The Science of Book Buying
Dec. 29th, 2004 01:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miko2I still haven't listed what people gave me for Christmas or thanked everyone -- and I don't have time to list anything right now, but thanks to everyone. ^_^
But! Tom gave me several presents after I returned from Longview Sunday evening, and among them was the Nanny Ogg's Cookbook (I also have Sky's copy at the moment) and The Art of Discworld, which is a wonderful book full of Paul Kidby's art that I didn't even know existed.
While looking through it I realized that there was a sequel to another Discworld book. I own The Science of Discworld, which contains bits of story involving the wizards of Unseen University interspersed with scientific commentary. It's interesting enough, although not as much fun as an actual Pratchett novel. But in the meantime they've apparently published a Science of Discworld II: The Globe and are about to publish a third book in the series, Darwin's Watch: The Science of Discworld III.
I went looking for these books on Amazon and Powell's. Amazon only listed the third (as yet unpublished) book. Powell's listed a UK version of the first book. As far as I can tell, the first and second books are out of print here in the United States.
It only took me a couple of minutes to remember that I can order things via Amazon.uk. ^_^
So I've placed my order for the second book. It got some pretty scathing reviews over at Amazon.uk, but what the heck, I own nearly everything else related to the Discworld (although not everything... there are maps and play adaptations and diaries and comic adaptations the like that I don't really feel the need to own).
Anyway I reccomend the Art of Discworld to all of my friends who like the series. ^_^ And as for the Science of Discworld series... well, if you ever want to borrow it to see what it's about, just ask... I think Gene owns the first book in that series too, because I think I bought it for him one Christmas...
I also picked up a cd yesterday. It seems that Steeleye Span has a couple of new cds out, but I hadn't realized it until last week. Generally I check their bin at Silver Platters when I'm there, but I guess Silver Platters at Northgate never got in these two new cds. So after realizing they were out, I found one of them at the Southcenter Silver Platters while on my way to work. The other is not, per se, a new studio cd but a re-recording of a lot of their best songs from the past. I'll probably have to order that one online.
I got another thing in the mail that I'd ordered online a few weeks ago. I heard a woman named Abigail Washburn featured on the NPR show Pacific Time. Abigail plays traditional American bluegrass and old-time music, but since she studied Chinese in college and is fluent in the language (Mandarin I suppose), she has also translated bluegrass tunes and sung them in Chinese, adapted traditional Chinese folk tunes to bluegrass, and combined bluegrass banjo with traditional Chinese instruments. She's toured China and played with musicians there.
Naturally if you know me, I couldn't resist something like that. I went home and looked up the Pacific Time web site, which led me to Abigail Washburn's web site. Here I realized that she only had one cd out, and it was all traditional stuff. But she linked to the site of some Chinese reality tv show called Quest USA. I guess it invovled teams of kids from China running around in California competing against each other somehow. In any case, I was able to order their "music from the Quest USA show" cd, which contains three of Abigail Washburn's weird Chinese bluegrass songs. It also contains songs by two unknown American rock groups and by a pretty funny rap group made up of three restaurant workers from New York's Chinatown, who call themselves "The Notorious MSG" and rap songs like "Dim Sum Girl".
But! Tom gave me several presents after I returned from Longview Sunday evening, and among them was the Nanny Ogg's Cookbook (I also have Sky's copy at the moment) and The Art of Discworld, which is a wonderful book full of Paul Kidby's art that I didn't even know existed.
While looking through it I realized that there was a sequel to another Discworld book. I own The Science of Discworld, which contains bits of story involving the wizards of Unseen University interspersed with scientific commentary. It's interesting enough, although not as much fun as an actual Pratchett novel. But in the meantime they've apparently published a Science of Discworld II: The Globe and are about to publish a third book in the series, Darwin's Watch: The Science of Discworld III.
I went looking for these books on Amazon and Powell's. Amazon only listed the third (as yet unpublished) book. Powell's listed a UK version of the first book. As far as I can tell, the first and second books are out of print here in the United States.
It only took me a couple of minutes to remember that I can order things via Amazon.uk. ^_^
So I've placed my order for the second book. It got some pretty scathing reviews over at Amazon.uk, but what the heck, I own nearly everything else related to the Discworld (although not everything... there are maps and play adaptations and diaries and comic adaptations the like that I don't really feel the need to own).
Anyway I reccomend the Art of Discworld to all of my friends who like the series. ^_^ And as for the Science of Discworld series... well, if you ever want to borrow it to see what it's about, just ask... I think Gene owns the first book in that series too, because I think I bought it for him one Christmas...
I also picked up a cd yesterday. It seems that Steeleye Span has a couple of new cds out, but I hadn't realized it until last week. Generally I check their bin at Silver Platters when I'm there, but I guess Silver Platters at Northgate never got in these two new cds. So after realizing they were out, I found one of them at the Southcenter Silver Platters while on my way to work. The other is not, per se, a new studio cd but a re-recording of a lot of their best songs from the past. I'll probably have to order that one online.
I got another thing in the mail that I'd ordered online a few weeks ago. I heard a woman named Abigail Washburn featured on the NPR show Pacific Time. Abigail plays traditional American bluegrass and old-time music, but since she studied Chinese in college and is fluent in the language (Mandarin I suppose), she has also translated bluegrass tunes and sung them in Chinese, adapted traditional Chinese folk tunes to bluegrass, and combined bluegrass banjo with traditional Chinese instruments. She's toured China and played with musicians there.
Naturally if you know me, I couldn't resist something like that. I went home and looked up the Pacific Time web site, which led me to Abigail Washburn's web site. Here I realized that she only had one cd out, and it was all traditional stuff. But she linked to the site of some Chinese reality tv show called Quest USA. I guess it invovled teams of kids from China running around in California competing against each other somehow. In any case, I was able to order their "music from the Quest USA show" cd, which contains three of Abigail Washburn's weird Chinese bluegrass songs. It also contains songs by two unknown American rock groups and by a pretty funny rap group made up of three restaurant workers from New York's Chinatown, who call themselves "The Notorious MSG" and rap songs like "Dim Sum Girl".
