Whatcha reading?

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Kory
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Kory »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
22 Dec 2021, 8:03pm
Kory wrote:
22 Dec 2021, 7:52pm
This is probably a hell of a longshot, but does anyone have any tips on where to go online to search for used books by publisher and date? I'm looking for a specific printing of a series of JG Ballard's books, but whenever I find one on eBay or something, they're just using the old cover image but are selling the new printing with a different cover. I have 5 of the series I'm looking for and I want to fill in the collection with the others from the same series so they look uniform on my shelf, but there's no real way to make sure I'm getting what I'm looking for unless I click into each listing and hope that it has any publisher info—and even then I'm not guaranteed because nobody pays attention to that stuff when they're listing their books for sale, the author and title is all that matters to them. It doesn't help that it's a UK printing either, so I'm checking all the ebay.co.uk type URLs.
I'd go to abebooks.com, and if you find a promising lead, contact the vendor to doublecheck it's the exact edition you want.
I checked them yesterday, it seems they have the same issue. I guess I’ll just be playing the long game on this one.
"Suck our Earth dick, Martians!" —Doc

Kory
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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gkbill wrote:
22 Dec 2021, 8:03pm
Kory wrote:
22 Dec 2021, 7:52pm
This is probably a hell of a longshot, but does anyone have any tips on where to go online to search for used books by publisher and date? I'm looking for a specific printing of a series of JG Ballard's books, but whenever I find one on eBay or something, they're just using the old cover image but are selling the new printing with a different cover. I have 5 of the series I'm looking for and I want to fill in the collection with the others from the same series so they look uniform on my shelf, but there's no real way to make sure I'm getting what I'm looking for unless I click into each listing and hope that it has any publisher info—and even then I'm not guaranteed because nobody pays attention to that stuff when they're listing their books for sale, the author and title is all that matters to them. It doesn't help that it's a UK printing either, so I'm checking all the ebay.co.uk type URLs.
Hello,

Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon is great! I have no idea if they could help you but, like you, I'd play the longshot and contact someone there.

https://www.powells.com/
I did check them yesterday. They seemed one of the more promising leads, although they didn’t have what I needed in stock, they will be worth checking again.
"Suck our Earth dick, Martians!" —Doc

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Still chugging along with Manchester. Up to WWII. More than a bit jarring how he casually uses a couple common three-letter slurs for Japanese, and not in strict historical context. It made me wonder if he had served in the Pacific Theatre and yup. Some bigotries die hard (and yet he's sympathetic to Japanese Americans who were put in concentration camps and their property seized).

A couple new books for the new year:
Bathtub
Image
Stacy Russo, ed. We Were Going to Change the World. I acquired this in the last year. I fully expect the late 70s participants to have a more positive view than the early 80s women, when hardcore became testosterone exhibitions.

Bedtime
Image
James Kestrel, Five Decembers. Plenty of people, especially authors, have raved about this, some comparing it favourably to Ellroy. In Hawaii, on the eve of Pearl Harbor, a former soldier/now police detective begins investigating a gruesome pair of murders. One victim has a connection to the US Navy; the other is a Japanese girl.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Silent Majority
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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1) From the Elephant to Hollywood - Michael Caine. Paperback. 2010. Second memoir, I found Caine very pleased with himself and his luxurious life, none too curious and, surprisingly, a Randian. Good actor, bit of a pillock. And he brushed past the Muppets film in a paragraph when I required half the book to be on making that masterpiece.
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Silent Majority wrote:
02 Jan 2022, 7:48am
1) From the Elephant to Hollywood - Michael Caine. Paperback. 2010. Second memoir, I found Caine very pleased with himself and his luxurious life, none too curious and, surprisingly, a Randian. Good actor, bit of a pillock. And he brushed past the Muppets film in a paragraph when I required half the book to be on making that masterpiece.
10/10. 🤣
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Silent Majority wrote:
02 Jan 2022, 7:48am
1) From the Elephant to Hollywood - Michael Caine. Paperback. 2010. Second memoir, I found Caine very pleased with himself and his luxurious life, none too curious and, surprisingly, a Randian. Good actor, bit of a pillock. And he brushed past the Muppets film in a paragraph when I required half the book to be on making that masterpiece.
Drag on all counts.

Edit: more detail here https://www.gq.com/story/michael-caine- ... -interview
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Silent Majority »

Kory wrote:
03 Jan 2022, 2:12pm
Silent Majority wrote:
02 Jan 2022, 7:48am
1) From the Elephant to Hollywood - Michael Caine. Paperback. 2010. Second memoir, I found Caine very pleased with himself and his luxurious life, none too curious and, surprisingly, a Randian. Good actor, bit of a pillock. And he brushed past the Muppets film in a paragraph when I required half the book to be on making that masterpiece.
Drag on all counts.

Edit: more detail here https://www.gq.com/story/michael-caine- ... -interview
Nice read, cheers.
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tepista
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by tepista »

Image

I read the first 2/3 at record pace (for me) but then I hit the wall. 700 pages, whew. Not that I didn't like it, in fact I loved it, I just got reading fatigued. Also, I started immediately after my last read, I usually take a few week break. Or months. Anyway, I'd seen the 2 season TV series a few years ago so I could put faces to the characters. The book mainly followed one character, the series added extra shit to do for the other characters in the book. But cool, the best Christmas in July story I ever heard.
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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tepista wrote:
04 Jan 2022, 12:34pm
Image

I read the first 2/3 at record pace (for me) but then I hit the wall. 700 pages, whew. Not that I didn't like it, in fact I loved it, I just got reading fatigued. Also, I started immediately after my last read, I usually take a few week break. Or months. Anyway, I'd seen the 2 season TV series a few years ago so I could put faces to the characters. The book mainly followed one character, the series added extra shit to do for the other characters in the book. But cool, the best Christmas in July story I ever heard.
I've listened to Hill's first two novels, but not that one. I don't think either of them were door-stop sized like that one, tho.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Kory
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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tepista wrote:
04 Jan 2022, 12:34pm
Image

I read the first 2/3 at record pace (for me) but then I hit the wall. 700 pages, whew. Not that I didn't like it, in fact I loved it, I just got reading fatigued. Also, I started immediately after my last read, I usually take a few week break. Or months. Anyway, I'd seen the 2 season TV series a few years ago so I could put faces to the characters. The book mainly followed one character, the series added extra shit to do for the other characters in the book. But cool, the best Christmas in July story I ever heard.
I've been really liking some of the comic writing he's been doing. He has his own imprint at DC now where he cultivates talent and writes his own books.
"Suck our Earth dick, Martians!" —Doc

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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Silent Majority »

tepista wrote:
04 Jan 2022, 12:34pm
Image

I read the first 2/3 at record pace (for me) but then I hit the wall. 700 pages, whew. Not that I didn't like it, in fact I loved it, I just got reading fatigued. Also, I started immediately after my last read, I usually take a few week break. Or months. Anyway, I'd seen the 2 season TV series a few years ago so I could put faces to the characters. The book mainly followed one character, the series added extra shit to do for the other characters in the book. But cool, the best Christmas in July story I ever heard.
I got the paperback of that sitting around, have don for a few years. It's the length that's stopped me from picking it up. I loved his short story collection 20th Century Ghosts.
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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2) The Doors of Perception - Aldous Huxley. Paperback. 1954. An erudite man of letters enjoys mescaline and reports back, semi-journalistically, on what he saw and the philosophies his experience left him with. A nourishing read, funny at times as Huxley's tweedy style sits not entirely comfortably against the mind bending nature of the subject matter, but he's perceptive enough to rail against his own personality and culture as imposed by the society which reared him. Ultimately this is a life affirming askew look at the world that surrounds us. We're given a chance to reassess our absurdity and look at the beauty of what could otherwise be mistaken for the most mundane view, whether that be a chair or the folds of fabric.
Last edited by Silent Majority on 06 Jan 2022, 4:54am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Silent Majority wrote:
05 Jan 2022, 9:43pm
2) The Doors of Perception - Aldous Huxley. Paperback. 1954. An erudite man of letters enjoys mescaline and reports back, semi-journalistically, on what he saw and the philosophies his experience left him with. A nourishing read, funny at times as Huxley's tweedy style counterpoints against the mind bending nature of the subject matter, but ultimately a life affirming askew look at the world that surrounds us. We're given a chance to reassess our absurdity and look at the beauty of what could otherwise be mistaken for the most mundane view, whether that be a chair or the folds of fabric.
Counterpoint: Jim Morrison. :yuck:
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Silent Majority »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
05 Jan 2022, 9:51pm
Silent Majority wrote:
05 Jan 2022, 9:43pm
2) The Doors of Perception - Aldous Huxley. Paperback. 1954. An erudite man of letters enjoys mescaline and reports back, semi-journalistically, on what he saw and the philosophies his experience left him with. A nourishing read, funny at times as Huxley's tweedy style counterpoints against the mind bending nature of the subject matter, but ultimately a life affirming askew look at the world that surrounds us. We're given a chance to reassess our absurdity and look at the beauty of what could otherwise be mistaken for the most mundane view, whether that be a chair or the folds of fabric.
Counterpoint: Jim Morrison. :yuck:
I like the Doors, but Morrison's caricature as a pretentious dickhead with more teeth than talent is well earnt. Can we blame Nietzsche for those losers in 1930s Germany, though?
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Dr. Medulla
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Silent Majority wrote:
05 Jan 2022, 9:55pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
05 Jan 2022, 9:51pm
Silent Majority wrote:
05 Jan 2022, 9:43pm
2) The Doors of Perception - Aldous Huxley. Paperback. 1954. An erudite man of letters enjoys mescaline and reports back, semi-journalistically, on what he saw and the philosophies his experience left him with. A nourishing read, funny at times as Huxley's tweedy style counterpoints against the mind bending nature of the subject matter, but ultimately a life affirming askew look at the world that surrounds us. We're given a chance to reassess our absurdity and look at the beauty of what could otherwise be mistaken for the most mundane view, whether that be a chair or the folds of fabric.
Counterpoint: Jim Morrison. :yuck:
I like the Doors, but Morrison's caricature as a pretentious dickhead with more teeth than talent is well earnt. Can we blame Nietzsche for those losers in 1930s Germany, though?
I was mostly being a smartass, but I don't see why we don't treat Nazism as part of Nietzsche's (and Marx's) legacy. I don't like blame, tho, because that carries some moral condemnation from purposeful action. I don't blame the Beatles for Manson, but Manson is part of their legacy, and if we want to regard the Beatles for inspiring the counterculture and its liberating qualities, then we have to bind the Beatles, too, to its dark side. It's all sensible nuance to historical effects.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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