Thursday, January 08, 2009

Most wanted

Here is a cool post from Short Stack, the Washington Post book blog. It lists the top five most wanted out of print books in 2008, from bookfinder.com. It is quite a diverse list, with a book of dirty photos, a book on carpentry and a book on running. Here are some books I am looking for at the moment.

David Gerrold A Matter for Men. I am a sucker for both apocalyptic and alien invasion novels and this one combines the themes in one book. Huzzah! I'm not sure how I missed this one, but I will be getting it soon.

Thomas Schatz The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmaking in the Studio Era. Although I love movies, I have done little reading on the making of movies. This one is supposed to be great.

Algys Burdys Some Will Not Die. More post-apocalyptic reading.

Simon Winchester The Sun Never Sets: Travels to the Remaining Outposts of the British Empire. Winchester is great. I love British Imperial history. Wistfulness always get me. So this one is bound to be good for me.

Angela Thirkell August Folly. Thirkell uses Anthony Trollope's Barsetshire to write English similarly rural focused novels but this time in the early 20th century. Since I like Trollope I think she is well worth a try.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Matter for Men is a great book, but you should know it is part of a series that is projected to be 7 or 8 books long. The only problem is that only 4 books have been written so far. Here are the published dates of the books:

1. A Matter for Men (1983)
2. A Day for Damnation (1985)
3. A Rage for Revenge (1989)
4. A Season for Slaughter (1993)

As you can see, I (and the many other fans of this series) have been waiting a very long time for book #5. The author often says he is working on it, early last year he promised publication in 2008, and still nothing. I'm giving up hope of ever seeing the series completed.

I recommend the series, just be prepared to have the story stop in the middle.

Tripp said...

That is too bad. I wonder what happened. Did he get attracted to other ideas? Did he write himself into a corner?

I plan to read them anyway. It sounds just so good.

I picked up Some Will Not Die yesterday. So that wasn't too hard to find.

Anonymous said...

I don't know what happened, but I don't think he wrote himself into a corner. He has made it clear the story is outlined and a good portion of books 5 and 6 are already written. I wonder if it is some type of writer's block but just to this particular series. In seems in some ways it was his "baby" and he wants it to be great. He doesn't have writers block in general, he has had many other books come out, and he wrote the just released internet star trek episode "Blood and Fire" at http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/ I do have hopes for the other books being finished released some day.

Tripp said...

Yes he is quite prolific, so maybe this one has to be just right. Which is too bad for us. How old is Gerrold? Will we have to wait for Gerrold the Younger to complete the series?

Thanks for the Trek link! I will be checking and most likely downloading that show shortly. Or really starting at the beginning. I don't want to spoil the earlier shows.