What's your most recent literary purchase?

[helmoz]

i used to read for pleasure a lot and then stopped from around my GCSEs (age 14-16) onwards so that i'd have enough time to study, and since then i keep on pledging that i will only read textbooks and save other books for the hols... but lately i've gone mad and bought (and read) loads of non-textbook books! i'm rediscovering reading in a way because for so long i've been restricted to academic reading only. my latest are:
"touch me, i'm sick: the 52 creepiest love songs you've ever heard" (i don't really agree with its inclusion of "there is a light that never goes out" but other than that it's good),
"the naked jape,"
"how to be good,"
"QI: the book of general ignorance,"
"QI: the book of animal ignorance,"
"the big breakfast: vital statistics,"
"shooting stars: the book, the CD, the game,"
"never mind the buzzcocks: the book, the CD, the brief intense rush (followed by a feeling of paranoia and insecurity),"
"charlie brooker's screen burn,"
"charlie brooker's dawn of the dumb."

[chicken]

helen, that's quite a list, hope you're enjoying them. have you read any Terry Pratchett? great stuff, guffaw, guffaw!

today i received my latest order:
"The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (Oxford World's Classics)"
Emile Durkheim

"The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches (Library of Theological Ethics) - 2 volumes"
Ernst Troeltsch

"The Sociology of Religion"
Max Weber

circa very early 1900's, all of them. Durkheim and Weber can be considered as founders of modern sociology and anthropology.

and to ensure there is no misinterpretation: the only reason i got those books from Troeltsch is because he sets forth the earliest beginnings of modern "church - sect theory" in the psychology of religion. i've read far too many secondary sources; i wanted to go 'straight to the well' --primary source investigation


i think i need to block amazon on my comp

[helmoz]

i certainly am enjoying them, chicken! and i love terry pratchett! one of my mates once went to one of his book-signings in a local bookshop during lunch break at school, but was going to be late getting back to school because of the queue, so when mr pratchett signed the book he also wrote a note to the teacher explaining why chris (my mate) was late i'm told that he was very nice and was wearing his trademark hat

[Pashernate_Lover]

I never liked reading, apart from non-fiction. But I am considering reading "20000 leagues under the sea" by Jules Verne after reading the story behind Captain Nemo at a website. But, given the fact that I never manage to complete a book, I may check if there isn't a film version...

I love this book. So much. Seriously. Read it.

[Pashernate_Lover]

I took a book out of the library called Straight edge : clean-living youth, hardcore punk, and social change in which some guy named Ross acknowledges that people like me both exist and have a history-- its awesome! I don't know if I would recommend it to anyone, but it makes me SO happy to see even one book about edge exists

[Pashernate_Lover]

I am now reading a book called Pretty Vacant about the history of punk. Its amazing-- read something written in the UK and it will always say that punk started in the UK (with one exception that I have ever seen) but read something written in the US and it will say that punk started years earlier in the US... never fails to amuse me .

[Truman Capote]

I am now reading a book called Pretty Vacant about the history of punk. Its amazing-- read something written in the UK and it will always say that punk started in the UK (with one exception that I have ever seen) but read something written in the US and it will say that punk started years earlier in the US... never fails to amuse me .

Well... wasn't the Ramones the first punk rock band?

[rorschach]

The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

Its a fantastic book about two Jewish kids who create a superhero called The Escapist (Houdini-esque),Set in 30's New York I think. Highly recommended.

[Pashernate_Lover]

The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

Its a fantastic book about two Jewish kids who create a superhero called The Escapist (Houdini-esque),Set in 30's New York I think. Highly recommended.

HA! I bought that book for a couple of quarters a couple of years ago and didn't get through the first chapter before I moved and lost it--- well, apparently its good then

[rorschach]

The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

Its a fantastic book about two Jewish kids who create a superhero called The Escapist (Houdini-esque),Set in 30's New York I think. Highly recommended.

HA! I bought that book for a couple of quarters a couple of years ago and didn't get through the first chapter before I moved and lost it--- well, apparently its good then

Yeah its ace, pretty epic too. I've started readings loads of comics recently so I found it doubly interesting.

[Pashernate_Lover]

The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

Its a fantastic book about two Jewish kids who create a superhero called The Escapist (Houdini-esque),Set in 30's New York I think. Highly recommended.

HA! I bought that book for a couple of quarters a couple of years ago and didn't get through the first chapter before I moved and lost it--- well, apparently its good then

Yeah its ace, pretty epic too. I've started readings loads of comics recently so I found it doubly interesting.

Which ones?

[rorschach]

I've read quite a few so far actually, i tend to buy the collected volumes. The first comic I read was the Watchmen by Alan Moore (Thats where I took my username from, great character). He took the whole costumed hero concept and kinda turned it on its head. I couldn't put it down. I tend to like just about anything by Alan Moore (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,Killing Joke,Swamp Thing.) Also From Hell deserves a mention as it was one of the most complex, absorbing things I've ever read comic, book or otherwise. I love Alann Moore he just seems like such a character, the archetypal grumpy old man (Well not exactly, wikipedia says he's involved in the occult and is a practising magician!).

Alan Moore aside I've read quite a few Batman comics, he's just such a cool cat.The Dark Knight Returns (So dramatic "Like Opera" as Frank Miller says), Killing Joke as I've already mentioned, The Long Haloween (Really good, noir-ish and kinda brooding), Year One, Hush (Didn't really like it,,too Hollywood).

I've also read a fantastic book (or "graphic novel",,personally I don't like the term and its implications) called The Smartest Kid in Earth, it's incredibly detailed and the tone is really nostalgic and moving. You have to read it. I'd like to read more stuff like that.

What about you Pash, do you read much comics?

[Pashernate_Lover]

Boy do I ever!

Well... used to, but I am over 6 months behind having moved away from any decent comic shops :'(. Strange Girl-- the post-apocolyptic tale of a girl that got left behind in the rapture and is destined to go to hell and doesn't want to go to either there or heaven so is seeking a way to no longer exist. Its awesome.

Grimms Fairy Tales-- pretty art, terrible writing.

Death Jr.-- cute stories about deaths son.

Little Spooky-- cute stories about... a little spooky girl.

The Haunted Mansion-- stories about, you guessed it, the haunted mansion.

Used to like Lenore and to an extent JTHM.

A few other ones here and there, but as far as morbid comics go there is such a tiny market that only the least morbid can stay around for long... so yeah, they aren't "serious" and there are absolutely no "super heroes" but they are all pretty awesome comics. Especially Strange Girl which references the Smiths... a lot.

[rorschach]

Strange Girl-- the post-apocolyptic tale of a girl that got left behind in the rapture and is destined to go to hell and doesn't want to go to either there or heaven so is seeking a way to no longer exist. Its awesome.

I was reading about it on Wikipedia. Sounds awesome Pash, thanks for the tip.

[chicken]

I've been buying so many books lately it's criminal. Everything has been geared towards my library that intersects psychology and religion. I love getting used books from amazon where I pay more for shipping than the book itself