| On why I no longer regularly purchase books. |
[Oct. 20th, 2009|11:59 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sleepy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Expo '86, Death Cab For Cutie | ] |
This morning I wandered into Basement Books. I noticed that they happened to have I Am Not Esther on sale for $2.
(Aside: My choice of purchase there may need a bit of explanation; one of the key books from my childhood was a short (probably 15 sentence) picture book by the same author. If anyone ever sees a copy of A Surprise For Anna by Fleur Beale available anywhere, buy it for me and I'll pay you back. Probably pay you more than you paid, even.)
Anyway, so I had this book. I read a few pages as I walked to the office, a few more during my lunch break, and a few more after work. ...I finished the entire novel before 7pm, on a day when I had a Hell of a lot of other stuff on.
Admittedly, it's only 150 pages of not terribly taxing content (it's a young adult novel, for starters), but still. If I'd paid full price for the book? I would not have been rapt.
(As another aside, this is why I picked up fantasy in primary school. Even I am unable to get through a 600 page tome in a single day. ...Unless I really work at it.)
-Mmaster |
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[Apr. 9th, 2009|08:52 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  happy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Starcrossed, Ash | ] |
Books I have been reading (or looking at, in the case of the art books) lately:
Finished:
The Economic Naturalist: How Economics Explains Nearly Everything by Robert H. Frank (link)
This one has to be taken with a grain of salt. It's an enjoyable read, but doesn't really have much in the way of substance behind it: "Here is a reason that economics might be behind xyz."
Planet Google: How One Company Is Transforming Our Lives by Randall E. Stross (link)
Paranoia-inducing, but not enough to make me change my habits. It's a close-run thing, though.
Scar Tissue by Anthony Kedis (link)
Well written. When he falls into drugs and self-loathing, I start wanting to slap him upside the head and say "No! Stop! You know what happens next!" - but I've never had an addiction.
It's A Zoo Out There by Rachel Hale (link)
Cute pictures of animals. There's really not much more to it.
In progress:
Advanced Banter: The QI Book of Quotations by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson (link)
Entertaining, though I have heard a number of them before. The addition of the occasional snippet of context about the author is a nice touch - sometimes they do things like explain oft-misquoted lines.
The Bigger Picture: 30 Years Of Portraits by Diana Walker (link)
Intelligent portraits. The woman is primarily a US political photographer, so there are a number of photos of presidents and the like - often looking more human than you see in many pictures.
Next up:
The Oxford Dictionary Of Humorous Quotations by Ned Sherrin (link)
To Reach The Clouds by Phillipe Petit (link)
10,000 Years Of Art by Phaidon editors (link)
And now I need to go to Uni to see how my DBP assignment deals with the error I just thought of.
-Mmaster |
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