Meara....

I read the latter right after reading 1984, and I liked 1984 better, though I understand they're two different books.

I read BNW right after 1984, or tried to. I found 1984 so depressing, I couldn't get more than about three pages into it before I had to give up and go read a Garfield collection. Still haven't picked it back up.

Tangentially - I did read a non-fiction book by Neil Postman called Amusing Ourselves to Death, about how TV is causing the destruction of society. In the introduction he talked about how everyone had been afraid of 1984 becomming a reality, when that was never really a danger - we'd seen fascism and its ilk, and were on guard now. What we were in serious danger of succumbing to was the willing blissful idiocy of BNW.

I didn't entirely agree with his premise, but found it to be an intruiging book anyway.

(I just recently reread Red Mars, and was left with the same impression -- the characters are believable and well-drawn, but they're not in charge.)

Yes! I still haven't finished Blue Mars, but the first two books are so sweeping and vast. The books have some great set-piece scenes, too - Green Mars features the fall of a space elevator cable.

I can't believe there's no one in here to squee with me over the antique KSM. 1893 people!!!

I'll squee over it, Heather! SQUEEE!!! You should still post those scans.

(Sean (K), if you see this, this is what amused me about my compliment to you in GWW)

Now it all makes sense.

BTW- Whenever Sean is around, I have mentioned your Hamlet theory last night at the bar and several of the patrons would like to know where they sign up to make out with you.

t packs bags to move to Texas

I found 1984 so depressing, I couldn't get more than about three pages into it before I had to give up and go read a Garfield collection. Still haven't picked it back up.

Brave New World is far less depressing, for the most part, and is much funnier. Until the last third or so, and the final image is quite the downer.

Brave New World is far less depressing, for the most part, and is much funnier. Until the last third or so, and the final image is quite the downer.

Oh yeah. Visualizing that last paragraph still gives me the chills.

World building, world painting -- Salman Rushdie does that for me, very well.

I need to read some Rushdie. I have no explanation for why I haven't except that I tend to get lost in bookstores.

Scanner is broken, but I just took a couple of pics. Lemme put them up.

1893 King Solomon's Mines

It may be an earlier edition- there's a dedication on the last page - (something Jones) from his S.S. teacher- 1893

The quote on the front says "May blessings be upon the head of Cadmus, the Phoenician, or whoever it was that invented books."- Thos Carlyle

The books have some great set-piece scenes, too - Green Mars features the fall of a space elevator cable.

Unless they rebuild it, that's in Red Mars. (I went to the Strand today looking for the other two, which I haven't read yet, but they weren't there. For a store with 8 miles of books, their sci-fi section is kind of sad. Lots of William Shatner books, and at least two copies of the LXG novelization, no Kim Stanley Robinson at all.)

I did find Singularity Sky, which I'd forgotten I was looking for, and Clouds End, which I picked up because people had been talking up Sean Stewart in this thread. Also a reprint of the 1903 Good Housekeeping Everyday Cookbook and a book called Cookoff! about competitive cooking.

Oooh, very pretty book, Heather.

Elizabeth Bishop is the motherfucking man (I'm fairly sure Jen will back me up on this)

Hells yes.

Then again, I'd back you up if you were walking backwards into a fire, because I dig you like that.

But I really do like Elizabeth Bishop quite a lot.

Speaking of poetry, I swear the recommendations list is coming up. Fair warning that it will be strongly skewed towards 20th century Americans and Canadians.

Two things:

On AMAZON, you can remove purchased gift books from affecting your recommendations. And I started getting good recommendations after I rated several books I own and marked all recs that I already owned as such.

I made an earlier post that linked to the Great Books Project of the Great Books Foundations and they list several different lists that have been compiled of "canon". I think Alice Walker - The Color Purple is on there, but I am not sure. If you google Great Books Foundation you can find all the info.

And when people say they think something already is canon, are they referring to an actual list like that or somthing more abstract?