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.
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.
I bought The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Why? Because I could, and I wanted to.
"...You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?..." E. A. Poe
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.
Beware of the man with just one book. -Ovid
The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.- Mark Twain
My Blog: Of Delicious Recoil
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Erewhon by Samuel Butler ....
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.
"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.
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.
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.
"So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss, and my heart turns violently inside of my chest, I don't have time to maintain these regrets, when I think about, the way....He loves us..."
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5xXowT4eJjY
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!
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.
Loved the Mayor and Tess ....
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.
Loved the Mayor and Tess ....
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.
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.
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?)Originally Posted by grace86
Last two books:
(1) Ulysses (Wordsworth Classics)
No Notes!
(2) Ulysses (Oxford Classics)
Notes!
Hope they are sufficient :?
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.
L'enfer, cest les autres
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