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Your book to-do list 2018

Started by MoonDust, February 03, 2018, 07:51:06 PM

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MoonDust

Not sure if this type of thread exists yet, but I often think of books I want to read but either forget or never get round to it. So I started writing a list, and figured it'll be nice to share your own book goals for this year. Update it as you go to. At the end of the year would be interesting to see if we all got there!

So my list so far, which is shamefully small right now:

FICTION

Spartacus - Howard Fast
Oil! - Upton Sinclair
Dracula - Bram Stoker
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey

NON-FICTION

Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism - V. I. Lenin
The French Revolution Vol. 1 and 2 - George's Lefevbre
The Condition of the Working Class in England - Frederick Engels

Oil! is proving hardest to find so far, I think because it's old and not very well known. It is however the novel which There Will Be Blood is loosely based on and that is one of my favourite films.

Over to CaB!

Serge

#1
I misread Oil! as Oi! and thought it was a book about that particular offshoot of punk.

I have a to-read pile which currently includes two Jonathan Lethem novels, three Jennifer Egan novels, Jonathan Franzen's 'Freedom', Trevor Noah's autobiography, Robert Forster's book on the Go-Betweens, Frank Dikötter's Mao trilogy, Tim Shipman's 'Fall Out', Will Self's 'Psychogeography' and a handful of others. This might also be the year I get around to reading all of those Robert MacFarlane books I keep buying.

In March, there are paperback editions of Thomas Mullen's 'Lightning Men' and Abir Mukherjee's 'A Necessary Evil' that I'm looking forward to.

Oh, and in between times, I'll be filling in the gaps in my le Carre reading. I have 'A Small Town In Germany' and 'The Secret Pilgrim' on my shelves but so far unread.

EDIT: Oh, and I have Jonathan Coe's 'The Closed Circle' on order, and intend to delve further into his backlist. And I assume there will be paperback editions of the Eddie Izzard, Robert Webb and James Acaster books that came out last year to add to my ever-growing pile of books by comedians.


magval

Serge, you'd know about this - why do I have a hardback-height but paperback edition of David Jason's latest book when the official (and probably smaller) paperback isn't out til later this year? Same goes for the tall Bruce Dickinson paperback I've seen in shops and a good few others over the years. Where do these stealth paperbacks come from and why are they only available in certain shops (like, I think, Eason in Northern Ireland to name one)?

Serge

They're trade paperbacks, generally sent out as proofs, usually the hardback edition but with a paperback cover. I don't know if they still exist, but they would sometimes do runs for mail order book clubs (the type that used to run ads in the back of magazines promising your first three books for a pound, but then you have to stick with them for twelve months and buy a dozen more at full price.) Possibly certain shops have deals to get them, they're not generally available.

magval

I remember those book clubs. I recall getting a bunch of Spawn graphic novels (those cheaply bound Titan editions with peeling covers and glueless signatures) and never buying another thing.

How did they ever expect anyone to continue with them after the first round of cheap books without some sort of Internet access or bank detail records?

Morals, I guess. Catholic guilt.

studpuppet

Quote from: Serge on February 03, 2018, 10:36:33 PM
They're trade paperbacks, generally sent out as proofs, usually the hardback edition but with a paperback cover. I don't know if they still exist, but they would sometimes do runs for mail order book clubs (the type that used to run ads in the back of magazines promising your first three books for a pound, but then you have to stick with them for twelve months and buy a dozen more at full price.) Possibly certain shops have deals to get them, they're not generally available.

Trade paperbacks are also sold in places like air-side bookshops, and export countries like Ireland, ANZ and Canada because they take up less space (i.e. cost less) when you ship them. Sometimes publishers may do something like a WIGIG ("when it's gone, its gone") deal with retailers like WHSmith to get rid of excess stock, or a firm sale (i.e. no returns) to shops like The Works.

Danger Man

Quote from: MoonDust on February 03, 2018, 07:51:06 PM
Oil!

Congratulations on getting the job.


My book list is very short.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by My Dad Dr Jordan Peterson

It's £20 which seems a bit much but if I'm in the airport in a few months time....

buttgammon

I just ordered The Vegetarian and Human Acts by Han Kang, and also Malone Dies and The Unnameable by Samuel Beckett, so they will be my priorities. I've been meaning to read Villette and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall for ages, so I will hopefully actually get round to them this year.

Sebastian Cobb


bgmnts

Rape of the Fair County by Alexander Cordell, read the rest of the Dark Tower saga and the rest will be classics.

Got to start somewhere.

MoonDust

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on February 04, 2018, 11:30:15 AM
I have something for this!



Impressive list. But mate, you have Don Quixote and Cervantes the wrong way round. Cervantes is the author, though you probably know this.

Good choice though. I read it a few years ago and loved it. I was surprised how funny it was considering it was written about 400 years ago. I guess humour doesn't change.

Sebastian Cobb

Yeah, as you can see from various hyperlinks and inconsistent formatting, I've been haplessly copying and pasting into that list.

I've got another one for films. The good thing about google docs is I can add to it pretty much anywhere from my phone/work computer/etc.

surreal

Oh, The Cuckoo's Egg is great, if you had any experience of computers before the internet era its a fantastic read.  If not it will be somewhat of an eye-opener

MoonDust

Quote from: surreal on February 06, 2018, 03:17:37 PM
Oh, The Cuckoo's Egg is great, if you had any experience of computers before the internet era its a fantastic read.  If not it will be somewhat of an eye-opener

I've added this to my list. Sounds interesting. One of my earliest memories of pre internet computers was my dad being excited to install Encarta 95 on our house PC. I would spend hours on It, like the nerdy little 5 year old I was.

Looking on wiki I see this book is set in the 80s which is before my time but still looks good!

Sebastian Cobb

I remember computers from the early 90's / late 80's but they were all micros as I was still a kid. Never got to play with mainframes, minis and terminals.

surreal

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on February 06, 2018, 06:50:34 PM
I remember computers from the early 90's / late 80's but they were all micros as I was still a kid. Never got to play with mainframes, minis and terminals.

Oh, and it's not fiction, it's his account of what actually happened to him.

Captain Crunch

I've started logging the books I've read this year, partly to find out how many I get through and partly to encourage myself to read more.  I've read 10 so far this year, not sure if that's a lot? 

Funcrusher

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on February 04, 2018, 11:30:15 AM
I have something for this!



I got part way through Don Carpenter's Hard Rain Falling then left off because I wasn't in the mood for something so dark. I really should revisit it.