unread books

[truepenny]

Because I said I would. *waves at melymbrosia*

These are the books which are currently on our bookshelves, which are not Mirrorthaw's nuclear history or computer books, which I have not read. Since my one-time book database fell by the wayside long ere this, I'm not even going to try to figure out when these were bought. But they've all been hanging around for at least a month.

I'm not counting Rita Mae Brown's Outfoxed; it's only still in the house because I haven't been to a used bookstore since I bought it.


Barber, Creating Elizabethan Tragedy.
Barley, Grave Matters.
Belton, Movies and Mass Culture.
Birringer, Theatre, Theory, Postmodernism.
Ferro, Cinema and History.
Girard, Violence and the Sacred.
Hibbard, The Making of Shakespeare's Dramatic Poetry.
Kristeva, Powers of Horror.
McNally & Florescu, In Search of Dracula.
O'Connor, Image as Artifact.
Oughourlian, The Puppet of Desire.
Parker & Sedgwick, Performativity and Performance.
Rollins, Hollywood as Historian.
Staiger, Interpreting Films.
Thomson, Shakespeare's Theatre.
Trewin, Five and Eighty Hamlets
Tuan, Landscapes of Fear.
Wayne, The Matter of Difference.
[About half of these are books I actually want to read.]


Frazer, The Golden Bough, 12 vols.
[I got these for $2/vol. at the semi-annual Friends of the Library sale several years back. They're gorgeous. I may never get around to reading them, but my bibliophiliac soul purrs when I look at them.]

Hollister, The Making of England.
Smith, Lucy Baldwin, This Realm of England.
Willcox, Arnstein, The Age of Aristocracy.
Arnstein, Britain Yesterday and Today.
Smith, Lucy Baldwin, The Past Speaks.
[a set given me by a friend who was weeding his own collection]

Bozzoli, Women of Phokeng.
Cabell, Quiet Please.
Cellini, Autobiography.
Clayson, 4 vol. Beatles biography
Crisp, The Naked Civil Servant.
De Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium Eater.
Fowles, The Tree.
Friedman, The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined.
Garin, Astrology in the Renaissance.
Geertz, Kinship in Bali.
Hayward, Key Concepts in Cinema Studies.
Herrman, Helen Keller.
Honig & Hershatter, Personal Voices: Chinese Women in the 1980s.
Jameson, Signatures of the Visible.
Lash, Helen and Teacher.
Lessard, The Architect of Desire.
Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.
Maddox, Yeats's Ghosts.
Mast, Cohen, Braudy, Film Theory and Criticism.
McGuire, Ritual Healing in Suburban America.
Mellor, Mary Shelley: Her Life, Her Fiction, Her Monster.
Neimes, An Introduction to Film Studies.
Nichols, Jung and the Tarot.
Paredes, With his Pistol in his Hand.
Pollack, The Forest of Souls.
Propp, Morphology of the Folktale.
Ratushinskaya, Gray is the Color of Hope.
Reid, Paris Sewers and Sewermen.
Royle, The Tiger Garden.
Sikes, 8 Ball Chicks.
Spurling, Ivy.
Tomalin, The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.
Zinsser, Rats, Lice, and History.


guilt damage x2 for Tiptree winners.
x3 if the book is by someone I know
x6 if it's by someone likely to read this

But I'm being honest anyway.

Arnason, Changing Women (A Woman of the Iron People Part 2).
Bierce, Fantastic Fables, The Sardonic Humor of Ambrose Bierce.
Blackwood, Tales of the Mysterious and Macabre.
Bliss, The Door of the Unreal.
Carpenter & Shetterly, Speaking Fire at Stones.
Dickinson, Hindsight, The Old English Peep Show.
Dorsey, A Paradigm of Earth.
Dorsey and McCrosky, eds. land/scape.
Du Maurier, Don't Look Now.
Dunn, Ella Minnow Pea.
Emshwiller, The Mount.
Fforde, The Eyre Affair
Ford, John M. At the End of the Twentieth Century, How Much for Just the Planet?, The Final Reflection, Casting Fortune, The Princes of the Air.
Gabaldon, Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber.
Gorodischer, Kalpa Imperial.
Goto, The Kappa Child.
Harrison, Light, Things That Never Happen.
Joyce, Requiem.
Koja, Skin.
Kushner & Sherman, The Fall of the Kings.
Le Fanu, Wylder's Hand, Uncle Silas.
MacLeod, The Cassini Division.
Mann, Death in Venice.
Moon, The Speed of Dark.
Morgan, Altered Carbon.
Rezmerski, What Do I Know?
Smith, Clark Ashton, The Emperor of Dreams.
Smith, Sarah, The Knowledge of Water, A Citizen of the Country.
Smith, Thorne, Topper.
Tolkien, Book of Lost Tales 1 & 2, The Lost Road and Other Writings, The Lays of Beleriand, The Shaping of Middle-Earth.
Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep, A Deepness in the Sky.
Vonarburg, Reluctant Voyagers.
Walton, The King's Peace.
Waters, Affinity [Borrowed from heres_luck and neither read nor returned lo these many months later. Bad Truepenny.]
Wolfe, The Urth of the New Sun, The Book of the Short Sun.


Next time I complain about having nothing to read, somebody slap me, okay?

Comments

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

What was so awful for you about OUTFOXED? (Which, it sounds, you didn't get far into since you bring it up in your list of unread books.)

I like her characters, and her observations about life, class, etc. enough to put up with even the twee cat mysteries.

I thought VENUS ENVY was the worst of her books, although her revenge novel after breaking up with Navratilova is a close second; my favorite is probably IN HER DAY about the clash between different generations of feminism, and then the trilogy of SIX OF ONE, BINGO, and LOOSE LIPS.

I'd agree that OUTFOXED isn't among her best (especially the fox PoV sections) but it had a bunch of nice moments in it, and for me the fox hunting milleu evoked nostalgia of growing up on a horse farm. RIDING SHOTGUN had, for me, the same problems as VENUS ENVY with her mis-handling of things fantastic...

Anyway, I think it's a nice thing to have a stack of books to look forward to reading, and enough of them so that, regardless of the mood you're in, you have something that'll suit.

[ambar.livejournal.com]

I have a deep love for talking-animal books, but when the animals talk just like the human characters, the contrast is almost entirely lost.

I enjoy RMB for the cattiness, generally. Had to praise OUTFOXED for showing a woman in her early seventies enjoying a sexual relationship. But I must confess that I give a whole lot of slack to novels with a) lots of riding scenes where b) the horses behave like horses. Bujold gets this right, as well.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I got as far as the bit where she's asserting that foxes think fox-hunting is fun, and my suspension of belief snapped all its cables.

I've been told that American fox hunters don't kill the foxes, but there's something incredibly disingenuous about pretending that the foxes know that, and it just infuriated me so much that I couldn't keep reading.

I have no problem with books about fox-hunting (and would love to find someone who write about it properly, because it's a cultural phenomenon I'm interested in for various and sundry reasons), but I am not willing to participate in willful disavowal of what it is.

Also, I hate the way she writes her animal characters. Which is a problem I have with every cat-centric mystery I've ever read (except for Lillian Jackson Braun, with whom I had other problems, but at least her cats were cats instead of little people in cat-suits).

I guess you could call it a philosophical problem. *g*

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Recommendations on horses-behaving-like-horses books?

[kate_nepveu]

I don't know that you'll like Gabaldon. I mean, I do, but other people have said disparaging things about her historical characters' mindsets, and they sprawl like anything.

Anyway, that one just jumped out at me.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

OK, I can understand that problem with OUTFOXED. But then, I read RMB for her human characters and their foibles.

In general, my patience for talking animals is very low.

Do you know Patrice Kindl's first novel, OWL IN LOVE? It's a wonderful YA fantasy about a thirteen year old girl who is sometimes an owl and an owl who is sometimes a thirteen year old girl, and the voice is just perfect throughout the book (except for maybe a page and a half toward the end).

One of the things I think Robin Hobb handled well in her Tawny Man series which I just read this weekend is making the Witted animal characters retain their animal-ness. (Although I couldn't stand her sea serpents in the previous trilogy.)

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Owl in Love is on the list of books I'm looking for--which is much longer than the list of books I own and haven't read. People keep recommending it.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

Nancy Springer has a bunch of excellent non-genre YA novels and she always gets her horses right. (She gets her horses right in her genre YAs, too, but...) Some titles include NOT ON A WHITE HORSE, THE BOY ON A BLACK HORSE, COLT, A HORSE TO LOVE, etc.

She also has a great gender-nonconformity boy-and-horse story in Bruce Coville's anthology HERDS OF THUNDER, MANES OF GOLD.

[ambar.livejournal.com]

I occasionally get energetic thinking about writing a mystery series which treats cats as reasonably as Susan Conant and Lauren Berenson treat dogs. Then I lie down until the feeling goes away. :-)

Started thinking about your horse query and had a darned hard time coming up with novels!* Granted, you didn't specify novels, so I will cheat and suggest dipping into the works of Mark Rashid. They are intended as nonfiction, but are mostly anecdote/parable in style, rather than the cookbook methods of so many horse trainers who end up writing books.

I will also recommend Vicki Hearne's ADAM'S TASK, but you should have a taste for philosophy and poetic ellipticalism in the same work before tackling it. (She is about dog training as well as horse training. Her dogs act like dogs, too.)

Homer Davenport, THE ANNOTATED QUEST. If you can't find a copy via interlibrary loan, these folks (http://www.craverfarms.com) have copies to sell.

*I did mean that remark as praise for RMB, and also for Bujold.

Hmm. I suspect that since I took up horse-owning, I have slated horsey fiction behind horsey non-fiction. Must repair. Can't bear the thought of digging into the reams of series-intended-for-horse-crazy-girls published since I was the target demographic, but maybe some of them aren't as formulaic as they look.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Some of those books look strangely familiar. What could it be?

Read Affinity. It will make you happy. Well, it made me happy.

I posted but it doesn't seem to be showing up anywhere but my Semagic history, from which I conclude LJ is being weird.

Anyway:

Total: 3202
2003: 123
2002: 45
2001: 167
2000: 633
1999: 827
1998: 461
1997 and earlier: 942

Um. Yeah. From 1998-2000 I got a lot of freebies, plus I was earning my highest salary ever. (Dot-com boom, I miss you.) For the other years I don't have much excuse.

I guess this is useful if embarrassing in that I feel encouraged to cull like a mad eugenicist.

The full list by year is here (http://melymbrosia.gatefiction.com/misc/books.html), if you're curious.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Never mind, I was just doing something stupid with posting options.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

!!!!

I went and looked at the full list. What is this novel THE PRIVATEER by Josephine Tey? I'd never heard of it. Doing a quick google check shows it to be a posthumously published historical. Is it any good?

Thank you for alerting me to its existence!

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I haven't read it, so I can't say with any authority. But it didn't look very good when I skimmed it, and I haven't heard it praised.

There's at least one other Tey book not in the usual set of mysteries in print, although I forget if it's another historical, and several plays, usually as by Gordon Daviot.

I was under the impression *The Privateer* was actually an early novel, but I can't find anything to confirm that now.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

From what I've been able to turn up online just now, THE PRIVATEER was published posthumously in 1952.

There's an earlier non-mystery titled THE EXPENSIVE HALO published in 1931.

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

I am *deeply * envious of the full 12 volume edition of "The Golden Bough", BUT having tried to read some of the volumes the library owns, I found it wordy, tedious, and boring. Better to look at, and dip into either at random for short periods, or looking up specific topics.

You have much to look forward to.

[penmage.livejournal.com]

Owl in Love was lovely. Have you read her other book, Goose Chase? It's also YA, though it's more in the rewritten fairy tale genre, but is also excellent.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Trollope.

Probably The Eustace Diamonds would be a good one.

Oh, and you needn't be embarrassed, I don't at all mind people buying my books and saving them until they're in the mood.

Kindl

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

I quite enjoyed GOOSE CHASE as well.

I wasn't as taken with her second novel, though, THE WOMAN IN THE WALL, but I'm not sure if that was second novel blues on her part, or personal disapppointment that it wasn't, for me, as magical as OWL IN LOVE.

I haven't yet read the latest (LOST IN THE LABYRINTH) but I did buy a copy last time I was back in the U.S.

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

ooh - you have a treat in store with the Cats of Seroster; it's both a book in which cats behave like cats and an excellent novel in a fabulous setting. Best thing Westall wrote IMO

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

If you read Regencies at all, Julia Ross, "My Dark Prince", which is a pleasant riff on the Prisoner-of-Zenda thing. Learning how to behave around horses so that they trust you is an important plot piece, and it's obvious that Ross is a passionate rider. Mely recommended this one to me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

My book-coveting side wants the 12-volume set, but I hve to agree that the abridged edition didn't really make me want more. Another book that is great for dipping into, bad for reading cover-to-cover, is The Anatomy of Melancholy. The prose is lovely, though.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

I don't really read regencies except for, occasionally, Georgette Heyer, but I've make a note of Ross' MY DARK PRINCE. Thanks for the rec.

[cofax7]

I found the abridged Fraser in my folks' house when I was twelve, and have had it ever since. Now, what it was doing on the bookshelf of a mechanical engineer and his nurse wife is beyond me -- the only fantasy/folklore ever read in that house was brought in by the children...

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Same Nancy Springer who wrote Larque on the Wing?

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

There is, of course, considerable irony in the fact that a post about my enormous stack of UNREAD BOOKS has led to more book recommendations ... but I can live with that.

Thank you!

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

Yes, the very same polymath. She's extremely versatile in formats and genres. She also has a collection of poetry about horses that was published as a children's book by Boyd's Mill Press.

But she's won the Tiptree, won the Edgar (twice, I believe, for TOUGHING IT and LOOKING FOR JAMIE BRIDGER), was a Nebula finalist, etc. Very versatile, and very good.

Have you read her feminist fairy tale retakes, PLUMAGE and FAIR PERIL, which along with LARQUE ON THE WING make up a sort of gender-bending trilogy? They're not really connected, except thematically. PLUMAGE is stronger than FAIR PERIL, but both are worthwhile.

[ambartil.livejournal.com]

Ford, John M. How Much for Just the Planet?

Hilariously funny, only Star Trek musical comedy I've ever seen, but I'm sure it would be one of the best even if there were lots. A quick read, too.

MacLeod, The Cassini Division.

Good, but the *3rd* book of a kinda-sorta trilogy. IMO, the second one, The Stone Canal, is even better (haven't read the first: The Star Fraction). Fairly intense books.

Vinge, Vernor, A Fire Upon the Deep

Very good, but LONG and intense. The back cover blurb that calls it "A space opera for the '90s" is right on target; an ambitious book that arguably does what it sets out to do... but not an easy read.