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Book acquisition May through July
Aug. 16th, 2024 12:35 pmBooks I am allowed to buy: -11.
These two were in the pick-up-for-free box of the small English-language library in my quartier.
The Land where the Blues Began, Alan Lomax
They were giving this away for free! It’s a mint-quality hardback! This is why one can never leave a free-books box unexamined. I am still half convinced someone made a mistake.
My Boyhood and Youth, John Muir
Good quality Penguin paperback, although it will probably start falling apart as soon as I start reading it. I’m interested in shifts in land use in the United States, it was there, it was free; I could probably have left this one in the box.
Three books that were gifts from my mother.
Cueillette de plantes et fruits sauvages comestibles en Méditerranée, Zohra Bellahsene
A handily small book, somewhat more discursive than precise. To identify something I am going to eat I am going to want more than a single photo, but I do have other books for that already. This provides an idea of what the edible species are and of what flora is characteristic for the region. Also contains recipes, in part from the author’s own childhood in Kabylia (in Algeria).
Les bases de la botanique du terrain, Rita Lüder
On the complete other end of the spectrum, identifying things by flipping through my flowers-by-color book has limits, and a recent outing I went on with the student botanical society showed me the existence of a more systematic way of identifying plants of which I am almost fully ignorant. This book proposes to teach exactly that. It’s translated from the German and insofar as it is region-specific at all it is so for Middle Europe, which is not where I am, but especially the more weed-like species do tend spread quite widely over the continent.
Guide Delachaux: Tous les Oiseaux de France, Frédéric Jiguet & Aurélien Audevard
This book has the nice poetic descriptions of the birds’ song and call which one desires to see in a bird guide. Now to find the species corresponding to my ornithologist former housemate’s description of “sounding like radio static”. That one is apparently pretty common on campus.
These two were in the pick-up-for-free box of the small English-language library in my quartier.
The Land where the Blues Began, Alan Lomax
They were giving this away for free! It’s a mint-quality hardback! This is why one can never leave a free-books box unexamined. I am still half convinced someone made a mistake.
My Boyhood and Youth, John Muir
Good quality Penguin paperback, although it will probably start falling apart as soon as I start reading it. I’m interested in shifts in land use in the United States, it was there, it was free; I could probably have left this one in the box.
Three books that were gifts from my mother.
Cueillette de plantes et fruits sauvages comestibles en Méditerranée, Zohra Bellahsene
A handily small book, somewhat more discursive than precise. To identify something I am going to eat I am going to want more than a single photo, but I do have other books for that already. This provides an idea of what the edible species are and of what flora is characteristic for the region. Also contains recipes, in part from the author’s own childhood in Kabylia (in Algeria).
Les bases de la botanique du terrain, Rita Lüder
On the complete other end of the spectrum, identifying things by flipping through my flowers-by-color book has limits, and a recent outing I went on with the student botanical society showed me the existence of a more systematic way of identifying plants of which I am almost fully ignorant. This book proposes to teach exactly that. It’s translated from the German and insofar as it is region-specific at all it is so for Middle Europe, which is not where I am, but especially the more weed-like species do tend spread quite widely over the continent.
Guide Delachaux: Tous les Oiseaux de France, Frédéric Jiguet & Aurélien Audevard
This book has the nice poetic descriptions of the birds’ song and call which one desires to see in a bird guide. Now to find the species corresponding to my ornithologist former housemate’s description of “sounding like radio static”. That one is apparently pretty common on campus.
Book acquisition Paris April 2024
Jul. 20th, 2024 11:48 am…which is a while ago now. I plead thesis. Most of these notes were written shortly after buying the books, though.
Number of books I was allowed to buy before my trip to Paris: 2. (The rule issupposed to be that I am allowed to buy a new book for each book in my collection that I finish for the first time. This is to instate some measure of accountability for my book acquisition habits, as of recent years I acquire books much faster than I actually read them. Free e-books don’t count for this counter, e-books I paid for do, as do physical books I picked up for free.)
Number of books I am allowed to buy: -6. Does the opera program book for Médée count? I am afraid it does.
Am I Too Loud?, Gerald Moore
A memoir by the piano accompanist of many famous twentieth-century singers, including my personal canonical male Schubert singer, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. I first heard of this book years ago, and have never been at risk of forgetting its title. Somewhat surprisingly, this is the book I’m finding myself reading first.
Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon, Spider Robinson
From what I’ve heard, this should be my kind of humor book. Looking forward to it.
Flight from Neveryon, Samuel Delany
#3 of a series of which I do not have #1 and #2, and I have not yet finished the Delany book that I already have, but rare author I’m pretty sure I like + cheap book = I bought it.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullough
I read this book in high school, in the high school library the book was also from, and loved it. Now I have my own copy. It’s a Southern Gothic-ish book, but mostly a story about a collection of lonely people, and their efforts of communication. I will save analysis of its central conceit for when I reread it.
Elizabeth’s German Garden, Elizabeth von Arnim
I’ve heard good things, and I like memoirs, and the early twentieth century, and I am trying to learn how to garden. The book is described as a novel on the back copy, but I’m still hoping for only homeopathic quantities of plot.
The Witches of Karres, James Schmitz
Considered not buying this, but the three passages I read at random already made me want to know how it came out. I should remember to take this one with me on my next train ride so that I actually read it, because it is the type of book I might otherwise forget about.
Taltos, Steve Brust
The next in the series. Teckla was not ideally cheerful reading, so we’ll see when I get to this.
The program book for Médée, the opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier I went to with J
I should at least scan this before I write up the opera. I hope it will answer some of my questions about both the original context and the choices made in the adaptation.
Number of books I was allowed to buy before my trip to Paris: 2. (The rule is
Number of books I am allowed to buy: -6. Does the opera program book for Médée count? I am afraid it does.
Am I Too Loud?, Gerald Moore
A memoir by the piano accompanist of many famous twentieth-century singers, including my personal canonical male Schubert singer, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. I first heard of this book years ago, and have never been at risk of forgetting its title. Somewhat surprisingly, this is the book I’m finding myself reading first.
Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon, Spider Robinson
From what I’ve heard, this should be my kind of humor book. Looking forward to it.
Flight from Neveryon, Samuel Delany
#3 of a series of which I do not have #1 and #2, and I have not yet finished the Delany book that I already have, but rare author I’m pretty sure I like + cheap book = I bought it.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullough
I read this book in high school, in the high school library the book was also from, and loved it. Now I have my own copy. It’s a Southern Gothic-ish book, but mostly a story about a collection of lonely people, and their efforts of communication. I will save analysis of its central conceit for when I reread it.
Elizabeth’s German Garden, Elizabeth von Arnim
I’ve heard good things, and I like memoirs, and the early twentieth century, and I am trying to learn how to garden. The book is described as a novel on the back copy, but I’m still hoping for only homeopathic quantities of plot.
The Witches of Karres, James Schmitz
Considered not buying this, but the three passages I read at random already made me want to know how it came out. I should remember to take this one with me on my next train ride so that I actually read it, because it is the type of book I might otherwise forget about.
Taltos, Steve Brust
The next in the series. Teckla was not ideally cheerful reading, so we’ll see when I get to this.
The program book for Médée, the opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier I went to with J
I should at least scan this before I write up the opera. I hope it will answer some of my questions about both the original context and the choices made in the adaptation.
