Recent purchases

[Digger]

In Dubious Battle I clearly missed this in my summer of Steinbeck love a few years ago - I've never even heard of it actually. What's it about? Let us know what it's like.

[Paul]

In Dubious Battle I clearly missed this in my summer of Steinbeck love a few years ago - I've never even heard of it actually. What's it about? Let us know what it's like.

This description is off of the Barnes and Noble website:

"In the California apple country, 900 migratory workers rise up "in dubious battle" against the landowners. The group takes on a life of its own--stronger than its individual members and more frightening. Led by the doomed Jim Nolan, the strike springs from his tragic idealism, from the "courage never to submit or yield."

I've heard good things about it and will definitely let you know when I'm done.

[Colyngbourne]

More Sonya Hartnett discovered in a bookshop yesterday - Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf (not sure if this is the one that won her the Guardian Children's Writer prize); and something (again for YA) called Mimus by Lilli Thal, which is a German work in translation and looked a bit different. It was shortlisted for the German Youth Literature Prize.

[Jennifer]

Found a fantastic edition of The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes reproducing the pages from the Strand magazine and all the original illustrations. Don't know if this is how it's usually published but it was £1.50 and I needed it, despite all the birthday presents I was supposed to be buying.

[Digger]

good purchase by the sounds of it Jennifer!

[Jennifer]

It's gorgeous, but the real star is Mr Holmes himself - you forget just how cool he is, like a late Victorian James Bond.

"You then went to the vicarage, waited outside it for some time, and finally returned to your cottage."
"How do you know that?"
"I followed you."
"I saw no-one."
"That is what you may expect to see when I follow you."

"I believe that you are the devil himself!" he cried.
Holmes smiled at the compliment.

Genius. The illustrations are suitably melodramatic and doom-laden too.

[rick green]

Nightwood by Djuna Barnes. The back cover has Dylan Thomas condescending: "One of the three great prose books ever written by a woman." Hmph. Anybody read Djuna Barnes?

[John Self]

No but I remember looking at it when it was reissued as a lovely Faber Library hardcover about ten years ago. Sort of Jazz Age meets modernism thing innit?

[rick green]

It came out in 1936, so that's certainly that's the right era.
Again, from the back cover: "the story of Robin Vote and those she destroys--her husband the 'Baron,' their child Guido, and the two women, Nora and Jenny, who love her; the whole illuminated by the fantastic monologues of the renegade doctor, Mattew O'Connor, one of the strangest characters in all fiction."
Sounds pretty cool; and it's only 170 pages long.

[Jay]

Recently picked up Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Memories of My Melancholy Whores .

[Colyngbourne]

Thomas Hardy's Under the Greenwood Tree, for 99p.

[Wavid]

Ooh, was that a Penguin Popular Classic or a second hand bargain, Col?

[Colyngbourne]

'Twas a Penguin Classic (black spine with red stripe) :-D for RL bookgroup. I was really chuffed to find it as all the other shops in town had been raided for copies.

[Maggie]

Jay,
While browsing through the bookstore, I've picked this book up several times. Still didn't buy it.....try to post a review when you have finished.

Maggie

[knovella]

I'm a library patron, so this isn't strictly a purchase, but I just got No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. I've read a few others by him, but this one has a present-day setting, whereas his others were late 19th-early 20th century. He's a sharp, original writer, but I remember getting a littled played out on his romanticising of the American West, so that I couldn't get through Cities of the Plain. But I liked this new one immediately (my acid test is the first page), so I have high hopes. At best, it'll be chewy and straight, with no whining nostalgia.

[ono no komachi]

More an imminent purchase than a recent one - but I see the old electronic-gadgets-and-porn association seems to be kicking in again at Amazon. Apparently my desire for an mp3 player leads them to think I might also be interested in an item called Skin Tight by Marcus Gray.

[ono no komachi]

OK, I am torn between the Sony NWE407 1GB thingummy for £100 B0007YQNKK and the NWA1000S B000BBOGCG for £150. Is all that extra memory worth another fifty quid or will I not use it anyway?

[John Self]

I would definitely go for the 6GB one at £150. It will hold about 1,600 songs whereas the 1GB one will only hold about 260. That's only about 20 albums.

[ono no komachi]

Mmm, thanks John. The cheapskate in me is still wondering about whether the smaller amount of memory will be enough but I suspect I will be tempted by the potential to have more music at my fingertips.

[pandop]

Thomas Hardy's Under the Greenwood Tree, for 99p.

I would have sent you mine free!

Hazel

[rick green]

Selections from my recent trip:

Death in Venice & Seven Other Stories by Thomas Mann: a so called classic. I feel compelled to read Mann because he seems to be an important reference, not out of enthusiasm. This, being short, seems the place to begin.
The Witkiewicz Reader,which sounds cool. Selected writings of a drug using, avant-guard, Polish, playwright suicide. (Or does that sound cool?)
The White Nile by Alan Moorhead whose The Blue Nile, the companion volume, is excellent. One of these days I'll review it.
Embers by Sandor Marai about which I recently read good things; I can't remember where.


Oh! when will I find the time to read all these wonderful books?

[m.]

More polonica, hehe. :-D Witkiewicz (aka Witkacy) - Jesus Christ, he is strange, good luck. But original for sure, Gombrowicz started one of his entries in Diary "There were us three: me, Bruno Schulz and Witkacy" - that's a paraphrase, not an exact quote, so i'm not sure whom he mentioned second - Schulz or Witkacy. Anyway, interesting.

Col read Embers and gave it one star for the irritation value (and 3 for writing, if I remember correctly).

[pandop]

Home Debbie Bliss

A book that reflects my newest obsession - knitting!

Hazel

[Paul]

I just got No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy.
Hey knovella, would love to know what you thought of this one when you're finished.

[knovella]

Sure thing. I'll tell you one thing. I had a little trouble settling into it, mostly because he does not punctuate dialogue, so it runs into narrative and it took me a while to get in the mindset, despite having read a few of his books before. I found myself confused at points as to who was speaking and when they actually started speaking.

But I'm well in now, and it's not bothering me any more.

[Paul]

I had a similar problem when I started Saramago's Blindness but as you said, you get used to it.

I have McCarthy's Border Trilogy sitting near the top of my teetering TBR pile but have yet to read any of his work. I'll look forward to hearing your thoughts.

[Jennifer]

Late Victorian Gothic Tales, various authors, with Munch's vampire on the front. I admit, I judged a book by its cover.
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley. Continuing a theme.
The High Lord, Trudi Canavan (the unintelligent campaign rages!)

[Colyngbourne]

Selections from my recent trip:

Embers by Sandor Marai about which I recently read good things; I can't remember where.



I read Embers in October. It was good in style but hugely irritating in character. But perhaps that was the point of it.

[rick green]

What put you onto Embers, Col? I read a flattering profile of the author recently. It slips my mind just where.

And m., I had a hunch that Witcacy & Gombro might nave been pals. That's a big reason why I picked up the book. On the lookout now for Bruno S. to complete the trifecta.

[Colyngbourne]

What put you onto Embers, Col? I read a flattering profile of the author recently. It slips my mind just where.



I think Mr Col heard about it on some conference he attended. Just as a good read really. He read it a year or so before I did.

[kumquat]

i read embers a year or two back and was really disappointed. but that was just me.

couple of days ago i bought the cookbook 'falling cloudberries' (currently half price at a certain specialist bookshop!) and tonight i made ricotta tart with a chocolate crust. really tasty result. the book is full of amazing photos of areas in the world the author has lived or has family roots; south africa, cyprus, italy, finland. it's also got photos of her family going back several generations and it has a feel of a family album rather than just a cookery book. the spine is sumptuous as well and looks great on my kitchen shelf. more care should be taken of spines. this spine sold the book to me!

[Jennifer]

The war upon my IQ continues!

Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
Gardens of the Moon, Steven Erikson

I lurked in the classics section for a while and thought I had transgressed. But then I had to drag myself away from the new (hardback) Robert Jordan and knew I was still firmly clinging to my downward spiral. Praise Be!

and...

One Way Ticket to Hell..., The Darkness. Oh god, I need help.

[John Self]

The Darkness! Shame indeed!

As I have already decided that a New Year's Resolution for 2006 will be to stop buying new books (or at least to very seriously cut down in some quantifiable way), I have of course been cramming a few late-2005 purchases in. Just got the indispensible Geoff Dyer's new book, The Ongoing Moment, 0316730254a study of photography.

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0316730254.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

And former Cheers writer Rob Long's new book, Set Up, Joke, Set Up, Joke, 0747547777which is a sequel of sorts to his book of several years ago, Conversations With My Agent - which was itself a compilation of pieces from The Modern Review. Anyone who is not already bored by that description will probably like it.

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0747547777.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

[kumquat]

ooh i overheard a customer asking my colleague for that book the other day... what is it???

man, i really need to update my reading list...

[John Self]

Well the column he used to write in The Modern Review was a series of, ahum, conversations with his agent which displayed the paranoia, uncertainty, double-standards and insanity of the US TV comedy business. Like this:

MY AGENT: They think you're going too ... characterish ... with your casting.

ME: What?

MY AGENT: They think you're casting ugly people.

ME: We're trying to cast good actors who can do comedy.

MY AGENT: And?

ME: And what?

MY AGENT: And who look good in their underpants.

ME: How should I know if they look good in their underpants? Let me make this very clear: I am not going to ask someone to take off their trousers just so I can see if they look good in their underpants.

MY AGENT: So you are casting ugly people.

ME: We are trying to cast funny actors.

MY AGENT: Could you please tell me what's so funny about six guys who look like the Elephant Man?

ME: What?

MY AGENT: Maybe you don't understand the power structure here. The network likes young, good-looking people. America likes young, good-looking people. That's how you get on the air. That's how you stay on the air. If you've got some sicko thing for circus freaks, fine. But not on network television. My God, not after dinner.

I never actually read the book that came out of all this, but felt like I had, so that's OK. The new one was on Newsnight Review last week but I don't know what they made of it.

[StillILearn]

P. D. James, The Lighthouse.

Some reviewer actually had the nerve to critique this book, rot her. I'm deeply in love with Adam Dalgliesh and absolutely refuse to hear ill spoken of him.

[Colyngbourne]

The only PD James I ever read - Death in Holy Orders - was a load of tosh from start to finish, but I could see the attraction of Dalgliesh (esp. played by Martin Shaw).

[HP]

I've met PD James several times and she is absolutely amazing - incredibly gracious, very sharp and a thorough good egg all round. And anyone who's read Time To Be in Earnest - her autobiographical account of her 77-78th year will be left marvelling at the sheer energy and zest for life she has - even at such a grand old age. She's now 85 and still writing, still firing of all cylinders it would seem. But I'm afraid, I'm with Col - tried one of her novels and, shamefully, didn't even make it to the halfway mark. The writing seemed terribly precise and eloquent, but very, very dated and the characters stuck in some sort of 1950's time warp. Still, there are zillions of PD James fans out there like StillILearn, who would strongly beg to differ, I'm sure!

Recent purchases? Oh - had me a fabulous trawl through a Romsey charity shop recently, (Romsey would appear to have a more literary-minded population than some of our other local towns!) and managed to bag in one swoop:

Tough Guys Don't Dance - Norman Mailer
Have never read Mailer, but am keen to give him a shot. This is relatively short by Mailer standards (250 pages) so no great investment of time wasted if I don't like.

The Colour Purple - Alice Walker
Have read snatches of this while book-browsing in Ottakars, but for some reason didn't purchase. Loved what I read and, of course, it's considered by many to be a must-read of any bibliophile, so I'm catching up here.

The Night In Question - Tobias Wolff
Loved his Old School, so simply had to have this collection of short stories.

The Portable Chekhov - A compilation of biography, short stories (28!), plays and letters by the great man. Another simply-must-have.

Whoops - forgot to add: the total price of those 4? £6.70!

[ono no komachi]

The war upon my IQ continues!
One Way Ticket to Hell..., The Darkness. Oh god, I need help.

Me too! Only one listen so far but I think it's going to get a lot more. Cheesy rock music that makes you laugh - what's not to like????

[ono no komachi]

Oh, and I know it's not in the spirit of this thread, but also... new shoes!

I'd post a picture but my camera's buggered. :-(

[Jennifer]

I'm particularly loving "Hazel Eyes" at the moment...

[ono no komachi]

Oh, me too. And "Bald". And "Dinner Lady Arms".

[StillILearn]

Oh, and I know it's not in the spirit of this thread, but also... new shoes!

I'd post a picture but my camera's buggered. :-(

Can you describe them?

:-D

[StillILearn]

The only PD James I ever read - Death in Holy Orders - was a load of tosh from start to finish, but I could see the attraction of Dalgliesh (esp. played by Martin Shaw).

Dalgliesh was played by Roy Marsden back before the turn of the century, and when I had a TV. I have yet to see Shaw in the role. I'll have to get with the program, I guess. I'm feeling a bit like Miss Haversham here.

[ono no komachi]

Can you describe them?

:-D

They are Pikolinos, a kind of caramel-y tan colour, with a tapered one-inch heel and visible diagonal leather stitching around the foot arch (which comes up quite far) and around the... oh hang on a sec...

http://www.shopmix.co.uk/pi/Wildlife/3/L42073.jpg

The lighter of these two. EDIT: I'd better be careful or the Topic Police will be out, threatening to post things about football...

[StillILearn]

They look expensive. :shock:

(Edit: You could always kick the Topic Police with those.)

[ono no komachi]

:lol: A fine suggestion!

Not so very expensive, for well-made shoes, I think. £60 - around $100?

(Bearing in mind that clothing here tends to be proportionally a bit more expensive anyway.)

[StillILearn]

And worth every penny. The shoes, I mean. :-D

[ono no komachi]

As of yesterday, Moby Dick, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Will Self's Dorian, and Vile Bodies.

And a bag of vollmilchschokolade Erdnüssbergen from the German Christmas market. :-)

[JunkMonkey]

A double CD of the 6 Bach cello suites played by Tortelier for 50p from one of my favourite charity shops.

and On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin for 10p from another (actually this was one of 10 books I got for £1 - most of which are headed for eBay as soon as I have finished typing this)

[Stewart]

Just nipped through to Edinburgh with my friend for a couple of hours and, by pure accident ( :roll: ), managed to spend cash on A Pale View of Hills (Ishiguro) and East of Eden (Steinbeck). Whoops!

[rick green]

Spying in Guruland, by a certain William Shaw.

[John Self]

Hehey! Let us know what you think of it, rick! In full bloody honesty...

[m.]

While in the States I borrowed Guruland from the library, too. Sadly couldn't devote it the time it deserved and had to return unfinished when I was going back to Poland. Still, read quite big chunks of it and could post some comments - but on joining Palimp I vowed to myself never to comment on the Palimpers' literary works, hehe! ;-)

But if rick posts, I may find it too hard to resist...

[Colyngbourne]

I have to mention to gil, that Mr Col remembered my mention of your enjoying Charles Nicholl's Leonardo book earlier in the year and he bought it with his birthday money this week, as well as a fresh copy of Tom Jones Reloaded (more for my sake than his own - since two years ago, to my annoyance, our senior son decided he never listened to Reloaded and decided to smash the CD to pieces which he then arranged artistically fractured-CD-style with Blutack on his bedroom wall).

[gil]

I hope he enjoys Leonardo. It was one of my best reads of 2005.

[Stewart]

And, trying not to buy any more books for a while, I bought Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit this afternoon.

[Digger]

Oh I recently got that through the excellent Bloomsbury Classics. It's been on my books to read list for ages.

[rick green]

An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World by Pankaj Mishra.

[Colyngbourne]

After discovering we didn't have a copy in the house, I bought A Christmas Carol today second-hand (a really nice old hardback copy) and also a copy of Cider with Rosie, which I have never read.

[Digger]

Oh you'll love Cider with Rosie Col, it's a wonderful book redolent of all the warm, hazy, English-countryside summers you've ever known.

[John Self]

In addition to the old-fashioned paper version of A Christmas Carol, you could download the free Penguin podcast of the novel, read by Geoffrey Palmer. You can subscribe to it here (http://thepenguinpodcast.blogs.com/)or on iTunes Music Store.

[chillicheese]

:oops: Not entirely my fault this time, very good bookshops, complete resolve failure, bought 5 books...but 3 of them were from the very small Great Ideas series AND were 3 for 2 so don't count. :shock:

https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/0141018984.02.MZZZZZZZ.gif https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/014101900X.02.MZZZZZZZ.gif https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/0141018879.02.MZZZZZZZ.gif https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/0747574650.02.MZZZZZZZ.gif https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/0099458187.02.MZZZZZZZ.gif

[amner]

In addition to the old-fashioned paper version of A Christmas Carol, you could download the free Penguin podcast of the novel, read by Geoffrey Palmer. You can subscribe to it here (http://thepenguinpodcast.blogs.com/)or on iTunes Music Store.


cheers JS! Just downloading now. Crisp cycle rides in will be just the thing. Smashing!

[John Self]

Good luck with Antic Hay, chilli. You may get more pleasure from it than I did (which wouldn't be hard - see Huxley thread).

[pandop]

I just picked up Spiderman and Spiderman 2 on DVD for £2.99 each.

Hazel

[HP]

From the Romsey branch of Oxfam:

The Magus - John Fowles
Women in Love - D H Lawrence
A Spy in the House of Love - Anaïs Nin

[Stewart]

Just bought some more (trying to get loads in before my 2006 book embargo):


The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon
When We Were Orphans, Kazuo Ishiguro
1984, George Orwell
Port Mungo, Patrick McGrath

[Digger]

Like Chilli, got suckered in to buying three of the Penguin Great Ideas series - totally my fault really as I walked us both into Blackwells!

Henry David Thoreau - Where I lived and what I lived for
Thomas a Kempis - The Inner Life
and
John Ruskin - On Art and Life

The embossed covers are beautiful. both to look at and to hold.

[Paul]

Just had a quick gift exchange at work and I received Innocent Eréndira by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It's great to work with people who have great taste! :-D

[rick green]

Book buying embargo--that is such a good idea. I'm with it for 2006. Of course, there will be emergency provisions for the acquisition of must-have material. So I'll let myself get ten or twelve books. But that's it. I mean it. With this in mind, I've been stocking up lately.
Here are some of my recent gains:

The Genteel Tradition by Georges Santayana
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
Les Liasons Dangereuses by Laclos
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
Fathers ans Sons by Turgenev
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
The Wings of a Dove by Henry James
Sefarad by Antonio Muñoz Molina

It should be a good year.

[stlukesguild]

I just got Ugo Foscolo's "Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis" and Thomas Lovell Beddoes "Death's Jest Book". A good way to avoid getting crapola :turd: as far as books go, for Christmas/birthdays is to turn thy loved ones onto your wish list on Amazon (or some such site).

[knovella]

I just went to my favorite used-book store and bought:

A good edition of Ulysses, on account of planning to reread it.
That Old Ace in the Hole by E. Annie Proulx
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
A Cold Case by Philip Gorevich (writes for The New Yorker), a journalistic account that resulted in the solving of a 30-year-old murder.
3 Maigret novels by Georges Simenon
A book on traditional English furniture design, 15th through 19th centuries
Night Train by Martin Amis
Back in the World by Tobias Wolff
Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz
A Tom Clancy for my son, per request
(added in edit) The Syndrome by John Case

All this for $29.

I also have The Year of Magical Thinking (a gift) by Didion waiting for me.
and I have The New Confessions by William Boyd also waiting.

[Wavid]

A Tom Clancy for my son, per request

You should have refused! :lol:

[knovella]

Yeah, I almost did. They had no Le Carres or Ludlums that he hadn't read, so I caved. If anyone knows a great author of spy novels along the lines of Le Carre that I can put him onto, I'd be obliged.

I read a few Eric Ambler books last year--he's considered the progenitor to Le Carre--but I think he's a bit too dry for the kid. I also bought yesterday a John Case called The Syndrome (forgot about that one), which might be okay.

[pandop]

The Christmas acquisitions were:

Murder One: Case 2
War of the Worlds
Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Concert (CD)

I have just bought:

Family Circle Easy Plus Size Knits (I had a 15% off voucer for Borders)

Hazel

[kumquat]

Yikes, the shelf has started to bow ...

Twelve (cookery book)
Shalimar the Clown (half price)
The Penelopiad (half price)
Time waster letters 2 (half price)

and probably lots more.

Mini-me came back from 4 days with grandparents, two read books that he only got Christmas day and demands for the next in the series...I don't know where he gets it from!

[Colyngbourne]

Spent up almost all the book/HMV tokens that had accumulated, including old birthday tokens, and am feeling thoroughly spoiled, esp. by the Sherlock Holmes that Mr Col and I pooled our money for.

* The Annotated Sherlock Holmes Vol 1 & 2, as seen here (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=898)
* Kids bought lots of books, including Christopher Paolini's Eragon, the latest Charlie Higson Young Bond, and the new Anthony Horowitz book that isn't an Alex Rider.
* Company of Wolves, Hero, The Untouchables, Labyrinth, American Beauty DVDs
* Dr. Who Season One DVD set

I've still got a little money to buy Patrick McGrath's The Grotesque, Digger-recommended Harry Mulisch's The Discovery of Heaven and elsewhere-and-also-Maggie recommended The Dew-Breaker by Edwidge Danticat.

Am sorely tempted by more stuff on evolution/genetics though, of the Rose/Lewontin/Gould mould.

[Wavid]

I just picked up The Extras Series 1 DVD for £7.99 in Woolies! Bargain!

[Digger]

Oh do get the Muslische Col, it's got to be one of my favourite books of all time! Yay!

[Colyngbourne]

Just pressed the order button on those last three. Christmas spending officially over. No more book purchasing for at least two months...

[Stewart]

Since I've been offline over Christmas I suppose I should add my buys over that time:


The Sea, John Banville
Northern Lights, Philip Pullman
The Subtle Knife, Philip Pullman
The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman
Ghostwritten, David Mitchell
1984, George Orwell
When We Were Orphans, Kazuo IshiguroThere was more, possibly two more, and I can't think what they are right now.

I just got some £10 voucher from my work so I may use that to buy a book; that way it's not real money.

[Digger]

I'm enjoying Ghostwritten a great deal, got it at last year's Oxford Lit Fest when I met the man himself. Hope you enjoy too Blixa.

[Stewart]

Well, after the crap I just read then I'll be glad to see it done right.

Talking of LitFests, I've never been to one. I might use the months leading up to the summer crafting a replica of myself that I can leave in the office (and claim overtime) for a while so that I can bugger off to Edinburgh to sample the Book Festival there.

[Digger]

Last year's Oxford one was my first - and it was a bit close to miss really! Saw some of the greats though, was certainly worth it, and they ran a book shop selling all the speaker's works at a discount. Fatal.

[HP]

Does making a public announcement of something make it easier to enforce? Well, in the wild hope that it does, here goes: On December 31st I ordered three books from Amazon: God's Little Acre and Call It Experience - both by Erskine Caldwell, and The Journals of the Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck (who else, obviously!). And that, ladies and gentlmen is the last book-buying I shall be doing until .... well, until I've cleared the ridiculously vertiginous TBR pile that like Topsy just seems 'to grow and grow.' But no more! From January 1st 2006 Topsy is on a drastic diet. As a sop I shall use the library if it all gets too much - but my long overdue, much threatened book-buying embargo is now an iron-clad reality. Hurray!

(Er, which means, of course, this will be my very last post on this thread. No, really .......)

[Maggie]

Coly,
If you get a chance...... let me know what you think of The Dew-Breaker.

Digger,
I received "Ghostwritten" as a Christmas gift.........I'll have to make sure it stays near the top of the TBR stack.

I haven't made ANY purchases lately. I've been clicking the "add to wish list" option. The wish list is now out of control completely and I feel the symptoms of withdrawal. Things are in a sorry state.....I have decided to only order books during the first week of every month, starting in Feb. This month is totally taboo what with all the Christmas spending and such.

Oh what lengths an addict will go to so as to justify outlandish behavior :roll:

Maggie (who is SO glad that Feb. is a short month)

[chillicheese]

I'm joining the book-buying-embargo (well for 6 months at least), so I'm having to find retail therapy elsewhere.
So far this month I've purchased :


Bike bits : water bottle, toe traps,
Camera bits : 1GB memory stick
Gym bits : padlock for locker
Wrting bits : Cross ION pen
see, I'm doing really well, 3 days in and not a single book bought :roll:

[Paul]

Well, unlike some you iron-willed Palimsesters my book buying has been continuing unabated so far in 2006 (to be fair there are a few gifts mixed in too):

Oryx And Crake - Margaret Atwood
Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
Youngblood Hawke - Herman Wouk
Under The Volcano - Malcolm Lowry
Shipping News - Annie Proulx
Crossing To Safety - Wallace Stegner

I have one more amazon gift certificate lurking around and I'll probably pick up Banville's The Sea and something else.

[Digger]

a new silver garland lamp shade from Habitat - I've wanted one of these for ages.

http://static.flickr.com/39/81596388_250f597d27_m.jpg

I also succumbed to reduced price copies of the Sherlock Holmes on Amazon, oh woe is me! I look at them as an heirloom. :shock:

[chillicheese]

Digger, re: garland, I've got the goldy lookin one of these, didn't know there was a silver one out, obviously not keeping up with the Habitat catalogue (wonder what would happen if I combined the two in a big knotted nest of pressed metal ? )

As for Amazon purchases - bad bad digger - didn't think you'd last long without clicking that One-Click button ;-)

[Digger]

sigh.

[Colyngbourne]

This morning, buying my Dad's birthday books meant we got a third book free - so nabbed Ian McEwan's Saturday.

[Digger]

Parts I and II of Holmes arrived this morning. Happy Digger.

[Wavid]

Lovely, aren't they?

[Digger]

They really truly are, I'm only slightly annoyed that Vol III when it arrives - probably next week, wont be in the box, although I think it has its own.

Some of my other books will have to be demoted to fit them on a shelf.

[Colyngbourne]

It will take an aeon to read each story - you keep getting drawn to the copious but glorious notes, and the paper quality is beautiful too. *pets Holmes I & II*

[Digger]

I got mine delivered to my office as no one was going to be home and they wouldn't have fitted through my letter box, so now they are sitting on my desk being most tempting. They have that glorious new book smell. And the covers are that nice smooth paper that feels sorrt of velvety... mmm

[John Self]

Will you lot shut up about the Holmes triple set!! Some of us have a book-buying embargo to stick to!

[Wavid]

I think it is the most wonderful thing I have never seen. I would say that anyone who doesn't have the Holmes books on their shelves shouldn't be considered fully formed human beings.

[John Self]

Phew, that's all right then! I do have the Holmes books on my shelves, just not those editions! And even I am past the stage (and there was one, it lasted about ten years if I recall) of buying the same book twice in different editions.

[Digger]

here we are! it's too much of a distraction.

http://static.flickr.com/39/82541291_fcfe031253_m.jpg

[Digger]

That's my new Paradise Lost in the corner too, a collegue wanted a look.

[Wavid]

That photo is clearly a forgery. Why isn't the Palimp in the foreground?!

[Digger]

doh! It's down on the bar at the bottom, see notes on the page (http://www.flickr.co./photos/jodydigger)!

[kumquat]

oh look at all you lot with yer bookish cleverness. my recent purchase was a skirt!!! :) it's very purdy *and* it had 70 quid knocked off the price!!

[Digger]

great purchase K! I have plenty of these type of purchases - see lamp shade earlier on!

Plus found a gorgeous dress for my bridesmaid role for my sister's wedding, £150 down to £45! Yippee! :-D

[Jennifer]

There is no book-buying ban in the world of Jennifer this year because all her willpower is absorbed into other things. Like not eating all that Christmas chocolate at once.

Le Morte D'Arthur - Thomas Malory
Cadfael Omnibus - Ellis Peters (I have absolutely no idea what these books are like, I just vaguely remember the TV series from my childhood and picked this up in an excess of nostalgia)

Also I bought an outfit for my Oscars-themed Sixth Form ball, from Coast. Oh Jesus Christ, I'm going to have no money left by the end of this month. It's really nice though...

[amner]

Cadfael Omnibus - Ellis Peters (I have absolutely no idea what these books are like, I just vaguely remember the TV series from my childhood and picked this up in an excess of nostalgia)

I think hazel might be able to give you a view on these, if I recall a few early Palimp conversations?

[Digger]

Also I bought an outfit for my Oscars-themed Sixth Form ball, from Coast. Oh Jesus Christ, I'm going to have no money left by the end of this month. It's really nice though...

Oh they're so lovely though... that's where my bridesmaid dress came from mmmm. Enjoy. Oscars is a good theme. There arn't enough balls to go to when you grow up. All my dresses from school and uni hardly come out at all now. sigh.

[Jennifer]

I love how all the best purchases are covered with a sheen of guilt... I don't need a new dress, especially one that wasn't in the sale, nor do I need the matching handbag and lacy shawl. And I'll probably never ever wear it again. But oh, the satin! The lace! The fact that it makes me look half a stone thinner!

Perhaps places of work, instead of "casual Friday" or whatever, should have days when everyone can drag out those dresses they never wear any more, just to have a day feeling glamorous...

[pandop]

I think hazel might be able to give you a view on these, if I recall a few early Palimp conversations?

I love them

Hazel

[Jennifer]

That's reassuring then!

[Colyngbourne]

Heck, if everyone else is mentioning their bargain ballgowns, I got mine just before Christmas for a up-coming Burns Night do: from Oxfam, at £15, grey silk, brand new (labels still attached).


And my copy of The Grotesque has arrived but it's not the right cover that was shown on the Amazon Marketplace page, but a bright orange Penguin edition with a [edit] toad on a plate. :-|

[John Self]

Same as mine then. Email them and say you're collecting the ones with other covers and they'll probably give you a refund and let you keep the book!

[kumquat]

COL:Heck, if everyone else is mentioning their bargain ballgowns, I got mine just before Christmas for a up-coming Burns Night do: from Oxfam, at £15, grey silk, brand new (labels still attached).


SELF:Same as mine then.

draw your own conclusions folks.

[Digger]

I bet it's sassy!

[John Self]

Used up part of my W's voucher, cleverly avoiding adding to the TBR pile, on a Moleskine notebook, the small ruled sort. All I need now is for inspiration to strike, and I am surely on my way to literary fame and fortune ... beckoning. Right chillicheese and Digger? Frankly if I get anything one-twentieth as good as this (of Digger's) into it, I'll be well pleased.

http://static.flickr.com/24/64141183_ec9bf85cbe.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jodydigger/64141183/)

By the way, how do you pronounce Moleskine exactly??

[Wavid]

Mole-er-skeen-er, I believe.

[John Self]

Oh really! Ta Wavid.

[Stewart]

Well, I went to the library yesterday afternoon and stocked up on ten books thus getting around the embargo:


The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, Yukio Mishima
Flaubert's Parrot, Julian Barnes
Anil's Ghost, Michael Ondaatje
If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, Jon McGregor
Money, Martin Amis
To A God Unknown, John Steinbeck
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith
Goodbye To Berlin, Christopher Isherwood
Everything Is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer
This Is The Country, William Wall

[chillicheese]

Interesting choices Blixa, I read If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things on a flight to Australia two years ago. It certainly served its' purpose at the time and it's one of those books that stays with you. Slightly strangely, I've read two completely different stories since then that send me back to it : Martin Amis' London Fields and Boxy an Star by Daren King. No connection that I can discern, apart from being set in towns, but all three have the same sense of mysterious distress about them.
I'm a big fan of the McCall Smith Botswana books, they're just so charming, an adjective which would normally make me run screaming to the 'gritty reality' section of the bookshop.

[John Self]

Boxy an Star by Daren King

That chancer! :roll: Well, a little unfair, perhaps, but I really did think it was one of those books that was a better idea than execution. New, or variant, languages are always a big risk and I just don't think he pulled it off. Of course because it was still an interesting experiment I bought his next, Jim Giraffe, about a ghost giraffe who lives in the wardrobe of a man called Scott Spectrum, and if that isn't enough to make you vomit with whimsy, then go ahead and read it. It actually had some very amusing sequences of dialogue, but overall it was just far too self-indulgent. However he had an interesting blog or webpage at the time of Jim Giraffe which I read and used the Contact Me feature to send him some sort of email (I can't remember what I said, nothing nasty mind!). He replied and I remember that he mentioned, in response to something I had said, that he hardly ever reads fiction. I figured that, well, that figured. He has a new one out, Tom Boler, which I believe is a sequel of sorts to Boxy an Star. Mind if I don't?

[chillicheese]

Perhaps it was the repeated reference to his "Trouble Monkey" that put you off

[pandop]

I just bought an omnibus of Lindsay Davis Falco novels for £2.99 (I have been in search of non-love stories, and retail therapy)

Hazel

[Jennifer]

Not a recent purchase but an imminent one, so if you feel I'm in the wrong place I stand ready to receive rotten tomatoes...

I need a digital camera. Well, perhaps need is a strong word, but it's what I'm getting for my next birthday - I have to choose it though, and I have no idea what to look for. Something small but with as good picture quality as I can afford. What do you lot use?

[amner]

I have a Kodak CX7330, and it's just won me the Christmas photo competition!

Good bit of kit, too.

[John Self]

I recommend the Canon Digital Ixus 50. It's good quality, pretty much the smallest and neatest on the market (along with some of the Pentax Optio range), and reasonably priced, as these things go, at £191 on Amazon B0007W5LXM. And if you order it through the Palimp link I've just created, then Palimpsest benefits!

[Jennifer]

You are wonderful people whose recommendations I shall take very seriously!

[chillicheese]

I concur, go for the Canon Ixus - it's small enough to take anywhere so you never miss a shot. I wish I'd bought one instead of my bulky, expensive Sony DSC-V1

[Jennifer]

Just had a quick look on Amazon and it (the Canon) looks perfect. Shall confer with my financial advisor (mother) upon the subject.

[Digger]

Jennifer, I'm gonna send Daveybot, newly joined, your way. He works at a camera shop and knows his stuff.

Think the Canon's good, and personally I love my Ricoh Caplio R2, but I know they've just updated that model. It's all sleek and silver, with few extraneous buttons and bits.

Happy shopping, see you on Flickr soon then! :-)

[Paul]

I recently ordered a few items from Amazon:
The Sea by John Banville (4-6 weeks out! Must have peaked after the
Booker.)
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
The Courage Consort by Michel Faber (my wife is buying and reading all the
Faber in sight right now.)

[Stewart]

The Courage Consort by Michel Faber (my wife is buying and reading all the Faber in sight right now.)

I take it that's the version with The Courage Consort, The Hundred & Ninety-Nine Steps, and The Fahrenheit Twins in it? Over here, The Fahrenheit Twins was published recently as a collection of short stories - mostly annoying - of which the opener, The Safe House, and title story were the best. Once I've read Some Rain Must Fall and Under The Skin then I'll start the official Palimp Michel Faber thread.

[Paul]

I take it that's the version with The Courage Consort, The Hundred & Ninety-Nine Steps, and The Fahrenheit Twins in it? Over here, The Fahrenheit Twins was published recently as a collection of short stories - mostly annoying - of which the opener, The Safe House, and title story were the best. Once I've read Some Rain Must Fall and Under The Skin then I'll start the official Palimp Michel Faber thread.
Yep, that's the one. Actually, I hadn't realized that it included The Hundred & Ninety-Nine Steps until I read your question and looked it up on Amazon. I had always seen it sold separately.

So far I've only read The Crimson Petal but I thought it was excellent and after watching my wife tear through Under The Skin in a few days I'm anxious to read that one as well.

Blixa (or anyone else), have you heard whether Faber has anything new in the works?

[knovella]

Hey Blixa,

You might be interested in something I read in an interview with Faber. Talking about his influences, he mentions the Industrial Culture Handbook (link below). Sounds like it might be up your street.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0940642077/qid=1136836586/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-2103808-5435341?n=507846&s=books&v=glance

Faber is a man of varied experience.


So when the Faber thread starts I'm gonna post a review of Courage Consort, Steps, and F Twins, okay?

[Paul]

Knovella,
I'll look forward to hearing your thoughts on Faber.

[knovella]

Yeah, okay. But I think I've Palimped enough for today. My whole side is seized up with over-Palimpation (or is it Palimpsestation?). Ouch.

[pandop]

Just recieved another batch of Christmas Pressies (from the ex....):

At Knit's End - Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Do Andriods Dream of Electric Sheep - Phillip K. Dick
The Little Endless Storybook - Jill Thompson
Oklahoma! (staring Maureen Lipman and Hugh Jackman)

Hazel

[Wavid]

I trust you are going to smear them in donkey excrement, then set light to them before throwing them at the snivelling little worm?

[John Self]

I think I've Palimped enough for today

I quite agree! Maximum of three posts per day for TBF members! (oops, better put in one of those hated smilies to make clear my jocular intentions) ;-)

[chillicheese]

Recently purchased : NAD C521-BEE CD player. Well, the old one was skipping and getting choosey about which discs it liked and when it rejected The White Stripes Elephant, that was game over.

And the book buying embargo must've freed up several pounds by now

.... and it's "titanium" finish, and it's got a plug on it, and I've wanted one for ages. So that's alright then.

[Maggie]

Just bought "Liberation" by Joanna Scott. I've read a couple of earlier books by her and pretty much liked them all. Also purchased a book of essays by David Rakoff. I found it in the humor section of the bookstore. I felt that since I was stuck here in the bosom of winter, I could use a good laugh. We shall see.

Maggie

[Jerkass]

On my first Borders 3-for-2 in a bit, I have picked up:

Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami
The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst
Snow, Orhan Pamuk

[Digger]

Let me know what you think of Snow Jerkass, here's (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=1622) my thoughts....

[gil]

Just recieved another batch of Christmas Pressies (from the ex....):Do Andriods Dream of Electric Sheep - Phillip K. Dick
Supposedly the original story for Bladerunner, but unrecognisable, though still a very nice story.

[pandop]

I trust you are going to smear them in donkey excrement, then set light to them before throwing them at the snivelling little worm?
Nope. I want this stuff - and he owes me after what I spent on him at Christmas.

I have just bought Ancestors of Avalon - Marion Zimmer-Bradley for myself too (impluse purchase last night - Borders is not a safe place to 'kill time before Yoga')

Hazel

[pandop]

Supposedly the original story for Bladerunner, but unrecognisable, though still a very nice story.

I have read it before - and seen Bladerunner. I like them both, and wanted my own copy of this, but you are right in that they aren't that similar.

Hazel

[JunkMonkey]

I have read it before - and seen Bladerunner. I like them both, and wanted my own copy of this, but you are right in that they aren't that similar.

Hazel

They are a lot more similar (eh?) than some P K Dick adaptations.

That Piece of Shit Total Recall (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100802/) was based on a lovely little story by him called We Can Remember It For You Wholesale - one of my favourite all time story titles - and Screamers (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114367/) was totaly unrecognisably based on ashort story of his called Second Variety.

After those 2 I have avoided watching any adaptations of his stuff.

[Stewart]

Minority Report, too, I believe. I don't know the original title, though, if that wasn't it.

[Colyngbourne]

Yoga chat etc. here (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=1677)

[Digger]

good move Col, thanks.

[Miriamaok]

I should stay away from Charing Cross Road. I arrived ten minutes early for the cinema last night so decided to just have a wander around Blackwells. I came away with:

1. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
2. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
3. Saturday by Ian McEwan
4. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
5. Lonely Plant Guide to South America.

I am hereby banning myself from purchasing any new books until Easter.

[John Self]

Hurray, another convert to the new book embargo!

I was out for dinner with a friend last weekend who was over from London. He told me he had given up alcohol for January. He does this from time to time as he is aware that he drinks quite heavily, and worries in case he is dependent on it. Then when, as this month, he realises he has no withdrawal symptoms whatsoever, he can happily go back to it next month at his normal level.

I feel the same way about buying books. I haven't had the slightest urge to buy anything yet this month, although I am not (yet) using this as an excuse which means I therefore can buy anything I want. Early days though.

[kumquat]

crazy (abstemious) punks.

i bought 'Survivor' by Palahniuk, 'The master and margarita' by Bulgakov, 'the republic of trees' by sam taylor and 'palestine' by Joe Sacco (graphic novel).

[John Self]

Well my embargo broke down today anyway, with Edward St Aubyn's Some Hope trilogy which I had been trying to get hold of before the new year precisely so that this wouldn't happen. My other half persuaded me that a limited book-intake was healthier than trying to cut 'em out altogether. Which may have a point, and as it's effectively telling me what I want to hear, I'll buy it. So one book a month is the revised aim...

[rick green]

Very reasonable compromise.

[chillicheese]

JOHN !
if we can't rely on your steadfast determination, what's to become of the rest of us ?
I was doing quite well, laughing to myself as I walked past bookshops, "oh, no, they're not for you, we don't go in those places, do we ?" I'd say to myself. Now what. Now what am I supposed to do. The next time I see a bookshop it will be more like "well, yr man over there said it's OK to buy one a month, maybe we should just pop in and pick one up, just one mind" and we all know where that sort of talk leads don't we ? Yes, we do, a fekin piling up of piles of TBR's, that's where.

Shocked and dissapointed of Sussex.

[John Self]

I've always wanted to be a bad influence! 8)

[NottyImp]

I've always wanted to be a bad influence!

I bet you're the kind of evil fiend who offers smokers a cigarette in their first week of giving up. ;-)

[knovella]

My library has a huge, every-changing stock of books for sale, paperbacks for 50 cents, hardcovers for $1. So I spend two bucks the other day on

Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje (a memoir, briefly reviewed on yonder thread)
A John McPhee Reader--he writes very involved nonfiction pieces for The New Yorker on obscure topics such as the dynamite business.
Come Winter by Evan Hunter (aka Ed McBain)--impulse cheap thrill purchase.

[John Self]

A John McPhee Reader--he writes very involved nonfiction pieces for The New Yorker on obscure topics such as the dynamite business.

Or oranges. I remember almost buying this book, one of the first in the Penguin Modern Classics series when they were relaunched in 2000, purely for the cover:

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0141182032.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

[ono no komachi]

Not purchases, but extremely gratefully received gifts:

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
Small Island (lovely hardback edition too!)
Have I Got News For You 2 (audio CD)
Sexie - Eddie Izzard (audio CD)

(Oh yes, and DKNY Be Delicious Eau de Parfum 8))

[m.]

(Oh yes, and DKNY Be Delicious Eau de Parfum 8)) :-D It's nice, isn't it?! I am probably not buying it, cause my perfume wish list is full in the extreme at the moment - Angel (classic), Madness and Extravagance to name just top three, which I'm not buying either, kind of embargo - but I like it more and more...

Recently I bought Die eristische Dialektik, Schopenhauer (in Polish, naturally), and I'm even reading this. It's very short, more a long essay than proper book.

[JunkMonkey]

Only bought 5 CDs today from the Oban charity shops on my lightening dash to buy Mrs JM a birthday present today: 3 Placebo, a Morcheeba and a Foo Fighters and NO BOOKS! this is a record. I have will power!

And I actually managed to buy her a present! (not I hasten to add from a charity shop. I'm cheap but not THAT cheap - yet)

Mrs JM likes the Placebo, the Morcheeba is going on the shelves to add to the huge pile of music I don't listen too (even, in the case of bands like Morcheeb, when it is playing) and The Foo fighters is on its way to eBay 'cos neither of us liked it.

[Stewart]

I bought books. :oops:

I was all set to walk out and pay for John Fante's The Bandini Quartet (Wait Until Spring, Bandini, The Road To Los Angeles, Ask The Dust, and Dreams From Bunker Hill) along with Patrick McGrath's Asylum and, just to add it to my collection, Ishiguro's An Artist Of The Floating World.

The latter two got put back when I spotted a 3 for 2 on Richard Yates' books and, remembering that he was praised highly here, I bought Young Hearts Crying, Cold Spring Harbor, and, of course, Revolutionary Road.

That's me on another book embargo...until next month. :lol:

[Jennifer]

Bought the Odyssey the other day, then in Paris I acquired Harry Potter et le Prince de Sang-Melé. There was no intelligent literature for me to practice with, only dodgy romantic novels and Harry Potter!

[Colyngbourne]

Keeping to a vague embargo, I managed to find at the library,

Lighthousekeeping - Jeanette Winterson
Short Stories - Tobias Wolff
I Have Landed - Stephen Jay Gould 9 more essays)
Murder in the Cathedral - TS Eliot
The Easter Parade - Richard Yates

[Stewart]

That's me on another book embargo...until next month. :lol:
Er, that didn't last. I just won Tortilla Flat, The Long Valley, and The Grapes of Wrath for £7.34 (including postage) on eBay. :lol:

This was my first ever trip into eBay; if everything comes as advertised then it may be the start of a cheap love affair. Unfortunately, nobody is selling the Penguin Classics (2000) Steinbeck works of a more obscure nature (i.e. The Wayward Bus, Burning Bright, etc.) :-x

[Miriamaok]

Arghh. So much for the book-buying embargo! I'm in Manchester and I found myself wandering the streets in the cold this morning and just happened upon a nice warm Waterstones. I ended up with:

The People's Act of Love by James Meek
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
The Know-It-All by AJ Jacobs.

Those 3-1 dealios are my downfall.

[John Self]

I struggled with Gilead at the weekend too, Miriam. Resisted though. Let me know if I did the right thing!

[Miriamaok]

I struggled with Gilead at the weekend too, Miriam. Resisted though. Let me know if I did the right thing!

Her previous book, Housekeeping is one of my favourites so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is as good.

[Stewart]

Another snap on eBay: The English Patient (Ondaatje), The Shipping News (Proulx), and The Blue Afternoon (Boyd) for the price of £7.19 (incl. P&P).

[JunkMonkey]

The Edible Woman, and Surfacing - Margaret Atwood
In Custody Anita Desai
The Private Memoirs... Justified Sinner - Hogg
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Le Ton Beau de Marot - Hofstadter

all VGC as we say on eBay and 25p each thank you very much. That'll keep me going for a couple of weeks

[John Self]

Put The Blue Afternoon next on your reading list, Blixa, it's super.

[Stewart]

Put The Blue Afternoon next on your reading list, Blixa, it's super.
Well, it will have to wait until after Patrick McGrath's Port Mungo, which I think I will read next. That, however, and my current read, are on hold until I've finished with interview.monster.com :cry:

Must admit, before buying The Blue Afternoon, I did check your comments in the William Boyd thread. You said it's his best next to Any Human Heart, which is sitting at my desk as I write. Which should be read first?

[John Self]

I think The Blue Afternoon is more accessible and immediately satisfying. Any Human Heart is wonderful but I found it a cumulative pleasure, so if you read the first parts in not quite the right frame of mind you could easily dismiss it. So best leave it till you've built up a fund of goodwill towards Mr B.

[m.]

Yesterday I had a brief job related visit in Warsaw, and seeing a well stocked English bookstore (actually it's called "American Bookstore") I decided not to go out of there without buying something. I didn't need to buy anything, TBR pile will last for quite a while, but it was more like buying a fortune cookie - let's see what Fate has for me in this store. Well, Ishiguro, The Unconsoled. (Yeah, I was in a strange mood yesterday, lol.)

[Jennifer]

No books lately, but have recently acquired a Canon Ixus 55, so there may be a new Flickr member soon. Once I've figured out how to use it properly that is, my ability with technology not being renowned...

[Digger]

I'll send you an invite if you like Jennifer - pm me with an email. It's dead easy that flickring malarky! :-)

[JunkMonkey]

it was more like buying a fortune cookie - let's see what Fate has for me in this store. Well, Ishiguro, The Unconsoled.

Spooky synchronicity: Today I nearly bought a copy of The Unconsoled but didn't when I noticed a copy of The Good Soldier Svejk next to it. (I have been looking for a copy of Svejk for years after I lent mine to someone and never got it back) buying both would have taken me over the 4 books I had allowed myself.

So I ended up getting:
A Pale View of Hills - Ishiguro
The Moon of Gomrath - Alan Garner
The Good Soldier Svejk - Hasek
and
The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint - Brady Udall

[Bricklane]

Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Complete Poems, Penguin Classics, 50cents. The Outsider, Albert Camus, 50cents. hohohoho. (Together with a Defoe, and a Balzac.)

[rick green]

That's what I call a bargain Bricklane! I can't pass up deals like that, thus my embargo has been egregiously breached.

[NottyImp]

The Outsider, Albert Camus.

Ah, one of my favourites. I really ought to re-read it sometime...

[Bricklane]

That's what I call a bargain Bricklane! ....
Yap. That was why I came to show off. Wish you good luck with your purchase of books, rickgreen.

Nottyimp, now I know that you read. razz...ing..

[Colyngbourne]

My first official purchase of the year (I think) - as a Valentine gift, so it doesn't quite count (I'm telling myself) on the tenuous excuse that it has the word 'love' in the title: The People's Act of Love - James Meek.

I've actually wanted to read this myself for some time so it wasn't that altruistic a purchase ;-)

And since it was a 3 for 2 and my son had bought a very nice Michael Morpurgo on the same deal, I was able to add Julian Barnes Arthur and George under cover of the offer.

(terrible justification, I know....)

I also bought the last of the Garth Nix trilogy - Abhorsen - for my other son as he had requested it.

[pandop]

Schindler's List on DVD

Hazel

[JunkMonkey]

My first official purchase of the year (I think)

OMG! I am so impressed! Such willpower!

Luckily, "Stop Buying Books and CDs" was not one of my New Year's resolutions - actually I can't remember what my New Year's resolutions were, but I know that wasn't one of them.

Today I only bought 3 CDs at a car boot sale:

The Piano Soundtrack - Nyman
Ma Vlast (and others) - Smetana
Boom Boom - John Lee Hooker (a ragbag compilation)

Tomorrow we are honour bound to go to someone's garage sale...

[ono no komachi]

Sigh. Wandering round a largeish, quiet, branch of Waterstone's is very soothing after a stressful morning, but turns out to be a bit hard on the old purse:

Annie Proulx, Close Range
Kazuo Ishiguro, When We Were Orphans
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces

And that was me exercising restraint.

[Stewart]

And that was me exercising restraint.

Yes, my restraint has resulted in me buying more books than I would ever buy without a book embargo. :oops:

I've made Zadie Smith's White Teeth my 22nd purchase of the year (:shock:)and I've got my eye on a couple more Steinbecks as I collect his catalogue.

[Digger]

I've just ordered dvds of Garden State, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Sideways.

22 Blixa, not bad - averaging approx 3.38 per week and approx 0.47 a day for 2006.

[Daveybot]

I just got a couple of tickets for Good Night And Good Luck showing tonight at 9:00. Can't wait!

[John Self]

A pedant writes: You mean Good Night, And Good Luck - the comma being crucial in taking the phrase from a banal space-filler into something alive that someone might really say...

I love the way Peter Bradshaw in today's Guardian gave it 3 stars (Film & Music section, page 8), and then on page 15 in the same section, he gave it 5 stars in their Top 5 Films list.

[Daveybot]

Looking closer at my tickets I see that in fact I've got tickets for Good Night.

...whatever that is...

[Stewart]

Oh well, and good luck!

[Digger]

I'll spoil it all for you Dave, I'm going at 7!

[Jennifer]

I bought Small Island. There's only so long you can hold back against the tide... I'm determined to hate it, just to be different!

[JunkMonkey]

Ok, today I was bad.

I bought 23 CDs at a boot sale today.

Don't look at me like that! They were 5p each! Mostly House/Trance compilations, a few film soundtracks and a few duplicates of things I alreay have - to play in the car.

I bought some books as well but I've managed to hide them so Mrs JunkMonkey doesn't go too ballistic.

[ono no komachi]

I bought Small Island. There's only so long you can hold back against the tide... I'm determined to hate it, just to be different!

8) I'll take that bet...

[Lizzy Siddal]

Yes, my restraint has resulted in me buying more books than I would ever buy without a book embargo. :oops:


I know how that feels! I first tried a book-buying embargo about two years ago. I started with a February, as it is such a short month ;-) . I almost made it too but a first edition of Keri Hulme's "The Bone People" lay calling to me from the charity shop window .... and I was undone.

Never made it past a week whenever I've tried an embargo since.

So this year, I'm adopting different tactics - I have decided that I am only buying 1st editions of books that I think will repay the investment. My 1st edition purchases for 2006:

Sacred Hunger - Barry Unsworth (One of my personal top ten - the best Booker winner ever - imo!)
Small Island - Andrea Levy (New limited signed edition and another novel from my personal top ten)
Have Mercy On Us All - Fred Vargas (This lady is going to become huge ...)
The People's Act of Love - James Meek (I am hearing such good things about this .....)
Brazzaville Beach - William Boyd (Tremendous read!)
The Olive Readers - Christine Aziz (Winner of R&J's How to get Published competition)
The Harmony Silk Factory - Tash Aw (First Novel Whitbread Winner)


I haven't quite stuck to my resolution, having discovered

www.greenmetropolis.com (http://www.greenmetropolis.com)

From there I have bought:

Snow - Orphan Pamuk
Gem Squash Tokoloshe - Rachel Zadok

9 purchases in 7 weeks = too many for someone trying to cut down .... Lizzy, my girl, you must try harder.

[Lizzy Siddal]

Oh, I realise that recommending greenmetropolis might not be supportive of those on the embargo, so, in an attempt to rectify the wrong, can I recommend

www.readitswapit.co.uk (http://www.readitswapit.co.uk)

Swap the books you have read for those you wish to read - just one suggestion for getting round a book purchasing embargo ... Good luck!

[JunkMonkey]

Oh, I realise that recommending greenmetropolis might not be supportive of those on the embargo, so, in an attempt to rectify the wrong, can I recommend

www.readitswapit.co.uk (http://www.readitswapit.co.uk)

Swap the books you have read for those you wish to read - just one suggestion for getting round a book purchasing embargo ... Good luck!

Hmmmmm, this looks interesting... but how have you managed to swap 18 books without having any listed to swap? - or am I missing something?

[Digger]

I love it when Amazon says my grouped parcel of purchases will take 4-6 weeks to dispatch, and it arrives in 3 days. Makes for a happy Digger,

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Sideways
Garden State and the soundtrack

all arrived this morning. :-)

[Lizzy Siddal]

Hmmmmm, this looks interesting... but how have you managed to swap 18 books without having any listed to swap? - or am I missing something?

Very observant, Junkmonkey!

I'm not currently actively swapping so my books aren't showing as available. (I'm still working my way through that last batch of 18 swaps .....)

[Stewart]

Regarding this thread, may I make the suggestion that close it and start a new thread that is more in line with the Palimplist, so that you take one post in the thread and just keep adding to your purchased list?

[John Self]

That's an excellent idea Blixa. Unfortunately I'm up to my eyes in work at the moment so will leave it for someone else to create...

[Wavid]

Okey dokey. Head over here (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=1776) from now on, mongrels.

Here, for posterity, is a list of who posted how many. No prizes for guessing who came out on top!

John Self (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=54) 99
Colyngbourne (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=14) 90
Wavid (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=5) 46
Digger (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=165) 40
amner (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=4) 38
rick green (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=107) 37
Blixa (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=230) 29
Jerkass (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=127) 28
kumquat (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=178) 28
ono no komachi (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=84) 25
Lucoid (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=8) 23
hazelweller (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=53) 22
m. (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=124) 20
Jennifer (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=265) 17
Maggie (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=175) 16
HoneyPotts (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=182) 13
bakunin_the_cat (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=67) 13
Paul (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=281) 12
chillicheese (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=186) 10
NottyImp (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=29) 10
wshaw (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=27) 9
gil (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=37) 9
JunkMonkey (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=296) 8
jim (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=133) 7
knovella (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=292) 7
Oryx (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=180) 6
youjustmightlikeit (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=110) 5
StillILearn (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=304) 5
funes (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=205) 4
Miriamaok (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=270) 3
Johnny-Ace (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=249) 3
Jay (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=295) 3
Winston99 (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=118) 3
Lizzy Siddal (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=347) 3
skanky (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=45) 2
idioteque (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=92) 2
Daveybot (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=271) 2
amarie (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=140) 2
Bricklane (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=339) 2
stlukesguild (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=185) 1
niloc (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=129) 1
Pak_43 (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=44) 1
Shoppers (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=43) 1
maxivida (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=77) 1
soapington (http://palimpsest.org.uk/forum/member.php?u=117) 1

Does this mean that Col and John buy twice as much stuff as I do?

[Wavid]

And in answer to digger's question on the new thread (skilfully winning for herself the second post in the pile!) we can keep this one open for rambling.

[Digger]

Ah-HA! my cunning plan was uncovered.... (shrugs shoulders and makes slightly uncertain face!). Ta W!

EDIT - I can't believe I bought 40 things over the course of this thread, must be all the rambling I do!

[Digger]

over here amner...

[m.]

So, here we go to talk about the new purchases? :-)

rick - saw Quo Vadis on your list. I'm really curious what you'll think of it when you get to it. Sienkiewicz is an author whom I really loved in childhood, read his novels over and over, and then I gradually started to dislike a lot of things there. In the first volume of Gombrowicz's diary there is a great essay about Sienkiewicz and his impact on the Polish literature or more generally "style".

[rick green]

... when you get to it.

That's the trouble, isn't it. ;-)
I didn't realize it was wrapped up in a stylistic controversy. That makes it even more appealing. Thanks for the info.

[ono no komachi]

Can this thread be a sticky one, in case of the unlikely event that no one buys anything for weeks and it falls off the radar?

[Wavid]

Ono was referring to the big list of purchases, and it's been stickified.

[ono no komachi]

I see that Blixa has bought the new Neil Diamond album. Is it any good, Bixa? Delirious Love (the only track I've heard more than once) hasn't especially bowled me over.

[Daveybot]

<pedant>

I think we should change the title of this thread to 'recent acquisitions'. I just got Cory Doctorow (http://www.craphound.com/)'s Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom (http://craphound.com/down/download.php). Partly because I'd been meaning to read one of his books for a while and partly because I noticed Gil was reading it right now. At any rate it involved no monetary or other transaction, as it's given away for free under a CC license. I also often swap, trade, or barter items and services but am no less excited about acquiring them than if I'd paid for them.

</pedant>

[Colyngbourne]

I see that Blixa has bought the new Neil Diamond album. Is it any good, Bixa? Delirious Love (the only track I've heard more than once) hasn't especially bowled me over.

Ken 'Dot' Bruce played a couple of tracks from it the other week, which sounded okay to me - though poor radio reception driving along the east side of Lake Coniston might have influenced this somewhat!

[Stewart]

I see that Blixa has bought the new Neil Diamond album. Is it any good, Bixa? Delirious Love (the only track I've heard more than once) hasn't especially bowled me over.

I really like it. It's not something you get into on first listen, but repeated listening makes it sparkle. Hell Yeah, for example, I wasn't all to keen on but, in much the same way the song grows in power, it has grown on me. And I quite like Delirious Love - it's the "poppiest" song on the album, just after Save Me A Saturday Night - but it's not my favourite.

[ono no komachi]

Hmmm... may be one to think about then. Might go in the Amazon basket with Dave Gilmour's new one (heard him play a couple of tracks live on Wossy's Saturday show and thought they sounded pretty good too).

[m.]

O, Blixa, I've noticed White and Red on your acquisition list... I won't comment, cause I haven't read it, but the measure of its success in Poland is the fact that many people have opinions about this book even though they haven't read it. Some say it's mostly the hype and marketing. Well I've read the fragments and my intuition tells me it's a real thing but not my kind of thing. I plan to read though, sometime. Its strength is the language, so I wonder about the translation.

edit: I see on Amazon it's got the title Snow White and Russian Red, the original title is something like Polish-Russian War Under the White-and-Red Flag...

[Digger]

Hey Blixa, let me know what you think of Mason Dixon will you? I gave up on it but it looms on my shelf asking to be read again. Can't remember why I gave up...

[Digger]

Sooo Chilli, I am intrigued at your new work pants... It this pants in the American sense? And are there particular requirements for work as opposed to play pants? ;-)

[Miriamaok]

These aren't really purchases as were acquired as birthday gifts or with birthday tokens:

Music
1. Kitty Jay by Seth Lakeman (http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=CD&title=167375&p=34&g=48&pa=sr)
2. Big Sleeping House by Microdisney (http://www.play.com/play247.asp?pa=search&searchtype=cdartisttitle&searchstring=Microdisney&page=search)
3. Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=CD&title=898318&p=34&g=48&pa=sr) by Neko Case

Books
1. iPod Therefore I am by Dylan Jones (http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=BOOK&title=838130&p=91&g=148&pa=sr)
2. The Pope's Children by David McWilliams (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/0717139719/customer-reviews/026-4760369-4502061)

That should keep me going for a while.