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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.
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.
33x3x33 - e.e.cummings because cummings is always witty :)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yukio Mishima's tetralogy, because I just finished reading Ligotti's Conspiracy Against the Human Race.
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.
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
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.
"A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest J. Gaines, why?, the cover and the wonderful comment by the Chicago Times.
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.