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Let's talk Aguachile Alley

Postby Mr Spaceship » Thu Jul 27, 2017 11:40 pm

I read Patriotism (also Mishima) in one night many years ago

unforgettable book
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Postby furrowed brow » Fri Jul 28, 2017 1:52 am

cooly wrote:furrowed brow this is the book you want

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so yeah, this is excellent.
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Postby south pacific » Fri Jul 28, 2017 4:47 am

Am really enjoying this book about travels and experiences down south

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driving around late at night, listening to depeche mode
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Postby tarantula » Fri Jul 28, 2017 5:06 am

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any of these for dummies books, really
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Postby Seamus » Fri Jul 28, 2017 7:13 pm

hello book thread my old friend, can you give me recommendations for books or stories based around heartbreak and lost loves? i want to feel crushed and miserable, thanks
Thanks, admin.

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monkey d stiltzkin wrote:pure poppycock from Seamus yet again
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Postby Seamus » Fri Jul 28, 2017 7:14 pm

i'm thinking like 'the tramp steamer's last port of call' kind of vibes or whatever
Thanks, admin.

Raise. Hell. All. Summer. Long.

monkey d stiltzkin wrote:pure poppycock from Seamus yet again
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Postby shrinemaidens » Sat Jul 29, 2017 9:41 pm

like some other boarders i've been reading/just finished borne

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not sure how i feel about it. last third wasn't as good as the first two and the pacing needed work. i enjoyed annihilation but couldn't finish authority so never got to the third in his southern reach trilogy. i very much like/admire vandermeer's ideas and how he executes them, and goodness his language is crisp and evocative, but this one was missing something

(very excited for the annihilation movie still!)
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Postby number none » Sun Jul 30, 2017 5:30 am

Seamus wrote:hello book thread my old friend, can you give me recommendations for books or stories based around heartbreak and lost loves? i want to feel crushed and miserable, thanks


Image
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Postby crisp butty » Sun Jul 30, 2017 5:39 am

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i've been reading a bit of african s/f over the past year or two but this is something else

'we march among the carrots'
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Postby Seamus » Sun Jul 30, 2017 6:17 pm

number none wrote:
Seamus wrote:hello book thread my old friend, can you give me recommendations for books or stories based around heartbreak and lost loves? i want to feel crushed and miserable, thanks


Image


this looks like the stuff

it's currently sitting in my amazon basket along with
greene - the end of the affair
yates - eleven kinds of loneliness
alfred hayes - in love
Thanks, admin.

Raise. Hell. All. Summer. Long.

monkey d stiltzkin wrote:pure poppycock from Seamus yet again
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Postby soy » Sun Jul 30, 2017 9:51 pm

Seamus wrote:hello book thread my old friend, can you give me recommendations for books or stories based around heartbreak and lost loves? i want to feel crushed and miserable, thanks


i read junot diaz's "this is how you lose her" after a bad breakup not really knowing anything about its content going in, and it fit this description for me
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Postby walt whitman » Sun Jul 30, 2017 9:58 pm

crisp butty wrote:Image

i've been reading a bit of african s/f over the past year or two but this is something else

'we march among the carrots'

this looks cool as shit. african literature is dope
“Short film, Long film, It’s ALL film!” - Walt Whitman
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Postby abs » Sun Jul 30, 2017 11:44 pm

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Postby Eyeball Kid » Sun Jul 30, 2017 11:51 pm

Fat City is real good. Need to watch the movie soon.
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Postby Enemy Ace » Mon Jul 31, 2017 5:08 am

Seamus wrote:
number none wrote:
Seamus wrote:hello book thread my old friend, can you give me recommendations for books or stories based around heartbreak and lost loves? i want to feel crushed and miserable, thanks


Image


this looks like the stuff

it's currently sitting in my amazon basket along with
greene - the end of the affair
yates - eleven kinds of loneliness
alfred hayes - in love

These might also fit the bill:

Dostoevsky's story "White Nights"
Henri Alain-Fournier - The Lost Estate
Thomas Hardy - Jude the Obscure
Maybe Katherine Mansfield's story "Something Childish But Very Natural," but it's been a long time since I read it.
And of course The Sorrows of Young Werther is still the all-time champ in the heartbreak category.
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Postby Mr Spaceship » Mon Jul 31, 2017 4:34 pm

I went ahead and picked up Temple of the Golden Pavilion
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Postby bongo » Mon Jul 31, 2017 4:40 pm

well played
yeaaaaaaaaaaaa american nostalgia love it suburban living civilized families this could be my life
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Postby Eyeball Kid » Mon Jul 31, 2017 4:45 pm

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Dylan Thomas - Collected Poems
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Postby HUMANIMAL » Mon Jul 31, 2017 5:59 pm

atomicbombshell wrote:Image


I read this last year, it's really great
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Postby crossfit jesus » Mon Jul 31, 2017 8:28 pm

shenmue the movie
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Postby abs » Mon Jul 31, 2017 8:47 pm

I've written about this before but I wanted to compose a longer-form post about independent bookselling/Amazon. (But also don't forget about your local library! I know most of you take full advantage of that and all but I really want to talk about BUYING books.) Tagging as a spoiler to not disrupt the thread flow, just not sure where else to put this.

So some facts to start. Publishing is controlled by "The Big 5" -- Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon and Schuster and Macmillan. Book sales from these publishers make up ~45% of the current market. Amazon's yearly revenues surpass the "Big 5" combined. They also are not in the business of Books (capital B), they are in the business of higher % margin items. The low price they can offer you on certain products (like books, how they started the business) is meant to draw you into higher priced purchases. Their stated goal is to put independent bookstore out of business. If you don't care about that, and you may not, then continue to purchase from Amazon.

I'm going to link to an article here that articulates a recent business move that has damaging consequences for publishers and authors. https://newrepublic.com/article/142616/amazon-steps-battle-book-industry : “The connection that people fail to make,” Authors Guild President Mary Rasenberger told me, “is that if publishers have less money, then they have less to invest. That means they can’t afford to take risks on the kinds of challenging books they’ve published for centuries."

"The Big 5" are not even the best representation of publishers "taking chances" on authors. They wait for smaller houses to find an author and then purchase the rights to new books once they've established some success. (Sherman Alexie is a great example of someone who started at a small press -- Hanging Loose.) There is something to be said for looking outside of the strictest margins. And sure, booksellers have to adhere to certain margins too. But when they can commit to stocking and hand-selling small presses and keeping a great stock of backlisted titles by authors that they admire, well then there's a business. You can sell the bestsellers AND promote the books you love. It's better for the customer, for the authors, the publishers, and the booksellers.

Politically, I don't want to purchase from a company that has such a stranglehold on the market. They are manufacturer AND retailer in many cases, and that's scary to me. This is not good for an economy in which people need jobs. This is not a business that has a history of treating its existing workers well. This is not a company that is channeling money back into its local community and paying its fair share of taxes.

I appreciate it if you took the time to read this. I would hope that if this speaks to you at all that you'll reconsider purchasing books from Amazon. Local booksellers can bring in titles for you if they don't already have them. They can often ship them directly to your door. They want to work with you and establish a relationship. I understand that not every community is so lucky as to have a local bookseller. Seek out the ones closest to you. (Or find them online, they exist in the marketplace online too!) If you are financially able, please support your independent bookseller.

It is so, so important to the culture of books.
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Postby klubrick » Mon Jul 31, 2017 8:48 pm

great post abs.
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Postby abs » Mon Jul 31, 2017 10:46 pm

hey thanks, Klubrick.

also this is an open invitation for my 30% discount at the shop where I work. I am willing to apply that discount to any purchases/shipments. just PM me for details.
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Postby Kenny » Tue Aug 01, 2017 4:25 am

I'm about 300 pages in on The Island of Second Sight and it's so dense with jokes and wordplay and funny asides, I can't understand how it doesn't come off as pretentious but is so down to earth.
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Postby Kenny » Tue Aug 01, 2017 4:25 am

Guy Incognito wrote:any suggestions as to where to get semi obscure used books ethically? i only really use amazon as a means of accessing history books through third party party vendors, but i'd happily switch to another outlet if someone pointed me in the right direction.


Abebooks is good and you can even get books cheaper there than Amazon sometimes.

I wonder how much better the Big 5 would be if Amazon weren't around, I feel like they'd just press their own advantage more over the little guy but maybe that's just the devil we know. I really think something like Lulupress et al are really cool ideas, it'd be great if there were some sort of review site to big up actually good books (because I know it's like the rest of the internet that just increases the noise not the signal) because there could be some really interesting things that could only get published that way.

I try to buy new books from Foyles which is a (big) independent chain over here but I do end up buying new from Amazon too, which maybe I can try to be a little more aware of. There's also the London Review Bookshop which I like to go to for history/non-fiction but I've pretty much slacked off on non-fiction in a bid for escapism these days.

Anybody in London got a good bookstore to use?

I'd really like more info Abs, if you want to write more!
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Postby abs » Tue Aug 01, 2017 8:25 am

Guy Incognito wrote:any suggestions as to where to get semi obscure used books ethically? i only really use amazon as a means of accessing history books through third party party vendors, but i'd happily switch to another outlet if someone pointed me in the right direction.



Abebooks was my response for years...by they've been purchased by Amazon. So, I mean. I still think it's better than buying directly from them, since a higher % goes back to the used distributor than on amazon (at this point).

Another good source is Alibris.com
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Postby lefthandshake » Tue Aug 01, 2017 8:27 am

bookfinder.com
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Postby Kenny » Tue Aug 01, 2017 8:53 am

Damn, I didn't know that. Gross!
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Postby abs » Tue Aug 01, 2017 8:54 am

lefthandshake wrote:bookfinder.com



Also owned by Amazon
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Postby deadbass » Tue Aug 01, 2017 9:31 am

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I'm about halfway through this, and I can't believe how good it is. It's a book about how to be a cook, how to improvise, how to know what ingredients do to a dish, and how you can fix flavours in the middle of the process of cooking. The section on salt is super fascinating - it's a good balance of surface-level science and very specific recommendations for different types of dishes, so you can actually retain what she talks about and put it into practice,.

She has a bunch of experiments where you make something with and without her recommendation and try to taste the difference, and it's always super obvious. There's some really great and funny illustrations inside, and she writes very precisely, clearly, and enjoyably. I really recommend it if you want to be better at just buying some stuff at the market and coming up with a recipe yourself, or if you just enjoy food writing, because it's a great example of that as well.
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