Yes, the local library has come up trumps again – following the arrival of several British Library Crime Classics, another has appeared, along with a novel by Raymond Queneau (an OuLiPo member like Perec), and here they are:
Mavis Doriel Hay’s “Murder Underground” is actually her first crime novel, so I’m reading them out of order – but no matter. Queneau is best known for “Zazie dans le Metro” – but we’ll got onto that later…
…because, of course, I have been having a bit of a turn out of books, and have literally got rid of hundreds from the house. Some have gone to charity shops, some to a local school (from the collections of the Offspring mainly) and some are on Read It Swap It. However, OH had a bit of a shock when several parcels arrived this week containing these:
They are, from top to bottom, Q’s “Cambridge Lectures”, “Ten Tales Tall and True” by Alasdair Gray, “Zazie in the Metro”, “Japanese Pilgrimage” and “Japanese Inn” by Oliver Statler, “The Virago Book of Love Letters” and “Tales of Suspense” by Poe. So this is where the wickedness comes from, because I’m supposed to be ridding myself of books, not amassing more!
However, in my defence several came from RISI, so it was a case of one out, one in for those. The few I bought weren’t readily available in the library and so if I want to read them I have no choice!
And finally today a little review copy arrived via the very wonderful Overlook Press – another Gaito Gazdanov book!
Gazdanov is one of my favourite newly discovered authors so I’m very excited about this! Off to see how quickly I can get through my current read, “Lanark” by Alasdair Gray, so I can get onto the others…. 🙂
Aug 29, 2014 @ 19:45:32
Nice. That reminds me I have another Queneau somewhere, I enjoyed Zazie. I’ve stopped using RISI as it’s now so expensive to send any book that is too fat for the large letter rate – I took another 2 boxes and 3 bags of books down to my favourite charity shop this week. Making good headway with getting rid of books, as it sounds you are.
Aug 29, 2014 @ 19:51:10
Yes, the fatness of books *is* an issue – which is why I’m being very selective with my swaps. The main issue I have is with people who don’t respond – I always do straight away, whether it’s a yes or no. Some people don’t ever, which I think is incredibly rude. And as for the person with 5 books on offer who keeps requesting mine and who I keep refusing…… Grrrrr! But the piles *are* going down, so that must be a good thing!
Aug 29, 2014 @ 21:22:51
The Virago book of love letters -oooh sweet! I may need to know more about that.
Aug 29, 2014 @ 21:59:51
It was new to me too – but it features people like Woolf and Vita Sackville-West so I thought it was worth a look!
Aug 30, 2014 @ 21:24:27
Some great selections there I’ve read the Queneau flight of Icarus and have the other somewhere to read had same Poe well my dad did he was a big readers digest fan had a few from that series he brought
Aug 31, 2014 @ 10:41:55
I have Flight of Icarus from the library, but it’s the only Queneau they have so I was reduced to buying some….. 🙂
Oct 10, 2014 @ 06:44:08
I must read some Queneau, because of the iris Murdoch connection. Well done on the clearing out – that’s amazing. I’ve got as far as amassing a pile in the corner of my study to register on BookCrossing and get out of the house that way … but not followed through on that yet. Oops!
Oct 10, 2014 @ 09:39:26
Well, I did pretty well – but the books haven’t *actually* left the house yet. They’re lurking in the garage awaiting a charity collection or in the back room whilst on RISI… 🙂
Oct 11, 2014 @ 11:49:19
That makes me feel a lot better!
Oct 11, 2014 @ 14:57:29
OH has started to mutter a little about them so I suspect they will have to go soon!