Kylie's Literary Adventures in 2012

[poppyshake]

Ooh lovely pie pictures we need to see a piccy of the 'gooey caramel with milk chocolate ganache' pie Though it sounds like the sort of pie which makes rational thought go out the window. I didn't know you ate mince pies I'm very happy to hear it. I very much hope you like The Vanishing Act (sounds like you and your pie ) I thought it was lovely. Glad you got your books safe and sound .. I escaped the bogans .... might have that printed on a tee Happy Reading Kylie!

[julie]

_Kylie

_{I'm wondering about the total of books you own ? Do you know if you have the biggest library of anyone in here ? It sure sounds like it ! I know you'd have lots more books than our public lbrary here in town. Just curious if you have a running tally of the number you own?}

[Kylie]

Kylie

sounds as though you had a great day,buying all those books then coming home with those slabs of pie ! Both sound really good .

 

Thanks Julie! Yep, I had a pretty great day. I was all tuckered out last night and slept for nearly 12 hours.

 

_Kylie

_{I'm wondering about the total of books you own ? Do you know if you have the biggest library of anyone in here ? It sure sounds like it ! I know you'd have lots more books than our public lbrary here in town. Just curious if you have a running tally of the number you own?}

 

Oh no, I don't have the biggest library here by far! I think I have a little over 2,000 books, although I swear it looks a heck of a lot more on my shelves! I'm afraid to say that most of them have been acquired in the past 4 or so years. Pontalba, for one, has probably at least 4 times as many books. There are also at least a few others that have more than me, and I'm sure there are others that I've forgotten (or that haven't confessed to the true size of their collection ).

 

I have been cataloguing them with new software recently, so I hope that soon I'll get it all up to date and then I'll be able to keep a running tally.

[Kylie]

Hi Kylie, sounds like a good day. You probably needed that pie just to give you the strength to carry that load of books. The only book from your haul I have read is Concrete Island, which was very good and is sort of an allegory too.

 

Thanks James. I nearly didn't get Concrete Island because I already have quite a few of Ballard's books on my TBR pile, but then I read the blurb and couldn't resist! It sounds quite scary - not being able to get off the island.

 

Ooh lovely pie pictures we need to see a piccy of the 'gooey caramel with milk chocolate ganache' pie Though it sounds like the sort of pie which makes rational thought go out the window. I didn't know you ate mince pies I'm very happy to hear it. I very much hope you like The Vanishing Act (sounds like you and your pie ) I thought it was lovely. Glad you got your books safe and sound .. I escaped the bogans .... might have that printed on a tee Happy Reading Kylie!

 

Meat pies are my favourite food! Well, usually they put steak in them, but this one had mince (meat mince, not those icky fruit mince pies). The meat pie was so big I had to eat it with cutlery because I could see I was going to get into a big mess. I went to get the cutlery and it was on a shelf that had a sign behind it that said something like "Pie Etiquette 101: Eat it with your hands. It's only a humble pie!" I felt suitably chastised but used my cutlery anyway.

 

The bookshop at Bondi is called Gertrude and Alice. I bought so many books that they gave me a calico bag: on one side, there is a silhouette of Alice, with the text 'This is Alice' and, in smaller print, 'and we are the Gertrude and Alice bookstore'. On the other side, it has a silhouette of Gertrude, with 'This is Gertrude, and we are...". I love that these bookshops have reusable bags. I have a few of them now.

 

You mean that you might get 'I escaped the bogans' printed on a tee, right? Because if I did that and walked down the street, I would probably get set on and pummelled half to death by a big group of bogans within minutes. That reminds me, at the Bondi shop I saw a book about the science of what bogans like, or something, and I had to smile and wonder if the folks of this snooty eastern suburbs town (these are the people that look down on folks from my area) were making an effort to understand bogans. Hehe. Somehow I think that book will remain unsold for a long time.

 

I'm enjoying The Vanishing Act so far. I can't tell from the blurb whether it's going to go into fantasy territory or not. It sounds like it will, but nothing really strange has happened yet.

 

As requested, here is a pic of the gooey caramel pie. You can see the caramel gooing right out the side - it didn't travel home too well! There is not much of it left - it is rather rich, even for me (I have the highest sugar tolerance of anyone I know). I'm about to go and polish off the rest now.

 

[Kylie]

Another book haul arrived today. Better World Books had a '30% off 7 or more books' sale a while ago, so I had to buy some, of course.

 

JG Ballard A User's Guide to the Millenium

Linda Gray Sexton Searching for Mercy Street: My Journey Back to My Mother, Anne Sexton

Alfred Hitchcock A Brief Darkness

Jack Jones Let Me Take You Down: Inside the Mind of the Man Who Killed John Lennon

Astrid Lindgren Pippi Goes on Board

Alberto Manguel Stevenson Under the Palm Trees

LM Montgomery Emily Climbs

LM Montgomery Emily's Quest

Anne Sexton A Self-Portrait in Letters

 

 

ETA: Oops, I went shopping and bought a few more.

 

Bill Brohaugh Everything You Know About English is Wrong

Al Gore An Inconvenient Truth

Veronica Roth Insurgent

[Kylie]

Hi Kylie just wondered have you seen an Australian war film called Beneath Hill 60? I have it to watch tomorrow.

 

Hi James, I forgot to reply to this, sorry! No, I have never seen it. Was it any good?

[julie]

Kylie

Sorry to sound like a Numb-Nut,but can you define what a Bogan is ? They used that term on Australia Big Brother this year,and I have no clue what it means -- is it like hippie, or farmer or hillbilly or something else ?

 

And I must again say that I have never seen such a wonderful group of people on any tv show . They all seem to be non-judgemental , fun-loving,good sports, very caring and kind hearted . So much better quality than what we see on our reality shows -- over here it seems to be the toughest or meanest wins . SAD

[Kylie]

Haha Julie. You're not a numb-nut! A bogan would be called a redneck in America. The western suburbs of Sydney (where I live) are stereotyped as bogan areas. Admittedly there are a lot of bogans around, but there are plenty more 'normal' people (like yours truly).

 

Comments by Frankie on Goodreads inspired me to read a tiny book (haha, that's a pun, as you'll see in a moment) from my shelves to help knock my TBR pile down a bit. So I started and finished The Tiny Wife by Andrew Kaufman today, which I received from the lovely Poppyshake on New Year's Eve last year. It was an intriguing little read - has anyone else read it?

[Kylie]

I have received several books in the mail this week:

 

Quentin Bell Virginia Woolf: 1882-1912

John Hammerton Books and Myself: A Memoir

Jerome K Jerome My Life and Times (can't believe I found a copy of this! It was quite cheap and it's a beautiful Folio edition)

Jack Kerouac The Sea is My Brother

Virginia Woolf Diary of Virginia Woolf Volume 1: 1915-1919

[Alexi]

I'm so jealous of your library Kylie - I just don't have the storage space! That's one of the reasons (plus moral and skintness) I'm a big library user, but having left a load of books at my Mum's when I moved again, I've started buying more so I have a stack that won't fit on the shelves. I've had to resort to storing them on the kindle now!

[julie]

Kylie

I guess our town should change it's name to Bogan,because that pretty much sounds like our entire town . It's ok though. I like it here .

We have so many funny stories of things that happen here that's it's amusing, even if some would call it boring. We dont have any movie places, bookstores, sit-down restaurants (other than Burger King) .One grocery store that tends to leave items on the shelf as long as possible . It's not a surprise to find dust on the cans and mold on the cheese. I usually pick items out that are out-dated and take them up front to make them take them off the shelf . Oh,and moldy fruit . Gross .

My all time favorite "Bogan" stories from our town ?

2 neighbors got into an argument ,and one went out that night with a stick of butter and buttered the other guy's car windshield and door handles .

Another guy got really drunk and got mad at his wife ,so he went out in the front yard and doused himself with lighter fluid and set himself on fire . I don't know about YOU,but doesn't that seem kinda ODD ?

 

Our town is full of stories like that . Bogan-Land .

[Kylie]

I'm so jealous of your library Kylie - I just don't have the storage space! That's one of the reasons (plus moral and skintness) I'm a big library user, but having left a load of books at my Mum's when I moved again, I've started buying more so I have a stack that won't fit on the shelves. I've had to resort to storing them on the kindle now!

 

Aw, thanks. That's a good thing about living alone - the space is all mine (mwahaha). I don't have to worry about other people's stuff taking up my precious book space. Still, while I could still fit a lot more books around the place, I really want to cut back on buying books, otherwise my place will just start looking messy.

 

I rarely read ebooks, but I have loads of them on my computer. I can't even begin to imagine how much space they'd take up if I had physical copies!

 

Kylie

I guess our town should change it's name to Bogan,because that pretty much sounds like our entire town . It's ok though. I like it here .

We have so many funny stories of things that happen here that's it's amusing, even if some would call it boring. We dont have any movie places, bookstores, sit-down restaurants (other than Burger King) .One grocery store that tends to leave items on the shelf as long as possible . It's not a surprise to find dust on the cans and mold on the cheese. I usually pick items out that are out-dated and take them up front to make them take them off the shelf . Oh,and moldy fruit . Gross .

My all time favorite "Bogan" stories from our town ?

2 neighbors got into an argument ,and one went out that night with a stick of butter and buttered the other guy's car windshield and door handles .

Another guy got really drunk and got mad at his wife ,so he went out in the front yard and doused himself with lighter fluid and set himself on fire . I don't know about YOU,but doesn't that seem kinda ODD ?

 

Our town is full of stories like that . Bogan-Land .

 

Definitely odd. But it's better he set himself on fire than setting his wife on fire (which has happened over here).

 

I'd probably be right at home in your town, Julie. My town is quite a bit bigger than yours, by the sounds of it, but our grocery stores seem to receive lower-quality fruit and veg compared to the posher inner-city suburbs.

[Kylie]

I have acquired a few books in the mail in the past couple of weeks:

 

Harold Anderson Albert of Adelaide

David Hume On Suicide

Beatrix Potter The Complete Tales

Eowyn Ivey The Snow Child (thank you, Secret Santa!)

 

I bought the Beatrix Potter and Harold Anderson books during the Book Depository's recent sale. I don't often take a chance on completely unknown (to me) books, but I couldn't resist Albert of Adelaide, which has this intriguing synopsis (oh, I just noticed Poppyshake has marked this 'to-read' on Goodreads!):

 

At once an old-fashioned-buddy-novel-shoot-'em-up and a work of deliciously imagined fantasy, Howard L. Anderson's dazzling debut presents the haunting story of a world where something has gone horribly awry . . .

Having escaped from Australia's Adelaide Zoo, an orphaned platypus named Albert embarks on a journey through the outback in search of "Old Australia," a rumored land of liberty, promise, and peace. What he will find there, however, away from the safe confinement of his enclosure for the first time since his earliest memories, proves to be a good deal more than he anticipated.

Alone in the outback, with an empty soft drink bottle as his sole possession, Albert stumbles upon pyromaniacal wombat Jack, and together they spend a night drinking and gambling in Ponsby Station, a rough-and-tumble mining town. Accused of burning down the local mercantile, the duo flees into menacing dingo territory and quickly go their separate ways-Albert to pursue his destiny in the wastelands, Jack to reconcile his past.

Encountering a motley assortment of characters along the way-a pair of invariably drunk bandicoots, a militia of kangaroos, hordes of the mercurial dingoes, and a former prize-fighting Tasmanian devil-our unlikely hero will discover a strength and skill for survival he never suspected he possessed.

Told with equal parts wit and compassion, ALBERT OF ADELAIDE shows how it is often the unexpected route, and the most improbable companions, that lead us on the path to who we really are. Who you journey with, after all, is far more important than wherever it is you are going.

 

I had planned to try and finish a couple of my current reads by the end of the year, but instead I went and picked up Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. I know it's loved by a few people here. So far I'm about 20 pages in and have laughed out loud quite a few times. I'm already loving it (and learning some disturbing things).

[frankie]

I'm currently loading and installing Open Office on my computer so I can copy+paste some of the posts of yours I want to reply to, I won't dare try and do it on this box, I want a text document so it'll hopefully be a bit more handy, and also I won't fudge up as likely I'm in for some good times, commenting on your (numerous) purchases of late

[Kylie]

Ooh, I can't wait!

[frankie]

Re Magical Thinking. I quite liked it. It let me in on a little of his eventful life, so I can only imagine how much better (worse?) Running with Scissors is going to be. I was only checking out the chapters that had naughty headings, so I don't know if I was reading the 'worst' stuff or not (yes, I can be very immature sometimes - but hey, I didn't write it, I only read it!)

 

Well I'm happy to hear you enjoyed the bits that you read, but dear Kylie, you should read the whole book When are you going to read RWS?

 

Russell Ash & Brian Lake Bizarre Books: A Compendium of Classic Oddities

This should be interesting!

Yes indeedy! Here's the blurb:

"They say you can't judge a book by its cover—but its title can tell you MORE than you ever needed to know! Amazing, illuminating, and gut-bustingly funny, Bizarre Books is the wonderfully twisted product of more than two decades of determined searching in forgotten corners of out-of-the-way libraries and through the literary detritus of eclectic private collections. It is certain to delight every true fan of trivia and the patently absurd."

That does sound great. You have a knack for finding these sorts of books!

 

Groucho Marx Memoirs of a Mangy Lover

Harpo Marx & Rowland Barber Harpo Speaks!

You already commented on the Harpo book on my thread but I still find it funny that we should've bought the same book on the very same day

We're awesome. I watched my second Marx Brothers movie recently: Animal Crackers. 'twas great!

I'm sure Rory would approve!

 

Kate Atkinson Started Early, Took My Dog

I think this is on my wishlist, although I'm pretty sure it's not really about dogs. It's a murder mystery, is it not?

Yes, you're right. There were several books by Atkinson at the fair, and when I stopped to look at them before I bought them, I realised they were mostly part of a series. A couple of the blurbs didn't really appeal to me though, so I gave one or two to my Mum and I think I put a couple of others back (see? I showed restraint!)

Wow, you do have some sort of mind control and discipline Shocking! Has your Mum read the books yet? What's she been reading, anyways? I'm sure she'd read through all the Deaver novels already.

 

Jane Austen & Charlotte Bronte The Juvenilia of Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte

Interesting, what's this about?

These are the early writings of Austen and Bronte - the stuff they wrote before they were famous.

Cool!

 

Richard Brautigan So the Wind Won't Blow it All Away

Haha, hippie Brautigan book!

Yay! I was looking up more of his work recently and added some stuff to my wish list. All of his stuff sounds great.

Yeah I noticed the Water Melon book on your list when I did some digging...

 

Simone de Beauvoir The Woman Destroyed

Wohoo for Beauvoir! I don't believe I have a copy of this, great find!

Yep. They had a few of her titles, but I showed restraint and only bought the one that I thought sounded the most interesting.

What the hell, you didn't buy all of them?!

 

William Faulkner As I Lay Dying

Jealous!

I was so pleased to find this. I have always known the title but never knew what it was about. Then, just before I went to the bookfair, I was reading a list somewhere of the greatest novels set in the south, and this one really caught my eye.

I know this is on many lists but I was never keen on it because like you I didn't know what it was about, but then I read someone's review of it on here and liked the sound of it very much indeed. I hope it's good.

 

 

Haruki Murakami The Elephant Vanishes

Yay for finding Murakami. And I can't believe you didn't even think of him until you found a copy, I think one of the books/authors I remember the best from our book fair trip is Murakami, we both found so many of his titles.

This was the only Murakami title I saw. I think they are still trying to replenish their stocks of Murakami after Cyclone Frankie whipped through and grabbed most of them two years ago. You did way better than me on that front!

Hahahaha I think it was us together that brought them down on their knees Hehe, I checked the Bookfair website a few days ago (I wanted to know what the building was called, I couldn't remember it on my own), and I found I was still on the vid clip on the first page

 

Amy Tan The Bonesetter's Daughter

Amy Tan Saving Fish from Drowning

Cool! I hope to possibly read some of these together with you, if our reading schedules allow it!

That would be great. There were a couple more of hers there, but I limited myself to these. I couldn't remember which one everyone had recently read for the GG challenge, but I was hoping it was one of these. I'm pretty sure now that it isn't, but oh well!

Yeah, it was The Opposite of Faith, which is her memoirs of some sort, the others are fictional stuff. But I have a feeling we'll really like her novels, too! I know Chesil read one of her novels and really enjoyed it, right after we did TOoF.

 

 

Jeanette Winterson Gut Symmetries

Jeanette Winterson Lighthousekeeping

Jeanette Winterson Sexing the Cherry

Oh boy, is poppyshake to be blamed for this?

No, not really! I have always eyed off Winterson's books at previous bookfairs, but I've never known where to start with them (I'm sure at least one or two are on various book lists, but I could never remember which titles, so I just didn't get anything). Then I watched an interview that Jennifer Byrne did with Winterson a couple of months ago, and I became quite interested in her. This aired shortly after I bought Winterson's autobiography anyway, so I just gave in and bought all the titles I've been seeing for years.

Hehe, so poppyshake's off the hook, I think she will be pleased, although if you end up liking her, she'll be disappointed she can't take the credit

[frankie]

I think I bought 112 'unique' titles, and maybe another dozen to replace editions I already have. I don't think it's my biggest haul ever, but it's certainly right up there!

 

Haha, mayday, mayday! I don't know about you guys but over here 112 is the national emergency telephone number Very apt, Kylie, very apt!

 

Richard Harwell (ed) Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind Letters, 1936-1949

Gertrude Stein Paris France

Jean-Paul Sartre Words

Jealous! Bloody hell, some amazing finds.

I agree! Especially about Margaret Mitchell's letters. I love the book and the movie so much, and these are letters she wrote about the movie. Awesome!

I'm sad that she never wrote anything else after GwtW. (Or was that Harper Lee. Or both of them. Hmmm.)

 

Julia Briggs Virginia Woolf: An Inner Life

Excellent choices!

Thank you!

I just read Nigel Nicolson's bio on Virginia Woolf and now I'm even more jealous that you got this

 

HL Mencken Selected Prejudices

This purchase is the other book besides The Art of Racing in the Rain that I'm so happy and excited about, we are crazy for Mencken

Thank you! And it matches the Mencken I found at the last fair (In Defence of Women); they are both small blue hardbacks. I'm surprised I found them because the print on the spine is tiny and I usually gloss over those types of hardbacks anyway because they're a little unappealing. But I did look more closely this time because of my last find, and it paid off!

It totally paid off! Do you think we would've noticed any of the possible Menckens back in 2010 when we were there together? When did we get so engrossed by him that we started coveting his books? How did that really happen?

 

Frederic Spotts Letters of Leonard Woolf

This should be interesting.

Indeed! It's probably one I won't get to for about 20 years (I hope to finish Virginia Woolf's works by about that time ), but it's nice to have.

Definitely. And who knows how Woolf crazed you'll go when you start reading the Woolf novels, aye?

 

Tom Wolfe The New Journalism

Tom Wolfe The Purple Decades

These should be really interesting as well.

Hmm, I was expecting a little more enthusiasm about The New Journalism because I thought you had brought it to my attention originally, but now I'm not so sure! Maybe I found out about it after reading The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test? All I know is that the book is out of print and I thought I'd never find it. I actually gave a little gasp when I saw it. This was probably the find of the bookfair for me.

Hm. I don't think it was me who brought it to your attention. After all, I've not even read any of his books yet, and you have. I'm pretty sure you discovered the whole thing on your own. Or maybe it was something I read on wiki and told you about. I had no idea it's been and is out of print though, so pretty effing marvellous you found a copy

 

 

Virginia Woolf The Diary of Virginia Woolf Volume 3 1925-1930

Virginia Woolf The Diary of Virginia Woolf Volume 4 1931-1935

Virginia Woolf Women and Writing

I see someone's getting into Woolf these days I'm really jealous about the diaries. I can't wait for you to get into them so you can tell me if you like them. Are you thinking about doing the same kind of Woolf challenge poppyshake is doing?

I was happy to find them but disappointed not to find the rest. I remember that, a bit before the bookfair, Lifeline's online shop had a set of all 8 volumes for sale (in hardback; the ones I bought are paperback). I dithered too long over buying them and someone else snapped them up, so I was happy to at least find these two. I'll have fun looking for the rest now whenever I go shopping.

No, I won't be doing a challenge like Poppyshake is; I don't set myself challenges anymore because I have so little reading time. Reading the books as a challenge would quickly make them feel like a millstone around my neck (and you know how that feels!)

That's exactly what I was going to say, you'll be having a whole lot of fun fishing for the rest of the volumes!

Haha yes a millstone around one's neck is not nice, not nice at all. (I hope you've already chucked the book in the bin, hehe!)

 

Harold Bloom How to Read and Why

Hehe, I have a copy of this!

Really?! I was expecting you to make a smart comment like 'you need a book to tell you how to read?' Actually, I'm surprised nobody said that!

Well we don't want to be predictable, do we?

 

Carmen Callil & Colm Toibin The Modern Library: The 200 Best Novels in English Since 1950

I wonder which books are on the list...

I'll find/post a list soonish. I was thrilled to find this because I just discovered the list a couple of weeks before the book fair! I was actually going to start a thread for it in the relevant area...and then I found the book!

So where's the list, missus?

 

Richard Lederer More Anguished English

Read question above.

The subtitle is 'An Expose of Embarrassing, Excruciating and Egregious Errors in English'. Basically, a collection of typos. I just saw Richard Lederer described as 'the illegitimate offspring of HL Mencken'. Haha! I have the first book (Anguished English) on my TBR pile already.

Haha, this sounds like a whole lot of fun! Damn, I wish I could fly over this instant and come and check these books out and read them with you!

 

Roger Lewis Seasonal Suicide Notes

Read question above.

Here's the synopsis from Amazon:

Thanks for providing the synopsis. That sounds great, but I guess I gotta ask: is Roger Lewis someone one should know about, then?

 

Yes, we had so much fun! Didn't we remove the library door together? Here's something to make you laugh: with the last bookcase I put up in the lounge room, I accidentally put on the top shelf back to front (and I had been so careful with every other shelf), so the edge facing out was brown instead of black. You can probably see it if you check out the photos in the Show Your Bookshelf thread. It's at the top of the bookcase on the far right. Dad has since painted over it for me - but he didn't move the books first and got some black paint on my Bill Bryson books!

 

Ahahahahah I can't believe you managed that! And how on earth did you let your Dad paint before removing the books? I bet he was gutted when he realised what he'd done. Oh, good old Kylie's Dad!

[frankie]

A local online bookshop was having a big sale recently, and I couldn't resist buying some cheap reads:

 

Of course you couldn't, hehehe! And why should you!

 

Peter Haining Wrotten English: A Celebration of Literary Misprints, Mistakes and Mishaps

A Parody Shite's Unoriginal Miscellany (started reading; quite odd)

A Parody Old Sh!te's Almanac

That's an awful lot of shhhhhhhe! =D

 

Dan Simmons Hyperion

What made you buy this one, then?

 

HL Mencken The Diary of HL Mencken (missing a dust jacket, but I guess I can live that)

I wants!!!! *blush*

 

Anne Sexton A Biography

I wants!! *blush*

 

Virginia Woolf Hyde Park Gate News

Yeah I would want this, too =D

 

I was supposed to pick up a parcel of books today, but I'm flat out with work, so my mum has kindly offered to collect it for me tomorrow. Well, my tidy shelves didn't last long - I have more books to shelve already!

 

I hope this was before your parents' move

 

I've had an awesome book week. I received two books from Poppyshake for Christmas (thank you!):

 

Paul Auster Winter Journal

William S Burroughs The Cat Inside

 

That darling poppyshake, she's ever so nice and she has great taste

 

Walter Moers The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books

Oh I can imagine how super excited you are about this one

 

Today I went to Bondi Beach to check out a bookshop. It had a great selection and some quirky gifts (I really wanted the Lolita and A Clockwork Orange iPad covers!) but being in the trendy Bondi Beach area, it was part cafe too. The shop was tiny to start with, but once you add tables, chairs and lots of people wanting to work on their laptops or talk or do other non-book things, it becomes very difficult to browse! I wanted to tell them all to get the hell out and go and do their work at home (but of course, they couldn't be seen then) or go and do their talking on the beach or at another cafe. Ha. I'm such a grumblebum.

 

 

Grumblebum =D I've never heard that one before! I'd like to tell you what we say in Finnish but it's too nasty to post on this forum...

 

Simone de Beauvoir Letters to Sartre

Jealous!

 

Marieke Hardy You'll Be Sorry When I'm Dead

Marieke's book!!! So cool

 

Ayn Rand Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

Oooh, Ayn Rand!

 

Gary Shteyngart Absurdistan

I've seen this at the library and have had the mind to borrow it some day.

 

John Keats You Might as Well Live: The Life and Times of Dorothy Parker

Jealous!!!

 

Oh, and some more good news. I read nearly 100 pages of The Art of Racing in the Rain yesterday. It's probably been a year or two since I last managed to read that much in one day! Today on the train, I started reading The Vanishing Act by Mette Jakobsen (who I learnt lives in Sydney...cool!)

 

You've been doing so much reading lately, I'm very proud! I think you've done 30% of your reading in the last month or two...?

 

Linda Gray Sexton Searching for Mercy Street: My Journey Back to My Mother, Anne Sexton

Jealous!

 

Jack Jones Let Me Take You Down: Inside the Mind of the Man Who Killed John Lennon

Jealous!! Eventhough I'm not a Beatles fan like you are.

 

Alberto Manguel Stevenson Under the Palm Trees

Another Manguel title, what's this about?

 

LM Montgomery Emily Climbs

LM Montgomery Emily's Quest

Hehe, yay, Emily books! I hope you'll like them =)

 

Anne Sexton A Self-Portrait in Letters

So so jealous!!

 

Quentin Bell Virginia Woolf: 1882-1912

God damn it, I'm so jealous!

 

Jack Kerouac The Sea is My Brother

So cool!

 

Virginia Woolf Diary of Virginia Woolf Volume 1: 1915-1919

See, you already found another volume of these =D

 

I bought the Beatrix Potter and Harold Anderson books during the Book Depository's recent sale. I don't often take a chance on completely unknown (to me) books, but I couldn't resist Albert of Adelaide, which has this intriguing synopsis (oh, I just noticed Poppyshake has marked this 'to-read' on Goodreads!)

 

I believe I must add Albert of Adelaide on my wishlist *blush* Remember how much fun we had checking out the cool platypus?

 

 

I had planned to try and finish a couple of my current reads by the end of the year, but instead I went and picked up Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. I know it's loved by a few people here. So far I'm about 20 pages in and have laughed out loud quite a few times. I'm already loving it (and learning some disturbing things).

 

 

It's kinda frightening how some of the disturbing things make you laugh out loud

[Kylie]

For Christmas, I received The John Lennon Letters from my brother, which looks fantastic. When I got home, I found Gonzo by Jann Wenner, which had arrived from Frankie (thank you! ). I also received a book voucher from my Mum and Dad, which I spent today:

 

Fiction

John Cheever Bullet Park

Colette The Last of Cheri

Jasper Fforde The Song of the Quarkbeast

Mervyn Peake Gormenghast

Mervyn Peake Titus Alone

Jean-Paul Sartre The Age of Reason

Nevil Shute A Town Like Alice

JRR Tolkien Mr Bliss

 

Re Gormenghast, I already have the trilogy in an all-in-one book, but I could resist buying these nicer, single editions, which were very cheap.

 

Non-Fiction

Simone de Beauvoir Letters to Sartre

Sigmund Freud Civilization and its Discontents

Scott McConnell 100 Voices: An Oral History of Ayn Rand

Sir Ernest Shackleton South: The Endurance Expedition

[chaliepud]

Mervyn Peake Gormenghast

Mervyn Peake Titus Alone

 

Re Gormenghast, I already have the trilogy in an all-in-one book, but I could resist buying these nicer, single editions, which were very cheap.

 

I really must try reading these this year, my Dad is trying to lend me his old and much loved trilogy copy but I'm scared I'll damage it and it looks rather daunting with the tiny print so I think it may be a Kobo read..

[frankie]

For Christmas, I received The John Lennon Letters from my brother, which looks fantastic. When I got home, I found Gonzo by Jann Wenner, which had arrived from Frankie (thank you!).

 

Hehe, I'm glad you told me early on that your bro was going to get you the John Lennon Letters, because when I looked at your wishlist the first time I thought I'd probably get you that one I hope you enjoy Gonzo!

 

Wohoo for book voucher gift from Kylie's awesome parents!

 

Colette The Last of Cheri

Hm. Is this a sequel to Cheri?

 

Mervyn Peake Gormenghast

Mervyn Peake Titus Alone

Hehe, 1001 list books!

 

Jean-Paul Sartre The Age of Reason

Wohoo for Sartre!

 

Nevil Shute A Town Like Alice

Hm... Isn't this the book that is set in Australia? Some dystopian read?

 

Non-Fiction

Simone de Beauvoir Letters to Sartre

Oh bloody hell, hella jealous!

 

Sigmund Freud Civilization and its Discontents

Totally jealous!

 

Scott McConnell 100 Voices: An Oral History of Ayn Rand

How is an oral history produced? Sounds interesting!

 

Had you decided you'd be looking for (some of) these titles or did you just go with the flow?

[Kylie]

Colette The Last of Cheri

Hm. Is this a sequel to Cheri?

I think it must be, yes.

 

Mervyn Peake Gormenghast

Mervyn Peake Titus Alone

Hehe, 1001 list books!

Yep! I actually already have the trilogy in one book, but I'd prefer to read them separately, and these editions have nicer covers. Too bad I couldn't find the first one!

 

Jean-Paul Sartre The Age of Reason

Wohoo for Sartre!

They had two of his books going cheap, but I restricted myself to one.

 

Nevil Shute A Town Like Alice

Hm... Isn't this the book that is set in Australia? Some dystopian read?

It's post-apocalyptic. I thought I didn't have this book but I've since realised that I already have it. Darn! (I've also found doubles of two other books in the last couple of days. Grr...)

 

Non-Fiction

Simone de Beauvoir Letters to Sartre

Oh bloody hell, hella jealous!

Ah, this is another one I now have a double of. *rolls eyes*

 

Sigmund Freud Civilization and its Discontents

Totally jealous!

This looks great. I can't wait to read it!

 

Scott McConnell 100 Voices: An Oral History of Ayn Rand

How is an oral history produced? Sounds interesting!

It's a bit weird isn't it? It almost sounds like there should be a CD included or something, but it's a collection of 100 hundred interviews conducted with various people associated with Rand throughout her life, such as family, friends, fans and authors. They're arranged in chronological order.

 

Had you decided you'd be looking for (some of) these titles or did you just go with the flow?

I didn't really have a plan. Because I had a voucher, I wasn't sure if I should go for 1 or 2 big, expensive books that I wouldn't usually buy for myself, or lots of cheap/on sale books. As you can probably tell, I went for the latter! I just browsed until I had an armload of books (and then had to get a basket to put them in because I could barely carry them!) The Ayn Rand book was a particular surprise. I picked it out of the biography section, just wanting to read the blurb - I thought I wouldn't be able to afford it - but it had a sale sticker on it! I was rapt.

[Kylie]

Yes, I know I should have already wrapped up this thread, but I wanted to include my final purchases of 2012 here (they arrived this year, but they don't count as 2013 books!)

 

Non-Fiction

JG Ballard Miracles of Life (a paperback to replace a tall hardback I have)

Quentin Blake The Life of Birds

Augusten Burroughs A Wolf at the Table

Michael Chabon Manhood for Amateurs

Linda Flavell Dictionary of English Down the Ages

John Gray Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus

Walter Hooper CS Lewis: A Companion & Guide

Steven E Landsburg More Sex is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics

Gregory Leland Am-Bushed

Ivan Moscovich More Logic Puzzles

Hannah Nordhaus The Beekeeper's Lament

Matt Ridley The Rational Optimist

Mary Roach Packing for Mars

Jon Ronson Out of the Ordinary

Jon Ronson What I Do: More True Tales of Everyday Craziness

Connor Woodman The Adventure Capitalist

 

Fiction

Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice (Vintage edition)

Misery Bear Misery Bear's Guide to Love and Heartbreak

Michael Chabon Telegraph Avenue

Michael Chabon Werewolves in Their Youth

Agatha Christie The Mousetrap and Seven Other Plays

David Lodge A Man of Parts

David Lodge Ginger, You're Barmy

David Lodge Small World

Leanne Shapton Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris (I already have this, but my copy has a green cover and this copy has a red cover!)

Karen Thompson Walker The Age of Miracles

 

These purchases cap off a pretty ordinary reading year for me. Onwards and upwards in 2013!

[Devi]

I was waiting and waiting for you to add your list of books to your 2013 list, but by chance thought I'd check in here and found this! . Adding them here makes sense so I don't know why I didn't just check here in the first place!

 

I got JG Ballard Miracles of Life - I have a couple of his books on my list of titles I want to buy.

 

i wanted to get Mary Roach Packing for Mars and Linda Flavell Dictionary of English Down the Ages, but by the time I got to the checkout with their 30% off everything sale, they had gone

 

I was looking at Augusten Burroughs A Wolf at the Table but heard Running With Scissors was a better read. I was also looking at Matt Ridley The Rational Optimist, but didn't in the end.

[Kylie]

I was waiting and waiting for you to add your list of books to your 2013 list, but by chance thought I'd check in here and found this! . Adding them here makes sense so I don't know why I didn't just check here in the first place!

 

You were quite right to check my 2013 thread! I was originally going to post the list there, but I haven't finished setting up my lists yet, so I didn't want to go posting other stuff. So I thought I'd just post them in here (that way, it doesn't look like I've been naughty and bought books already this year ).

 

I got JG Ballard Miracles of Life - I have a couple of his books on my list of titles I want to buy.

 

Cool. I have quite a few of his fiction books on my TBR pile, and a massive book of his collected short stories, but I haven't actually read any of them yet. I'm sure I'll love them, though, because the plots always sound so interesting. 2013 is definitely the year to read some Ballard! I think I'll leave his autobio until I've read at least one or two of his fiction books.

 

i wanted to get Mary Roach Packing for Mars and Linda Flavell Dictionary of English Down the Ages, but by the time I got to the checkout with their 30% off everything sale, they had gone

 

Oh! I didn't even see Packing for Mars on their website! I actually ordered it from the Book Depository and only received it today. I just added it to the list for the sake of simplicity. Man, I could have bought it for $3?! Oh well. I guess it was still pretty cheap from the BD. I hope I didn't take the last copy of English Down the Ages. Hopefully they'll get in some more copies for the next sale.

 

I was looking at Augusten Burroughs A Wolf at the Table but heard Running With Scissors was a better read. I was also looking at Matt Ridley The Rational Optimist, but didn't in the end.

 

I've heard only excellent things about Running with Scissors too. I think Frankie will disown me as a friend if I don't read it soon. She has been nagging encouraging me for years to read it, so I thought it would pacify her for a bit longer if I showed that I was still interested in Burroughs.