The Library/Bookshelf! (COBbie Literature Thread)

Seconds on Wodehouse and Stephenson. Still trying to make time to read Reamde (that's not a typo, it's Stephenson's latest).

Anybody remember when (since this is the Old Folk's Thread) you could buy used paperback books from rotating racks in stores where you wouldn't expect to find books? You could get borderline pornography, classic literature, and anything in between. I discovered the James Bond books that way, as well as John D. MacDonald. If you've read any fiction involving psychotic small-town criminals in the last 40 years, raise a glass to MacDonald.

It's very hard to find MacDonald's Travis McGee books these days, and almost impossible to find the rest. I had a nearly complete collection at one point. Then I moved.

Uh, Internet, got any MacDonald? Why yes, Mr. Crown.

edited 31st Oct '11 3:00:31 PM by RalphCrown

Ah, revolving wire book racks. Always good for an Ace Double or two with Kelly Freas covers. For 35 cents. New.

And something by Harold Robbins.

And a Harlequin Romance or six.

Coffee, Tea or Me?. Rex Stout Nero Wolf novels. Also where I found my first James Kirkwood and my first Ruth McDonald novels. Bosse's Cigarette and Bookstore on Adams Street Green Bay WI. Gone but not forgotten.

Mine were in the High Street Pharmacy, Anen and Funks Grocery, and the Bi-lo. All three also gone.

edited 1st Nov '11 10:56:35 AM by Madrugada

In fact, in our mid-twenties we had about eight revolving wireracks in the apartment for books. Monumentally impractical, of course, strictly Rule of Cool. They fit the bare board shelves on cinder blocks and milk crates stacked sideways ambiance of the place.

The day I bought the first batch of real bookcases was a big day.

Feels really funny not to be constantly finding new ways to organize the books now that all the book buying takes place through a kindle-like service of one brand or the other. My iPad carries at least three bookcases worth now.

If I ever have to set up shop in a new city again I'm going to buy one of them thar new fangled things. I always move more books than anything else and there are always more moving home than there are moving out.

There is a neat small bookstore near me that has some books I want, but they charge a lot for them. A lot of their books are clearly used too, but they do not advertise themselves as a used bookstore. They wanted $17.50 for a hardcover copy of The Inhuman Condition. Oh well. I guess they have to charge a lot to keep in business.

Currently I am reading Anno Dracula which is pretty awesome. Imagine a better written League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen with more vampires and less frightening woman-beating.

edited 17th Nov '11 8:28:08 AM by Malkavian

I'm trying to find Giordano Bruno's works in English and in hardback. I'm not great at churchified Latin and paperbacks just feel wrong for that sort of book.

edited 7th Dec '11 8:08:06 AM by InverurieJones

Oh just buy a paperback :P.

Hardback english editions might be very very hard to find.

Your best bet is Cantus Circaeus.

Check these guys Ouroboros Press

edited 11th Dec '11 4:27:49 PM by TuefelHundenIV

So I have the overdrive audiobook app for the iPhone and I love it. My dad has us signed ip wit the Saint Louis Public Library and I have listened to 10 books last month alone. Oh I'm listening to The Hunger Games now and it is awesome.

edited 11th Dec '11 9:29:04 PM by vanthebaron

Cobbies I need a good action oriented sci-fi book I might not have considered.

David Drake: Cross The Stars.

C. J. Cherryh.

Seconding Cherryh, with the addition that if you want action oriented, go for the series about kitty cat people.

and don't judge em by the cover.

Just got Honor's Paradox ((Kencyrath) from Amazon this afternoon. If I disappear for a couple of days, y'all will know that I started reading it. 'Cause once I dive in, I'm not coming out 'til I'm done with it.

Heh, I did that too, Maddy, though I was bad and lost most of a workday to it.

@Ori: yes, the Chanur books are good, and probably the most actiony. One of my favorite Cherryhs is Rimrunners, though, which has as its protagonist one messed up old space marine. Female, of course; Cherryh is almost predictable about how the girls are the tough ones and the guys the emotional ones. I like that switch-up.

edited 15th Dec '11 8:00:09 AM by Morven

I just managed to pick up a few things:

• The Hermetic Art: The Teaching Concerning Atomic Transmutation
• The Hermetica: Lost Wisdom of the Pharaohs
• The Corpus Hermeticum
• Giordano Bruno: Cause, Principle and Unity: And Essays on Magic

All in hardback! Yay!

That should keep me busy for a while.

I'm also reading this because, well, it's fun.

edited 11th Feb '12 4:06:03 PM by InverurieJones

Ahh so you did finally find some of them. Where did you find them?

Amazon!

I'm still drooling over the stuff at the Ouroboros Press website, though. They're a bit expensive, so I may have to use up a few birthday presents on them.

They are indeed expensive. Lol Amazon for the win.