Eventually I'll get around to reading the 4000 pages of Song of Fire and Ice, but for now, I'm staying with Bakker. Not a matter of partisanship -- I'll gladly read any well-written epic fantasy (not so fast, Brian Sanderson, I said "well-written") -- but a matter of scheduling.

I found an old copy of Forget Foucault, and it had a hilarious postcard addressed to the previous owner in it.

I mostly go to the Newberry Book Fair here in Chicago for the art books and the foreign language books. This year the selection was not all that great but I did get Philip Larkin Collected Poems for $3. Had my eye on that book for a while. I will try return the last day of the fair, when the books are half price.

Returned from Montana with a pile of reference books for my latest project. Lots of stuff on Montana history and lore, the Yellowstone region, etc. A few novels, THE WORLD JONES MADE by PKD (not bad), JULIP by Jim Harrison and a terrific trilogy of crime novels by James Sallis called WHAT HAVE YOU LEFT.

A fantastic, 9-day trip but I'm glad to back home...

I loved The World Jones Made by PKD. When I read it years ago, I thought it would make a damn fine movie.

More books at 30p each from the libary;
Eva Ibbotson Monster Mission
Garth Nix Lady Friday and Castle (which I realised when I got home I already have! never mind, charity shop)

Went to Half Price Books in a Milwaukee suburb and struck gold:

Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
Comedies of William Congreve
The Newcomes and The Four Georges and The English Humorists by Thackeray
Preparation for Death by St. Alphonsus De Ligouri
The Leopard by Lampedusa
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Chabon
Sister Age by MFK Fisher
Wittgenstein's Nephew by Thomas Bernhard
The Coxon Fund by Henry James
A House for Mr. Biswas / A Bend in the River by VS Naipaul
The Unpossessed by Tess Slesinger -- a NYRB edition.
Magister Ludi by Hermann Hesse
Tales of Heresy, edited by Nick Khyme & Lindsey Priestley

The Westport library sale was weeks ago but I ran off to Maine immediately after so I only went once. I culled brutally from the boxful I was lugging around and escaped with only 7 books (for $10): 4 for me, 2 for the mystery reader in the house and 1 we'll both read.

Staring at the Sun by Julian Barnes
Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (although not the translation I wanted, for a buck, what the hell)
Crabwalk by Gunter Grass, in which the previous owner thoughtfully included the review from the New Yorker
That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo
A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
The Silver Swan by Benjamin Black

Good stuff!

Abbey's booksale on in the city (Sydney), and I got away with:

Circles of Deceit by Nina Bawden
Conjugal Rites by Paul Magrs
A Kestral for a Knave by Barry Hines
The Story of Blanche and Marie by Per Olov Enquist
Making it Up by Penelope Lively
Castles and Cathedrals by Henry James
The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam by Lauren Liebenberg
The Collegians by Gerald Griffin

This morning I noticed they were now half price. I might swing past again....

United States: Essays 1952-1992 by Gore Vidal
The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens
The Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry

Scored a major haul at Savers -- a thrift store -- with their 50% off sale today:

The Geeks' Guide to World Domination
Legends by Robert Littell -- Signed!
The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy by Jacob Burckhardt
Postmodernism and Popular Culture by John Docker
Marine by Tom Clancy
American Desert by Percival Everett
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
The House of the Medici by Christopher Hibbert
The Outline of History by HG Wells
Rifts RPG manual
Nassau County Long Island in Early Photographs, 1869 - 1940
The House on the Rock -- a photograph book from the attraction.

Missed revisiting Abbey's sale again. But today popped into the Cat Protection Society charity shop and got

The Nine Tailors, Dorothy L. Sayers
Lark Rise to Candleford, Flora Thompson
He Kills Coppers, Jake Arnott
The Way of All Flesh, Samuel Butler
Mrs Craddock, W. Somerset Maugham
The Secret Lovers, Charles McCarry
Love Me Sailor, Robert S. Close, a scandalous Australian tale from the 1940s which had the author thrown into jail.

I like Jake Arnott's mysteries. That's a good one...

Grabbed a buncha old Bradbury (Ray, not Malcolm) books for a quarter each from the library sales rack today. Also some Manly Wade Wellman, John Brunner, John D. Macdonald...

You get the idea they were weeding out their genre stuff?

Made a killing at the local Goodwill:

The Travels by Marco Polo
The Diversity of Life by Edward O. Wilson
Shoot the Piano Player by David Goodis -- I got the script, but not the book.
The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne -- I usually hate Hawthorne, especially if he's going on about Puritans, but this had a character named Colonel Pyncheon. Color me intrigued.
Ramones: an American band
The Rise of the Fourth Reich by Jim Marrs -- Marrs is a crackpot, but an entertaining one.
Interaction of Color by Josef Albers
Harem: behind the world of the veil by Alev Lytle Croutier
TR: the last romantic by HW Brands

Two by Orwell:
Coming Up for Air
The Road to Wigan Pier

And a volume of Steve Canyon, 1947. "Ace Rimmer, what a guy!"

You have better thrift stores around you than I do.

185: Ironically, the local used bookstore is terrible.

Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy Sayers
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
Half a Life by VS Naipaul
Answered Prayers by Truman Capote

I was in the Big City this weekend and stumbled across a fund-raiser for education and nabbed the following for $20:

THE MAGICIANS by Lev Grossman
THE NEW SPACE OPERA edited by Dozois/Strahan
LONDON FIELDS by Martin Amis
BURNING THE DAYS by James Salter
THE PENGUIN BOOK OF FIGHTS, FEUDS AND HEARTFELT HATREDS edited by Philip Kerr
MEANS OF ASCENT (LBJ bio) by Robert Caro
MORE MATTER: ESSAYS AND CRITICISM by John Updike

That $20 doesn't include 4 other books my wife bought.

Now THAT's a book haul. All the books were trade paperbacks in beautiful shape and spotless hardcovers.

On the way home we shot footage to accompany an ambient tune I've created with Garageband--hope to post the finished short on YouTube within a week.

Pity about the Amis, though.

Y'know, LONDON FIELDS was a book I picked up about fifteen years ago and then traded it in for some reason. Hadn't read it, just shucked it one day. Sheesh. And I've always been looking to replace it. At the sale, small paperbacks were 50 cents and I leaped at the chance to grab it.

I'm hit and miss with Marty meself. DEAD BABIES was a savage novel, really vicious and brilliant, but other books by M.A. haven't grabbed me nearly as much. And, I confess, my dislike of the man PERSONALLY has an effect on the way I view his writing. He can be such a complete TWAT.

By the way, I edited my initial roster--I have THE NEW SPACE OPERA 2, not the first antho. I imagine you've read them both, Ian. What thought you?

They're pretty good anthologies, though not every story is arguably new space opera.

Coming from you, that's a glowing endorsement, chum.

Fifty cents well spent.

I was never much of an Amis fan, I read Money and didn't really enjoy it at all. But I try not to give up on an author because of one book and had been gearing up to give another one a go, then I read an interview with him. He was such a complete nob (and his recent comments about authors of children's literature have furthered this opinion of him) that it's like I have been let off the hook and feel no guilt at all that I will never pick up another of his books :)

Scored again at a thrift store in town:

The Avenue Bearing the Initial of Christ into the New World by Galway Kinnell -- realized it was signed by the author when I got it home.
Arius: heresy and tradition by Rowan Williams -- Come for the theological history, stay for the waxed eyebrows and sense of self-importance.
Dictionary of Christian Theology by Peter Angeles
The Gestapo: a history of horror by Jacques Delarue
Life & Times of Michael K. by Coetzee
England Away by John King
Star Wars by George Lucas (Ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster) At least Lucas won't be able to smear his CGI feces all over the novelization. It might even prove entertaining.
The Mongol Mask by David St. John -- Apparently a pen name of E. Howard Hunt

You'd be better off with Alan Dean Foster's non-movie Star Wars novel, Splinter of the Mind's Eye.

195: Probably. Luckily the book doesn't have any CGI blinking and Darth Vader crying, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" In the end, I'm still a Star Wars fan, albeit a snobby purist. The Original Trilogy, sans Special Edition, sans CGI, and the three prequels basically don't exist for me.

I'm with Patton Oswalt on this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDCjIjsZp_Y

And Brian Posehn adds his perspective on the matter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IzTV8VoB9Q

Went to Borders on Labor Day. I was surprised at how many books were left with only a week left for the stores. Grabbed:
Point Omega by Don DeLillo
Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson
The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart
In Persuasion Nation by George Saunders
The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg
C by Tom McCarthy

Enjoy the DeLillo; it's fabulous.

A great, great haul.

Farewell, Borders...Barnes and Noble next?

B&N is doing just fine.

Yep, thanks to the Nook they're hangin' on...book sales, however continue to flatten or drop. Not sustainable for a big box store with employees and overhead.

http://mashable.com/2010/08/24/barnes-and-noble-earnings-q1-2011/

A first quarter loss of over $62 million (even with Nook sales), compared to a razor thin profit the quarter previously. Doing just fine? That's a funny way of looking at it.

You don't need a physical book store to sell e-books. B & N stores will be closing soon but they'll try to hang in there with on-line sales and downloads. We'll see how that goes but I'm NOT optimistic on that front either.

199: Barnes & Noble : retailing books :: the New York Yankees : sports.

http://www.etailgifts.com/images/newyorkyankees10.jpg

I think the second last line of the article I cited is most telling:

"Barnes & Noble expects sales at its retail stores to continue to decline."

Which = downsizing, stores closing.

Exactly how Borders started their downward slide.

I repeat: you don't need bricks and mortar stores to sell e-books.

Our nearest B&N local store just closed. It was doing well, but it closed because the Target next to it was expanding and was taking all the mall space. The Nook definitely helps but the B&Ns that are in our area always seem to be hopping. Even with Powell's around which is always my first choice.

Powell's always seems to retain a good reputation, compared to other big boxes. Service? Selection? Because it still somehow hangs on to its indie sensibilities?

Because it IS indie. It is a one-city bookstore with an online presence.

So just the Portland store? I thought it had other outlets--my mistake.

It has a few outlets here in PDX but not outside Oregon that I know of.

5 stores in the Portland area--I thought there was one in Chicago too but it seems to be run by a different outfit.

Of course, Powell's on-line presence is pretty huge too--wonder how sales compare with the physical bookstores...

The Powell family moved from Chicago to come to Portland back in the 70s(?) or earlier. They sold the bookstore at the time.

I know they offered early retirement to some of their staff to avoid furloughs and layoffs a year or two ago. Like everyone else they are hurting in this economy. But the store downtown's as busy as ever.

I don't know much about their online operations but yes, I am sure that helps their bottom line. I think it's a good website and easily searchable.

After cleaning out all the Borders in my neighborhood when they closed in April-May, I happened to catch one in Maine this weekend in its last days. Sad. Lots and lots of copies of books they can't give away (Palin, Gingrich, Beck...) but a surprising number of good ones, hard and soft cover, at 70% off.

To the End of the Land by David Grossman
The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer
Who Will Run the Frog Hospital by Lorrie Moore
The Assault by Harry Mulisch
Wandering Stars by Sholem Aleichem
The Children's Book by A.S.Byatt
Reading My Father by Alexandra Styron

A rare trip into Bemidji, bookshopping with my mother. First, the local Goodwill:

Three Novels by James M. Cain
The Republic by Plato
The Birth of Tragedy by F. Nietzsche
We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
The Sea Wolf by Jack London
How to Win Friends and Influence People
The Essential Erasmus
March by Geraldine Brooks (won the Pulitzer or something)
Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy
Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje
1897 Sears Roebuck Catalogue

Down the block to the local used bookstore:

Collected Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay
The Norton Book of Women's Lives
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruis Zafon
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
Tacitus' Histories
Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner
Sister Carrie in a Norton Critical Edition
One Hundred Years of Solitude
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Being There by Jerzy Kosinski
Lyrical and Critical Essays by Albert Camus
Consider This, Senora by Harriet Doerr
Two Granta editions - Travel and Big Men
The Smithsonian Institution by Gore Vidal
The Ebony Tower by John Fowles
The White Hotel by D. M. Thomas
The Beet Queen by Louise Erdich
Saint Joan of Arc by V. Sackville-West
A John O'Hara omnibus containing Appointment in Samarra, Butterfield 8 and Hope of Heaven

...and a new set of book shelves to put it all on.

Good haul.

211: Lots and lots of copies of books they can't give away (Palin, Gingrich, Beck...) but a surprising number of good ones, hard and soft cover, at 70% off.

You can use those to either wallpaper your house, since they have about the same value as a post-1929 Deutschmark, or to kindle a bonfire. Usually I'm adamantly against bookburning, but once we run out of oil (or water, when oil shale poisons our water tables) those books can at least serve some useful purpose. Or the publisher can simply pulp them and have them be put to better use ... like reprinting the 1981 to 1983 runs of Hustler and Soldier of Fortune

Re: Borders, B & N, etc., with Half.com and Abebooks -- my two faves -- I can usually find what I'm looking for (usually in new condition with the occasional remainder mark) at scads cheaper. And B & N is only as good as the community it services -- wise-ass anti-Rochester, MN remark here. You have a community full of Tea Party halfwit philistines who enjoy their Overton Windows and James Patterson Extruded Product, then your B & N will be the usual pop lit landfill catering to sub-lowest common denominator. If you're in a community with a university or two, an active gay community, a tattoo parlor here and there, and some ethnic eateries, then the B & N won't be so chock-full of utterly useless trash ... and the books they read.

The same goes for Half Price Books. While it is a nationwide chain, its stock is reflective of the community. Only moreso, since they sell used books.

Do big box stores have that kind of flexibility with what they stock? My impression is that 99% of the stores feature identical "products", with maybe a tiny local interest/history section to give the impression of a community presence. No?

Yes and no. At Borders, corporate determined who got what based on their less-than-infinite wisdom but also based on past sales. We also had discretion in the store to order what we wanted/needed based on customer demand.

I can't believe I did it again....happened to be in yet another part of the state that still has an open Borders, with discount now at 80%, and in a town where the crap was gone but the good stuff was left behind. Hauled away another ten books, including a couple of Bolanos, another Gordimer, the most recent Furst, a Pamuk, a Boyd, Sam Lipsyte's The Ask, and Adam Ross's Mr. Peanut. I've now personally liquidated 5 different Borders stores. RIP already.

Well, if they're going down anyway, might as well grab all the good books you can.

Death to corporate book-selling!

Our bank was having a book sale today as a fund-raiser. Picked up Alice Munro's most recent collection of stories in hardcover and last year's Booker Prize winner, Howard Jacobson's THE FINKLER QUESTION. Three bucks each. I'll save the Munro for Sherron's Christmas box...

218: Which reminds me of this gem from The Princess Bride

Miracle Max: It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do.
Inigo Montoya: What's that?
Miracle Max: Go through his clothes and look for loose change.

And from the looks of it, Borders has lots of loose change in their pockets. Have fun stormin' the castle!

On impulse, I poked into a nearby Goodwill store today. Snagged a first edition of Slow Learner for the full retail $0.99.

Twenty-something Pynch.

Odd little collection. Hope you like it.

Pynchon primer?

Another Goodwill store today (they are ubiquitous).

The Nun, Huysmans Against Nature, Rebels the Irish Uprising of 1916, and Walking in Circles Before Lying Down.

Half my books come from Thrift stores these days. Although by not buying more NEW books, I'm sort of biting the hand that feeds me.

What to do, what to do...

Selected Stories by Alice Munro
Dr Martens Air Wair by Martin Roach

(And a book on Sarasota postcards for my mom.)

#224 Out of interest Cliff, what is a thrift store exactly? Lots of Americans on here mention them and I was wondering if they are like what we have in the UK, we call them charity shops, not sure if they are the same thing

Same thing, I think. Usually thrift shops are made up mostly of old clothes and cast offs, books something of an afterthought. But it's amazing the stuff that people will dump, as I'm sure you know. Can't tell you how many first rate books I've picked up from "ValuVillage" in Saskatoon for a couple of bucks each.

The best thrift store in Chicago funds a gay health center. Most of the books there are less than a buck and you find pretty great stuff. It has completely spoiled me. I find it also amusing how periodically people will start getting rid of the same book around the same time. There was a period when every week you were bound to find several copies of The Corrections.

228: I find it also amusing how periodically people will start getting rid of the same book around the same time. There was a period when every week you were bound to find several copies of The Corrections.

I understand that completely. In every used bookstore in Rochester, there are multiple copies of We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates. I can't figure out why? Was Oprah or Martha Stewart pushing this years ago?

229: "In every used bookstore in Rochester, there are multiple copies of We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates."

Add Bemidji to that. Walk into Goodwill, there it is. Walk into Books N More, and there it is again. Sadly, I bought the first one I saw, and then had to see a nicer copy of the same edition for a lower price in the second shop. Oh yeah, it was an Oprah selection.

Aaaah that makes sense. Maybe it was the Oprah thing yes.

231: Which doesn't discredit its literary worth (see, the Corrections), but it does explain its appearance in used bookstores along with the Pattersons and Grishams. And if you are taking your purchasing decisions from Oprah, then you probably also see books as a disposable commodity.

I got a £5 voucher for Macmillan charity shop for doing the Dusk Til Dawn charity walk, so I spent it on books, naturally. I got Arundhati Roy The God of Small Things, Lian Hearn Brilliance of the Moon, Kathryn Stockett The Help, and Jed Rubenfeld The Interpretation of Murder. All for 50p each leaving me £3 to spend on a skirt :)

Got The Pleasure of the Text via Half.com -- $5 + shipping. Condition: Like New. Seriously, why buy new books?

To support the corrupt, inefficient, navel-gazing, circle-jerking publishing industry?

For a second there I thought you were talking about the American two-party system, since they treat their customers (read: voters) with the same degree of open contempt and condescension. Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.

Oh my... the bibliophile gods are smiling on me...

Yesterday a friend gave me a beautiful, huge encyclopedia published in 1863. It was completely unexpected, which made it an even better gift. I rarely receive books as gifts that I actually like, most people just hear I like to read and give me Danielle Steele or something. Shudder.

And this morning I found a 1st edition (1960, hardcover) of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I never thought I'd own it! No dust jacket, but other than that, it's in great condition. There is a newspaper clipping inside about healthy foods, dated 1972 - just a curious note.

> 238 Yesterday at the thrift shop I also saw a copy of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Thought about buying it but who am I kidding, I'm not going to read it. Weird synchronicity though, sounds like the plot of a Roberto Bolaño story.

239: Rise and Fall is well worth the read and William L. Shirer proved to be quite the gadfly in his role as witness to history. But, alas, that's the topic for a different thread.

>240 kswolff: I've heard its great, yes!

I got a big stack at the Brooklyn Book Festival.

Oh la la, cheap kids books at Borders/Whitcoulls closing down sale......
Make Way For Ducklings
Thank You Mr Falker
Slowly Slowly Slowly Said the Sloth
Daddies are For Catching Fireflies

Heading back tomorrow to check out the literature section and grab something for me.

Good hunting!

Got The Manson File, ed. by Nikolas Schreck. Not cheap, but in very good condition for an out-of-print Amok Press classic. Plus illustrations and songs by Chuckie Manson himself.

AMOK...I used to get their catalog. Weird little press...

246: Weird is an understatement with AMOK. I also have "Michael" by Goerbbels put out by AMOK. But I see these publications as a public service, since people won't be able to understand the black heart of humanity without a look at primary sources. Not publishing these little hate-ingots is akin to censorship, usually issued from the "tolerance"-mouthing nudniks with liberal leanings. But I think that's the historian in me. I see the value in preserving everything. Like turning the tables on the Tea Party dingbats. "You want to see how anarcho-capitalism will destroy everything it touches? Then read Atlas Shrugged!" Then again, Manson was a far better writer than Ayn Rand, although Rand would have loved him too, going gaga on his "individualism" and Nietzschean-esque rhetoric. Rand was pretty gullible. Show her anything shiny and she'd jump at it like a trained seal (no offense to seals).

The Holt Foreign Film Guide arrived in the mail today. I love a good reference work - it helps prioritize. This one's about 20 years out of date, but will serve.

I packed a little satchel with some books and went out to sit on the Meadows and read. On the way there though I had to go past a charity bookshop.

I accidentally came home with The Far-Distant Oxus, The Once and Future King, The Story of The Treasure Seekers and The Epic of Gilgamesh
£5.50 the lot - I'm quite happy with that.

I grew out of children's books once, when I was about 15, but I'm better now.

>247 kswolff: LOL
I see the Atlas-Shrugged-bashing never goes out of style- I really must read it soon and get in on it with my opinion!

250: Hey, even fish in barrels need to be shot. See if you can get past Chapter 2 without your eyeballs bleeding. At least Dan Brown kept his hackwork relatively short and modestly entertaining, since Atlas Shrugged even makes trainwrecks boring.

Reading the Mary Russell/ Holmes series by Laurie R. King. Sent away for my next installment, O Jerusalem, paid for a mmpb, and what came in the mail?--- A very, very nice first edition that also happened to be signed! Not worth a lot, but really made my day.

Made another haul at Savers:

Catcher in the Rye
The Busy Body by Donald Westlake
Have His Carcase by Dorothy Sayers
Armageddon: the Musical by Robert Rankin
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
The Corner by David Simon and Edward Burns -- Hardcover! With a Borders 10% off sticker no less.
Sock by Penn Jillette
The Girl in Blue by Wodehouse
The Violet Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
Elizabeth Costello by Coetzee
More Information Than You Require by John Hodgman
The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin
Present at the Creation by Dean Acheson