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Has there seriously been no thread for this yet? Crazy. At least everyone's had a week or so to actually sit down and read them. For my part, there isn't much to say about the stuff that I gave (this was on my half-sister's Amazon wish list, and my mom asked for The Screwtape Letters in hardcover), but I got a kickass hardback version of The Brothers Karamazov to replace my old paperback (and it's in a better translation), along with Underground, Haruki Murakami's book about the Aum Shinrikyo subway gassings in 1995. I've been busy with family stuff lately, so I'm still only about halfway through it, but it's extremely good. It's all condensed transcripts from interviews that Murakami had with the survivors, with very little of his own writing, but it clearly took a lot of time and care to conduct these interviews properly and to edit and organize them so well; it's definitely his book in that sense. I'd say more, but I really can't do it justice - just read it!
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Jan 2, 2015 04:28
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My awesome wife gave me a 12 issue subscription to Cemetery Dance, along with Volume I of "The Best of Cemetery Dance". The parents gave me similar 12 month subscriptions to both Asimov's Science Fiction and Fantasy & Science Fiction magazines.
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Jan 2, 2015 16:30
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I stopped giving books for Christmas because my friends and family are lame and don't read the books I get them. Got some history books for myself, though. Some Canadian history, because I love it. The Terror Of The Coast is about a forgotten conflict between Coastal BC First Nations and the BC Government. Between this an the Fraser Canyon War, there seem to be a lot of armed conflicts with BC First Nations the BC Gov't wants to forget about. I'm looking forward to reading this one. The Great Escape as told through the eyes of the people who experienced it. I've always been fascinated by stories like this from WWII, so again, looking forward to reading this one.
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Jan 2, 2015 19:07
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I got: Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris The Journals of Keith Haring Revival by Stephen King The Journals of Kurt Cobain I gave a TON of books out for Christmas. Of the 23 Dirk Pitt novels by Clive Cussler, I gave about 12 of them as a gift to my wife. Since I gave so many, I won't list them there. I also sent out three other books to a friend: Small Gods by Terry Pratchett Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
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Jan 3, 2015 22:17
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I got: Civil War Land in Bad Decline Persuasion Nation Both are George Saunders short story collections. My aunt the priest got me 10th of December by him last year and I liked it so much that she got me these two as well. I ordered Dangerous Visions and Again Dangerous Visions as a present for myself...
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Jan 4, 2015 01:05
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Sham bam bamina! posted:Has there seriously been no thread for this yet? Crazy. At least everyone's had a week or so to actually sit down and read them. oh, I wasn't going to pick up Murakami's new book bc imo he's a one note kind of guy on average like Vonnegut if you plow through enough of his stuff, but I really like the guy that carried out the subway gassing cult murders so I'm definitely intrigued now
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Jan 4, 2015 01:13
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Blind Sally posted:The Great Escape as told through the eyes of the people who experienced it. I've always been fascinated by stories like this from WWII, so again, looking forward to reading this one. Big Anime Fan Here posted:oh, I wasn't going to pick up Murakami's new book bc imo he's a one note kind of guy on average like Vonnegut if you plow through enough of his stuff, but I really like the guy that carried out the subway gassing cult murders so I'm definitely intrigued now
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Jan 4, 2015 01:53
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I actually went and borrowed it from my friend an hour ago, I'll report back once I'm done
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Jan 4, 2015 05:18
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I got The Perfect Fool by Stewart Lee, and I didn't give any books. I probably will next year, since it's fun to get books as a present.
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Jan 4, 2015 12:24
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I didn't give any books cause I'm a piece of poo poo and didn't really give any christmas presents, but I did get Post Office, the new Murakmi, and 2666, of which I had to explain the plot of to my girlfriend's incredibly sweet, adorable, and very religious aunt who said it "probably wasn't her kind of book."
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Jan 4, 2015 14:25
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no they will not posted:I got The Perfect Fool by Stewart Lee, and I didn't give any books. I probably will next year, since it's fun to get books as a present. The book sounds really good and I've been meaning to read it myself.
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Jan 4, 2015 19:11
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I gave The Woman Who Would Be King to my friend. I gave a big book of sheet music to my Mom. It has a bunch of her favorite songs from back in her day in it that she can play on the piano. I got The Count of Monte Cristo and In Cold Blood.
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Jan 4, 2015 20:16
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I got Moby-Dick in Pictures: One Drawing for Every Page, by Matt Kish and Mapping It Out: An Alternative Atlas of Contemporary Cartographies. They're super cool but not really read-y, more look-y. I gave my sister the book by the xkcd guy because I knew she wanted it.
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Jan 4, 2015 22:08
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Edgar Allan Poe's stories and poems, should be good. Also Scaramouche, The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, and Conanmora Blues by John O'Donohue. My sister got annotations to Finnegans Wake. The glosses in that book correspond to the location of the words in the Wake, it looks neat. Big Anime Fan Here posted:I ordered Dangerous Visions and Again Dangerous Visions as a present for myself... These are good but the third in the trilogy, Last Dangerous Visions, is the best.
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Jan 4, 2015 23:52
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Got my dad Art Forms of Nature by Ernst Haeckel because he doesn't read much and he does drugs.
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Jan 5, 2015 05:57
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Only book I got was Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix. Looks interesting but I don't really know much about it.
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Jan 6, 2015 20:01
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Wife gave me this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Compleat-Ankh-Morpork-Discworld-Artefact/dp/0857520741 I also bought myself a copy of the 50th Anniversary Edition of the Lord of the Rings, and I'm working my way through that now. Re-reading can be a strange experience.
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Jan 6, 2015 21:35
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Cryptonomicon. Pretty good so far!
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Jan 6, 2015 21:51
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I got Art, Anti-Art, Non-Art, a book on Japanese art movements in the 50s-60s, "because I remember you liked that exhibition on fascist art in Italy." Your guess is as good as mine on that one. They're both countries with efficient train networks? Also I gave Richard Farina's Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me to someone who loves the Beat era, as well as Gregor von Rezzori's amazing Memoirs of an Anti-Semite in case they'd already read the Farina. I've tried (and failed) to get people to read Rezzori, but it might have something to do with the title and the fact that the one thing that really sticks in the mind about me is that apparently I AM CUCKOO FOR FASCIST ART. inktvis fucked around with this message at 22:11 on Jan 6, 2015 |
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Jan 6, 2015 22:07
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inktvis posted:I got Art, Anti-Art, Non-Art, a book on Japanese art movements in the 50s-60s, "because I remember you liked that exhibition on fascist art in Italy." They're both the axis powers gooftroop
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Jan 7, 2015 15:52
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Blind Sally posted:The book sounds really good and I've been meaning to read it myself. It is good, I liked it more than I thought I would (I'm a big fan of Lee's stand up but obviously that doesn't necessarily translate to Novell writing skill)
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Jan 7, 2015 15:56
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I got Brad Dukes' "Reflections" (oral history of Twin Peaks), some book about Nintendo vs Sega I believe it's called Console Wars?, Stephen King's "Mr. Mercedes" and the rest of the Maddaddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood. I may have received another one or two I'm forgetting. I gave my younger brother Oryx and Crake by Atwood as well as Allie Brosh's book/comic, I gave my sister some books on fashion history and feminism that she asked for (can't remember the whole list but Roxanne Gay's book was on the list for example), and gave my dad "League of Denial" which is about head trauma in the NFL. Oh, and gave my girlfriend's dad "The Good Nurse" by Charles Graeber, about the "most prolific serial killer in US history" Charles Cullen.
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Jan 7, 2015 16:09
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I got a book on the privatization of prisons, and also assisted living by Teratologen.
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Jan 8, 2015 05:20
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I received the Illuminatus! trilogy which has been interesting, although a little frustrating with the early shifts in perspective and genre that I didn't follow as closely as I should.
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Jan 9, 2015 00:53
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From my parents I got the Dune trilogy collected in a single volume (I've read the first one, but not the sequels) and the Book of the New Sun collected in two. My grandmother gave me a Waterstone's gift card which I;ve used to get American Gods, Neverwhere and the first two Rivers of London books.
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Jan 10, 2015 00:19
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I gave Simon Critchley's book on Bowie to my dad, and I gave Adventure Time: The Art of Ooo, Bad Feminist, and Yes Please to my girlfriend. I got a few from my parents: Markson's Reader's Block Pynchon's Inherent Vice Saunders' Tenth of December McCarthy's Outer Dark Gaddis's Agape Agape
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Jan 10, 2015 17:58
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I got a collection of 12-13 Paulo Coelho novels, which are totally different than the stuff I normally read.
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Jan 10, 2015 18:18
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Archer666 posted:I got a collection of 12-13 Paulo Coelho novels
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Jan 10, 2015 18:23
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Metal Loaf posted:From my parents I got the Dune trilogy collected in a single volume (I've read the first one, but not the sequels) and the Book of the New Sun collected in two. The first Dune functions perfectly well as a stand-alone story. The quality will continue to dip with each book, but if you want to see the whole story of Paul Muadib, you have to read the first three books. It's a decent trilogy, though Dune Messiah is a massive shift in pace and attitude--so if you aren't expecting that, it can be a massive disappointment. God Emperor Dune, the fourth book, is a nice Coda to the trilogy. They all have some interesting philosophical musings on existence and self. That's as generous as I'll be. Don't read anything after God Emperor Dune. Ever.
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Jan 11, 2015 00:47
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HUGE LISTS INCOMING Books I received from various people for Xmas and my birthday (also in December) : - The Art of Film Magic: 20 Years of Weta - double-hardcover boxset with tons of artwork from every film Weta Digital/Workshop has ever worked on - the latest book in The Hobbit Chronicles series - coffee table book also by Weta, with concept art etc from the Hobbit trilogy - The Complete Making of Indiana Jones - huge coffee table book about the making of the whole franchise (you can tell I love reading about the making of films) - The Lord of the Rings 60th anniversary slipcased hardcover, fully illustrated by Alan Lee - such an amazing edition! - Saga hardcover vol 1 (issues 1-18 of the awesome comic) - Saga paperback vol 4 (issues 19-24) - The Midas Flesh vol 1 (issues 1-4 of SF/comedy comic by Ryan North, who's known for Dinosaur Comics) - Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris - I love NPH, so weird format aside (it's exactly what the title sounds like), I'm excited to read this - Revival by Stephen King - I usually get the new SK books, although the last 2 or 3 are still untouched by me... kind of a backlog I need to get into ------- I didn't get books for everyone in my family because not everyone reads a lot. However some key people got books from me... Gave to my Dad: Dad's been reading lots of SF, and has recently loved Hyperion, Leviathan Wakes and Blindsight, so I got him a bunch of my favourites for his Kindle: - Revelation Space and House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds - Embassytown by China Miéville - A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge - Axiomatic (collection) by Greg Egan - Stories of Your Life and Others (collection) by Ted Chiang Gave to my Mum: - Sherlock Holmes related books - she's read all the AC Doyle books, so I got her an anthology of pastiche stories (a subgenre she's getting into lately) and a big hardcover guide to the Holmes phenomenon as a whole - Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense - she loves the Jeeves stories, and has read pretty much everything, but not this, which is the script for the recent West End play Gave to my boyfriend: - Let's Talk About Love: Why Other People Have Such Bad Taste - a critical analysis of Celine Dion, he's a huge fan of hers - The Book of Mormon: The Testament of a Broadway Musical - big hardcover tie-in book for the musical which we saw in NYC this year - 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die - he's getting into graphic novels a lot so I thought this would help him find the ones he wants to read the most Gave to my boyfriend's Mum: - Edinburgh Lonely Planet - she's going there on holiday this year - You Are Here - photo collection by Chris Hadfield, the astronaut; she read his autobiography and loved it Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 08:24 on Jan 11, 2015 |
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Jan 11, 2015 08:19
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