My limit, again

[muckefuck]

1. SHAFAK, Elif. The bastard of Istanbul. Turns out I'd read the cover blurb on this some time ago now but replaced it on the shelf because it sounded so chick-litty-semi-autobiographical-first-novel. Now that I know a bit more about Şafak, I'm more willing to place my trust in her.
2. WILLIAMS, John. Stoner. There aren't enough Missouri authors that I can afford to pass one up when his best-regarded novel ends up republished as a sleek NYRB Classics edition.
3. McGAHERN, John. The collected stories. Clearly I've decided to make "short story collections by 20th-century Irish authors" an area of concentration for my personal library. Does this mean I need to go back and pick up the collected stories of Elizabeth Bowen I saw last Friday, even if it is in hardcover?
4. MILLER, Ross. Here's the deal. The roundly-praised history of Block 37 in Chicago, remaindered for $4.95. Can't swing a cat without hitting a Chicagoan who's a sucker for a bargain!
5. WHEELER, Max W. The phonology of Catalan. Can you believe I actually spent valuable seconds asking myself whether I needed to own this? I know! Blame it on premature onset of dementia.

There were more nonfiction books I came close to picking up, but the voice of reason spoke to me as I held an 800+ page history of Ireland in the 20th century and it was difficult to go back after that.

Comments

[mawombat.livejournal.com]

Shafak's Bastard is good, but I really recommend her book Forty Rules of Love. It's deeply engrossing if a bit rough in style.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I almost picked up that instead but it seemed a little more demanding than what I was up for right now.