Book Sale Haul
"Haul" might be a bit of an overstatement. Today I went with my Mom to the Newton Free Library's quarterly book sale. It's a nice sale with many great finds packed into the tiny basement of the library. If you can manage the elbow-to-elbow confines and lack of fresh air (there seems to be a rather unfortunate connection between used books and odd, smelly goofballs) then you stand an excellent chance of coming home with some quality books. This sale always has a good selection of quality trade paperbacks, new fiction, hardcovers, and an assortment of everything from history to philosophy to business books. This time around there wasn't too much that caught my eye, but I opted for quality over quantity, given that I'm swimming in available titles at the moment. I purchased the following for $8.75:
- Gould's Book of Fish, by Richard Flanagan. I saw this on the shelf and thought I remembered that my associate and ex-coauthor of TwoGrimDudes Hotfoot read it. He either liked it or he did not.
- Mason & Dixon, by Thomas Pynchon. I haven't read any Pynchon, but this book sale is a great place to take a chance on authors whose names are familiar. My Mom just informed me she didn't think she liked Pynchon, however.
- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers. I have a vague notion of people really liking this, and it provides Scottfeld with fodder for his classic Dave Eggers bit.
- The Winds of War, by Herman Wouk. This one came highly recommended.
- Sarum, by Edward Rutherford. This is the third of Rutherford's immense tomes that I have purchased used from this book sale. I have yet to read any of them.
- The Master & Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov. In my days at Dartmouth, one of my friends recommended this to me while I mentioned enjoying the Russian literature I was reading at the time. Being that he was both well-read and himself Russian, I felt that his enthusiastic recommendation deserved consideration.
- The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, by Michael Chabon. I loved Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (my review of which is sitting in an embarrassingly lengthy backlog). I'm eager to read anything by him now.
3 comments:
If I had one wish (okay, if I had maybe three), it would be to be able to read Winds of War for the first time again.
You will love it.
I am still making my way through the sequel, War and Remembrance, but I will make it my goal to finish it before I come to BOS so I can lend you my copy.
If I had another week in Cabo, I'd surely finish it.
Gould's book of fish was steele's rec. I didn't like it.
M&M is one of my all time favorite books.
Mysteries of Pittsburgh is not as good as Kavalier & Clay. His new one is better.
I'm reading Cloud Atlas now by David Mitchell. You'd like it.
-Seme
@Rachel: That's a really lovely sentiment. I guess I should move it to the top of my reading list!
@Seme: Ah. Well it was only $2. Steele's made good recs before (cf. Patrick O'Brian).
I'm already halfway through Pittsburgh and it's so-so. I'm shocked that you don't back it just because of the Pitt setting.
When does Consume Day at the Den fall this semester?
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