Last Book You Bought and Why

[bluosean]

was Little Dorrit because I wanted to read it and it was not at my library.

[Pollopicu]

Today I bought "Pride & Prejudice" and Dostoevsky's "The Idiot"...just because I haven't read them and plan to soon.

[Barbarous]

I just bought Saramago's Blindness, Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, and The Bible because I wanted read some relatively recent works and study the Bible as a literary text.

[Pollopicu]

I just bought Saramago's Blindness, Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, and The Bible because I wanted read some relatively recent works and study the Bible as a literary text.
I read Eco's "on Ugliness" and loved it. I think a lot of the quotes in this books inspired me to want to read a lot of the darker literary pieces.

[crystalmoonshin]

Philip Roth's Goodbye Columbus". I want to read more of his works after finishing "Portnoy's Complaint".

[manolia]

"catch 22 " by J Heller
"Gravity's rainbow" and "the crying of lot 49" by T Pynchon
"Slaughterhouse 5" by K Vonnegut
all ordered from amazon and are on the way.

All the above are books mentioned many times here in litnet, so i thought to give them a try (that's why i love litnet :D it may make my purse lighter but it's full of book recommendations).

[Stargazer86]

Johnny Cash's autobiography. I bought it after googling Johnny Cash and Elvis. Someone had put up a portion of his writings about Elvis from his book. So, I went and bought it :)

[Desolation]

Online:
North by Louis-Ferdinand Celine
Rigadoon by Louis-Ferdinand Celine
The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
I bought these because Celine is my favorite writer, and those two books complete his war trilogy, of which I've read the first book. I bought Emerson because I've heard a lot of good things about him lately, and I feel he's essential anyways. Plus they were all fairly inexpensive.

In store:
Stories by Anton Chekhov
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
These two are just essential Russian lit that appeal to me at the moment.

[bessecar]

" Ancient Rome - The Rise and Fall of an Empire " by Simon Baker. I misssed the BBC series and i'm interested in Caesar.

[prendrelemick]

Just back off my hols, (a week in Carnforth.) Some of you may know that as well as brown shrimp (delicious)and the 'Brief Encounter' railway station, Carnforth is famous for its large second hand bookshop. So I was able to sneak off and browse the shelves for an hour or two. Unfortunately my wife has a one in-one out policy when it comes to books so I only bought three.

1 Romola, by George Elliot.
Because no one at my book club had heard of it when I suggested it for consideration. I read it years ago and remember liking it for its atmospheric and evocative setting in Renaissance Florence.

2 Medea and other plays, by Euripades
It's time I had my own copy of this one.

3 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Bronte
It was being discussed in a thread on here and I hadn't read it and I reside in Bronteland and she's the only Bronte I hadn't read. I've started this one and like it so far.

I got all three for a fiver by the way.:D

[mercy_mankind]

Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence. I'm not sure about the reason behind buying that book...May be because I want to read something by D.H. Lawrence, and there was no books by him but sons and lovers :D

[MSDGreen]

The Book:As I Lay Dying

The Reason: I finished Light in August, and while I really liked the way that Faulkner writes I did not like Light in August. I bought As I Lay Dying because I like to highlight and write in the books that I read. They still frown upon that at the library.

[Zeniyama]

The last book I bought was Ulysses, by James Joyce (a book I've mentioned quite a few times already in my other posts). I bought it because I've already read Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and really enjoyed both of them, so I figured I'd enjoy this one as well.

[isidro]

Another Day in the Frontal Lobe

Written by a neurosurgeon about neurosurgery and I highly recommend it.

[sadparadise]

The last book I bought was Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Getting prepared for Octobers book club selection.

[waterfallin]

I went to my University Bookstore yesterday and got Villette , Agnes Grey, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall , The Return of the Native, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and Crime and Punishment.

Why? because they were all books i've been meaning to read, which my local bookstore rarely carries, for a reasonable price. I was ecstatic :)

[Pryderi Agni]

The Wonder That Was India II: Coz I lurrrrrve mah history!
The Golden Treasury (Palgrave): Coz I luuuuurves my poetry too!

[The Comedian]

I bought Lolita because everyone here keeps talkin' about it. I figured it was high time to read that sucker.

[wessexgirl]

The Booker shortlist. Why, because for once I fancy all of them, and they were on special offer, for £35. I couldn't resist the bargain, even though I was going to wait a little to get my unread pile down.

Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
The Children's Book - A.S.Byatt
The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters
The Glass Room - Simon Mawer
Summertime - J.M.Coetzee
The Quickening Maze - Adam Foulds

There's some real doorstoppers amongst the list, but I can't wait :lol:. They've just been shipped, so I'm eager for them to arrive. The winner is announced on Tuesday 6th, and I'm guessing that it will be Wolf Hall, which is the favourite, but they all look good.

http://www.themanbookerprize.com/news/stories/1275

[Helga]

I bought an Icelandic book about literature and Beckett's collection of plays,poems and stories. I also bought Thomas the train and Aja Baja Alfons Aberg for my boy...

[Idril]

Troll: A Love Story ~ Johanna Sinisalo
Cancer Ward ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Chronicle of a Death Foretold ~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Kalevala

[Boo Radley]

"The Coastwatchers" - non fiction. It was cheap.

[Helga]

I sure hope they close that book market soon. or I'll get broke

today I bought:

Koran
Jekyll and Hyde
stupid white men (as a gift)
two children books (as a gift)
aldingarðurinn (an Icelandic book)
and as gift for shopping there I got
Lucky

[kinkajou]

Picked up a paperback copy of The Fall by Albert Camus at the library. Why? Because I love Camus, because the paperback was in excellent condition and because it cost only $0.25. Can't get any better than that :-)

[NickAdams]

The Tarot - Alfred Douglas
Mastering the Tarot - Eden Gray

I purchased a Tarot deck a few months ago, but never gotten around to getting a book. I thought it might be interesting to use the Tarot to develop characters.

[samercury]

Last month
Hogfather by Terry Pratchett (because it's the only Discworld book I haven't read), Pride and Prejudice because the last copy 'mysteriously' disappeared in the dc, 1984 because my friend 'borrowed' it last year and never gave it back and I want to read it, and two children' book for my little sis (Shakespeare's Secret and the third Allie Finkle's Rules For Girls)

[IJustMadeThatUp]

Yesterday:

The Messenger -Markus Zusak
I loved The Book Thief.

On Fairy-stories - Tolkien
Recommended by wisp a while ago.

Steppenwolf - Hermann Hesse
It's on my list.

[Paulclem]

I bought Midnigts Children by Salman Rushdie and Guernica by Dave Boling.

I bought Guernice because I was intrigued to see how it links to Picasso's piece, and because it was on offer in Waterstones. The last book I bought on offer was Netherland by Joseph O'Neill which was a really good read.

[WJMuldowney]

I just purchased Moby Dick, an Easton Press leatherbound edition, from a seller on ebay. I'm fairly certain the book was never read and possibly never opened.

I bought it because I've never read Moby Dick, I liked the idea of owning some classics bound in leather, the price was right ($15 shipped), and it's an early Christmas present.

[Maryd.]

Wuthering Heights, because my 13yr old daughter had read it and asked me to read it so many times, that I ended up buying it.

[Red-Headed]

An anthology of Wordsworth, because it was on sale.

[Idril]

I just ordered a few books on amazon the first being Felix Krull, Confidence Man: The Early Years by Thomas Mann because my uncle, who actually did his thesis on Thomas Mann, recommended it and since I already like Thomas Mann, it was an easy choice.

The second is House of Babel by P. C. Jersild because a Swedish friend of mine said he was an amazing author. I added several of his books to my wishlist and the choice of this as the first one was completely random.

The third is Petersburg by Andrei Bely which amazon recommended because I liked The Master and Margarita, We and Envy.

And the fourth, Darkness at Noon: A Novel by Arthur Koestler, was another recommendation by amazon because I liked Monumental Propaganda and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

I'm also seriously considering ordering some José Saramago. I saw a discussion about him on here that piqued my curiosity so I googled him and he looks quite fascinating! I added about 4 of his books to my wishlist but I think I'm going to Barnes and Noble this afternoon and see if they have anything there and if not, I will place an order tonight.

[BloomingRose]

The last book I bought (not the last one I read) was 'The broken mirror' by Agatha Christie (maybe that's not exactly the title of the book, because the one I bought was translated into Spanish, so I'm not sure what's the original name). Why? Because it was on sale and because my mom likes Agatha's work, and so I finally bought it. I thought it was going to be a bad one, but it surprised me though. I would recommend it :)

[Poetess]

1. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde) - Robert Louis Stevenson
2. The Woman in Black - Susan Hill
3. My Cousin Rachel - Daphne du Maurier
4. Bagdad, City of Peace - Taha Al Rawi (in Arabic)
5. First Love - Ivan Turgenev
6. The Turn of the Screw -Henry James
7. Six Short Stories (Junior Series) - Thomas Hardy, Anthony Trollope, Robert Louis Stevenson, Charles Dickens, H. G. Wells, Oscar Wilde
8. (An Arabic book with an Arabic title for an Arabian writer lol)
9. How to Read a Film: The Art, Technology, Language, History and Theory of Film and Media - James Monaco


Why?
Well.. That`s the reason why I wait for the annual book exhibition! I walk around and pick books..

As for book number 9, I am the representative and responsible student for my class in college. I have to always check around for useful book for our major, and How to Read a Film was a good one. I then got it > classmates and teachers agreed on it and got it too.

[Dinkleberry2010]

The last book I bought was a hardcover edition of 28 Science Fiction Stories of H.G. Wells. I bought it for one dollar at a yard sale.
Why? Because I like Wells, and--are you kidding?--one dollar for a hardbound edition--I snapped that sucker up.

[Dr Jekyll]

hmmm...it would be three...for some reason I tend to buy books in threes...not sure why?, but what the heck!

Yes, that goes for me as well. Neither I'm not sure why, but anyways I bought:
-The Complete Poems of John Keats
-The Complete Poems of W.B. Yeats
-The New Routledge Dutch Dictionary

Because I am a great fan of poetry and thus decided to start collecting poetry from English authors and I want to learn Dutch...

[hack]

That was yesterday. Today I bought Mircea Eliade's Shamanism.

Mircea Eliade, what a wonderful old friend.

I last bought "The Immense Journey" by Loren Eiseley

It is a gift to my nephew. This is a beautiful book that
I love to give to anyone that I think might appreciate it.
The science is a little outdated (remarkably only a little)
but it is, to me, a masterpiece, a small treasure.

[hack]

I forgot, I bought a copy of The Texas Cherokees on a discount rack.
I already own one but I could not pass up the bargain.

[OrphanPip]

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino. It came highly recommended and so far it has been excellent.

[Jeremydav]

I guess the last book I bought was a dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory for next semester. It's proven rather useful.

[Boo Radley]

Sayings of the Buddha and Other Masters. No need to say why.

[skib]

East of Eden. An impulse buy I don't think I'll ever regret.

[Zeniyama]

Two books, actually.

Three Novels by Samuel Beckett because I've always wanted to read one of Beckett's novels and figured three would be thrice the fun. Also, it was about sixteen dollars, and I figure that's pretty good for three twentieth-century novels.

Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey because after reading On the Road, and thinking about the Beat Generation and counterculture a bit, I remembered the fun I had reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and wanted to read something else by Kesey.

[TurquoiseSunset]

I bought Nelson Mandela's 'A Long Walk To Freedom'. I've been wanting to read it for quite a while now, so I'm really excited about it!

[keilj]

bought a few at a used book store the other day

Sun Also Rises by Hemingway - I didn't like the parts of this in high school English class, but in the years since, I have some to like other books by Hemingway, so I figured I'd give this one a full read

Letters from Earth by Twain - all the current editions of this are greatly edited and incomplete - so when I saw an old, full version in the used book store, I got my second copy, in case I ever want to lend it out or give it to a friend

In Dubious Battle by Steinbeck - and old hardcover. An old hardcover by Steinbeck for cheap - I'm there dude

[Bastable]

Big Sur - Jack Kerouac
Essays - Michel de Montaigne - I was however disappointed to realise after i bought it that it was only a selection, and not the whole thing :(
Inferno - Dante - I wanted to get the whole divine comedy but alas was thwarted by a poor stock manager.

[lattywatty]

Three books, actually :D

Catch-22 because it was recommended highly by a friend for many months now so I finally gave in.

For Whom the Bell Tolls since I've always wanted to read it and now I'm studying the Spanish Civil War I decided it's the perfect timing.

Ulysses because I've never read it and finally found it in stock!! :D

[L.M. The Third]

The last books I bought were all second-hand:

The Complete Works of William Wordsworth
(I already have it, but it's called a beloved author!)
A book of poems by Emily Dickinson
A college textbook about 19th century literature
And a book about books called "Much Loved Books" which gives a brief overview of some authors including Thoreau, Wordsworth, Lamb, Whittier, etc.

[applepie]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, because my old copy had fallen apart finely. I love paperbacks, but they really only last so long.

[grace86]

Last weekend I went on a bit of a shopping spree buying second hand books. I managed to get very lucky with my findings:

Profiles in Courage - John F. Kennedy
Because I thought it might be a little interesting to read something from one of my former presidents. Somehow I usually sway towards reading English Lit, Russian, etc...but any American literature or authors or such I've always avoided. Thought it might be a time to start and a good choice to do so as well.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
Why it sounded so familiar to me I do not know. So that's the reason I bought it. Later found out from my dad it's supposed to be very good!

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See
It's been on my list for awhile. And I like Chinese culture, and thought it'd be a nice modern read. Anyone else read it??

The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Because I love his works and have some sort of fetish for collecting them. Thought it was crazy cool I found it second hand!

The Good Soldier - Ford Maddox Ford
Because I saw the LitNet conversation here, and it's been on my list for ages.

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
I happened to see the movie Love in the Time of Cholera, and I couldn't stand it. So it prevented me from having a huge desire to read the book. So I bought this one in hopes of reading it and loving Marquez.

Till We Have Faces - C.S. Lewis
I've loved everything I've ever read of his. Another surprise find secondhand.

Bel Canto - Ann Patchett (sp?)
For some reason I picked this up and thought it was Suite Francaise, a book on my list. But alas, it wasn't the one I was thinking of but it was in fact also on my to be read list. Haha.

[cgrillo]

I bought a few books, all by Herman Melville, because I greatly enjoyed Moby-Dick last year and I wanted to read some of his earlier work, just out of curiosity. They are:

Mardi, and a Voyage Thither Vol. I and II.
Redburn: His First Voyage
White Jacket

[WuWei]

"A Man Asleep" by Georges Perec.
I was at one of those would-be radicalchic pubs that have bookshelves in them and sell small-time-publishers-only. Noticed this rare edition of a lesser known novel by an author whom I adore, payed it together with the drinks.

[myrna22]

Part two of Doris Lessing's autobiography and A Proper Marriage. I now have all five books in the Children of Violence series, plus her complete autobiography. Plan to take these, along with other books, on my 2 month summer holiday. Reading for pure pleasure, something I don't get much chance to do during the year. :)

[Ashbe Maeur]

Bombs Away - Steinbeck

I happened across it in the Las Vegas airport, on my way home from seeing my boyfriend at Nellis... and needed something to read on the 5.5 hour flight back home.

It wasn't what I was expecting.

[Mariner]

Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson. I liked everything I've read from him so far. It was between that and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72. I didn't think I could handle those 70's politics right now. So I hope Hell's Angels will be a fun read.

[Travis_R]

On Saturday I bought both Don Quixote and Montaigne's Complete Works. I bought Quixote because it is regularly cited as one of the best novels of all time and the Essays because of recommendations on this forum.

[Veho]

I bought The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Why? Because I could, and I wanted to.

[stlukesguild]

I just picked up a selection of poems by Hafez and a hardback edition copy of Dante's Paradiso translated by the Hollanders. I've been slowly building my library of Arabic and Persian poetry and this translation seems to have avoided the typical "new age" crap that so many translations of Hafez and Rumi are subjected to. As for Dante... well the Comedia, in my opinion, is the single greatest literary work ever written... at least in the West... and I have several translations already but have wanted the Hollander version as well and I could not refuse at the price I found it.

[dfloyd]

I have read The Way of All Flesh several years ago and have been curious about his anagram title. I found a beautiful copy published by The Limited Editions Club in the 1930s. Introduction by Aldous Huxley and illustrated by Rockwell Kent. I love to find older books published in the great age of book illustration, design, and printing.

[janesmith]

"The World for a Shilling: How the Great Exhibition shaped a Nation" by Michael Leapman. Just bought this but haven't started reading as yet. I adore fiction (particularly Fin-de-siecle) but I occasionally like to back it up with some social and historical contextualisation.

[eric.bell]

I was reading Efraim Karsh's Islamic Imperialism: A History and one of the essays waet my appetite for a little British history. I had seen a 7th edt set of hard backed books of Winston Churchill's A History of the English Speaking Peoples, so I bought them; but I have not yet started in on them.

[grace86]

Another shopping spree on second hand books. And I know I'm forgetting to mention one...but for the life of me I cannot remember which I am forgetting:

Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
Because people on litnet keep mentioning Atwood. And the synopsis sounded interesting.

Fathers and Sons - Turgenev
I've read it before and loved it. Saw it last time I was there and didn't pick it up. So I regretted it all week, and luckily it was still there!

The Bookseller of Kabul -
Biography from the Middle East. Took a history class of the Middle East and this book sounded interesting.

Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
Every time I go to the bookstore I see it. Read the synopsis and discovered it dealt with racism from both perspectives and I took a racism course that I thought might add to making this a good read.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - Joyce
When I was much younger I tried reading it and didn't get through it. It was miserable. So, seeing as I have a few more years on me, and that it was fifty cents...it's definitely worth another try.

Cliff's Notes Paradise Lost
Every year or so I read some sort of commentary for Paradise Lost in conjunction with the work itself. There's just so much to it to understand and enjoy.

And there's another nameless book...and it still hasn't come to me. When I see it at home I'll put it down here.

[paradoxical]

I traded some books at a used bookstore and got the Penguin Classics edition of The Odyssey and The Iliad with the credit I received. I had read the Odyssey years ago and already had a beat up copy of it but I like the Penguin Classic books. I've never read the Iliad but plan on reading it soon.

I also picked up a copy of The Dead Zone by Stephen King. I'd like to build up a small collection of his books. So far I only own two or three, but I've read a few of his books. He's a good writer and I enjoy his stuff when I want to read something just for fun.

I still have a few dollars worth of credit. I love used bookstores!

[hot4jwg]

Tess of the D'Urbervilles. I had read the Mayor of Casterbridge and wanted something else by Thomas Hardy. Plus, I wanted to read more from the top 100 list.

[dfloyd]

I have both, beautifully illustrated with woodcuts. My favorite Hardy theou is Far from the Madding Crowd. Although I did like Return of the Native.

[dfloyd]

I have both, beautifully illustrated with woodcuts. My favorite Hardy though is Far from the Madding Crowd. Although I did like Return of the Native.

[Jeremydav]

I bought the Epic of Gilgamesh because it is the first book in the Western Canon, into which I intend to plunge and wade through for the rest of my life. I could use some coffee.

[mal4mac]

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - Joyce
When I was much younger I tried reading it and didn't get through it. It was miserable. So, seeing as I have a few more years on me, and that it was fifty cents...it's definitely worth another try.


I read it recently, having a version with a *lot* of notes *really* helped - so if you get stuck try "Wordsworth classics" version - only £1.99 new (about $3?)

[mal4mac]

Last two books:

(1) Ulysses (Wordsworth Classics)

No Notes! :(

(2) Ulysses (Oxford Classics)

Notes! :)

Hope they are sufficient :?

[Bastable]

Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand - I was talking to my dad the other day, and this play somehow came up, and I remember that dad was so surprised and maybe even a little offended that his son wasn't familiar with it. Naturally I humoured him.

Ulysses by James Joyce - Do I even need to say why?

Fantastic Tales edited by Italo Calvino - It had quite a number of lesser works by authors I am interested in.

[Three Sparrows]

Waverly-Sir Walter Scott
Nicolas Nickolby-Dickens

[Il Dante]

I've rather enjoyed what I've heretofore read of the unfortunately-named Trollope

I've never read a novel by Anthony Trollope. And, to be honest, the reason is simply his name.

People tell me he was one of the greatest and most popular of Victorian novelists. People tell me his novels are wonderful. I percieve that they must be wonderful if so many people like them. My mind suggests that he is worth the read. Yet, my emotion revolts gainst reading him simply because it seems hard to believe that anything good could come from a man whose name was Anthony Trollope. It's ridiculous, I know.
:frown5:

[L.M. The Third]

Poems of John Donne (Wordsworth Classics)
"Walden" by Thoreau
"Fortunes of War" by Olivia Manning (I may not even get to reading it, since I've got so many genuine classics to do. But I'd just watched the mini-series with Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh, so was rather interested.)

[Alexander III]

A portable collection of Emerson's poetry, which is great as it easily fits in my pockets so I can read it anywhere. I bought it as, well the cover looked pretty...

[ktm5124]

I've never read a novel by Anthony Trollope. And, to be honest, the reason is simply his name.

People tell me he was one of the greatest and most popular of Victorian novelists. People tell me his novels are wonderful. I percieve that they must be wonderful if so many people like them. My mind suggests that he is worth the read. Yet, my emotion revolts gainst reading him simply because it seems hard to believe that anything good could come from a man whose name was Anthony Trollope. It's ridiculous, I know.
:frown5:

I read his book The Warden, and I wasn't really thrilled with it. Kind of dull and boring. I wouldn't recommend reading that one.

The last book I bought was Great Expectations. I'm on the fence about whether I should read this or A Farewell to Arms after I finish my current novel.

I was also eyeing Philip Roth's American Pastoral in the bookstore today... it looks very good, and I haven't read anything by Philip Roth.

[dfloyd]

The Warden and its sequel, Barchester Towers, are excellent introductions into the personalities of those who live in a cathedral town. If you want a thriller, don't read them, but Trollope in these two comes off very well. If you don't want to take the time to read them, watch the excelent Masterpiece Theatre production. Only the English can portray the English so admirably.

The last book purchased was Lincoln's Literary Works, ably illustrated by John Steurt Curry. The most important speeches, letters, and other writings of the great American president published in 1942 by the Limited editions Club

[Buh4Bee]

A portable collection of Emerson's poetry, which is great as it easily fits in my pockets so I can read it anywhere. I bought it as, well the cover looked pretty...

Hope you eventually read it to someone. Haha. :biggrin5:

The last book I bought was for a book club. The Postmistress.

[Emil Miller]

[QUOTE=ktm5124;885904]I read his book The Warden, and I wasn't really thrilled with it. Kind of dull and boring. I wouldn't recommend reading that one.QUOTE]


After a period of some years, I reread The Warden quite recently and found that it stood up quite well to my initial reaction which was very favourable.
The central theme of how a well-meaning radical's efforts finaly forces the closure of the alsmhouses that until his appearence had been a haven of tranquility is something that everyone can learn from. It wouldn't be a bad idea to throw out Robin Hood from the classroom and replace it with The Warden.

[dfloyd]

You wont find Robin Hood in any American classrooms any way. But when I grew up, reruns of the 1938 movie with Errol Flynn and Olivia Dehaviland appeared at local movie houses frequently. This is Flynn's best action thriller, and the color was beautiful, at least by 1938 standards. And if you were lucky enough to own a copy of Robin Hood illustrated by N. C. Wyeth, you could become an expert and correct all of your compatriots as to what Robin Hood was really like. It is a shame that children of today do not read Robin Hood, Last of the Mohicans, Treasure Island, and Ivanhoe, just to name a few.

I agree with you about The Warden. It is a thoughtful and well-written book. However, it should be followed by a reading of Barchester Towers, the sequel. Masterpiece Theatre dramatized both together as well they should be. I mourn for Masterpiece Theatre and its portrayal of Victorian literature!

[ktm5124]

Interesting to hear everyone's thoughts on The Warden. Perhaps I should revisit that book.

[bouquin]

My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead -- Jeffrey Eugenides, ed.
Howards End -- E. M. Forster
How Late It Was, How Late -- James Kelman
Lullaby -- Chuck Palaniuk
The Accidental Woman -- Jonathan Coe
The Dead Fish Museum -- Charles D'Ambrosio

[hillwalker]

A couple of poetry collections -

Book of Longing - Leonard Cohen (a particular hero from my adolescent years)
The Poetry of Norman MacCaig (a Scottish master and an ex-neighbour - unfortunately no longer sharing these twisting paths with us)

H

[L.M. The Third]

Howards End -- E. M. Forster

There's a book I'd like to get. Tell me if it's good.

[ktm5124]

There's a book I'd like to get. Tell me if it's good.

I'd also be curious. I fell in love with A Passage to India but I couldnt get into A Room with a View - I had to "put it down".

[jet.thursday]

I bought two books last month I think,
but unfortunately they're the last for now :(
Pride and Prejudice; Good Omens
^^

[tailor STATELY]

"Battlefield Earth" - L. Ron Hubbard

I'm a Sci-Fi junkie, mostly short stories, but I fell in love with "Battlefield Earth" many years ago. My poor paperback copy gave up the ghost after many readings and moves and was relegated to the heat stove about 2-months ago much to my sadness. A few weeks later while perusing a local thrift store I found a hardback copy in pristine condition that I happily paid either 50¢ or a dollar USD for.

[ktm5124]

Lady Chatterley's Lover - D.H. Lawrence
Sons and Lovers - D.H. Lawrence

I like D.H. Lawrence, and I got a great deal on the books ($5 each).

[The Comedian]

"No Man is an Island" Thomas Merton -- been feelin' a little spiritual lately.

[cgrillo]

I bought two books recently: The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek (forgive me if I have spelled his named wrong) and The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan.

I bought The Good Soldier Svejk after wanting it for a very long time, but never deciding to buy it. I first heard of it somewhere where it said that, if Joseph Heller hadn't read it, he never would've wrote Catch-22.

The Pilgrim's Progress, on the other hand, is simply something that I have wanted to read for awhile; I have read the first few pages on the internet, and it seems good.

[bouquin]

The Invisible Man - H.G. Wells
The House in Paris - Elizabeth Bowen
The Woman Who Walked into Doors - Roddy Doyle
The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid




________________________
Currently reading: LE DIVORCE (Diane Johnson)

[victorianfan]

I bought two books recently: The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek (forgive me if I have spelled his named wrong) and The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan.

I bought The Good Soldier Svejk after wanting it for a very long time, but never deciding to buy it. I first heard of it somewhere where it said that, if Joseph Heller hadn't read it, he never would've wrote Catch-22.



Oh, The Good Soldier Švejk is great novel! I have only about 90 pages left of 760 and I'm going to write a review on my blog here.

[mal4mac]

Seneca's Essays and Dialogues (Oxford World Classics) - I wanted to learn more about stoicism from 'the horse's mouth'. I thought this might be a tough, boring (if worthy!) read, instead it's an easy, exciting (as well as worthy!) read.

[Veho]

Oxford Romeo and Juliet. I wanted an individual copy of R&J to read outside of my home; the RSC is a bit too big to be carrying around.

[bouquin]

Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord - Louis de Bernières
The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Boy's Own Story - Edmund White
The House Gun - Nadine Gordimer
Moll Flanders - Daniel Defoe
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll
Oranges are not the Only Fruit - Jeanette Winterson
House of Meetings - Martin Amis
How the Dead Live - Will Self
Liver - Will Self
The Buddha of Suburbia - Hanif Kureishi
A Death in the Sanchez Family - Oscar Lewis
Arrowsmith - Sinclair Lewis
The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells
The Wasp Factory -Iain Banks
God's Grace - Bernard Malamud
The Quiet American - Graham Greene
Across the River and into the Trees - Ernest Hemingway
The Red Queen - Margaret Drabble
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz

[mrmontagne]

Love All the People - Bill Hicks
Big fan of his comedy and it was cheap.

The Stars' Tennis Balls - Stephen Fry
Big fan of Fry as usual and I love his novels.

[Aragorn Elessar]

The last book I bought was Tom Clancy's The Hunt For Red October. I read the first few chapters and got bored, but it's very well-written and anyone in the Navy would probably enjoy it. It's a widely liked book, and it is good, but it is just not my type of literature. I bought it because I thought I would enjoy it.

[semi-fly]

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
Mars by Ben Bova

As strange as it might sound I got them for research for a short story I've had running around in my head for a while.

[Brad Coelho]

Infinite Jest, thanks to this forum. Lit Nit should abscond some type of nudge fee to Barnes & Noble, eh?

[Eiss]

Winesburg, Ohio - Sherwood Anderson

[hillwalker]

'The Gathering Night' (Margaret Elphinstone)

She ran a one-day writing course I attended a fortnight ago so I did the courteous thing and bought a signed copy of her latest book - and I'll admit it is a very good read.

[dfloyd]

Published by The Limited Editions Club in the early 1930s in Haarlem in a tremendous letter press edition of 950 pages. It is to be rebound in Scarlet 1/2 Nigerian goatskin and hand marbled paper.

[gruntingslime]

History of Madness -Michael Foucault
I've been wanting to read up on insanity for a while, haven't known where to begin. Not exactly what I was looking for on the subject, but it's more than I could ask for. I really love this book.

I'm thinking of picking up M/F by Anthony Burgess... but I'm a little scared to follow through with it.
I would like something to aid my feeling of emptiness inside, my feeling of aimlessness (even though I have 'goals')... don't know what that would be.

The Comedian mentioned the book Walden to me. I did some reading up on it. Not sure if I'm ready for it, but the idea of it is somewhat inspiring.

[wolf23]

The way of shadows by brent weeks

why?
A friend recommended it and was a new york times best seller

[IceM]

I actually bought three books together.

Cosmocomics by Italo Calvino, because it was highly praised here on Litnet.

The Complete Works of Kafka, because I desperately wanted to read something different.

Clockwork Orange by Burgess because I thought it'd be a good time to read it.

[minstrelbard]

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

I heard of it on another forum and was intrigued.

[loe]

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, because it was mentioned here.

Usually I am more into classical literature but after the first pages I have the impression that it seems to be a quite nice book.
So you won't be sorry for luring me. ;)

Best regards

[w_maryellen]

I am looking forard to some intelligent book chats.:

This book was written by someone interested in art. Art history people
often have a good sense of history in general. I wanted to give it as a
gift to someone who likes to philosophize.

[sixsmith]

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

I heard of it on another forum and was intrigued.

Love to hear what you think of it minstrel.

[de Renal]

:conehead::conehead::conehead:Since I am opsessive-compulsive book shopper :crazy:, I bought seven books in June:
1. Lolita, V. Nabokov
2. In Praise of the Stepmother, M. Vargas Llosa
3. The Confusions of Young Torless, R. Musil
4. The Book Thief, M. Zusak
5. The Lover, M. Duras
6. Celebrations, M. Tournier
7. The Heart of Darkness, J. Conrad

Oh, if only a day had a hundred hours, wouldn't that be swell!

[TurquoiseSunset]

The Help (http://www.amazon.com/Help-Kathryn-Stockett/dp/0399155341/ref=pd_ts_zgc_b_books_8_i?ie=UTF8&s=books&pf_rd_p=475709271&pf_rd_s=right-3&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=283155&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1E4223YVYVYRSE5FMT02) by Kathryn Stockett

[dafydd manton]

Mr. Midshipman Easy by Frederick Marryat, because I love that wry humour, and I haven't read it in about 40 years.

[damondarkwalker]

"The Death of Jim Loney" by James Welch. I saw it mentioned in a creative writing book I'm reading.

[mikemaster70]

The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Reasoning: Well I was in the philosophy section of Barnes and Nobles, and I hate leaving a bookstore without buying at least something. Also, it was between that and Utopia by Sir Thomas Moore, and Manifesto just felt lighter ^_^

[jimjonesrobot]

If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino

Got recommended to me.

The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O'Connor

I haven't read this one yet, and I'm a big fan of Flannery O'Connor.

[joebob]

infinite jest - david foster wallace

heard it was AMAZING and SO CLEVER and THE BEST BOOK EVER. sadly it's not. not at all. it's quirky hipster drivel. note to self: stop reading books that aren't at least 50 years old.

[Ms. Bungle]

El Paciente Ingles

Because it was cheap, I was bored, and it's been recommended on several occasions.

[stlukesguild]

My last two books were a volume entitled Byzantine Art and another 1492, a catalog from an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington from some years back. I bought both books for the wealth of color photographs of some beautiful art work and because they were both grossly inexpensive.

[lyni]

after all that heavy stuff....

the last book I bought was Legends O f Australian Fantasy edited by Jack Dann & Jonathan Strahan.

I like fantasy.

[Veho]

My Antonia by Willa Cather because many people on here seem to rate it and Selected Letters of Jane Austen, out of interest.

[DonovanTalbot]

The Eternal Husband and Other Stories by Fyodor Dostoevsky P/V translation.

Working my way through P/V translations as I enjoyed their C&P immensely.

[WildWildEast]

The Last book I bought was Burma Boy. I had no specific reason for buying this one. I walked randomly into this bookstore, had a look at the books, found it. Then I turned it around to read the synosis and found it interesting.

[Veho]

Perfume by Patrick Süskind and The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides. I bought Perfume because I've wanted to read it for ages and The Virgin Suicides because I'd read about it recently and thought it sounded promising.

[Alexander III]

Machiavelli's The Prince - I have heard so many thing about it I was curious to see what its about.

[LMK]

(The what)
The Autocrat Of The Breakfast Table - Oliver Wendell Holmes

(The wherefore)
I had not read it, it was in perfect condition for a second printing and only 50 cents at a charity shop.

[Jeremydav]

Rimbaud's complete works. I'd heard references in Dylan songs and decided to check it out.

I love "My Bohemian Life", which I read first due to its influence on the Dylan tune "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues".

[LuggageFan]

Wuthering Heights - Like the Kate Bush song, and want to see if its novelization lives up to the musical version. :ciappa:

Making Money, Terry Pratchett - this makes my Discworld collection complete.

[Scheherazade]

Wuthering Heights - Like the Kate Bush song, and want to see if its novelization lives up to the musical version. :ciappa:Yeah, I hear Ms Bronte made some quick buck by writing that book based on the song but writing seems a little dramatic and sensationalist.

[hazelk]

The Zookeeper's War..By Steven Conte.

It has won Prime Minister's Award..2008 (Australia).

I also like the cover:thumbsup:

I like to read about animals, my favourite was Water For Elephants.:seeya

[EJMathews]

Entire Works of Edgar Allen Poe

Because I had not read any of his writing, yet of course had hear about the Raven and other snips, so thought I would try to read a piece at a time between other books.

[Akeldama]

"Subculture: The Meaning of Style" - Dick Hebdige
"The Hip Hop Wars" - Tricia Rose
"Lords of Chaos" - Michael Moynihan
"Sober Living for the Revolution" - Gabriel Kuhn
"The Philosophy of Punk: More Than Noise" - Craig O'Hara
"Notes From Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture" -Stephen Duncombe
"Make a Zine!" - Bill Brent
"Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal and Grindcore" - Albert Mudrian
"We Owe You Nothing" - Daniel Sinker
"Zine Yearbook #9" from Microcosm Publishing

Big ole' order for school, for a humanities class I'm taking about underground subcultures (primarily subcultures centered around music). I'm super excited for the class, since I'm a fan of and very interested in all of the genres we're covering (black/death metal, punk/hardcore, and hip-hop) and the class is (from what I understand) going to be very independent and research oriented.

[JZD]

Just bought Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time by Joseph Frank. It's the abridged (only 1,000 pages lol) version of his epic 5-volume biography. Dostoevsky is my favorite writer, I'm borderline obsessed with him, and I'm really psyched to travel through his life.

[untroddenways]

Well, I just received an Amazon shipment of 31 books: novels, short story collections, and a couple Latin textbooks, all for the upcoming semester. I will not bother listing all of them, but at the moment I am reading Sixty Stories by Donald Barthelme. I LOVE it.

[stlukesguild]

Yes... Barthleme can be quite marvelous.

My own most recent purchase was that of The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino. Because of copyright issues (idiot lawyers!) Calvino's Cosmicomics only appeared in the US in a truncated form. Even at that, the collection was brilliant... but what can I say, I love Calvino. When I discovered that the complete edition (nearly 4 times as long as the US edition!) was available through Amazon, I had to immediately jump upon it... even if that meant paying for international shipping from the UK.

[cgrillo]

A few days ago I found a 1949 copy of The Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald in a thrift store for a dollar, so I figured I might as well get it. I also found The Quincunx by Charles Palliser for the same price, and got it because I remember someone on this site saying that it was great, so...

[bouquin]

The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love - Oscar Hijuelos
Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
Where I'm Calling From - Raymond Carver
True History of the Kelly Gang - Peter Carey
I'm the King of the Castle - Susan Hill
The Grass is Singing - Doris Lessing
Their Eyes were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston
In the Springtime of the Year - Susan Hill
The Drowned World - J.G. Ballard
The Leopard - Giuseppe di Lampedusa
Invisible Monsters - Chuck Palahniuk

[Themistocles18]

Yesterday:

The Wild Palms (If I Forget Thee Jerusalem!)- Faulkner
Three Novels (Malloy, Malone Dies, The Unnameable)- Beckett
A House for Mr Biswas- Naipaul

Why? I wanted The Wild Palms and the Beckett trilogy and my Borders had neither. So I decided to order them off Amazon since they have discounts too...but I needed to go over $25 to get the free shipping so...Mr. Biswas.

[Patrick_Bateman]

The Marquise of O - And Other Stories by Heinrich Kleist
The Russian Revolution by Sheila Fitzpatrick
The French Revolution by Christopher Hibbert
The Rebel by Albert Camus
Existentialism and Humanism by Jean-Paul Sartre
Caesar: The Life of a Colossus by Adrian Goldsworthy
To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
Cousin Bette by Honore Balzac
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky

Why???

For those books concerned, I love history.

As for the others I love Camus and Hemingway

and I want to get into wider European literary material

[hazelk]

The Mango Tree - Ronald McKie
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner - Alan Sillitoe

The first two will be re-reads from long ago, the last will be a first timer.

Why
They were all there in there in an op shop at the right price, pre-loved books:angel:

[Seasider]

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. After I read Behind the Scenes at the Museum I was anxious to read any more she would write and I was disappointed in Human Croquet. But Case Histories is good and fulfils my need for a well written thriller.

[Propter W.]

After Many A Summer by Aldous Huxley. I bought it because I like to read.

[nandakishore]

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger.

Why? Because I loved The Time Traveller's Wife by the same author.

[stlukesguild]

I picked up 5 books at a Labor Day 20% off sale at Half-Price Books:

Anne Carson- An Oresteia- a "translation" of Aeschylus' Agamemnon, Sophocles' Elektra, and Euripides' Orestes. I quite like Carson as poet and translator and am interested in what she soes with these three different versions of the tragedy of the house of Atreus.

Euripides- Medea tr. by Robin Robertson. This is a classic Greek tragedy and I am interested in how this acclaimed recent translation approaches the work.

Marie-Anne Dupuy-Vachey- Fragonard- A lovely little book on the paintings of the Rococo master at a price that could not be passed by.

Mark Rosenthal (ed.)- Vision of Paris: Robert Delaunay's Series- Another art book. The paintings of the French Modernist, Robert Delaunay. I had never really looked at his work much in the past, but I found that his Expressionistic approach to space is quite intriguing and something I could use in my own paintings.

Catherine Clark, etc...- Ascending Chaos: The Art of Masami Teraoka- Another art book. In this case it is a retrospective of the work of the contemporary Japanese painter, Masami Teraoka, known for his figurative paintings which explore eroticism in Western and Japanese culture. His most recent works are huge watercolor paintings with gold leaf framed like early Renaissance altarpieces with imagery exploring sexual hypocrisy in Western/American politics.

[Jive One]

I went to Barnes & Noble the other day to look around and noticed they (re)released their collection of Jules Verne novels among their leatherbound classics line. I picked up that along with the HG Wells collection which I've been meaning to get anyway.

Except for the inclusion of a few poor and out-dated translations that seriously mitigate his work, the Verne collection was well worth $20.

[bouquin]

Boy - by James Hanley

[katelbach]

Transition by Iain Banks for a book club on another forum. Finished it now. Meh.

[Seasider]

Flush by Virginia Woolf. To satisfy 3 of my passions, Woolf, Dogs and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. And it was one of the few books of hers that I hadn't read.

[RaoulDuke]

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein. I've never really been into science fiction, but as Heinlein is considered one of the greats of the genre I thought this would be worth a look. I also have an interest in anarchism which is why I chose this book specifically.

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller. It appears on a lot of recommended reading and best book lists and has long been a source of intrigue.

[hazelk]

Stand We At Last by Zoe Fairbairns, it follows five generations generations of women through the history of their emancipation. It opens in 1855 in Sussex England, a very interesting era for me.

[Sebas. Melmoth]

Just obtained a book entitled, The Fin-de-Siècle Poem: English Literary Culture and the 1890s (a collection of essays) edited by Joseph Bristow.

Know Bristow from Wilde studies.

[dfloyd]

by the antediluvian Noah. I hope the book is better than the movie.

[larryF]

I just bought Eyeless in Gaza just because Im on a huge Huxley kick right now.

[hazelk]

My latest is "We The Living" by Ayn Rand. There have been lots of discussion regarding "Atlas Shrugged", this I have no intention of reading. I will see how this novel goes for me, as she is quite a famous writer. Atlas Shrugged is a mammoth read I believe, this book is in paperback it is quite slim, however it does have 450 pages with very small print.

[mtpspur]

The complete Secret Agent X Volume 1 (Altus Press) reprinting the first four pulp novels from 1934 by Paul Chadwick (Brant House being the pen name used). "X" isn;t in the Doc Savage's or The Shado'ws league but he is a good A- pulp hero wiht a 41 issue run which is quite respectable allthings considered. Read them in less then a week and Voume 2 is waiting to be bailed out from the News Outlet Thursday.

[Sine_lege]

33x3x33 - e.e.cummings because cummings is always witty :)

[Razeus]

The Road by Cormac Mccarthy
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Tinkers by Paul Harding

They were on sale for ~$5 for Amazon Kindle + I don't think I ever read Pulitzer Prize winning books before.

[hazelk]

I have just purchased two preloved books.

'Old Wives' Tale' by Arnold Bennett plus 'The Scarlet Letter' by Nathaniel Hawthorne, every so often I like to read the classics, this time I think I have two very special ones.

[oshima]

Thus Spoke Zarathustra by F.Nietzsche for $.50 at the public library bookstore.

I had read it when I was 19 but didn't understand much of what he was trying to say. Reading it now and with a purportedly much better translation by Walter Kaufmann and accumulated literary and life experience makes it much more coherent and interesting.

[Historianic]

I realise I'm coming into this five years after this thread was opened but anyway....

I was lucky enough to purchase 4 titles the last time I paid a visit to my local bookshop. They were:

1. The Picture of Dorian Gray
2. Lolita
3. The Unconsoled
4. Birdsong

As for the why:

1. I'm an Oscar Wilde fan. Enough said.

2. I've always wanted to read Lolita, intrigued by its protagonist who others have told me manages to be charming and likable, despite his dubious position, and then has you asking yourself, what is wrong with me? How can I agree with a guy like THAT?

3. I loved Remains of the Day and Kazuo Ishiguro's attitude as a writer in general. I find him to be an incredible storyteller.

4. I was actually listening to an interview on the radio with an English actor. I can't remember how or exactly why the book came up but the few comments he made about it stuck with me and intrigued me enough to have me scanning the shelves for a copy of Birdsong on my next visit to the bookstore. Now, having read it, I'm happy to say I wasn't disappointed.

[TheChilly]

1. "Dhlargen", by Samuel R. Delany

Why?: I wanted to give the author a second chance after being let down by "Hogg". So far, liking this work a lot.

[jmnixon95]

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Bought it because I started reading it in the bookstore and I didn't want to have to wait until it came in at the library. I really liked it then, and I still think it's pretty good (I'm about 85% through.)

Also, two Japanese books.

Japanese Grammar
Japanese Vocabulary

And I bought them because I'm being the true autodidact I am at heart and I'm teaching myself the language.

[ralfyman]

Yukio Mishima's tetralogy, because I just finished reading Ligotti's Conspiracy Against the Human Race.

[KatnissEverdeen]

Percy Jackson & the Olimpians, The Lighting Thief. because I wanted to compare the movie and the book.Actually, Percy Jackson & the Olimpians, The Sea of Monster I brought yesterday. Because I want to read the whole series.

[L€lä RËmØ MÅðçÂ]

Japanese Grammar
Japanese Vocabulary

I am teaching myself it too. I also draw the anime things, I can read hiragana and katakana completely. Starting kanji. I learned to read and write before I could under stand. Im not sure this is right.

つなみはまあ

[qimissung]

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski.

I was interested because I heard it had overtones of Hamlet, this story of a mute boy and his dogs.

[hazelk]

"A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest J. Gaines, why?, the cover and the wonderful comment by the Chicago Times.

[bergerac66]

The last book that I bought was Vernor Vinge's "Rainbows End". I got it because we were reading it for one of my classes. Which I didn't mind too much because I love science fiction.

[bouquin]

The Immoralist - André Gide
Schooling - Heather McGowan
Dracula - Bram Stoker
Nicholas Nickleby - Charles Dickens
The Drowned and the Saved - Primo Levi
The Odyssey - Homer
Don't Move - Margaret Mazzantini
Hard Times - Charles Dickens
100 Selected Stories - O Henry

[qimissung]

Dracula is one of my favorite novels, bouquin. Enjoy!

Chinese in a Flash, vol. 1
Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters, vol. 1

[Big Dante]

Paradise Lost / Paradise Regained. Both in one volume and for a good price. i couldn't turn that down.....

[David Lurie]

The Recognitions by William Gaddis, I can't remember why I decided to buy it, but now - when today the mailman delivered it - I am incredulous at the size of the book, it's not a matter of 956 pages only, the size is huge :eek6: so now I have placed it on the bookshelf alongside Rolland's Jean-Cristophe - another mammoth volume I will deal with the day my struggle/love affair with Proust's "recherche" will be over.

[Themis]

"The Hungry Tide" by Amitav Gosh and a book by Bill Bryson.

I bought the first because I liked the title and am interested in learning more about India. I also read a few passages at the bookstore and found the style to be to my liking.

The second one was a must-have. I have no idea if it's any good, but I can't walk by a book by Bill Bryson and not buy it. While I didn't enjoy all of the books by him that I've read so far, there's always the possibility that I'm going to enjoy myself immensely. So it was worth a try.

[bouquin]

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning - Alan Sillitoe
Girl with Green Eyes - Edna O'Brien
The Busconductor Hines - James Kelman
The Life of Insects - Victor Pelevin
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka
Nervous Conditions - Tsitsi Dangarembga
The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon
World's End - T. C. Boyle
The Talented Mr Ripley - Patricia Highsmith
Cry, the Beloved Country - Alan Paton
The Bell - Iris Murdoch



____________________
Currently reading: Half a Life (V. S. Naipaul)

[Desolation]

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

I was feeling overwhelmed with Proust, and realized that it would be impossible to read his entire opus straight through, so I decided to get a few short novels by writers that I either hadn't read or hadn't given a fair chance. I noticed a bias against American writers in particular, so I thought that it would be appropriate to give Hemingway, Fitzgerald (whose Gatsby left me cold), and Faulkner another chance. I also didn't have any female writers in my collection, hence Woolf. So far, I've been very happy with the results.

For Whom the Bell Tolls is one of the best things that I've ever read, Lolita was ok, and so far I find The Sound and the Fury incomprehensible in the best possible way.

[oanna]

Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes. Because is a classic book I wanted to read and have.

[Heteronym]

The two last volumes of a three-volume collection of Brazilian poet Carlos Drummond :party:

[Paulclem]

The Last Man by Mary Shelley.

I wasn't aware that she'd written another novel, and when I saw this for £1.99 in The Works - a bargain books and stationary chain - I couldn't resist. It's a sci fi about humanity being wiped out by a plague. It must be one of the first. Can't wait.

[LitNetIsGreat]

The Last Man by Mary Shelley.

I wasn't aware that she'd written another novel, and when I saw this for £1.99 in The Works - a bargain books and stationary chain - I couldn't resist. It's a sci fi about humanity being wiped out by a plague. It must be one of the first. Can't wait.

Oh interesting, I wasn't aware of this as well. Please let me know what you think of it when you get around to reading it.

The last book I ordered was Cold Comfort Farm. It should be here tomorrow or the day after. It sounded interesting.

[breathtest]

White Noise by Don Delillo. Already read it and it was brilliant, so I wanted to own it.

I ordered it once to the wrong address so it got returned to sender and I was refunded the price of the book but not the price of postage and packaging.

I have ordered it a second time but this is about a week now and it hasn't arrived so I need to get in touch with somebody. Maybe it is a sign. I need to pay less money to the big corporate giants and give something back to the little friendly bookshops down pleasant backalleys. The amount of times I have to buy a book before it comes I might as well pay full price to have it in my hand.

[bouquin]

Anna Karenina -- Leo Tolstoy
The Emigrants -- W. G. Sebald




____________________
Currently reading: Mrs Dalloway (by Virginia Woolf)

[bouquin]

15/09 :
84 Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff
After Leaving Mr Mackenzie, Jean Rhys
Black Dogs, Ian McEwan
The Book of Evidence, John Banville
The Black Dahlia, James Ellroy


18/09 :
The Assistant, Bernard Malamud
Everything You Need, A. L. Kennedy
On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan
The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
The Green House, Mario Vargas Llosa




____________________
Currently reading: Girl with Green Eyes (Edna O'Brien)

[Helga]

Nausea by Sartre for school but have been planning on reading it for years

[AjaxAscendant]

The Battle for God by Karen Armstrong. I love her histories of religions.

[cyberbob]

I ordered 3 on Amazon yesterday.

Rabbit Hole the play because I want to audition for it later this year.
The Red Queen by Matt Ridley which is about evolution of sexuality.
Theory of Money and Credit by Ludwig von Mises which is about money and credit.

[tonywalt]

Cocktail Hour under the tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller

[Desolation]

Last week:
The 42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
V. by Thomas Pynchon
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (which I returned this morning...didn't like it much)
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Today:
Love of the Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Next planned purchases (and last for a while):
The Unabridged Mark Twain
The Complete Short Stories by Ernest Hemingway
The Short Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald

[oanna]

~Tom Brown's Schooldays and Tom Brown at Oxford by Thomas Hughes

[Paulclem]

Bought "Of Mice and Men" last week. Excellent book. Read it in 2 days.

[Sancho]

The Art of Fielding: a novel, by Chad Harbach

Hey, it's fall, and the payoffs are on. (Major League Baseball, that is)

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

The new Dresden Files book because my buddy in prison wanted it.

[Seasider]

The Art of Fielding is that about Henry Fielding or Cricket??
My latest yet another bio of Virginia Woolf to add to my collection. This one by Alexandra Harris

[victorianfan]

Rachel Ray and Lady Anna by Anthony Trollope. In past month I read even 4 of his novels (American Senator, The Warden, Barchester Towers and He Knew He Was Right) and I find his novels fascinating.

[Sancho]

The Art of Fielding is that about Henry Fielding or Cricket??
My latest yet another bio of Virginia Woolf to add to my collection. This one by Alexandra Harris

Ha! Imagine my chagrin – I thought it was a farming manual.

Today I bought: Day Hiking the Northern Cascades

[anishastrologer]

a thousand splendid suns by Khaleed hoseini. it is based in war stricken Afghanistan with an up close and personal view of women in Afghanistan and how they suffered for ages without the world taking notice.

[Sancho]

Animal Farm and 1984, by George Orwell
-a single edition set with a preface by Christopher Hitchens

Because I feel like my thoughts have overly policed lately.
Also because it's raining in the Northern Cascades tody, making it a good day to read.

[Helga]

a book of poetry by an author from the ice named Sigfús Daðason, he was one of the so called atom poets here on the ice and wrote such beautiful poetry, I bought the collection of his work.

[Stewed]

A Lover's Discourse, by Barthes. Guy at the bookstore said it was good when I sold them Camera Lucida and said I was afraid to read SZ.

[irishpixieb]

" A company of swans" by Eva Ibbotson

I really enjoyed "A countess below stairs" and "the morning gift". I also like ballerinas so I decided to read this book!

[Sancho]

Hey Rube; Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness, by Hunter S. Thompson

Does anyone really need a reason to buy an HST book when they find one they don't already own?

Here's a sample from the first essay:


Autumn is always a time of Fear and Greed and Hoarding for the winter coming on. Debt collectors are active on old people and fleece the weak and helpless. They want to lay in enough cash to weather the known horrors of January and February. There is always a rash of kidnapping and abductions of schoolchildren in the football months. Preteens of both sexes are traditionally seized and grabbed off the streets by gangs of organized perverts who traditionally give them as Christmas gifts to each other to be personal sex slaves and playthings.

Most of these things are obviously Wrong and Evil and Ugly - but at least they are Traditional. They will happen. Your driveway will ice over, your furnace will blow up, and you will be rammed in traffic by an uninsured driver in a stolen car.

[CarpeNixta]

Shogun by James Cleavell.
I've been reading how many people here are talking about it in here, I saw it on monday when I went to the library to buy a book I needed for school. It got glued to my hand and I buyed it

[anishastrologer]

i just bought "The Masque of africa" by V. S. Naipaul. after i read chinua achebe's Things Fall Apart, my interest in african culture has increased and so i bought this book to know more about it. since the writer is not european and has spent a considerable time in Caribbean continent so his stand point on african culture can be impartial.

[Teritus]

The Complete Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
I read two of the books, and enjoyed it so I decided to get the whole.

[Chris1991]

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
Mistress in the art of Death by Ariana Franklin
I found both at a very cheap price and i enjoy these kinds of books

[LadyLuck]

The Time Machine by Wells. I needed to replace my very worn copy ;)

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Last book I bought - Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner

Why? - Now that I'm thoroughly lost in the latter half of the book, I am asking myself that question. Actually, it was two fold; one to introduce myself to a new author and secondly as a result of a past discussuion comparing Hemingway and Faulkner.

[paulanderson114]

THE SON OF ENLIGHTENMENT- by Christian Jacq

Nice and interesting story, I was tempted to read more.Good Storyline with interesting character setting.

[sickboy]

the dharma bums by jack kerouac

mainly because i'll be leaving for thailand in about a week!

[bouquin]

The Cement Garden, Ian McEwan
Amongst Women, John McGahern
That They May Face the Rising Sun, John McGahern
The Finkler Question, Howard Jacobson
Visiting Mrs Nabokov and Other Excursions, Martin Amis

[paulanderson114]

Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman is really good although if you hate sad books stay away from it. Even though it is sad it is very good and I recomend you to read it.

[Desolation]

Our Lady of the Flowers by Jean Genet
Miss Lonelyhearts & Day of the Locusts by Nathanael West
The Immoralist by Andre Gide

Because...they look good, and somehow I ended up with money.

[BlackCat]

Violin Mastery by Fredericks Herman Martens
Dark Night of the Soul by Saint John the Cross

Then there were books I bought through Kindle :wink5:

[stlukesguild]

Dark Night of the Soul by Saint John the Cross

San Juan de la Cruz! Great poet. What translation did you pick up?

[Drowning Age]

It by Stephen King. I have been wanting to read some of his work, but never got around to it until recently. It's taking a while to build up, but the plot is fairly interesting.

[Fafnir]

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Mark Twain

I need to read it for class.

The Flowers of Evil - Charles Baudelaire

The Selected Poems of Li Po

ABC of Reading - Ezra Pound

I've started reading a lot more poetry, not only because it's easier to fit a few poems around my assigned reading, but because something's... clicked. I've started to enjoy reading poetry as much, if not more than reading novels. These are the poets that have caught my interest recently.

[cyberbob]

This thread is broken for me. Stuck on page 98.

[Sancho]

At Home, by Bill Bryson

As with my previous purchase (Hey Rube, by Hunter S. Thompson) I don’t think I really need an excuse to buy a book that was written by one of my favorite authors.

At Home may be a good choice for members of this web-site, since there seems to be lots of us from North America and lots from the other side of the pond. You see, Bryson speaks both languages.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

In Our Time Ernest Hemingway
Purchased E-Book for my Nook in response to a suggestion by Sancho as a Hemingway warm up to Farewell to Arms

[Helga]

complete works of Robert Browning, I have only read a few of his poems and the book was on sale

[bouquin]

Ironweed by William Kennedy.

It seemed to be the most interesting book on the shelf.




_________________
Currently reading : The Wasp Factory (Iain Banks)

[aliengirl]

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

I always wanted to have that book and bought it for myself as a birthday present. There are some books that you can borrow from the library and there are others you want to see on your own shelf. This is one such book.

[JuniperWoolf]

A book of Dashiell Hammett short stories for Dave for Christmas.

[Helga]

I just bought 'Dubliners' by Joyce because I have been planning to read it for a while and it was cheap.

I also bought 'Doctor Who and Philosophy, bigger on the inside' with a bunch of essays about the good Doctor. I bought it because I finished the series and I want to have something to pass the time 'till he appears on the screen again. Also my excuse is that I plan to write my B.A thesis about something sci-fi related so I NEED a lot of books like this...

[bouquin]

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
The Complete Short Stories by Saki
The Berlin Novels by Christopher Isherwood




____________________
Currently reading: Where Angels Fear to Tread (E. M. Forster)

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Midnight's Children by Salman Rusdie. E-book for a Nook. Purchsaed in order to take part in the Man Booker Award February reading. Unfortuantely I was not able to finish by the end of last month. I'm on page 225 of 500+ pages.

.

[Veho]

Plays - Anton Chekhov (Penguin Classics ebook). I've never read him before and I want to read more plays (and it was a good price so I just couldn't say no!).

[Idril]

Land of Wooden Gods ~ Jan Fridegard: Because Amazon thought I would like him since I bought some Vilhelm Moberg and it sounded quite interesting.

Conquered City ~ Victor Serge: Because I love Victor Serge

Evelina ~ Frances Burney
The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories ~ Bruno Schulz : Both were more Amazon recommendations.

[Buh4Bee]

The Sheltering Sky to read with Qimi's reading group. It looks like an awesome book.

[bouquin]

The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (Heinrich Böll)
Junky (William S. Burroughs)
The Stories (John Cheever)
Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell)
Franny and Zooey (J.D. Salinger)
The Case of Comrade Tulayev (Victor Serge)
Zadig/L'Ingénu (Voltaire)
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (Kurt Vonnegut)
Complete Works (Nathanael West)




____________________
Currently reading: The Leopard (Giuseppe di Lampedusa)

[hazelk]

todays little haul to feed my addiction!!

"The Tiger In The Smoke" by Margaret Allingham

"Black Powder, White Smoke" by Loren D. Estleman

"There's Something About A Convent Girl" a collection of short stories.

[GermanFan93]

"the catcher in the rye"

schooltask, but..I like it

[stlukesguild]

I picked up a slew of books at Half-Price Books... the used book store here.

I picked up two giant art books... one on the Louvre and the other on the Musee d'Orsay. I already had the latter, but its a $75 book and was on sale for $8 so I got it for my studio mate for next Christmas. The Louvre book was an equal deal... but this I got for myself.

I also go a great book on Degas that included a lot of color reproductions of paintings I don't already have in reproduction in the other books on have on the artist. Degas has long been one of my favorite artists and one of the artist most influential upon my own work.

The final art book I purchased was a decent book with some good photographs of the "buried army" of Qin Shi Huang, in China.

In the realm of literature, I picked up one book of selected plays by Jean Giraudoux. I also got a volume of selected plays by Tennessee Williams, and another volume of three plays by Lope de Vega. In another great buy, I picked up the complete plays of George Bernard Shaw in 6 hardback volumes for $15!! Obviously, I've been doing some reading of plays or theater lately: Aeschylus, Euripides, Tennessee Williams, Cornielle, etc...

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

...I picked up two giant art books... one on the Louvre and the other on the Musee d'Orsay. I already had the latter, but its a $75 book and was on sale for $8 so I got it for my studio mate for next Christmas. The Louvre book was an equal deal... but this I got for myself.

I also go a great book on Degas that included a lot of color reproductions of paintings I don't already have in reproduction in the other books on have on the artist. Degas has long been one of my favorite artists and one of the artist most influential upon my own work.
...

Sounds like some great finds there St. Lukes. I have a rather large book titled "The Modern Poster" that I had purchased at HPB a few years ago for a steal at $10.00. It is a MOMA publication printed in conjunction with an exhibition. Great images throughout.

My most recent purchase was Guy Mannering by Walter Scott a decision that was driven by a posting on the 101 dogs thread. I had associated Scott with a breed of dog in something he wrote which turned out to be Guy Mannering, but I hadn't actually read it.
I had to satisfy my curiosity.

.

[hawthorns]

The Trial, Kafka

[Idril]

The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (Heinrich Böll)

The Case of Comrade Tulayev (Victor Serge)


I can vouched for those two, they were both excellent books. Group Portrait with Lady is another great one from Böll, if you haven't already read it and I have yet to read a book by Serge that didn't leave a strong impression.

[mal4mac]

Saramango - Blindness. Didn't buy it, actually, borrowed from library as an experiment. What a revelation! A deserved Nobel prize.

Last book I actually bought was "A New History of Western Philosophy" by Kenney. I wanted to take a synoptic view of philosophy after a lot of jumping around, to try and pull it all together! It's actually four large volumes in one massive hardback - actually not too massive, a bit like Dr Who's Tardis, I don't know how they packed so much information in so small space. So far it's going well, really well written and making some good points. Only another 750 pages to go :)

[Desolation]

Giles Goat Boy by John Barth...Been stocking up on brick-sized absurdities.

[dysfunctional-h]

Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, cause his commentary on Faulkner seemed so profound, and, being of mixed race (if not black mixed race), I'm fascinated by the Black experience in America. I'm finishing my Baldwin project first, tho, so I have some context. XD

[Dark Star]

Recent purchases in roughly chronological order: Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, Rodney Merrill's translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey, Frank Ryder's translation of the Nibelungenlied, Christina Hoff Sommers' The War on Boys, Twelve Plays by Shakespeare, The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Sonnets and Poems, and The Brothers Karamazov and War and Peace translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky.

[lawpark]

Bought 2 used books in Strand Book Store in NYC recently!

Mapping Time by E.G. Richards
Europe: A Cultural History by Peter Rietbergen

[Snowqueen]

I've bought Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell but considering seize of the book I put it aside. I'll try to read it after finishing War and Peace.

[sm66]

The last book I bought was Before the Throne by Naguib Mahfouz. I was just browning through a bookstore, and I came across his section. I had read a bit about him before, but had never come across any of his work. I had a bit of money on me, so I grabbed it and voila! It is sitting on my bookshelf just begging to be read.

[Venerable Bede]

I went to a couple of bookstores in Toronto the other day and purchased several books I've been meaning to read like The Secret Agent, Absalom, Absalom!, The Woman in White, The Castle, and The Island of the Day Before. I've got a lot of my reading for the summer already in front of me.

[Jair]

Steve Jobs's biography.

[Easter]

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley....

I wanted a dystopian future book as I was feeling a bit glum and wanted something that fit that. And I always figured I ought to read Brave New World, I'd just never gotten around to it before now!

[Kafka's Crow]

A hardbound copy of Done: The Reformed Soul by John Stubbs. There is no space for books in this house any more. My library of ebooks and audiobooks is growing fast as well but buying physical books is an addiction.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Donne-The-Reformed-Soul/dp/0670915106/ref=sr_1_sc_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1335141787&sr=8-3-spell

[Sancho]

Awe shucks, there's always room for more books - you just have to clear out the food in the pantry.

Today I bought Swamplandia! by Karen Russell. I bought it cold. I know nothing about it, but I read the first couple of chapters in the store and I liked the narrative voice.

[Chris1991]

Angels and Demons
The Da vinci code
The lost symbol
all by Dan Brown . i bought these all in the same day because i wanted to read the series

[RicMisc]

De Naam van de Wind (The Name of the Wind) by Patrick Rothfuss because it came highly recommended by some of my friends.

[Easter]

De Naam van de Wind (The Name of the Wind) by Patrick Rothfuss because it came highly recommended by some of my friends.

Some people think it's a slow read, but I quite liked it!

[bouquin]

The Floating Opera and The End of the Road (John Barth)
The Poor Mouth (Flann O'Brien)
Snow (Orhan Pamuk)
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (Gertrude Stein)




____________________
Currently reading: My Name is Red (Orhan Pamuk)

[Atomic]

The Woman in The Dunes (Suna no Onna) by Kobo Abe.
The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen.

Both are acclaimed works. The former is a japanese classic, the latter promises some kind of emotional turmoil. Enough said.