The fabulous Mrs. B over at The Literary Stew and new friend Honey at Coffeespoons are hosting a New York Review Books reading week November 7-13, 2010. And the best part is there are no rules.
If you haven’t checked out any of the generally fantastic books from the NYRB, now is the perfect time. Read one or two (or ten), write about them during the week of November 7th, and then see what others are up to. Signing up is no frills and easy over at The Literary Stew. Join us!
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| Here is my stack. Now I just need to figure out which ones to read for NYRB Reading Week. |
hogglestock 
Did you acquire ALL of those books in the stack especially for NYRB Reading Week? Or did you already own some/all of them? Do you purchase most of the books you read new? used? shoplifted? go to the library? borrow? Do you have a gzillion books on your bookshelves? If so, do you ever find yourself buying a book without realizing you already had a copy?
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Love that photo! And yes I am ready but not with a stack quite that large. And I must ask – did you go over to P&P and splurge? Or has this been a slow crawl of books into the house? And the color arrangement is fabulous! Now I want to see which ones you will read for the event.
Think I will tweet your post. People have to see that lovely stack.
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Oh what excellent timing! I just so happen to have received a review copy of After Claude by Iris Owens from NYRB. I'm hoping to have it read by around that time.
I also have A Dud Avocado, and I have Manservant and Maidservant out from the library, but I'm pretty sure those won't get read in time, what with my National Book Award reading as well.
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What a brilliant photo! I'm so glad you're joining and I'm looking forward to reading your reviews!
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What an amazing rainbow of reading you have in store for you! (If you need to store those lovely volumes somewhere, just let me know…)
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dpv: I have been collecting them over time, but a chunk of them were purchased en masse yesterday. Most of the books I buy are used or sale books. I haven't been to the library in a while. I have about 700 books on my shelves(this doesn't count art books or other large format “picture” books). About have of the books I own are in the still-need-to-read pile.
Frances: I am planning on doing a post thanking/blaming you for telling me about Politics and Prose rather nice selection of remaindered NYRB editions. I had about a third of this pile already. The other two thirds was the result of a very fun 1/2 hour at P&P yesterday. And believe it or not I did not buy every title they had. There was probably ten more I passed up.
Teresa: Manservant and Maidservant is definitely not a quick read. But it is one I enjoyed.
Mrs. B: Thank yuou for co-hosting it. It should be a lot of fun.
Lifetime Reader: I do like sitting and just staring at them. I have to remind myself to go read.
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I hope the week is a success and will re-appear next year because by then I'll have some books of my own. Being away from home is so not helping with plans like this, sadly.
Good luck on picking books to read from that huge pile! I'm sure there are many worth reading :)
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Very tempting–both the books and the readalong! You have a lovely pile–I've got a number of their books as well, but maybe not quite so many…(will have to work on that! :) ).
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The Dud Avocado is one of my all-time favorite books. I recommend reading that.
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I just came to your site through a Facebook link from NYRB Classics, and I see that you get your copies of the books the same way I do. I just picked up about four or five of them myself at Politics and Prose the Saturday before last. I have to keep myself from going upstairs to the regularly priced books or else I find a bunch more there that I want–lIke Gabriel Garcia Marquez's “Clandestine in Chile.” I may try this review thing out and read Krzhizhanovsky's “Memories of the Future.”
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I am beside myself with jealousy… they look so beautiful all together. NYRB Classics books are definitely my favourite in terms of how they look and feel, but they cost a fortune over here, if you can even find them. But your photo makes me want to own all of them… they're so beautiful.
Of those, aside from the ICB which you've already read, the only one I've read is the JL Carr, which is very good. I don't think I have any unread NYRB books on my shelves, so won't be joining in sadly… although the Reading Week does start on my birthday, so who knows?!
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p.s. would you mind if I used this photo (credited to you, of course) in my Weekend Miscellany? It is genuinely the loveliest photo I have ever seen in the blogosphere.
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Simon: Not only do they look and feel great but they smell good too. I think the JL Carr is going to be one that read for the reading week. Thank you for the compliment on the photo. Of course you may use it. I would be flattered.
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This is the first I've heard about this –sounds great, and that stack is fabulous. I bet they look so fabulous on your shelves. Have fun with the challenge.
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Fully and happily accept the blame. Might hit up P&P again this week.
Simon and two other Brits have complained this last week or so about the expense and rarity of these in the UK AND the desirability of them. Thought about picking up a bunch a doing a giveaway for UK readers only.
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