(Image taken by Hadassah28)
I have not participated in the Mailbox Monday or Library Loot posts this year, but since giving in to temptation over the last few weeks in regards to book purchasing AND going crazy with library check outs, I decided to join in the festivities today. Book porn of a different nature, as it were. Happy belated Easter to everyone and, of course, happy Monday!
The first category is: Books Purchased
1. Ronnie del Carmen’s sketchbook, And There You Are.
Ronnie del Carmen is an artist I discovered in my very early days of blogging and exploring the internet, looking at all the art I could stumble across. I will soon be doing a Friday Favorite/book review of Ronnie del Carmen’s work so I will leave further explanation for that post. Suffice it to say this is a beautiful little volume of work.
2. Bird by Bird ~Anne Lamott
I have gifted this book in the past and decided it was high time I gifted myself with it. Unlike the two Nick Hornby books reviewed last week, I am trying to savor this one by reading only a chapter or two a day. Wish me luck! 😉
3. The Bloody Chamber ~Angela Carter
I reviewed this collection of adult reworkings of classic fairy tales last September for the R.I.P. III Challenge, but this collection is equally fitting for a Once Upon a Time III Challenge reading. I borrowed a copy of this from the library last time, but I needed to own a copy of this book, if only so that I could read The Lady of the House of Love annually.
4. The Manual of Detection ~Jedediah Berry
The buzz on this one has made an impression on me and so I purchased this to take with me on our May 20th Anniversay trip. It is hard to resist cracking it open, but leaving it for a special time like our annual anniversary trip to a part of Missouri wine country is worth resisting that temptation.
5. Popgun Vol. 3
This collection of comic book short stories is one that attracted my eye because of the Tara McPherson cover. When it arrived at the comic shop last Wednesday, I was pleased to see a cornucopia of fantastic art contained therein. I hope the stories are equally as pleasing.
6. Master and Commander ~Patrick O’Brian
I told myself last year, when I watched Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World for the first time (yes, I know I am really lame sometimes), that I would eventually pick up the first book in this series. The extras on the DVD set indicated that the first novel establishes the friendship of the two main characters and since I am increasingly more passionate about the reality that men need close, personal male friends, I have been even more interested in reading this. Lately I have had a tremendous Russell Crowe obsession. I have watched several of his films over the past couple of weeks and rewatched Master and Commander last Thursday night, and decided it is time to give this author a try.
7. Hi Fructose Vol. 11
It is with the sense of discovering hidden treasure that I stumble across Hi Fructose magazine every couple of months or so when it is released. I have been a fan for awhile now and know that each and every issue I pick up will end up soaking up a great deal of my time as I make a cursory review of the magazine and then settle in to read all the interviews. This is usually followed by another overall perusing of the magazine to enjoy the work featured and to use as a tool to search online for further examples of these artists’ work.
8. Exhibition 36 ~Susan Tuttle
This volume, which recently arrived on my doorstep via Amazon, features the work of 36 talented collage/assemblage/mixed-media artists and I cannot tell you just how excited I am to crack into this book to enjoy the inspiration of the work and artists featured.
Not pictured: The two Nick Hornby books that I reviewed last week, The Polysyllabic Spree and Shakespeare Wrote for Money.
One of the themes of Nick Hornby’s Believer-column trilogy is that books beget more books. He also discusses at length about how this process sometimes works, how one book inspires another. This was certainly the case this week as I followed his inspiration and made several trips to the library, chasing whims:
The Library Checkouts:
1. Grace Eventually (Thoughts on Faith) Audio Book ~Anne Lamott
In the interest of full disclosure, this is an audio book that I have already given up on and decided to return to the library. I definitely want to read this book, and Traveling Mercies, at some point, and the part I already listened to had captured my interest. However, with apologies to a woman I am growing to really admire, I was dissatisfied with Anne Lamott’s reading. I was hoping for something much more conversational from an author whose writing is just that. Instead I found the tone and cadence of the reading to be sub-par.
2. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir (Audio Book) ~Haruki Murakami
I will not say much about this here as I have finished it and will be reviewing it soon, most likely tomorrow. For now I’ll leave you with this assessment: I liked it!
3 and 4. High Fidelity and Fever Pitch ~Nick Hornby
Hey, I enjoyed the guy’s other books, Fever Pitch sounded wonderful, and I decided I should just go ahead and try some of his fiction as well.
5. So Many Books ~Gabriel Zaid
This is one of several books in the Nick Hornby essays that I made a mental note of. Again, full disclosure here: after 34 pages of this very slim volume I decided to give up on it as well. Zaid offers some incredible insights regarding book publishing and every so often I came across a quote that ‘wowed’ me. However, much of the book just felt too academic and dry to me and with this great pile of books laying around in addition to all the Once Upon a Time III reading I want to do, I couldn’t be bothered to continue this.
6. The Final Solution ~Michael Chabon
This wasn’t really a library check out. A friend and co-worker loaned it to me last week, insisting that it was a book I needed to read. I have begun reading it and, so far, so good. I have had a hard time getting into Michael Chabon’s writing in the past which is why this book feels promising.
7. Stories of the American Puppet
This DVD was one of those serendipitous finds as I wandered through the DVD aisle in the library. It was a wonderful documentary showcasing the evolution of the art of puppetry in America. The great thing about this DVD was seeing old footage of artists who I have admired since childhood: Edgar Bergan, Shari Lewis, and Jim Henson most especially. This was a very fun documentary, well worth tracking down at your own library.
8. Platinum Blonde
This DVD showcased one of Frank Capra’s earliest films. While not as polished and perfect as films like You Can’t Take it With You (my personal favorite Capra film) and It’s a Wonderful Life, this early film showed many of the trademarks of a Capra film. Platinum Blonde was quite fun. This was, I believe, the first film role for Jean Harlow, but for my money, Loretta Young was the more gorgeous of the two. Those big, beautiful eyes! She was dreamy! I found it very entertaining that the last paragraph of the film’s description printed on the DVD box is not at all what actually happens in the film!
9. The Dick Van Dyke Show, Season Two, Disc Two
This is one of those black and white shows that I have always loved. I have been a fan of Van Dyke since childhood, and as an adult I cannot help but appreciate just how cute Mary Tyler Moore was! Good, clean fun that the three of us really enjoyed.
10. Memory and Dream ~Charles De Lint
It was mentioned in the comments section of my review of The Mystery of Grace that I should give Memory and Dream a whirl. In addition, I know several of you have read this and been very pleased. Who am I go against such praise? 🙂
11. After Dark (Audio Book) ~Haruki Murakami
I love this story and decided that listening to it in May during our trip would be a perfect way to introduce my dear wife to the wonder of Haruki Murakami! I cannot wait!
12. The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs (Audio Book) ~Betty G. Birney
During spring/summer trips it is not uncommon for us to listen to this kind of small town, feel good young adult fiction. Often these audio trips down nostalgia lane are guided by author Richard Peck. This story sounded very interesting when I read about it and it is about a small Missouri town, so what could be more perfect?
13. Altered Curiosities ~Jane Anne Wynn
I loved Secrets of Rusty Things by Michael deMeng when I read it last year. So much so that I am about half way through reading it again. This book frequently pops up on my Amazon Recommends list and after spending time on the author/artist’s website this past week I was thrilled to see that this was in my library system. Another book I really look forward to spending some quality time with.
Well, that is it folks. All-in-all I am very pleased with both my bookstore and library adventures over the past couple of weeks. I spent much of the weekend sampling bits and pieces of many of these books, watched all 3 DVDs, and listened to one full audio book and sampled another. It was a rich, diverse weekend. I hope everyone else had as good of a weekend as I did.
And here we go again…
Holy.. ummmm, .. cow!! That’s a lotta books and movies!!!
of course you know I had to laugh had the puppet thing.. your age was showing not having “grown up with” Howdy Doody, Kukla Fran and Ollie and Paul Winchell with Jerry Mahoney… Edgar Bergan I loved!! IT’s scary to be able to say I watched them ALL !! (I think I am going to throw up! lol)
Wowee!! That’s quite a loot of books you have there Carl! It looks like you’re in for some very good reading. I covet a lot of the books you’ve listed here – “The Bloody Chamber” sounds wonderful – and of course the covers are puurr-ty. Book porn, indeed. 😀
Lots of great books there! Glad you had a good weekend with them all! Happy Monday!
O_O Ye gods, talk of many books! (And dvds.)
The Bloody Chamber is one that I see pop up a lot (on my recommendations as well), but the horror tag it seems to come with keeps scaring me off… It does sound so fascinating, though… Glad to hear you had a good weekend! ^-^
You competing with Chris or something? 😀 Guess I shouldn’t laugh too hard at the enormous pile of acquisitions, as mine’s rather on the large side this week, too (but I’ve stored up plenty of excuses to use with mine). I’m really eager to hear what you think of Exhibition 36! It looks so interesting, I’m just tempted to go through it in the wish list right now. Yep, actually that sounds like a good idea. Anyway, I see many happy hours in your future there…enjoy!!!
Debi: No, definitely not competing! I’ve been so good all year up until last week and now need to crawl right back on that frugal bandwagon. My out-of-control behavior needs to be limited to just the library!!! I look forward to coming over and seeing your pile. I’ll let you know about Exhibition 36. Thumbing through it makes me very excited about it.
Shanra: I wouldn’t let the ‘horror’ tag scare you off from The Bloody Chamber. Yes, it focuses on some of the darker fairy tales, but I wouldn’t consider the stories really horrific. Of course it has been several months since I’ve read it and my memory may be a bit foggy.
Kailana: It was a really fun weekend. Happy Monday to you as well.
J.S. Peyton: Yes, definitely some purty covers. 🙂 Gets me every time!
Deslily: If I really think about it I’m not sure I actually saw much of Edgar Bergan’s work until I was a teenager and started renting old movies, but I’m not sure. Shari Lewis and Lambchop did Macy’s Day Parades when I was a kid, in addition to other things. And I was definitely the right age for The Muppet Show when it first aired. I vaguely remember watching Kukla, Fran, and Ollie but Sesame Street and Electric Company and Mr. Rogers were the shows we watched most often as young children.
I have not bought any book lately and my aquisitions are almost nil. You really looted the bookstore and the library, it seems.
I think I should kill for that Murakami book. It has not come to India as yet!
hahaha I love it! all the shows you watched I did too.. but not as a kid!.. I watched them because I had them on for my kids!
I am so very glad you picked up a copy of The Manual of Detection, Carl! I think you’re going to love it! And of course now I’ll be waiting for you to finish it so I can have someone to discuss it with – that is, if you wouldn’t mind? I’ve seen so many good things about Hornby lately, it looks like I’m going to have to add him to my list. Thanks for sharing your finds!
Wow, what a loot. And so many of those look so interesting! Good luck savouring Bird by Bird slowly! I’m absolutely terrible at doing that, lol. And I’m happy to see you picked up High Fidelity. It was my first Nick Hornby and I just loved it to bits.
Nymeth: I know that I’ve seen parts of the movie version of High Fidelity but I am not sure I have ever seen the whole thing and so reading the book sounded very interesting, as does reading Fever Pitch. And thanks, I’m doing okay with the slow Bird by Bird reading right now, but time will tell if I can hold off from just binging on it.
Chelle: I would love to discuss it afterwards. I will be reading it the week of May 12th and will no doubt have a post up about it sometime the week after and look forward to the discussion.
Deslily: I love that books and movies and television shows can bridge the generation gap that way!
Gautami: Kudos to you for self-control! I’m going to have to stay away from bookstores for awhile and frequent the library more! The Murakami book is good, hope it makes its way to your shores soon. It certainly isn’t one of his novels, and yet you can see how running, music, and other aspects of his life influence his characters and his writing.
Mmm… It’s tentatively on my wishlist and I don’t think I’ll manage to avoid it forever. It’s just that I’ve bad experiences with a YA horror series. (Alas, it’s not translated. Suffice to say I now own the first book just to see if the scene that caused me nightmares for two weeks straight is actually in the book.)
Let me (us?) know how the slow savouring goes, by the by. And any tips to share in that regard? The moment I decide to savour something slowly I end up not reading it at all. *sigh* I fail at non-fiction books, so any tips are useful!
That’s some fantastic loot! I’ve been wanting to read The Bloody Chamber, but I forgot about it! Thanks for the reminder 🙂 I’ll have to pick that one up sometime.
Murakami’s What I talk about looks really good..really good. Glad to hear that you enjoyed that one! And I’m thrilled to hear that Mary will get her first taste of him with After Dark! It’s a great one. Have you read Norwegian Wood yet? You need to! But maybe save it for the Fall.
The Hornby books look great. Fever Pitch is on my wishlist and I loved High Fidelity…it’s a fantastic book.
Chris: I’ll be putting my review of the Murakami book up tonight or in the morning. I haven’t picked up Norwegian Wood yet because I wanted to finish Hardboiled Wonderland before buying another Murakami book. You will definitely enjoy The Bloody Chamber.
Shanra: I wish I knew what to say. I would suggest reading my review if you haven’t, which I linked to in the post. It is hard to know what scares someone other than yourself. I don’t think these were written with the purpose of being true horror, but if you read the original fairy tales, they are pretty rough!
The only secret I have for savoring books is to have a pile of stuff that you want to read equally as bad so that you can switch between them. That is the only thing that saved me from completing Bird by Bird this weekend!
Wow! Talk about a spree–did you leave anything in the bookstore or the library for anyone else? (just kidding). I’m a fan of Anne Lamott as well, but confess I prefer Traveling Mercies to Grace (eventually); Bird by Bird is nice, too. After Dark was wild–and weird. It’ll be interesting to hear your take on it. Angela Carter is wonderful, and in a class by herself. Have fun with all of these!
ds: At this point I will read Traveling Mercies first before considering Grace. I actually have Traveling Mercies on hold at the library. I had decided to go with Grace merely because they had it on audio. Wish I hadn’t.
Actually, you can read my take on After Dark here:
http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/?p=967
I loved it. Absolutely loved it. That is why I am so excited to listen to it and experience it again while sharing it with my wife. The reviews I read said that the reader was fantastic, hope that is the case.
My mouth hung open as I checked out all your books. Traveling Mercies is way better than Grace Eventually, so try that one first. I have Murakami on my shelves now. More de Lint I see. I’ve never read him before so what’s a great book of his I should start with?
Happy Reading!
Vasilly: I haven’t read enough of de Lint to actually give you a good idea of where to start. Widdershins is my favorite thus far, but I’ve read so little. For me the end of Widdershins is such a great payoff. However, it is a stand alone sequel, if that makes any sense, to The Onion Girl, and so you might want to start there. Anyone else have any suggestions?
I was going to pick up a book this week and now I see that Carl has acquired all in the area. 🙂 LOL! The Master and Commander comments. Hmmm. I’m not sure what to say. I feel kind of warm fuzzy feeling inside. Of course I ate too much food on the road today so it could just be gas. I enjoyed the Twins game to night even though they loast 8 to 6 but I saw my Royals won 4 to 2 which made me happy which is all the really matters. We really need to make it out to a Royals game this year. Maybe next month for my birthday?
A Royals game sounds great to me, as long as we bring plenty of tissue to cry into afterwards. Sorry you saw a losing effort last night, but glad you got to go anyway.
I got off early yesterday due to an eye exam and thus had a lot of time to read. I read over half of Master and Commander and am really enjoying it. Very engaging, far different from the film since the did not take much from the first novel for Far Side of the World. I wish I could play hookey today and just read the remaining 200 pages straight through.
Great review of After Dark–thanks for the link! Agree with you re “pretension”: a reference tends to be considered ‘pretentious’ only when the person on the receiving end doesn’t get it. And if you & your wife enjoyed “Juno” you might like “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” which I actually convinced Mr. Long-Suffering to watch over the weekend; it’s cute, typically teenaged but just ‘off’ enough to be interesting…
ds: And I agree with your thoughts on ‘pretension’ as well! My wife and I got Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist the other day. I didn’t like it as well as Juno, but it was fun…and put me off the idea of ever sharing gum with anyone. Ha! I especially thought Norah’s friend was hilarious and Kat Denning is actually very pretty.
I loved After Dark on audio. The woman who reads it is fabulous.
I have The Manual of Detection on waitlist at the library…if they ever get a copy that is! I can’t complain too much; i got one of the first copies of The Last Dickens when they got it.
Melanie: I am so psyched to hear that! I am as excited about listening to it as I am about going on vacation. Only a few more weeks!
Thanks for participating Carl! I’ve heard great things about that Chabon book.
I’ve liked what I’ve read thus far, although it is admittedly very little. It is a short book though so maybe it will join my weekend reading as well!
Here I am, better late than never! What a haul you have here. I am going to be looking for the two art assemblage books for sure.
It is interesting that you didn’t care for the Lamott audio – finding it not “conversational.” I have never heard her, but I would have assumed she would be wonderful reading her book, because first of all, she is a teacher, and second, her writing is so conversational. How disappointing – but I am sure when you do decide to read the book, you will love it!
Believe it or not, I have read only three or four books in the last month! I am really looking forward to summer.
Qugrainne: It may have just been me, but her reading just seemed very ‘off’ to me and I was disappointed too because I thought she would be a wonderful reader. It just felt like she wasn’t hitting the notes right, if that makes any sense. I just got Traveling Mercies, in book form, from the library and I’m sure I’ll enjoy reading it. And I wouldn’t feel bad, up until now I don’t think I’ve read more than 4 books a month for each month.
What lovely covers! Bird by Bird was wonderful. Even that I’m not a writer, I appreciated her notes which can be attributed to life. I loved High Fidelity, too. And there are a few here that you are tempting me to read. I love your blog, by the way. So luscious. I’ll be back reading through your older posts.
Claire: They are lovely, aren’t they! I am certainly enjoying taking my time with Bird by Bird. Thanks for the compliments, I appreciate it. I’m glad to hear good thoughts on High Fidelity as it is one I am wanting to read.