Quick Meme: What Was the Last Book You Bought?
By John DeNardo |
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at
7:31 am
In lieu of any real content, here’s a quick meme: What was the last book you bought?
The last book I bought was the short story collection Galactic North by Alastair Reynolds. I probably did not maximize by book-buying dollar here since (A) I bought it in a supermarket, and (B) I’ve already read many of the stories in it. But I enjoy his stories so much I couldn’t pass it up. Especially when I saw it in a supermarket…it was like a message from the sf gods.
Your turn: What was the last book you bought?
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It’s Sagramanda by Alan Dean Foster
Starfish by Peter Watts, the new reprint. i somehow managed to miss it the first time
Steampunk, an anthology edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer. With stories by Neal Stephenson, Michael Chabon, James Blaylock, and others. Delicious!
Troy: Shield of Thunder, by David Gemmell.
The Blood Knight, by Greg Keyes. E-book for my Sony Reader.
Mary Doria Russell’s “Children of God”. An eBook for my Palm Centro.
Jay Lake’s Escapement and Charlie Stross’s Saturn’s Children.
Fourtold by Michael Stone
Not counting the Science Fiction Book Club edition of my own novel, it was Dreamquake, “Book Two of the Dreamhunter Duet” by Elizabeth Knox. YA fantasy, great book.
Jonathan Lethem’s Girl in Landscape
I’ve always meant to read something by Lethem and stumbled on this copy on a bargain rack (spine abnormality). Looks good, although I just got my latest box from Amazon, so it is under a few in the stack.
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Dogs: Their Fossil Relatives and Evolutionary History by Xiaoming Wang
I just ordered The Batman Encyclopedia by Robert Greenberger. Does that count? (Previous to that, a bunch of books about the Dover evolution trial.) Or were you only interested in last SF novel/story collection?
When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger. brutal stuff.
The last book I bought was Infoquake by David Louis Edleman, about two thirds of the way through it and enjoying it a lot. I however am waiting for the book I ordered from amazon House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds, ordered it before Infoquake but have yet to receive it, and am really wanting to read it after finishing The Prefect which was one of his best and reading 1000th Night and enjoying it to.
The Velvet Chair and The Bearskin Rug by Jennifer Stephenson – since I bought them both at the same time at her signing last night, I have no idea which one was the last book I bought.
I’m pretty sure it was back in January, and if so it was 3 books at once:
Undertow - Elizabeth Bear
Dust – Elizabeth Bear
Farthing - Jo Walton
The massive eBook collection of stories by Leigh Brackett, courtesty of Baen Books and Webscriptions. this would be the second massive eBook collection of Brackett’s stuff. I am in seventh heaven.
Why, it was “Galactic North” also! Also, Allan Steele’s “Spindrift” and Jack Campbell’s “Valiant” and Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s “Recovery Man” and … should I go on or stop now? Oh, I would recommend James Howard Kunstler’s “World Made by Hand.” Not really SF but a pretty good post-apocalypse novel of post-peak oil life in a small town in Upstate New York later in the early 21st century after our oil-based economy crashes. Notice gas prices lately…?
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
To be honest I buy quite a few more books than I have time to read at the moment, but I also quite like to have a bunch of books on the shelf to choose from.
I just recieved the following books from Amazon UK (I live in Denmark):
Jay Lake: Mainspring (The main idea in the book really sounds like fun and the reviews have been quite strong)
Leigh Brackett: Sea-Kings of Mars And Other Wordly Stories (I have never read anything by Brackett and this seems like a good collection of stories to start out with)
Robert Heinlein: Citizen of the Galaxy (The only other of Heinlein’s “Juveniles” I have read is Podkayne of Mars so I thought it was about time to do something about that)
Philip Reeve: Larklight (Never read any of his books either but this series sounds really good and can’t wait to read it)
I really need to thank you guys for a great site. I have found so many good authors and novels in the time that I have read the site (and followed the many links you provide every day) that I really can’t imagine not having the Signal turned on every day. So thanks for a great job!
Amazon just delivered “Year’s Best SF 13″ and “Year’s Best Fantasy 8″ by David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer.
It will be ages before I can read them, but I just bought John Scalzi’s THE ANDROID’S DREAM and Greg Keyes’ THE BORN QUEEN. Before that I got Swanwick’s THE DRAGONS OF BABEL.
Ragamuffin by Tobias Buckell……could have been Saturns Children but I’m moving and need to wait till Im setteled to get it……
Blood Rites by Jim Butcher
Saturn Returns by Sean Williams
Galactic Empires edited by Gardner Dozois. Just got it yesterday.
Just got the Uglies trilogy yesterday. Still have a few days on Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a female utopia from 1915.
Wow, I turn around for a few hours and everyone shows up!
@Pierre: I enjoyed Sagaramanda very much.
@Mervius: Long time no hear!
@Jason: I have a Centro as well. I do sometimes wish the screen was a little bigger for reading, but the other features are way too cool to complain and I love that I can fit it easily into my pocket.
@Jonathan: Your tastes seem to align with JP’s.
@Edward Willett: The SFBC made you buy a copy of their edition of your own book? Yikes!
@Weyland-Yutani: Good luck with Girl in Landscape. I really enjoyed Lethem’s Amnesia Moon.
@Myra: Little brother rocked.
@Michael: Any book counts!
@Dave: When Gravity Fails was awesome!
@Joe P.: That’s two books I’d love to read.
@Joe S.: Good authors!
@Fred K: What, no reference to “Mount To-Be-Read”?
@Mark S: I have Spindrift as well. Steele’s Coyote universe is another set of books I’d love to read.
@Nick: World War Z is one of those buzz books I’ve been looking forward to.
@Dennis S.: Thanks for the kind words!
@Lou: You read for a living. Snap to it, you lucky dog!
@Edward M: Galactic Empires was pretty darned good.
@Frank: Year’s Best SF 13…Another one on my actual shelf (as opposed to archive of boxes!)
@Everyone Else: Just about all the books mentioned sound cool. I even have a few of them on my ever-growing to-read mountain.
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. Believe it or not it’s the first time I’m reading it. Glad I am!
Mainspring by Jay Lake. Of course at the same time I also picked up Pig Island by Mo Hayder. I always seem to buy more than one book at a time. Must be why my to be read pile is teatering on the brink of insanity.
Book 3 of the Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell
Book 2 of the Dresden Files
I think Resolution by Robert B. Parker, as a birthday gift for my father. The day I bought it, the copy he’d bought for himself came from Amazon.
For myself, I’m not sure what the last book was. Possibly Jon Armstrong’s Grey, which I’m reading now.
The Thames: Sacred River by Peter Ackroyd (his London: The Biography is one of my all-time faves). In fiction it would be The Dragons of Babel by Michael Swanwick.
D
Transworld/Bantam UK edition of Steven Erikson’s latest Malazan book, Toll the Hounds, which I have been informed, has just shipped!
“The Dirty Secrets Club” by Meg Gardiner and “Small Favor” by Jim Butcher — I had a spending spree on Amazon.
Morjana
Just went to B&N for a friend’s reading last night and walked away with:
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
The Iron Hunt by Marjorie Liu
Homicide by David Simon
All We Every Wanted Was Everything by Janelle Brown (this was the book the friend was reading from)
Does requesting books for my b-day presents count? If so, the 3rd HonorHarrington book (David Weber) and the..er..3rd book in Elizabeth Moon’s Vatta series…(H)
“Where the Wild Things Are.” A small child influences many of my purchasing decisions these days.
My last SF purchase was John Brunner’s “Catch a Falling Star.”
Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford and Small Favor by Jim Butcher
“@Fred K: What, no reference to “Mount To-Be-Read”?”
Hey, I’ve always wanted to be an “@”!
Since it is an eBook bundle and not a pile of deadtrees, it is more an addition to “Mount Tobeviewed” than “Mount Toberead”.
:-$
Actually, Mount Toberead has a new addition today. Went out and got the second “Black Company” omnibus from Tor. Then there’s the new edition of “Princess Bride”, what the heck, if I keep buying new editions, maybe he’ll finish THE FREAKING SEQUEL ALREADY. And to finish it off, several of David Sherman/Dan Cragg’s Starfist books (Firestorm, Flashfire, School of Fire and Steel Gauntlet). Series fiction. It’s a plague.
:-S
“Knight Errant” by Anthony Reynolds. A Warhammer novel.
Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow
Glen Cook’s latest Garrett P.I. novel, Cruel Zinc Melodies.
Yeah, that fangirly squeal was me.
Maze of Death + Dr. Bloodmoney by Philip K Dick
Loved the former, but thought the latter was a bit iffy.
- Steve :-@
CONSIDER PHLEBAS by Iain Banks
The Naked God, part 1 from Peter F. Hamilton’s Night’s dawn trilogy, I found it in a used bookstore after unsuccessfully searching the big chain’s for a copy. I expect part II will be the next purchase.
Another idea would be books that readers recommend and why.
Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher.
Ilium by Simmons
The Dragon’s Nine Sons, by Chris Robertson