Books (Book Haul) | July 2016

I don't usually make book hauls on the blog... For some reason, it always made more sense to me to talk about books I have read, than to talk about books that I've bought or traded for and so on. But I know book hauls are common and popular posts on book blogs and booktube channels and so on, so I thought I might give it a try...

1) To kill a mocking bird, by Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird had been on my wish list ever since I first read The perks of being a wallflower (it's the first book on Charlie's reading list). I got it because I don't usually find English-written books in such a good price around here... There was a time - not that long ago - when there was only one place I could find books in English around here: a lonely shelf in a second hand bookshelf downtown. The price was great, but all they had were penguin versions of Austen, Dickens and Shakespeare, which was all I read when I first started reading English... Now however, you can find them anywhere. And not just classics either. Almost anything from Harry Potter to Ben Bova.

That being said, there was an oportunity to get my hands on Harper Lee's masterpiece and I took it. Started reading the book a few weeks ago,... It's nice (I kind of imagine a southern accent while I'm reading it), but it is not a quick read (not for me at least)... I should post a review about it when I'm done with it...

2) Dragões do Eter, by Raphael Draccon

Dragões do Eter...

The first thing to understand here is that there are not that many books of fantastic fiction written by Brazilian authors - at least, there didn't use to be. There has been a surge of such books lately  - several of the authors have been to nerdcast to talk about it - and it made me curious. Dragons of Ether is one of such books. In fact, this kind of literature was so unusual, the first book of this series was first published in Portugal!



The first book (Which Hunters) is set in a fictional land called New Ether, a world protected by powerful avatars... The synopsis at the back of the book doesn't really say much more about the story... I have read the first few pages, and I have an opinion about the book but I'll refrain from going on and on about it now... Let's wait for the review post.

The series with one of my favorite cups on top of them...

3) Espadachim de Carvão, by Affonso Solano

This is another book series of fantastic fiction written by a national author... I traded another book for it, and I'm told the first book at least is really good...

4) Fables of Aesop, by Aesop



Aesop was an ancient Greek story teller credited with a number of fables collectivelly known as Aesop's fables and collected in this book. It's a beautiful book by  Cosac Naify, a publisher which no longer exists (which is perhaps, the main reason why I got this). The book is beautifully bound. It certainly looks great on my shelf...

5) Fathers and Sons, by Ivan Turgenev



Yet another book published by Cosac Naify, Fathers and Sons, by Turgenev, tells the story of Arkadi Kisanov, a young man who returns home freshly after university, along with a friend, Bazarov. His father, Nikolai, gladly welcomes them both to his home, where Arkadi's brother Pavel lives, as well as his father's new wife and baby son. But Arkadi has changed while he was at the University of Petersburg, as his family soon notices. Pavel becomes upset at his strange new nihilist philosophy, and Nikolai feels his own opinions to be dated next to that of his learned son.

This book was a recommendation of one of my high school teachers (one of two reccomendations I am yet to follow, I should say)... If I remember correctly, he was trying to warn me against the shortcomings of nihilism... It's been several years, and, for some reason, I didn't get around to reading the book yet, but now I finally have in in my shelves I will. In fact, seeing as it's the story of a young man who recently graduated from university, I dare say it will be an even more fitting read now than it would have been in high school.

Some of the books on the "classics" section of my library...