Last Book You Bought and Why

[wessexgirl]

[QUOTE=Kafka's Crow;582588]Arthur Ransome's Old Peter's Russian Tales. Time to re-live my childhood!

Kafka and Kasie, if you're interested in Ransome, have you read Blood Red, Snow White by Marcus Sedgwick? I've got it at the moment from my Library, (but haven't started it yet). Sedgwick usually writes for Young Adults, so I think a lot of people missed this one, but it got good reviews, and the YA books I have read by him are very good. BRSW is a kind of biography/fairytale about Ransome's time in Russia at the time of the revolution, when he fell in love with Lenin's secretary, (I think it was his secretary). Anyway, he left his family behind and went there and got involved in spying etc. I really must read it so that I can take it back to school.

[kasie]

Wessexgirl: Thanks for that recommendation - I don't think I have come across it though I did know Ransome had lived in Russia at an 'interesting' time. I shall look out for it.

[Argus]

I loved By Night in Chile by Bolano.

I have only recently become aware of Bolaño. I will put By Night in Chile on my list. Thank you for the tip.

[NickAdams]

Young Torless by Robert Musil
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
JR by Williams Gaddis
The Complete Poems and Plays of T. S. Eliot.
The Works of James Joyce (Chamber Music, Pomes Penyeach and Ecce Puer)

[antonia1990]

"Doctor Jivago" by Boris Pasternak, though I haven't started reading ityet, as I am reading something else.

[stlukesguild]

How do you get on with Peter Ackroyd, STL? I can't take to him, myself. Heard him speak a few years ago, mostly about what was then his latest book, the one about London - the audience was made up mostly of historians or, like me, people who were interested in history but not academically versed in the subject.

I looked at some critiques of his biographies and found they largely echo my own experience. Ackroyd doesn't offer anything new, incredibly insightful, or groundbreaking, but he does offer a solid introduction to his topics that are presented in a well-written narrative manner. I've read his books on Chaucer and J.M.W. Turner, and such was my feeling. If I wanted to get a truly in-depth biography or an analysis that offers a unique perspective, I'd surely need to look elsewhere. On the other hand... if I just want the general facts presented in a manner that is certainly more interesting than what an encyclopedia or more academic writing would offer, he is right on the mark. Of course... I must admit to having read several of Ackroyd's novels which I enjoyed, so I may be more ready to appreciate his non-fiction manner.

[wessexgirl]

I've just bought quite a lot of Ackroyd's works both for the Library and myself, as I had read some of his fiction, and thought his biographies were supposed to be very good. His Shakespeare and Dickens works were very highly regarded, and I have the latter on my TBR pile at the moment, as I love Dickens, and thought he was the acclaimed expert on him. I've bought Hawksmoor and his biogs. on Chaucer, Turner, Blake and Shakespeare, along with some history books on Rome, Greece and the Ancient World for the Library.

I want to read Hawksmoor so much, as I've read so much about it, but I don't want to be disappointed. I read his Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem, (I think it was called that) a long time ago and really liked it, but I couldn't get into The Lambs of London. I will try again I think, as sometimes it's not the book, but ourselves, and I freely admit I have had a rough few years, where I couldn't concentrate on reading.

[Nossa]

Les Miserables (Volume Two) by Victor Hugo

[Trystan]

The last book I bought was T.S. Eliot 'selected poems'. I bought Hemingway's 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' a few days ago and I love it so far.

[aeroport]

House of Wits: An Intimate Portrait of the James Family: Paul Fischer
Basic Writings of Nietzsche: translated by Walter Kauffman

[amalia1985]

Cathedral Of The Sea by Ildefonso Falcones

[black butterffl]

Les Miserables (Volume Two) by Victor Hugo

oh my god it's a really good book, and hes famous because of it :P

anyway the last book that i bought was "JANE EYRE" for charlotte bronte

[Nostalgie]

Last book bought:

Ancient Religions by Sarah Iles Johnston.

Not really a novel but I'm doing an anthropological study on ancient religions so it'll help.

Last novel bought:
Tale of Two Cities.

[Idril]

I just got back from Minneapolis and while I was there, I picked up a few books,

Devil's Midnight by Yuri Kapralov
The Patrician by John Galsworthy
Faust by Ivan Turgenev
Crabwalk by Gunter Grass
and The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy

[Kafka's Crow]

I like Idril's list above and would love to read all of his(?) books! Postman delivered a nice hard-bound copy of Jules Supervielle: Selected Writings today. Thanks Pecksie for this recommendation. Amazon took six weeks to deliver this out of print and rare volume but it was worth it in the end!