Feb 05 2004
What do you do when you’re bored?
I’ve been working in the U.S. for almost six months, and I tend to buy books when I get bored. I spend hours reading reviews and researching authors, then go to amazon.com and try to limit my purchases. Because I’m in the States, I’m buying from amazon.com instead of amazon.ca; books are cheaper down here. I bought these:
- Jacques Futrelle’s "The Thinking Machine": the Enigmatic Problems of Prof. Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, Ph. D.,Ll. D., F. R. S., M. D., M. D. S. by Jacques Futrelle.
This was originally published in 1945, but it’s being reissued with an introduction by Harlan Ellison. Futrelle wrote a lot of short-stories and novels with a detective, problem-solving theme. Harlan Ellison’s endorsement first attracted me to this. - A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict by John Baxter.
I like books about books and amazon.ca’s Recommendation section noted this one. - The Losers’ Club by Richard Perez.
After reading the enjoyable The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, I researched books that were written in a similar style: 1st person, juvenial angst, honest writing. It reminded me of Fade by Robert Cormier. - Slightly Chipped: Footnotes in Booklore by Lawrence Goldstone, Nancy Goldstone.
I read their first book "Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World" a couple of months ago and enjoyed their tales of discovering book stores and how they got into book collecting. I’m not a book collector - I just love books; but their passion of reading and how they learned about books is great. - The New Oxford Guide to Writing by Thomas S. Kane.
Jenny and I have been exchanging emails about writing recently, and I started to get in the mood, again. I require motivation and I love references books, no matter what the subject. This caught my eye when I was browsing books about writing at amazon. - A Shortcut in Time by Charles Dickinson.
I don’t remember how this caught my attention. Maybe it was from Lotus’s Recommended Reading list of 2003. - It’s Too Soon! by Nigel Mcmullen.
I read a review of this a couple of days ago, and amazon.ca’s reviews were favorable. I think Caitlyn will enjoy this.
