BOOKLOVE: Mid-February 2014
I think my book hoarding tendencies has come to a point wherein I need to update BOOKLOVE twice every month instead of the usual monthly updates. This is the reason why I’m awake at 3 in the morning, to update a post that is usually reserved for the beginning of every month so that I can set, in this little corner of the world wide web that I can call mine, a record of my hoarding.
Here’s the mid-February haul:
- A Secret History by Donna Tartt – Tartt has been making a buzz in the literary world lately with her third novel, The Goldfinch. However, even if I am very interested in reading The Goldfinch, I still think that A Secret History would be the best place to start if ever I am going to read through Tartt’s oeuvre. Plus I got this for a steal.
- The Collected Stories by Leonard Michaels – I’m a sucker for short story collections especially if they are a part of an imprint that I’m collecting and also if they are dirt cheap which is the case for this collection written by Leonard Michaels. There is also the fact that I also have two of Leonard Michaels’ novels published by FSG classics.
- Selected Verse by Frederico Garcia Lorca – My recent desire to acquaint myself with poetry had me exploring and Lorca is one of the poets that I’m intrigued about after reading some of his poems over the internet. So, once I saw a copy of his Selected Verse in one of the branches of Booksale, I didn’t let the opportunity of owning a collection of his poetry pass.
Aside from the three books above, I also bought two books from the Penguin Great Loves collection.
- First Love by Ivan Turgenev – A tale about a group of people who, at the end of a dinner party, begin telling tales about their first loves.
- A Russian Affair by Anton Chekhov – A collection of short stories by Chekhov about love that can never exist, love that is impossible. The centerpiece of this short story collection is “The Lady With The Little Dog.”
Incidentally, the first two books of the Great Love series that I acquired were both written by Russians. Well, you can’t go wrong with Russians when it comes to love.
The Book Hooligan 
I believe, Aldrin too is collecting the Penguin Great Loves.
Have you completed them?
I haven’t yet.
These two are actually the first in my collection.
Beautiful collection 🙂
Thank you! 🙂
Turgenev and Chekhov are two of my favorite writers. 🙂
I have read several stories by Chekhov already so I’m looking forward to reading A Russian Affair. However, First Love would be my first foray into the works of Turgenev. I hope reading him would be a good experience.
Turgenev is generally good, especially his more mature novels the most famous of which is Fathers and Sons. NYRB also published his last novel, Virgin Soil, which deals with the narodniks, the Russian populist revolutionaries of the 1870s. All worth watching out.