book weeding

[julesjones]

A reminder that I am having a gradual weed of my book collection, and that you can find an approximate list of the "collect or pay the postage" books here:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/JulesJones/todisposeof

"Approximate" because I sometimes forget to move a book to the "disposed of" collection once it's gone. If something on the "dispose of" or "for sale" lists looks interesting, ask me to check if I've still got it.

Comments

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Coincidentally. I've just been discussing "Ancient Light" elsewhere on LJ. I didn't like the ending, but the person I was discussing it with liked it even less, to the extent that she vowed never again to read anything by Mary Gentle. Since you've given it five stars, I imagine that you couldn't have minded the ending that much. (Hopefully I've been vague enough for this not to be a spoiler for potential readers.)

I have John Wyndham's "Seeds of Time" somewhere on my bookshelves. It's an excellent collection of stories IMO.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I didn't think the ending quite came off; there were a couple of things I'd have changed, but I can't really explain what without major spoilers.

But in a way that's one thing I like about Mary's books. I can see the flaws, and I can see how I'd fix them, and though I don't do anything about it I feel a sense of satisfaction in contemplating my solutions.

[julesjones]

I thought it was extremely good -- but I also did not read the book again for nearly ten years... It was less of a shock the second time round since I knew what was coming, and I will probably re-read rather sooner this time.

OTOH, Mary said on rasfc that she's been asked more than once when the third part of the trilogy is coming out. :-)

The copy I'm giving away is one of a number of duplicates I ended up with while various bits of my library were in various storage locations for longer than expected, as is the "Seeds of Time". Now I've got (almost) all the books unpacked and catalogued, I'm tracking down the duplicates and deciding which copies to get rid of.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Even leaving the ending aside, I didn't think that it was nearly as good as "Golden Witchbreed". There were sections in the first half that I found very heavy going, though it improved later.

My three favourite Gentle books are "Golden Witchbreed", "Rats and Gargoyles" and "Ash" (though there are a few of her books that I have yet to read).

I notice that everyone but me (well you and Kalypso, anyway) seems to be on first name terms with Ms Gentle. I feel quite envious. :)

[julesjones]

Mary was on the USENET sf writers' group for the first few years after I joined it, so there are several people on my flist who know her through that.

Ash is still sitting on my bookcase in the TBR queue. :-/ So many books, so little time, and there is a reason why "milli-Ash" became a joking unit of book length on the aforementioned writers' group.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

I can understand why for the American maket it was broken into four more manageable chunks. :)

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

I regret not living closer, as you have a couple of things on your list that I'd like to snag - but they're probably not worth paying postage for.