Literary Exploration discussion

Since we are all bibliophiles here. I'm sure we are addicted to buying books; So what books have you purchased recently?

I recently got I Don't Want to Kill You

Swamplandia!
The World According to Monsanto
Vanilla Ride
Bucket of Face
The Egg Said Nothing
Felix and the Sacred Thor
Lit Riffs
and
Jimmy Plush, Teddy Bear Detective

I've been a bad, bad girl.

Awesome

The Appointment by Herta Muller,
The White Lioness, The Man From Beijing and One Step Behind by Heming Mankell
The Mind's Eye by Olver Sacks
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips by Michael Morpurgo
The Doll and other short stories by Daphne Du Maurier.
Have finished reading Adolphus Tips, and Oliver Sacks.

The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan
Handling The Undead and The Harbour by John Ajvide Lindqvist
waiting for The Book Thief to be delivered and just ordered the 2nd and 3rd Discworld books

I just purchased "Miles To Go." I really can't wait to continue this book series.Miles to Go

Purchased The Little Strangerabout a week ago and I've read a little bit of it.

Wendy wrote: "The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan"

I've had The Fall sitting on my book shelf since it came out but still haven't read it. Really need to at some stage. Preferably before the next one comes out :P

How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines and The Book of Awesome: Snow Days, Bakery Air, Finding Money in Your Pocket, and Other Simple, Brilliant Things

I think moving to Hungary was really good for my finances in one way: I have stopped buying so many books!!

The only books I spend money on anymore are textbooks, and the occasional English/German book found in an Antikvarium (antique store). I think in 6 months that was 1 fiction book. And here I couldn't go more than a few days without buying something!


I'm wondering though, do most of you just buy any book you fancy, or do you really think about it first? For me, I always *always* thought long and hard about buying something. I'd leave a book and come back in a bookstore up to 20 times in some periods of my life!

Since I live in the middle of nowhere, I rely almost exclusively on Amazon and remainder catalogues for book purchases. The catalogues have books for under five dollars (boy, do they add up quickly, though!), so I usually order what I want. I tend to be much more indiscriminate at such low prices and recently ordered a book on falconry - just because it was under 5 bucks!
I have a nice long "wish list" at Amazon, and order maybe 3 - 4 books a month (okay, sometimes more!). Occasionally I go through and delete something that's been on the list forever - the theory being that if I've waited this long to buy it, I must not really want the darned thing!

♥Xeni♥ wrote: "I'm wondering though, do most of you just buy any book you fancy, or do you really think about it first? "

It depends. About 90% of the books I buy I've heard of/read about before or got recommended by friends. Sometimes it can take years before I actually buy a book I've been thinking about. At the moment I try not to buy too many due to lack of space.

♥Xeni♥ wrote: "I think moving to Hungary was really good for my finances in one way: I have stopped buying so many books!!

The only books I spend money on anymore are textbooks, and the occasional English/German..."

Ive got an addiction to Amazon, but only buy used books. These are really cheap and I see it as recycling. Trying to calm down though cos havent really got the space, there are books everywhere! Plus my husband isnt very happy about it.

Recent purchases: The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Volume I, Fables: Legends in Exile,Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love, Otomen, Volume 7, Otomen, Tome 8 :, Tongues of Serpents and Black Butler Vol. 3.

Wendy wrote: "♥Xeni♥ wrote: "I think moving to Hungary was really good for my finances in one way: I have stopped buying so many books!!

The only books I spend money on anymore are textbooks, and the occasional..."

I used to do that with German amazon. But while amazon had free shipping, used sellers get a mandatory 3 euros. So even a book listed for one cent costs three euros and one cent. Still too much for me.

I've been pretty bad this week:

Flash and Bones pre order
Pnin
Poems
Pale Fire
Room
Brave New World
The Metamorphosis
The Giver
The Book Thief
The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol. II: The Plays

plus all my school books

School books are a killer. They cost a fortune and you really don't even WANT to read them.

I just started vacation: my excuse for being really bad this week:

Death and the Penguin
Primary Source Readings in Catholic Social Justice
Swamplandia!Snobbery With ViolenceEmily Goes to ExeterAgatha Raisin and the Murderous MarriageIn the Shadow of Gotham
A Brief Guide The Modern Library
Kindred
The Day of the Triffids
The Thanatos Syndrome
Lancelot
Our Kind of Traitor
Afterthoughts
The Egg Said Nothing
The Disappeared
Down and Out in Paris and London

I got given a voucher so I was able to pick up a few books this week.

The First Boxer
The Templar's Code
The Promised War
The Hilliker Curse: My Pursuit of Women
The Devil & Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness & Obsession
The Way of Kings Part One
The Way of Kings Part Two

I've also ordered
Round Ireland with a Fridge
Fatherland
and for my photography Speedliter's Handbook: Learning to Craft Light with Canon Speedlites

I'm in English Lit so at least most of my school books are just novels... but when you get a class that requires an anthology.... $$$$$. oh well they're good to keep around anyway

♥Xeni♥ wrote: "I'm wondering though, do most of you just buy any book you fancy, or do you really think about it first?..."

I used to be quite like you in that I was reluctant to buy books unless I was quite sure of them, often reading borrowed copies and then purchasing the ones I liked, but things have changed since the Book Depository came online. Here in Australia we have a protected book market and buying books the old fashioned way is ridiculously expensive compared to other English language countries. Now that I have the Book Depository and PayPal, I get several books per week arriving on my doorstep.

This week's booty included Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel, Slaughterhouse 5, The Shadow of the Wind and Darkness at Noon.

Victoria wrote: "Now that I have the Book Depository and PayPal, I get several books per week arriving on my doorstep."

Isn't in great? :D Especially considering in my city we now only have 2 real bookshops left and the libraries never have much of what I'm after.

Kim wrote: "Victoria wrote: "Now that I have the Book Depository and PayPal, I get several books per week arriving on my doorstep."

Isn't in great? :D Especially considering in my city we now only have 2 real..."

THERE'S 2 bookshops?!?!

Hmm... I looked up the Book Depository, since I'd never heard of them before. Seems to me like their prices are more expensive than Amazon's although shipping is free. Perhaps in Australia they are cheaper?

No we use the UK website. It can be expensive to ship to Australia so the free shipping is good. It's owned by Amazon anyway.

Kim wrote: "No we use the UK website. It can be expensive to ship to Australia so the free shipping is good. It's owned by Amazon anyway."

Heck, yes- Amazon shipping to Sydney is like AU$20...

I was pretty sure Amazon's acquisition of the BD was going to be the death knell for free shipping to Australia, but so far so good. Fingers crossed it stays that way!

Victoria wrote: "♥Xeni♥ wrote: "I'm wondering though, do most of you just buy any book you fancy, or do you really think about it first?..."

I used to be quite like you in that I was reluctant to buy books unles..."
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel is very interesting. you get to know so much of old folk lore and beliefs. I absolutely loved it and reading it once is not enough.

I've been bad too, lately.

Chronic City
The Invisible Man
The Time Traveler's Wife
Brodeck: A novel
The Windup Girl
Delirium
Genesis
The Maze Runner
The 19th Wife
The Full Moon Bride
And two novels I can't find on here: The Papermaker of The Amazone by M. Arana and The Science Fiction Writer by Harold S. Karstens

Oh, and I was thinking about buying Darkness at Noon too but I wasn't too sure I could stomach the content - it looks pretty painful to read.

You can add books to the system if they aren't in here yet. I do it a lot. Also, try an isbn search, not just book title / author.

Sonali wrote: "Victoria wrote: "♥Xeni♥ wrote: "I'm wondering though, do most of you just buy any book you fancy, or do you really think about it first?..."

I used to be quite like you in that I was reluctant to ..."

Sonali, I started reading Jonathan strange and was bored bored bored. Is it really worth sticking with?

Diamosity wrote: "And two novels I can't find on here: The Papermaker of The Amazone by M. Arana"

Pretty sure that is actually Cellophane just a Dutch version.

And I've added De Sciencefictionschrijver

♥Xeni♥ wrote: "Sonali, I started reading Jonathan strange and was bored bored bored. Is it really worth sticking with?"

I'm about 250 pages into it and really enjoying it. It's definitely a slow mover, and I know some people find the footnotes very jarring, but I love the total immersion the author creates. It's such a thoroughly thought out re-imagining of the 19th century and the characters are crazily machievellian beneath their refined Georgian facades.

If it was the pace that bothered you right from the start, well it's still quite dense 250 pages in. Could be just a matter of personal preference?

Kim wrote: "And I've added De Sciencefictionschrijver"

Thank you so, so much! I was checking the authors' names on here but I just couldn't find them. I'm pretty new to this site. Well, my receipt actually says "The Papermaker of..." instead of Cellophane but it's indeed supposed to be a Dutch version. Probably a mistake, hopefully I'm not getting a totally mangled translation or something. ;)

Diamosity wrote: "Thank you so, so much!"

No worries

My Kindle crashed-again.

So I comforted myself by buying a hard copy of Heidegger and Derrida: Reflections on Time and Language.

I picked up Nowhere Man by John M Green at the airport for some mindless reading on my flight

I just got the Centennial version of Nineteen Eighty-Four with an introduction by Thomas Pynchon!

I can't wait to read 1984 with this group!!!

I just picked up Robots of Dawn by Asminov and Odd Thomas and Forever Odd by Koontz.

Im trying really hard to stay off Amazon. Just love waiting for the mail to come with another book. I think ive got 3 to arrive but cant really remember what. This is a serious addiction HELP!!!!!

Block the website!!

Oh Wendy - I'm so glad I'm not the only one who can't remember what's been ordered from Amazon! But isn't it like Christmas morning when the package arrives?

This month I have purchased:
The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga (already read)
Last Man in Tower - Aravind Adiga
The Forgotten Waltz - Anne Enright
The Sweetness of Tears - Nafisa Haji
The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid (nearly finished)
The China Garden - Kristina Olsson
The Samauri's Garden - Gail Tsukiyama
Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
One Day - David Nicholls (already read)
Lost in Translation - Nicole Mones (started reading)
Where the god of love hangs out - Amy Bloom (already read)

So many to read, it is so wonderful

Wendy wrote: "Im trying really hard to stay off Amazon. Just love waiting for the mail to come with another book. I think ive got 3 to arrive but cant really remember what. This is a serious addiction HELP!!!!!"

I do not purchase books online. I try to only buy from independent bookstores (this is getting harder though). I like the smell of bookstores and the texture of the books. I have a couple of amazing bookstores near where I live. I often do not plan on which books I will buy, i just browse until I find something that intrigues me.

Lisa wrote: "Wendy wrote: "Im trying really hard to stay off Amazon. Just love waiting for the mail to come with another book. I think ive got 3 to arrive but cant really remember what. This is a serious addic..."

Where I live there aren't a lot of independent bookstores and what we have is very small. I do look in charity shops for books but I broke my ankle in Dec and have difficuly getting out and about. Amazon has been a life saviour.

Victoria wrote: "♥Xeni♥ wrote: "Sonali, I started reading Jonathan strange and was bored bored bored. Is it really worth sticking with?"

I'm about 250 pages into it and really enjoying it. It's definitely a slow..."
I totally agree with you. I suppose its a matter of taste.

Had kind of a splurge at the Border's "going out of business sale" as everything is now 70% off. Not a one of these was an impulse buy. No, seriously - they were all on my TBR list!

The Sexy Book of Sexy Sex
Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People
Zombie Spaceship Wasteland- Patton Oswalt
I Was Told There'd Be Cake-Sloane Crosley
and The Name of the Rose because I'm sure it's going to win the poll.

Just purchased from Amazon:

The Name of the Rose
The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
2001: A Space Odyssey

I'll be ready for the next 2 months of book reads :)

Melki, our Borders sadly went out of business in May...so I went a little "crazy" buying books too :)

My newest shipments from Book Depository have included:

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales - feminist fairy tales for grown ups compiled by Angela Carter
Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barret-Browning
And still waiting for Labyrinths, a collection of maze-themed short stories by Jorge Luis Borges

Finally bought The Jefferson Key