The OF Blog: Today's (mostly) used book porn, including French book porn

Monday, February 27, 2012

Today's (mostly) used book porn, including French book porn


Well, I had planned to stop by McKay's today before they move to their new location March 10, but I found out the website was wrong and that they had closed the day before.  So while I wasn't able to trade in a box of books I had, I did the next best thing and went to the used bookstore that I frequent when I want to buy something a bit more expensive.  Therefore, I drove to Hillsboro Village and went to Bookman/Bookwoman and bought the following books (minus one that I received as a review copy this morning), and of course the Easton Press edition of James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man that is pictured above.


Le Clézio won the Nobel Prize in literature a few years ago, so I thought I'd add to my collection of his works (OK, I only owned Désert before now) by purchasing Le procès-verbal.  I'm fascinated by several of the recent Europa Editions and this title by Laurence Cossé, A Novel Bookstore, struck my fancy.  When a blurb begins "A devotee of Stendhal who has shunned the company of his fellow human beings to live on the outskirts of a tiny village in Savoy is kidnapped and left for dead along a forest road," my interest is going to be piqued.


I was a historian long before blogs ever were dreamed of, so it should be little surprise that I found a used copy of the Library of America edition of Henry Adams' 19th century history of James Madison's Presidency to be worth buying (I have nearly half the volumes published to date now).  The only non-purchase today was a review copy I received from Tor of Phil & Kaja Foglio's Girl Genius: Omnibus Volume One:  Agatha Awakens.  All I know about it is that it's a graphic novel, steampunkish in style and story, and that the authors won a few Hugos for Graphic Novel despite it being only available in webcomic form until now.  I may read it between several others on my plate right now.

Any of these strike your fancy, whether from a descriptive point of view or the cover art?

2 comments:

James said...

I love webcomics, so I have attempted to read Girl Genius in the past... usually whenever they end up nominated for the Hugo. Unfortunately, I have never been able to get past the horrible artwork.

Larry Nolen said...

What gets me is how much the lead protagonist reminds me of someone I know in appearance. Very odd.

 
Add to Technorati Favorites