Adventures of Leanne the Book Hoarder

Off Topic
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I’m so weak… my Anime club meeting was Saturday and well, the Library was having their book sale that day. I DON’T have any more room for books but, since this was a $2 bag sale, I couldn’t resist. Though, also, since it was a bag sale, there was really not much left, the good stuff being already scooped up during their regular version of their sale where you buy books separately, so I didn’t expect a big haul.

Here’s what I ended up picking up:

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (Paperback) (ooo…yellowed pages… such a wonderful smell)

Orion Shall Rise by Poul Anderson (Hardback)

A Man Rides Through by Stephen R. Donaldson (Hardback) (Now I feel stupid for not grabbing up “The Mirror of Her Dreams” when I saw it at the last book sale)

To Sail Beyond the Sunset by Robert A. Heinlein (Hardback) (I think I may have seen “The Cat Who Walks Through Walls” there too, but I missed the Author’s name so I’m feeling pangs of regret there too)

Plainsong by Kent Haruf (Paperback) (I thought I had seen the title somewhere so of course it got dropped into my bag, but now I’m not sure WHERE I saw it)

You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming (Hardback) (This was actually the first thing dropped into my bag, when I was pretty desperate and figured I wouldn’t be able to fill my bag, plus, why not? It’s actually Ian Fleming and not Kingsley Amis or John Gardner)

A Man Rides Through by Stephen R. Donaldson (Paperback) (Oops… yes, I accidentally picked up both the paperback and hardback copies of this book)

Reader’s Digest: Use The Right Word: A Modern Guide To Synonyms (1968) by S.I. Hayakawa and the Funk & Wagnalls Dictionary Staff (Hardback) (Figured a reference book wouldn’t hurt)

Literature and the Writing Process (Fifth Edition) (1999) by Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X. Day and Robert Funk (Oversize Paperback)

and…

Norton Anthology: English Literature (Sixth Edition) Vol. 2 (Oversize Paperback) (There is a section of pages that are fused together at the bottom, but I think I can separate them rather easily)

Pic:

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Adventures of Leanne the Book Hoarder

You are a person after my own heart. I can never resist a library sale. I also have no room for more books, yet my collection will not stop growing. I have all the Ian Fleming James Bond books, and a complete Heinlein collection as well. I enjoyed Orion Shall Rise by Poul Anderson. I haven’t read the Donaldson books other thasn the Thomas Covenant series, and Plainsong doesn’t sound familiar either.

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Yeah, there are some neat finds. Like a while back I found a copy of The Complete Sherlock Holmes sitting there. Nice, fat, hardback copy.

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Adventures of Leanne the Book Hoarder

And it isn’t JUST limited to library sales either. Used book stores, new book stores…

Well, first I took the time to look around the used bookstore I was taken to before we were going to head up to the Citrus Plaza, and I found myself a copy of All Tomorrow’s Parties by William Gibson, which is the third book in his “Bridge” trilogy, which is a series I had read backwards… wait, you may say. If you read it backwards, doesn’t that mean you’ve read this book already? The answer is yes, but that was a library copy, and I like to keep the books I enjoy around, in case I want to read them again at a moment’s notice.

Then we headed to B&N, which I then promptly picked up The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert A. Heinlein which of course prompted me to pick up two more books by him. Namely, Starship Troopers (I don’t really care about the criticisms brought up by that book, though I apparently do enough to type these words) and Job: A Comedy of Justice which looked kind of interesting.

This is where I have a literary question. They have released a copy of Stranger in a Strange Land in which they claim it is “Uncut”… How exactly are the previous copies cut? Is it like A Clockwork Orange kind of situation here?

Next I grabbed up a copy of Neuromancer by William Gibson, because I think I loaned my old copy and never expect to see it again (My copy of Battle Royale by Koushun Takami is similarly missing, but I think I know who has it). Ok then, lastly, I picked up a copy of The Mirror of Her Dreams by Stephen R. Donaldson to complement the second volume of that two-book series that I had purchased previously in the first post of this thread (the one I bought two copies of accidentally).

No picture this time as the stack is unimpressive.

Your next question may be: Do you even READ these books? The answer is…. usually… Right now I’m working on about 6 books at once, along with an Audio Book I listen to while painting (which I haven’t done in a while).

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Adventures of Leanne the Book Hoarder

I highly regard Neuromancer to be one of my favorite books ever (near the top of a very, very, very long list). The only books in my collection, I think, that I’ve re-read quite as much as that are The Odyssey, The Wizard of Oz series (L Frank Baum), Snowcrash (a must read for any fan of Cyberpunk) , and Burning Chrome.

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Adventures of Leanne the Book Hoarder

Oh, agreed. Snowcrash is awesome!

The Sprawl trilogy is also one of my favorite trilogies of books (along with the Thrawn trilogy). The bridge trilogy is a little harder to read (I still haven’t finished Virtual Light), but pretty worth it.

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Adventures of Leanne the Book Hoarder

Neuromancer is up there on the “great sci-fi” book list for me, but it still doesn’t beat Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
I actually read the two back-to-back, and there are many, many similarities. It’s pretty clear that Gibson was influenced a lot by Dick. Heck, if you want to emulate a sci-fi author, you could sure do a lot worse.

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Adventures of Leanne the Book Hoarder

grin Well I think you’d be very hard-pressed to find a modern Sci-fi author who doesn’t cite Dick as an influence (who is truthful about it, anyway). I don’t know if I’d call Neuromancer an emulation of that other, though. They don’t really share a lot of similarities in my eyes. shrug

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Adventures of Leanne the Book Hoarder

I’ve read both versions and truth to tell I can’t cite any specific differences between the two. All the major plot points are the same anyway.

I also disregard all criricisms of “Starship Troopers” except for those concerning that horrible film version.

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Adventures of Leanne the Book Hoarder

[quote=““Tommy””]

I’ve read both versions and truth to tell I can’t cite any specific differences between the two. All the major plot points are the same anyway.

I also disregard all criricisms of “Starship Troopers” except for those concerning that horrible film version.[/quote]

Alright, I see. So there’s no extra chapter or something then?

Also, I think for the sake of full-disclosure, I should at least list off MOST of the books already in my collection, at least, the ones I haven’t already officially listed.

Note: This list IS missing quite a few entries.

Jedi Search by Kevin Anderson - I’ve owned it about forever and still haven’t read it.

Nebula Award Stories Seven - Bought it in a previous book sale.

Magic Kingdom for Sale by Terry Brooks - Also from a book sale, and still unread.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess - One of the books I’m currently reading. Still on chapter 2.

Wild Seed by Octavia Butler - Another one I’m currently in the middle of. Quite good.

Myths and Legends of Japan - Technically I’m reading this one too, but it’s a lower priority.

Lord Foul’s Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson - Part of a set given to me as a graduation present from the teacher who sponsored our school’s Anime club.

The Illearth War by Stephen R. Donaldson - Also part of that set.

The Power That Preserves by Stephen R. Donaldson - This too, is part of that set.

The Wounded Land by Stephen R. Donaldson - This was around the time I started buying the books for myself. These ones were kind of depressing.

The One Tree by Stephen R. Donaldson - but I kept buying them.

White Gold Wielder by Stephen R. Donaldson - Though, I never finished this one.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Anime Explosion by Patrick Drazen - Not a perfect book by any stretch of the imagination, but it does make for an interesting read when you’re supposed to be filing those death certificates or eating your lunch in a cafe.

The Alt.Cyberpunk.Chatsubo Anthology - I haven’t read a lot of anthologies, but this one was pretty good.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman - I quite enjoyed it.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman - Still haven’t gotten around to reading it.

Smoke & Mirrors - Good short story collection.

Fragile Things - Currently reading this one. Pretty good so far.

Count Zero by William Gibson

Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson

Virtual Light by William Gibson - Still haven’t quite finished it.

Idoru by William Gibson - Enjoyed it quite a bit.

Mindbridge by Joe Haldeman - Bought it in a book sale, haven’t cracked it open yet.

Dune by Frank Herbert

The Areas of my Expertise by John Hodgman - I got quite the kick out of reading this.

The Stand by Stephen King - I got it in a book sale, but I’m not sure it has all its pages.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Stole it from my Junior High, but shhh… don’t tell anyone.

The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin - Book sale, sounds interesting.

The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft - Really neat and it adds another level to the reading material.

The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories by H.P. Lovecraft with notes from S. T. Joshi

Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe - A play I enjoyed reading immensely.

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson - Still haven’t finished it, and bought it well before I caught word of a movie adaptation.

Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained by John Milton

The Hollow Lands by Michael Moorcock - Book sale again.

Market Forces by Richard Morgan - Heard about it from Unshelved and thought it sounded interesting. It’s pretty good so far.

Batman: No Mans Land by Greg Rucka - I thought it was a good read. The Joker is a bastard.

The Dark Elf Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore - Yes, all three books in one tome, at book sale prices! I think I still need to read the last book.

Vampire$ by John Steakley - I don’t know what it is I like about this book, but I do. I’ve read it more times than any other book I own, I believe.

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson - As I said before: Snow Crash is awesome. I actually saw it on the “gifts for mom” table a while back.

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson - Haven’t read it yet.

Interface by Neal Stephenson and J. Frederick George - sigh Yes, I’m still reading this one.

Birthday by Koji Suzuki - Still reading all the stories.

Ring by Koji Suzuki - Neat little book.

Spiral by Koji Suzuki - Wait, what just happened?

Loop by Koji Suzuki - So wait, then the… what?

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - I read it back in Junior High. Had trouble finding places to stop since each section took longer to read than I usually had free time, at the time.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain - Probably the book that’s been in my collection for the longest. I no longer remember what happens in it.

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis - A little slow to start, but it’s a good book.

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, Volume 1: After the Long Goodbye by Masaki Yamada - Another book I quite liked. Not sure what the volume 1 refers to, as, as far as I can tell, no others have been written.

The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher by Lewis Thomas - Wow, this one was also part of my graduation gift. It’s another quite neat read.

Myth and Literature: Contemporary Theory and Practice

The Notenki Memoirs by Yasuhiro Takeda - Basically a biography of Studio Gainax. Pretty cool.

The Sandman Papers: An Exploration of the Sandman Mythology by Joe Sanders and Neil Gaiman

The Sandman Companion: A Dreamer’s Guide to the Award-Winning Comic Series (Sandman (Graphic Novels)) by Hy Bender

I have left quite a few out.

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Ok, three things…

  1. When I said I didn’t know what I liked about Vampire$, I meant it in a “this book is trashy, poorly worded and has way too much sex, but dammit, I have to pick it up again after a while” kind of book. Sort of my guilty pleasure.

  2. I’m not sure if this was what I was originally going to say, because I forget but… in regards to the movie Starship Troopers, I found this little bit on a blog I frequent. Read the comments.

  3. I have recently gotten myself an account with librarything.com and have posted as near to my complete collection as I could. Some of the covers are wrong, some of the editions are wrong, but for the most part… dangit, forgot something… ok, there we go. I actually had to purchase a lifetime account, because it only lets you input 200 books. I know some of mine are magazines, but I put them with the rest of the books.

Here is the link to my library

PS, check out the cover view.

PPS, #4. The Vampire Hunter D books anger me. Stop talking about how beautiful D is. It breaks the flow of the story and makes me groan! And I know they were written in another country and are probably all done, but still! Retroactively stop talking about D’s beauty!

PPPS, the real #2. I remember now. I wanted to mention that some of the bulk of my collection was purged in the “great cat-spray incident”, and again in the “I don’t think these books really challenge me intellectually (Goosebumps and the like)” purge. Just in case you didn’t really think my collection warranted the “horde” title I gave it. Cat spray really is that disgusting.

I’ve been thinking about trying some Kurt Vonnegut. Anybody have any suggestions on where to start?

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Adventures of Leanne the Book Hoarder

I’m not sure what your point is about “Starship Troopers”, but anyone who can read Heinlein and call him a Fascist can’t really read!

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Tommy, they are apparently comparing the movie “Starship Troopers,” which from everything I’ve heard is nothing like book. Of course basing your opinion of a book by it’s cover, unless you are a really rich and famous author you have no say over the cover, is completely idiotic.

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That… wasn’t the point I was making at all… Nevermind… Some of the commentators are morons (you always get a few). Anyway, the blog isn’t idiotic. It’s just good clean fun making fun of covers. They don’t really think the artist has complete control of this. Except the self published ones of course. Seriously, doesn’t this one just need to be laughed at?

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I just couldn’t resist any more… I used… eBay to order a couple out of print books. I mean, did I really need to get matching editions? I’m feeling shame over this.

I hope these sellers are as reliable as they appear to be. When(If) they come, I’ll elaborate.

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Aw… shit… this is actually partially right… I have no idea why I quoted this before with that other thing. Must have read it wrong.

Also, sorry for the post so soon after the last one.

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Dun-da-dun! The wait is over, even though I’m positive nobody cares.

The two books I’ve order came in, and they fit nicely on either side of the one I picked up in a used book shop/library sale (Well, it was a library sale set in a used book shop that was going out of business (They decided it was just less trouble to move that months sale over there instead of moving all the store’s leftover merchandise back to the library)).

Now, I’m not a huge Michael Moorcock fan. In fact, I found some of the Elric stories pretty dull (though I only realized this upon reading the third, and I was attempting to read them all in a single day). I will however, give this series a try.

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Adventures of Leanne the Book Hoarder

New haul of New books:

Chuck Palahniuk - Haunted

Kurt Vonnegut - Breakfast of Champions

Roget’s Thesaurus (Revised and Updated) (Sixth Edition)

Oxford American Dictionary (Heald Colleges Edition)

Merriam-Webster’s Rhyming Dictionary (Second Edition)

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Oops, forgot to add the books I bought last time…

Writer’s Guide to Character Traits by Dr. Linda Edelstein (I liked the functionality of this book when I was working in the stacks)

The Writers Digest Character Naming Sourcebook by Sherrilyn Kenyon (anyone will tell you that my character names have FAKE written all over them)

The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols (Dictionary, Penguin) by Jean Chevalier

Yoshitaka Amano: The Collected Art of Vampire Hunter D

And now, my spoils from the latest Bag sale at the library. It was slim-pickings, and I was basically buying things blind… but since it was just $2 a bag, I think it’s a bargain if even 1 of them is any good.

Friday - Robert Heinlein

The Writer’s Craft - John Hersey

Shadow of the Hegemon - Orson Scott Card

Sociology: A Brief Introduction - Richard T. Schaefer

Life (the magazine) World Library JAPAN (1962)

Dave Barry is Not Making This Up - (I’m assuming) Dave Barry

Understanding Movies - Louis D. Giannetti

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams

Dead Air - Bob Larson (Ok, this one was just for giggles, since there is a book in the MUD I play that is called Dead Air, though it is about a very different subject)

Another Look at Atlantis and fifteen other essays - Willy Ley

Baedeker’s AA Tokyo (pretty much just for giggles here too, since it’s probably horribly outdated)

The World Almanac of the U.S.A. (…doesn’t a book with that stupid of a title demand to be picked up? Got it mostly for the maps)

bone - Fae Myenne Ng

Molecular Biology of Eucaryotic Cells (I’m just as confused as you are as to why I would pick this up)

Tintin In The New World - Frederic Tuten

The Dilbert Principle - Scott Adams

The Chicago Manual of Style (1982)

Good News for the Modern Man (originally I thought maybe this was just The New Testament, as that’s what it says on the side… but it seems to have been rephrased from the classic translation and I suddenly thought worthless. But the illustrations make me laugh, so it’s all good) (Also, if you’re wondering why I would try and pick up a copy of The New Testament, well, I don’t actually own a Bible, and I like using every resource for writing)

The Warsaw Document - Adam Hall

The Tango Briefing - Adam Hall

Doctor Faustus - Thomas Mann

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Oh, neat!

Would you bust me if I posted some scans of the illustrations inside that modern… New Testament…. thing? They make me laugh, and I’d like to share.