THWOTH wrote:Nice that you managed to slip in a scathing review of Harris there Spinzo.

Is that allowed?

THWOTH wrote:Nice that you managed to slip in a scathing review of Harris there Spinzo.

I try my best.

j.mills wrote:Is that allowed?

Baby, I'm an authority. I decide who wears the swan dress and who doesn't.

Just received Philippa Foot's Virtues & Vices collection of essays in the mail, along with Susan Haack's Manifesto of a Passionate Moderate.

I have bought nuuuuuumerous books since last I trod in this thread, but I am especially chuffed to have finally gotten hold of E R Eddison's rarest novel, Styrbiorn The Strong, at last reprinted:



(Physically pleasing edition, but the text seems to be a facsimile rather than reset type, so it looks kind of old-fashioned.)

Just ordered Lawrence Krauss' new book 'A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing'.

I'm going to aim to buy no books for a while and to use this year's challenge as a spur to read all the books I've already bought but not got around to reading.

I bought a few Hitchen books, Hitch-22, God is Not Great, and The Portable Atheist. A kind of tribute I suppose.
They have taken pride of place in my ever growing stack of books waiting to be read.
Must. Read. More.

I bought a nice stack with my Xmas money - Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash, Anathem[/i], Miss Peregrin's Home for Extraordinary Children, The Edinburgh Dead, The Last Werewolf, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever and The Waiting Room among them.

Wot, in fact, is the deal with your new look, Fallible? Is it some kinda wizard DNA marker chromatospectroencephelagram? Or is it like a really really nerdy Spirograph?

Heh, Covenant. Be aware, Donaldson is a marmite writer.

logical bob wrote:I'm going to aim to buy no books for a while and to use this year's challenge as a spur to read all the books I've already bought but not got around to reading.

I'm with you there, logical bob. However, I already expect to fail . I have some bookshops in my way home and sometimes I can't resist to go inside to peruse .

I've bought some books before Christmas, went on a "book-chasing field trip" with some friends, trying to take advantage on the discounts and book fairs.
Bought Venice, by Jan Morris (Excellent book, a really outstanding geographical and cultural description of Venice, coupled with an interesting narrative!); Selected poems of Jorge Luis Borges; Até amanhã , camaradas (See you tomorrow, comrades) a book by the historic Communist portuguese leader, Álvaro Cunhal (signed with the pseudonym Manuel Tiago... It was written during the dictatorship period.);

Also bought a book about the great geological structures and in a whimp of insanity, the "Tractatus Logicus-Philosophicus" by Wittgenstein .

Another reason no to fail in my intention of not buying books for some time

j.mills wrote:Wot, in fact, is the deal with your new look, Fallible? Is it some kinda wizard DNA marker chromatospectroencephelagram? Or is it like a really really nerdy Spirograph?

Heh! My Spirograph and I had a love-hate relationship. Well, a hate-hate relationshop. Well, a hate relationship. It was the pins, you see. Wouldn't stay put. And I always stuck my pen through the paper. Awful business. You were sort of correct. It's a genome map.

Heh, Covenant. Be aware, Donaldson is a marmite writer.

Indeed, I have previously heard as much. I love Marmite though.

Fallible wrote:It was the pins, you see. Wouldn't stay put. And I always stuck my pen through the paper. Awful business.

That's right! You had to use a surface soft enough for the pins, but you had to use a pen sharp enough for the li'l holes! They din't fink it froo, did they?

Now, Etch-a-Sketch: there was a serious drawing tool. So long as you wanted to draw badly carpentered steps.

I rapidly grew tired of mine. It was just too square, man. Wouldn't let me fly, man. Don't tread on me with your straight lines and your 'I will erase 90% of what you did, but always leave a ghost of your efforts with which I shall taunt you'. And the damn thing just begged to be taken apart and examined.

The Keynes Solution-Paul Davidson
How We Decide- Jon Lehrer
More Sex is Safer Sex: Unconventional Wisdom from Economics-Steve Landsberg
Superfreakonomics- Dubner and Leavitt.

The Art of Happiness by The Dalai Lama & Howard (I think) Cutler.

"Howard (I think) Cutler"? That has gotta be like the coolest middle name ever!

Thanks to how easy it is to buy Kindle books, I spent about £75 over the last two days buying them. A lot of them are history or books about religion.

People keep asking me why I have so many books on religion on my Kindle. "Reconnaissance", I reply.

I got three freebies from Audible.com. So I chose these:

The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England (Unabridged) Part 1 5:45:02 Ian Mortimer Audiobooks
The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England (Unabridged) Part 2 6:01:44 Ian Mortimer Audiobooks
The Popes (Unabridged) Part 1 5:13:37 John Julius Norwich Audiobooks
The Popes (Unabridged) Part 2 8:48:23 John Julius Norwich Audiobooks
The Popes (Unabridged) Part 3 7:16:12 John Julius Norwich Audiobooks
The Reformation, A History 6:22:30 Patrick Collinson Audiobooks
The Modern Scholar: Wars That Made the Western World 8:02:49 Timothy Shutt Audiobooks
And I'm downloading this from iStore, I don't know why they said I could have it for free but I'm broke I need to take what I can for nothing.
E.O Wilson's Life on Earth.

Those should give me something to do while DH watches football.

Wiðercora wrote:Thanks to how easy it is to buy Kindle books, I spent about £75 over the last two days buying them. A lot of them are history or books about religion.

People keep asking me why I have so many books on religion on my Kindle. "Reconnaissance", I reply.

I keep spotting things which are cheaper on Kindle, buying them and then forgetting I did it. So I turn on my Kindle at some later date and all this stuff starts popping up. BRILLIANT!

Praise the lord!