Craig fae the Vale Posted June 12 Share Posted June 12 3 hours ago, Jives Miguel said: Where's the best place to buy 2nd hand books? Don't fancy dumpster diving through the bins of Dan Brown and 50 Shades of Gray in the charity shops. I use Abe Books online. Great selection and usually decent prices. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Internet Citizen Posted June 12 Share Posted June 12 3 hours ago, Jives Miguel said: Where's the best place to buy 2nd hand books? Don't fancy dumpster diving through the bins of Dan Brown and 50 Shades of Gray in the charity shops. Tend to use eBay but it’s usually the big second hand book companies that like world of books, music magpie etc. that sell through eBay, too. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jives Miguel Posted June 12 Share Posted June 12 1 hour ago, Craig fae the Vale said: I use Abe Books online. Great selection and usually decent prices. Thanks, this looks ideal -1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSU Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 Just back from an author’s event in Grand Rapids with Emily St John Mandel, she of Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility. She’s my fave writer so I was a bit star struck when me and Mrs MSU bumped into her outside the venue before it started. It’s inspired me to read her back catalogue again and maybe have a look through my unfinished folder of my own writing. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beefybake Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 On 12/06/2024 at 13:13, Jives Miguel said: Where's the best place to buy 2nd hand books? Don't fancy dumpster diving through the bins of Dan Brown and 50 Shades of Gray in the charity shops. I usually buy 2nd hand books on Ebay, with worldofbooks being the first choice. Their prices are excellent, and they pay royalties to authors. The AuthorSHARE scheme pays authors royalties on the sale of used books purchased at both worldofbooks.com and bookbarninternational.com. Traditionally, authors have only received royalty payments on sales of new books. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig fae the Vale Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 9 hours ago, MSU said: Just back from an author’s event in Grand Rapids with Emily St John Mandel, she of Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility. She’s my fave writer so I was a bit star struck when me and Mrs MSU bumped into her outside the venue before it started. It’s inspired me to read her back catalogue again and maybe have a look through my unfinished folder of my own writing. She was supposed to be doing the Edinburgh Book Festival this year, bit it got cancelled. We were really looking forward to seeing her so will hopefully get back over here another time. Love her work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BukyOHare Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 On 12/06/2024 at 16:45, Internet Citizen said: Tend to use eBay but it’s usually the big second hand book companies that like world of books, music magpie etc. that sell through eBay, too. I don't know if it's common knowledge but a tip that's helped me on eBay is once you've found the book you're looking for, scroll down the page and there's a section called "compare with similar items" where you can often get the same book cheaper. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 World of Books literally get their stock from charity shops BTW. Worked at several places where anything we didn't/couldn't sell was put aside for them to pick up for free. We'd send them dozens of Dan Brown and (heavily soiled) EL James every week; used to joke that we could've built a new shop out of them. I'm told that fatfingers.com is useful for finding eBay items that people have listed badly (BIBBLE FRIST EDDISHUN SINGED BY JEZUS). Never uncovered much for me, but YMMV. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSU Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro -- I've read and adored The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, and like them, Klara and the Sun is beautifully written, achingly so quite frequently, and deals with people's inability to deal with people in a different way. But this time, with robots! Set at some vague point in the future, Klara is Josie's Artificial Friend, which is such a loaded term in and of itself. A Fake Friend? And if so, what makes a friend real? Is there a difference between a friend that we know and meet and drink with and hug, and a friend we only know online? The novel kinda explores around the edges of this before coming up with a conclusion that came as a realization I don't think I've appreciated before and made me lay the book down and stare at the wall for a bit. Anyway, Klara is essentially a robot charged with taking care of Josie, an ill teenager, and ensuring she's not lonely. Klara has a relationship with the sun and its glorious nourishment and thanks to this, robotic Klara jumps to some internal conclusions about the sun's powers that she never articulates and so are never corrected. So despite Klara's nature, or lack thereof, we still have examples of characters not saying things to each other and in many ways I found Klara to be an artificial version of Stevens from The Remains of the Day. The first-person narrative from a non-human character is engaging and precise, and gives a detached view of the human characters and humanity in general around her. After Never Let Me Go, which this seems a natural follow-up to, I thought Ishiguro deals with speculative or alternate realities in a fascinating way and satisfyingly draws conclusions on what it means to be human and Klara and the Sun just cements that opinion. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richey Edwards Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 (edited) Finished re-reading East of Eden a few days ago. I love that book, one of my absolute favourites. Started Catch-22 which I have tried before but gave up on. Will try to actually finish it this time. Edited June 16 by Richey Edwards 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesP_81 Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 4 minutes ago, Richey Edwards said: Finished re-reading East of Eden a few days ago. I love that book, one of my absolute favourites. Started Catch-22 which I have tried before but gave up on. Will try to actually finish it this time. I absolutely love Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden , Steinbeck is an amazing storyteller, definitely ones I will revisit in the future. Hopefully Catch-22 clicks with you this time , another one of my all time faves tho can understand how it can be off putting if someone doesn't 'get it'. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richey Edwards Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 Just now, JamesP_81 said: I absolutely love Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden , Steinbeck is an amazing storyteller, definitely ones I will revisit in the future. Hopefully Catch-22 clicks with you this time , another one of my all time faves tho can understand how it can be off putting if someone doesn't 'get it'. I am actually enjoying it this time. I just didn't "get it" on previous attempts to read it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesP_81 Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 40 minutes ago, MSU said: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro -- I've read and adored The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, and like them, Klara and the Sun is beautifully written, achingly so quite frequently, and deals with people's inability to deal with people in a different way. But this time, with robots! Set at some vague point in the future, Klara is Josie's Artificial Friend, which is such a loaded term in and of itself. A Fake Friend? And if so, what makes a friend real? Is there a difference between a friend that we know and meet and drink with and hug, and a friend we only know online? The novel kinda explores around the edges of this before coming up with a conclusion that came as a realization I don't think I've appreciated before and made me lay the book down and stare at the wall for a bit. Anyway, Klara is essentially a robot charged with taking care of Josie, an ill teenager, and ensuring she's not lonely. Klara has a relationship with the sun and its glorious nourishment and thanks to this, robotic Klara jumps to some internal conclusions about the sun's powers that she never articulates and so are never corrected. So despite Klara's nature, or lack thereof, we still have examples of characters not saying things to each other and in many ways I found Klara to be an artificial version of Stevens from The Remains of the Day. The first-person narrative from a non-human character is engaging and precise, and gives a detached view of the human characters and humanity in general around her. After Never Let Me Go, which this seems a natural follow-up to, I thought Ishiguro deals with speculative or alternate realities in a fascinating way and satisfyingly draws conclusions on what it means to be human and Klara and the Sun just cements that opinion. Got some vouchers left in my Amazon account from my birthday so was just going to get this off the back of this post . Unfortunately they don't seem to have an English version of it so have bought the remains of the day instead , looking forward to discovering Ishiguro. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richey Edwards Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 1 minute ago, JamesP_81 said: Got some vouchers left in my Amazon account from my birthday so was just going to get this off the back of this post . Unfortunately they don't seem to have an English version of it so have bought the remains of the day instead , looking forward to discovering Ishiguro. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Klara-Sun-Times-Sunday-Book/dp/057136490X/ref=asc_df_057136490X/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=697174371537&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4176213666759950142&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045229&hvtargid=pla-1323286171113&psc=1&mcid=50d9391da2103588ac08f0fabbce5497&th=1&psc=1&gad_source=1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamthebam Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 I read Catch-22 when I was 17... *smug mode* I enjoyed it then. Must re-read it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesP_81 Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 41 minutes ago, Richey Edwards said: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Klara-Sun-Times-Sunday-Book/dp/057136490X/ref=asc_df_057136490X/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=697174371537&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4176213666759950142&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045229&hvtargid=pla-1323286171113&psc=1&mcid=50d9391da2103588ac08f0fabbce5497&th=1&psc=1&gad_source=1 Cheers , purchased as well 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig fae the Vale Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 2 hours ago, MSU said: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro -- I've read and adored The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, and like them, Klara and the Sun is beautifully written, achingly so quite frequently, and deals with people's inability to deal with people in a different way. But this time, with robots! Set at some vague point in the future, Klara is Josie's Artificial Friend, which is such a loaded term in and of itself. A Fake Friend? And if so, what makes a friend real? Is there a difference between a friend that we know and meet and drink with and hug, and a friend we only know online? The novel kinda explores around the edges of this before coming up with a conclusion that came as a realization I don't think I've appreciated before and made me lay the book down and stare at the wall for a bit. Anyway, Klara is essentially a robot charged with taking care of Josie, an ill teenager, and ensuring she's not lonely. Klara has a relationship with the sun and its glorious nourishment and thanks to this, robotic Klara jumps to some internal conclusions about the sun's powers that she never articulates and so are never corrected. So despite Klara's nature, or lack thereof, we still have examples of characters not saying things to each other and in many ways I found Klara to be an artificial version of Stevens from The Remains of the Day. The first-person narrative from a non-human character is engaging and precise, and gives a detached view of the human characters and humanity in general around her. After Never Let Me Go, which this seems a natural follow-up to, I thought Ishiguro deals with speculative or alternate realities in a fascinating way and satisfyingly draws conclusions on what it means to be human and Klara and the Sun just cements that opinion. Probably my favourite Ishiguro book. Wonderfully written. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig fae the Vale Posted June 17 Share Posted June 17 How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler Really interesting and for the most part, they manage to tie the sea creatures into their own life. Not every essay works, but overall a really good read. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsdad Posted June 17 Share Posted June 17 Patriot Games by Tom Clancy. Far better book than The Hunt for Red October. Just a wee bit...implausible. I fancy watching the film again now, though. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig fae the Vale Posted June 18 Share Posted June 18 Batman: Death of the Family by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. Probably my favourite modern Joker story. So well plotted and far reaching in universe consequences. Snyder at his best. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.