Last Book You Bought and Why

[Dori]

My purchase from bn.com today included:

Faith of My Fathers by John McCain
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
CD - Fight With Tool (Flobots)
CD - Phantom of the Opera Soundtrack
Tales of Adventures: The Barnes & Noble Classics*

*Includes:

• Arabian Nights by Anonymous
• Call of the Wild and White Fang by Jack London
• Four Feathers by A. E. W. Mason
• Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling
• King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard
• Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
• Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
• Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

$93.60 out of my wallet...

[Dori]

But $93.60 well spent, I'd say. I love those Barnes and Noble classics. The quality isn't bad (well, they're not for a lifetime, but they hold up okay) and they're so inexpensive relative to other editions. I buy them whenever I can. Have a lot of them. Most recent was The Picture of Dorian Gray and Heart of Darkness.

Yeah, I love them as well. I love the covers, the introductions, and the part in the end entitled "Comments and Questions" which offer thought-provoking questions for discussion and provide a bit of commentary taken from various sources. And it was $93.88 out of my pocket (my memory failed me! ).

B&N is now offering a library set including 200 B&N Classics for ~$750-$800 (I think).

[EricP]

I downloaded quite a few books today for my Amazon Kindle. I got them all for free, but I'll post them anyway.

"Surplus: Spinoza, Lacan" by A. Kiarina Kordela
"The Cambridge Companion to Walter Benjamin" (various)
"Portnoy's Complaint" by Philip Roth
"How Proust Can Change Your Life" by Alain De Botton
"Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond
"Gilles Deleuze: An Apprenticehip in Philosophy" by Michael Hardt

[sofia82]

Murakami- Kafka on the Shore (translation)
Banville - The Sea
Shakespeare - The MErchant of Venice
--- Julius Caesar

[Janine]

I downloaded quite a few books today for my Amazon Kindle. I got them all for free, but I'll post them anyway.

"Surplus: Spinoza, Lacan" by A. Kiarina Kordela
"The Cambridge Companion to Walter Benjamin" (various)
"Portnoy's Complaint" by Philip Roth
"How Proust Can Change Your Life" by Alain De Botton
"Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond
"Gilles Deleuze: An Apprenticehip in Philosophy" by Michael Hardt

Hi EricP,so you have a Kindle? I just read all about those - an ad came into my email from Amazon the other day.
They sound really cool; the concept is great and so little and lightweight; no more lugging big books around with you.
Unfortunately, I can't afford one presently, but it is a thought for the future. How do you go about getting free downloads for these?


*********

Well, I just went on a buying binge on books.
Dover had another sale and since I was satisified with what I received a few months back,
I decided to fill up my cart with some of the sale books and make up enough to total over 50 dollar,
so I could get the free shipping. Now I have the package to look forward to opening.
I bought a lot; here is the list:

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
Agnes Gray by Anne Bronte
The Mysteries of Udolpho by Anne Radcliff (?)
Four Great Russian Plays (various authors)
Chrome Yellow by Aldous Huxley
And Occurance at Owl Greek Bridge and Other Stories by Ambrose Bierce
Great Short Stories by American Women

In addition - some art/design type books

Ready to Use Celtic Designs
Great Characters from Shakespeare - Paper Dolls
Mikado - Paper Dolls
Gibson Girl - Paper Dolls

I love costume design and these well designed paper dolls are really fun!
Someday, who knows, I may share them with my granddaughter.
I am especially excited about the Shakespeare ones.


From Amazon I bought a book of a famous childrens/adults fairlytale illustrator - Kay Neilson.
I think the book is called
The Fairytale Illustrations by Kay Neilson
His paintings and drawings are marvelous; very decorative. I love that sort of thing.
I especially like his illustrations for"The Arabian Nights". You can find his work online.

I also bought a few DVD's onsale this week. I can't wait to get that order as well.
I didn't have to pay as much since I had a cashback bonus of $25. It was fun spending it! I guess all told I spend about $75.,
but I think I got quite a lot for my money.

[EricP]

Today I picked up two books: "Oil!" by Upton Sinclair, and "Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr" by Nancy Isenberg (which I am currently reading).

[Janine]

Wow, Janine, you did go on a spending spree! Way to go! I agree, you got some great stuff and it seems like a lot for the money.

Antiquarian, I thought I did pretty well, although I just missed out on some I really wanted, about 3 weeks ago - another clearance sale. They had some Henry James, I longed to buy and they were really cheap; and there were some others that interested me then, too...oh well...I missed the boat on those. The good ones must have gotten snatched up quickly. The cover art on some of the ones I recieved last time from Dover, were very nice. I was satisified with my order and will be this time, I am sure.

I bought Heart of Darkness recently, too, but I had a Barnes and Noble gift certificate and I used it for one of their classic editions. Also got Dracula and a volume of Kafka with that certificate. I love the Barnes and Noble Classic series. The books hold up well, aren't expensive, and have beautiful cover art. The three I got are actually hardcovers and I think they were only $7.95 each.

I can also download "Heart of Darkness" from my library site free. I can put it directly into my little MP3 player - my Creative Nano Stone. It is so tiny I can cart it anywhere with me easily. It will be fun to read the text and listen to the novel on audiofile. Presently, I downloaded "The Winter's Tale" on the player and should be listening to that right now.
I've never read any Kafka.

I read "Frankenstein" now, I think 2 times and listened to half (so far) on the audiofile; Kenneth Branagh is narrating but I had to settle for tapes. I haven't read "Dracula" yet, but someday will do so. I recently bought "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" - that should be interesting and it's very short. I read tons of Arthur Connon Doyle's mystery stories and loved them. I also delved into his "The White Company" tales. They were quite interesting.

The books you bought at B&N sound really nice and hardcovers are truly nicer to own; but I can settle for paperbacks for now at such a cheap price. I love going to browse at B&N and of course, I always do find something interesting to buy; I hardly ever come home empty-handed. I love their classic books, too...and their artbooks...and their bargain books, etc. I love going there and staying for hours. I always get a Starbucks, of course. Yum!

I hope you enjoy Villette. I really did. I think you will since you like Jane Eyre.

Antiquarian, wasn't it you who recommended it to me awhile back? I would definitely enjoy another Charlotte Bronte book. I loved "Jane Eyre".

I think I saw a movie based on "Agnes Gray", but I may be thinking of something else. I think I know someone who read it and said it was good. That should round out my Bronte sister's reading, don't you think?

I love "An Occurrance at Owl Creek Bridge," but I read it online recently. I don't have a hard copy.

A week or so ago I saw a movie based on Ambrose Bierce and his short stories - it featured 3 or 4 of the best ones from the Civil War. I liked them all and thought they were quite different, very psychological and almost ghostlike. On the featurette, they talked about this particular one; in the film it was featured. They said that it had also been adapted into a famous episode of "The Twilight Zone". That really intrigued me. I especially would like to read Bierce's ghost stories. I think they would be fascinating. There should be some in this collection. In the film Campbell Scott (he plays the author) read some segments and that was enough to convince me to try reading his short stories. I found the writing fluid and deep.

I love the Gibson Girl look. When I was little, I wanted to look like that. LOL

Same here, Antiquarian; however, you have the thick hair for the look and I don't. I used to love to put my hair up, when I was younger (when I had more of it ). I guess I thought I did look like a Gibson Girl. You also have that picturesque height on your side and a slim figure. From now on I am going to think of you as a Gibson Girl!

Enjoy! And let us know what you're reading and how you like it.

Anti, it will be awhile before I get to those new books. I still have the other ones I bought a few months back, to tackle and I read super slow. But eventually, I hope to read all that I bought.

It will be great fun opening the new box full of books. Now where to put them....that is another story....eek!

[kasie]

...... I've run out of room for books, DVDs, and CDs, too. I need a bigger house. Maybe someday, right?

Antiquarian, you have surely heard of Peter's Principle? (Work expands to fill the time available?) Well, it works for books too - no matter how much space you have, it gets filled up with books and you wonder how you managed before. I keep intending to downsize - but where would I put all the books? (Don't anyone dare say 'Oxfam'!)

[EricP]

Hi EricP,so you have a Kindle? I just read all about those - an ad came into my email from Amazon the other day.
They sound really cool; the concept is great and so little and lightweight; no more lugging big books around with you.
Unfortunately, I can't afford one presently, but it is a thought for the future. How do you go about getting free downloads for these?

I love my Kindle and would highly recommend it to anyone considering purchasing one. I've found several websites that offer free ebooks. Because the Kindle only recognizes .azw and .txt files, I sometimes have to convert the files to .txt before loading them onto my Kindle. Here are the websites I most often use:
http://www.truly-free.org
Most of the books are already .txt files, which is convenient. This site also offers many copyrighted, post-WWII books that are not available on most other sites.

http://manybooks.net/
This site has a great selection and all books are available compatible formats, so no conversions are necessary!

http://allfreedownloadlinks.com
All books here are .pdf files, so converting them is a must. The selection for philosophy books, however, is definitely worth the extra trouble! The site has many recent books from university presses.

There are plenty of other websites as well. Just search around and you'll find them!

[asilef73]

The Mandarins - Simone de Beauvoir
The Coming of Age - Simone de Beauvoir
After Dark - Haruki Murakami

[JBI]

I just picked up,
Bloom's The Best Poems of the English Language: from Chaucer through Frost
Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes, translated by Edith Grossman
Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson
The Canterbury Tales Chaucer in the original language (though edited typescript to remove the thorns and such from the alphabet).

Going away for a month and a bit to Italy (I probably won't be able to post here for then) and these are the only books I am bringing. a bit scary actually, only 4 volumes. Oh well, I guess I'll have the so called best poems memorized, and Dickinson down solid, as well as a better rounding in Cervantes and Chaucer.

[JBI]

I feel in love with the Edith Grossman translation of Don Quixote. I hope you like it.

I've read an earlier translation, but I got all these books used (and they look almost new, probably only one read through each) so I didn't have much choice, and this looked like the best one the small bookstore had (and it had an introduction by Bloom, so I figured he must have considered it a decent translation). Glad to know it actually is an excellent translation, as I will probably be reading it more than once, and literally be tearing the pages apart with notes.

[Jozanny]

I have not picked up any virgin texts for some months now, since I left off with a non-fiction reading group @ Yahoo, which was then doing The Third Chimpanzee, which I have been ambivalent about finishing. I know Jared Diamond is the latest PBS mooncalf, but he is just not as exciting when dealing with evolutionary science as I once found Desmond Morris to be.

Not that I can really put my finger on why. Literary comparisons I can do fairly well, not so much popular science-- but the store was having a 3 for 1 deal at the time, and I picked up Kundra (sigh) and Brave New World, which I hated, in so far as I dare hate over rated classics, and despite a compelling Christopher Hitchens apologia for Huxley, I sold my copy, used, somewhat rapidly, and only half-read.

Maybe true satire died off with Swift's senility.

I have been slowing down with my personal library. One of the few times I purchased something fairly hot off of an NYT review, was Alice Hoffman's Blue Diary--which was everything NYT said it was-- and yet, is it something I'll ever read again?

Rereading is my true test of how fanatical I am about an author. Cloud Atlas meets that test. David Mitchell simply blew me away, I mean blew. His fiction was the most difficult exercise my poor mind ever encountered, and as a weary, embittered intermediately successful author, (in terms of byline exposure in print) when I closed that book, I was ready to snarl and throw my edition against the wall out of sheer livid envy.

I had conceived of a similiar post-modern chapter game years ago, and now?

That is the cost of procrastination (sigh).

[lit_head]

Ulysses - James Joyce
A Journey to the Centre (i am Canadian for me its 'Centre' LOL) of the Earth - Jules Verne

[andave_ya]

I'm taking a whole bunch of my mom's old books from Lebanon home with me - cast your eyes on these beauties

The Great Gatsby
The Aeneid
The Confessions of St. Augustine
The Old Man and the Sea
Brave New World
The ABC Murders
The Turn of the Screw and Other Stories
Animal Farm
Waiting for Godot
Christian Liberty
Notes on Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
The Oresteian Trilogy
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Last Days of Socrates
The Theban Plays
Utopia