Library Additions

Quotes for Friday will be back next week; haven't marked enough lines for a serving this week. In its place, I would want to share my newly acquired books with you instead.

It has been a month since I shared my list of acquired books on this blog. The reason for the time lag being that I have acquired fewer books over this period. However, there is a person out there who has been sending me some of the books on my challenge list. And I have recently some books from her. Thanks very much for your kindness.
  • Mad Libs by Roger Price and Leonard Stern. This is a workbook of grammar. After having the fun, I'd work it out with my son. Don't you just love it when a child you don't know send you a book? This is why I am against any sort of book burning. I am beginning of forming an online movement (if one has not already been formed) about Bloggers Against Book Burning. Let me know what you think.
  • The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer. This book is on the list of Top 100 Books Reading Challenge.
  • The Burger's Daughter by Nadine Gordimer. This is also my my Top 100 Books Reading Challenge. Gordimer is one I have read only in short stories. I am therefore happy to have received two of her most sought after books. She will be the fourth Nobelist I would read after Soyinka, Morrison and Coetzee.
  • Sula by Toni Morrison. It looks like I am an aficionado of Morrison even if I am yet to read her entire Oeuvre. I started collecting her books after I read Beloved and Song of Solomon.
I also picked up a book and had it autographed at the Writers Project of Ghana's last book reading for the year:
  • Journey by G.A. Agambila. I don't know when I am going to read this book. The way I see it, it might take a while or perhaps Kinna would once again rescue me with her Ghanaian Literature Week.
My new job sometimes take me to other African countries. Late October I was in Zambia and I have decided to pick a book or two from every country I visit, if possible by authors in that country. However, the ones I picked in Zambia were not written by Zambians. I discovered that local or African-Books are expensive than foreign ones:
  • Speeches that Changed the World by Cathy Lowne (Compiler). This book contains speeches since the days of Julius Caesar that have shaped the world; or changed it.
  • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. This is not strictly on any challenge list; though the book is one I have been looking out for after reading Orwell's 1984 and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.
In effect, these are all the books I have received or purchased since October 18, 2011. Have you read any? What is your opinion?

Comments

  1. How fun that work had you in Zambia, I hope you had a fantastic time there. I've not been, but one day hopefully... :)

    Some great new books there - I hope you enjoy them all.

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  2. it is always a joy to add a book to the growing mountain.

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  3. I started Burger's Daughter last year, Nana, and was enjoying it although I was trying to read too many other books at the same time. Hopefully I'll return to it sometime in 2012. In the meantime, happy reading to you--looks like a nice assortment of books you've picked up!

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  4. I am a firm believer in one book at a time. I cannot read more than one at a time.

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  5. What a great list of books, and I really love Mad Libs! Glad that you have some generous friends who are happy to send you books! I can only imagine how happy it makes you!

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  6. I love it when you tell us about your new purchases - it is interesting to hear what people are thinking? I think you will LOVE LOVE LOVE Brave New World

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  7. @Zibilee, I was really happy whenever i receive books from friends.

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  8. Of these, I have only read Brave New World. I didn't like it as much as either 1984 or the Handmaid's Tale, but it's still worth reading alongside them :)

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  9. I guess these are the trilogy of the dystopian sub-genre that are of necessity must be read together. Guess most who have read one have also read either of the remaining two.

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  10. Oh, have fun reading Brave New World! I find it difficult to take very seriously, but I do remember chuckling over some of his ideas, like the Malthusian belt:)

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  11. Most dystopians are superficially difficult to believe but if one think about certain governments, certain researches, certain advancements in science, all the world needs is a willing dictator. Haven't read BNW so I can't tell what's in it but regarding 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale, we are living them presently, if only mildly.

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  12. You should enjoy Sula. Oh, I'm so behind on my reading of Gordimer. I'm yet to read A Brave New World. Perhaps we read it together? Zambia, huh? Of all the Southern African countries, it reminds me the most of Ghana.

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  13. @Kinna, I hope to. Everything Morrison is a must read for me. Perhaps we could arrange a time to read Brave New World, though I don't think it is a scheduled book for me this month.

    Yes we work in Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania and four other countries including Ghana. I spent only three days there...

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  14. "Burger's Daughter" is a very good book. I'm sure you'll like it. "Brave New World" is also a must read.

    I didn't know you were in Zambia. Too bad it was only for 3 days. Better luck next time.

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  15. @I'll read one of Gordimer's after what I'm currently reading.

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  16. I look forward to your thoughts on Sula. I read it in college, but don't remember much about it.

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