3.02.2006

Biblioholism

Last week I went to Costco and I just couldn't help looking at the book table. Since it's usually stocked with the typical popular stuff, my only danger is the cookbooks section and I've even managed to develop a rationale for why I don't need to buy every one that strikes my fancy. However, a book jumped out and grabbed me and, well, it was "only $10" so I bought it.
It was The Collected What If? :Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been. ("Collected" because it combines What If and What If 2.) I love that kind of speculation, plus it had several names that I recognize: Stephen Ambrose, author of Band of Brothers, and John Keegan, author of The Mask of Command, both books I enjoyed immensely. Most of them are related to military history, but some are not -- one of the articles is called "Pontius Pilate Spares Jesus" and another "The Chinese Discovery of the New World." It looks well done. I'll have more to add once I get into it.
Then, one of my bosses gave out copies of The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason. It's a book on finances and it changed his life when he was young and he wants to give us all the opportunity to be transformed by it. Actually, I'm at a financially transformative point, since I'm a hair's breadth from paying off my credit card debt (yippeee!), so I'm looking forward to reading it.
Then, I get a nice package in the mail from my mum, who sent me some books she had double copies of. All really good looking books: The Ethos Effect by L. E. Modesitt; A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (I've been meaning to get this, since it's such a cultural icon for so many and I don't remember reading it, though I know I have.); Alta by Mercedes Lackey (This is a second book in a series, but since I'm a little jaded about Lackey, I think I'll deal.); and The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold. This last is a really cool looking book. It's the third of a series, which is irritating, but in looking at blurbs about the other two, it looks like they are set in the same world, but don't focus on the same characters - I hope!
I'm in biblioholic's heaven. I've been so strict about not straying into bookstores or buying things from Amazon lately. There's one book I've been dying to buy - Old Man's War by John Scalzi - but if I buy one, I know I'll buy more. Maybe as a reward for paying off the last of my credit card bills when I get my tax refund. :D

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

"The Hallowed Hunt" is a stand alone story, although it helps if you had read the other two because you get some idea of their world rules (gods and such). The two first it is best if they are read in order, as a minor character in the first is the main character of the second.

Anne C. said...

If I couldn't place that oft quoted movie, I would be drummed out of the "Movie Quoters Club" (another family tradition).

In a laughable turn of irony, mere days after citing my ability to not buy books lately, I went into Tattered Cover with Aileen to buy a book for a friend. I was doing fine until we went into the "Bargain Books" section. I bought The Sharpe Companion (unfortunately subtitled The Early Years, which means I have to dig up the other books!) a non-fiction book about a series by Bernard Cornwell. I also got Sharpe's Havoc (part of the actual series). I almost got Old Man's War, but thier only copy was an oversized paperback. I'd like to see if I can get the smaller paperback which is easier to carry in a purse.

Anne C. said...

Oh... and thanks, Mum, for the clarification on Hallowed Hunt!

belsum said...

If you enjoy the alternate histories, then I suggest Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt. It looks at how the world developed after the Black Death had 98% of Europe's population been killed off, instead of *merely* 30%.

Anne C. said...

Ooooh, that sounds cool. Thanks, bel!