mjmooney Posted October 25, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted October 25, 2023 37 minutes ago, MakemineVanilla said: Hay on Wye is guaranteed to make you feel like Buridan's ass (cue KW meme), as it's impossible to decide whether to stop in the shop you are in or try another. Amusing factoid: I've been to Hay twice, round all the shops. And on neither occasion did I buy a single book. Too much choice, causing indecision and ultimate paralysis. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodders Posted October 25, 2023 Share Posted October 25, 2023 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted October 25, 2023 Share Posted October 25, 2023 2 hours ago, mjmooney said: Amusing factoid: I've been to Hay twice, round all the shops. And on neither occasion did I buy a single book. Too much choice, causing indecision and ultimate paralysis. A fine example of the tyranny of too much choice: the sheer amount of stuff just seems to kill my enthusiasm. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted October 25, 2023 Share Posted October 25, 2023 2 hours ago, AvfcRigo82 said: I've already decided i'll be getting b&b accomodation in the coming weeks and spending a week down there, I think it'll probably take that long to get round the whole place with the amount of book shops on offer. I think making a list of stuff you might fancy might help to fend off the ennui! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvfcRigo82 Posted October 25, 2023 Share Posted October 25, 2023 24 minutes ago, MakemineVanilla said: I think making a list of stuff you might fancy might help to fend off the ennui! Yeah I think that might be a wise approach, There's always the initial excitement when discovering these places but after a while it can becoming taxing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitvilla Posted October 26, 2023 Share Posted October 26, 2023 15 hours ago, mjmooney said: Just go to Hay on Wye. In recent history ... the last ten years or so ... been there twice. I recall only one bookshop worthy of recall, and an excellent one at that. Being there is not that unusual other than I live in almost rural Canada just an hour's flight from the Pacific. My favorite bookshop? Crockett Book Company. Is it special? Well, it is small, local and it has survived so far. Mods ... you can give me a warning now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted October 26, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted October 26, 2023 Turning Dan Brown into George Orwell. Quote The Turner Prize-nominated artist David Shrigley has pulped 6,000 copies of Dan Brown's best-seller The Da Vinci Code and republished them as George Orwell's novel 1984. He hatched the plan back in 2017 when he heard that an Oxfam shop in Swansea had stopped accepting any more copies of the conspiracy thriller. On Saturday 1,200 copies of Shrigley's 1984 edition will go on sale in the same Oxfam. Each is unique, costs £495 and comes complete with a signed and numbered print. Richard Broadhurst is the manager of the shop and remembers well what happened in 2017: "Around that time there was one particular donation that we were getting a little more than we could use, which was The Da Vinci Code, because it was such a massive best seller and then a few years after, everyone is clearing their shelves." BBC link You wanna act fast though, the article goes on to say that £495 is the price for the first 200 copies. Goes up another 300 quid after that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post rjw63 Posted October 29, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted October 29, 2023 Finally got my signed copy of Geezer Butler's "Into The Void". He is mosdef one of us, what a legend! 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitvilla Posted October 31, 2023 Share Posted October 31, 2023 Currently reading Determined by Robert Sapolsky. If anyone is interested in the biochemical origins of our behaviours then this is a book for you. As the title implies it is a pot-shot at free will. I would say it is an easier read than his Behave. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted November 3, 2023 Share Posted November 3, 2023 Tolkien fans might want to put this on their Christmas list, which I'm told is very good: The Ultimate Unofficial Guide to Tolkien’s World by Antony Cummins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follyfoot Posted November 17, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted November 17, 2023 Just started year of the Locust, the follow-up to I am pilgrim, which is arguably one of the best thrillers of modern times and 10 years in the making. Hard to put down. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted December 8, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 8, 2023 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted December 19, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 19, 2023 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitvilla Posted December 19, 2023 Share Posted December 19, 2023 Currently reading The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, by Herrnstein and Murray. From 1995, I suspect it is a bit dated now, but interesting. The forces at work they describe are probably still at work today. I have not gotten to the contentious chapters yet. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted December 19, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 19, 2023 As I approach the end of a novel, I always feel a sense of anticipation, knowing I will shortly be starting another (probably, but not necessarily, from my 'to read' shelf). Never is this more true than in mid-December, as I cue up the book that is to be read over Christmas. It has to be something memorable. That is where I am now. I have just finished a re-read of William Eastlake's Castle Keep - very good book, btw - but I find myself facing an agony of indecision over what to read next. I've picked up and put down half a dozen contenders, but none of them seems quite worthy of the coveted Christmas slot. I've been filling in with short stories, but this is mere stalling. A decision must be made this week... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follyfoot Posted December 19, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 19, 2023 On 17/11/2023 at 05:35, Follyfoot said: Just started year of the Locust, the follow-up to I am pilgrim, which is arguably one of the best thrillers of modern times and 10 years in the making. Hard to put down. stunning book up until 75% the way through, it then goes mental in a bad way. Author must have been on acid, bonkers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted December 19, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 19, 2023 Considering the Wolf Hall trilogy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted December 19, 2023 Share Posted December 19, 2023 2 hours ago, mjmooney said: As I approach the end of a novel, I always feel a sense of anticipation, knowing I will shortly be starting another (probably, but not necessarily, from my 'to read' shelf). Never is this more true than in mid-December, as I cue up the book that is to be read over Christmas. It has to be something memorable. That is where I am now. I have just finished a re-read of William Eastlake's Castle Keep - very good book, btw - but I find myself facing an agony of indecision over what to read next. I've picked up and put down half a dozen contenders, but none of them seems quite worthy of the coveted Christmas slot. I've been filling in with short stories, but this is mere stalling. A decision must be made this week... It must be the time of year, as I've just finished re-reading Wolfe's The Bonfire of The Vanities, which I enjoyed immensely. Starting anything new is now a problem, and I've already given up on a book by George Steiner and Anthony Bugess's Earthly Powers, but I just wasn't in the mood. I think the difficulty arises from the rather daunting anticipation of the new year. I probably need something trivial which doesn't require much investment of spirit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted December 19, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 19, 2023 12 minutes ago, MakemineVanilla said: Starting anything new is now a problem, and I've already given up on a book by George Steiner and Anthony Bugess's Earthly Powers, but I just wasn't in the mood I loved Earthly Powers. Did you ever finish The Man Without Qualities? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted December 19, 2023 Share Posted December 19, 2023 3 minutes ago, mjmooney said: I loved Earthly Powers. Did you ever finish The Man Without Qualities? I certainly did and I was watching an old TV programme the other day, discussing modernism, and it go a mention. I think it might have been mentioned that modernist authors have terrible difficulty in finishing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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