It’s been two weeks, and quite a lot has arrived… I’ve read a good chunk of it, and I just cleared most of my pending reviews on LibraryThing, so I’ll be pretty brief here.
Nobilis, R. Sean Borgstrom. This is an RPG (roleplaying game) but I ordered it for the backstory and world creation. Reviewed on [...]
The Annotated Alice, Lewis Carroll’s twin masterpieces annotated by Martin Gardner. Several years ago now I briefly owned a copy of this edition. I showed it to a girl I fancied, on the day I bought it, and she said “For me? How kind!” So of course I said “I knew you’d like it,” and saved my teeth-gnashing for [...]
Still no City of Saints and Madmen.
Marie Nilsenova’s PhD thesis, Rises and Falls: Studies in the Semantics and Pragmatics of Intonation. Again, it’s fun to know people who write books! Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games, which is about a different sort of game theorist. From the kringloopwinkel, where we also bought an electric organ. Introduction [...]
It’s started again…
Nabokov’s The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, much easier going than Pale Fire (I’m still working on that one though). I vaguely remembered this as not very impressive but I’ve totally come around about it — it’s not as beautifully written as Lolita but also not as emotionally difficult, and it has some [...]
Edward Gorey’s Amphigorey. Actually this was last week’s acquisition, the first of the three, courtesy of Ralph (thanks again!). Except that it’s misbound, with half of two stories repeated instead of half of two others, so I’m going to have to send it back. A shame, because apart from that I think it’s the loveliest [...]
House of Leaves, or perhaps I should say “Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves, by Zampanò, with introduction and notes by Johnny Truant”. It’s complicated — basically it’s an annotated version of the partially destroyed notes for a critical work concerning a documentary film about a haunted house. Although you could also suggest that the [...]
The Black Seeds, Keep on pushing LP. (No, it’s not a book, smart-elec. Now get out of my house.) The Black Seeds, Into the Dojo. (No, this isn’t a book either. What are you doing still here?) And no books! What an odd week it’s been…
It’s been a good week for books. I mentioned already De Avonden (Boekenmarkt, Spui) and The Princess Bride (The Book Exchange, Kloveniersburgwal). The same trip netted me Peter Høeg’s A History of Danish Dreams (his Borderliners is a great favourite of mine) and John Crowley’s Little, Big (I’d been hanging out for a copy ever since [...]
I don’t plan on making a habit of this, but… I just discovered a 2nd-hand bookstore on the Leidsegracht, specialised in art history with a large and lovely collection of illuminated manuscript reproductions. They have a complete colour-plate copy of the Lindisfarne Gospels, for a measly €130… I managed to resist that one, but got [...]