Last Five Books You Bought

[Kinbote]

Title explains it, I think.

Marius the Epicurean, Walter Pater. Has not yet arrived.
Nabokov's Ada: The Place of Consciousness, Brian Boyd. Has not yet arrived.
The Sea For Breakfast, somebody-or-other. I don't know: it was a gift for my grandmother.
Life of Johnson, Boswell. Though I liked it, I must confess to having put it down well short of finishing.
Homemade Esthetics, Clement Greenberg. Have not yet read. But I like everything old Clement wrote, even when he was being a fucking ninny, so I feel pretty good about it.

Meanwhile, does anybody else have a mental list of books (and other items) they want, and find that said list vanishes as soon as it comes time to make a selection, and isn't it COMPLETELY FUCKING AGGRAVATING, especially since you're pretty sure these things never return to you?

[aria]

yes

that same mental list vanishes the minute I enter a library

i blame librarians

as i would

[Barbarian Love Elephant]

The Periodic Table - Primo Levi
Pnin - Vladimir Nabokov
The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenide
The man who mistook his wife for a hat - Oliver Sacks
To the lighthouse - Virgina Woolf

Pnin/Suicides were bought in second hand shops as gifts/omg it's so cheap how can i not buy!

[wasp in a jar]

yes

that same mental list vanishes the minute I enter a library

i blame librarians

as i wouldlibrarians are secretly witches.

they have little spells to make your mind go blank so you're forced to ask them mundane questions.

aaanyway. the last five books i bought are:

the penelopiad - margaret atwood. her take on the odyssey from penelope's perspective. quirky and fascinating.
the secret history - donna tartt. not read it yet. apparently very good though.
never let me go - kazuo ishiguro. bought it for my mum for mother's day.
hangover square - patrick hamilton. suits my current gin-soaked frame of mind.
frozen music - marika cobbold. i adored her book, shooting butterflies. this was a bit of a letdown but it did offer some much needed soppiness.

[TheImplodingVoice]

Complete Works- Antonin Artaud
Complete Works- Jean Cocteau
Lady Of The Flowers-Jean Genet (a bilingual edition)
Improvisation- Derek Bailey
Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991- Michael Azerrad

I had almost all of the Artaud and Cocteau's work, but these editions are beautiful!

[Jackal]

Genghis Khan and the making of the Modern World-Jack Weatherford
Banana Yoshimoto-Amrita
Amy Tan-Saving Fish from Drowning
Amy Tan-The Bonesetter's Daughter
Edward Gorey-Amphigorey Also

[TheImplodingVoice]

OMG I love Edward Gorey!

[Intern Kate]

Chronological:

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant; gift for mom, eh, step up from Nicholas Sparks and Anita Shreeve? can i get a maybe?

The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigia Edition; gift for dad, though i ended up borrowing it as required reading for a look into existentialism in my philosophy class...eh...

The Last Days of Socrates, Plato; required class reading.

Anna Karenina; i like it a lot more now than i initially did.

recommend a fifth!

[TheImplodingVoice]

Henry Miller- Tropic Of Capricorn

[Barbarian Love Elephant]

Bend Sinister
Laughter in the dark
Transparent Things

Nabokov

[In Dust and Ashes]

last novels I've bought are:

I Capture the Castle by someone that I forget the name of. I read maybe the first couple pages before I was bored stiff. never finished it, never want to.
That Was Then, This Is Now by S.E. hinton. it was ok. kind'a interesting.
Little Children by Tom Perrota. horrible read.
Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller. only got half way through. twisted stuff. at least it's more interesting than the other three I read.

and those were last year. I havn't gotten any novels recently. I never have money or interest. most of what I go for is non-fiction, or fiction with a clear cut purpose.

[Intern Kate]

Nabokov's Ada: The Place of Consciousness, Brian Boyd. Has not yet arrived.


i'd been wanting to give this a go.

EDIT: a little grammar error i picked up on bugged me uncontrollably!

[Kinbote]

It just FINALLY came today. Three weeks after ordering. Looks good, and Boyd's Pale Fire book was excellent (and also worth a buy, by the way).

[Intern Kate]

okay!

once you (i'm 99% sure it was you) posted a link to this: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/ada/ and i still poke around there from time to time. pretty neat-o site! i'm a little obsessed, yes. established.

[Intern Kate]

Henry Miller- Tropic Of Capricorn

i've got a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble! the possibilities.

[TheImplodingVoice]

OMG it's my favourite book and I always reccommend it..please buy it! lol

ps-HI KATE