The All Mighty Pile - Book Fair Ins and Outs

This is a special edition of The Ins and Outs. These are the books I bought on Porto's Book Fair. Meet the pile:

Whoa!

But lets start by the beginning. Being away from home means being away from the events happening at home. Which means there was not much chance of me going to this year's book fair in my city. That is, unless I could find a good reason to go home.

Let me check: Easter? Too late. Birthday? Too Late. Off days from work? Yeah, right (actually I managed to get some of those. On Easter and my birthday). Fall of the national government and elections? Oh yeah!

So, I went home last weekend to vote. I could have done it by post, but now I had an excuse to be home and use that time to go to the book fair. I had less than 1 day and a half to do all I wanted to do.

Saturday afternoon and night were devoted to the Book Fair, to buy books and look at books and buy some more books. Also, be with friends and meet fellow bloggers. But, mostly buy books. Because, you see, I had only one day. I had to make all my purchases on one day (not really, I have a friend on duty that goes check the books on discount and buys me stuff I want). And so I did a lot of book buying.

Here is the all mighty list of books:

1. The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore
   The review by Ana@Floresta de Livros made me want to read this one.
2. Escritos dos Ancestrais by Rodrigo McSilva
3. Minotauro: A Batalha do Labirinto by Gabriel García de Oro
4. Twilight of Avalon by Anna Elliott
   I have the second on the series, and I'm not reading it until I read the first. But I didn't have the first. Now I do.
5. Temeraire by Naomi Novik
6. Bibbi Bokkens Magic Library by Jostein Gaarder
   I used to read a lot of books by Jostein Gaarder and then stopped altogether. This is a children's book.
7. Brasyl by Ian McDonald
   This is what you get when you don't read the synopsis properly. The name in Portuguese is Brasil. It says it's science fiction. I took the giant leap of believing it was related to the movie Brazil. It's not.
8. The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay
9. A verdadeira invasão dos marcianos by João Barreiros
   Another result of a review by Ana@Floresta de Livros
10. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
11. The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
12. The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano
13. Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson
14. Os Ossos do Arco-Íris by David Soares
15. O Décimo Terceiro Poder by Madalena Santos
    This is a different kind of rec by Ana. I needed a 4th book for the promotion of buy 3 and take 4. I didn't know which book to choose, so she gave me this one.
16. The Black Tattoo by Sam Enthoven
    Jen@Cuidado com o Dalmata saw this one, and since there was a tattoed man on the cover she showed it to me. I decided to take the book, even though it talk about martial arts. For some reason it gave me a The Crow vibe.
17. The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert A. Heinlein

Yep, 17 books. And number 17 is divided in 2 volumes (2 very small volumes). So, 18 books. 18 books I had to carry around, and drag home. My hands are still a bit sore. And my hands hurt. And my TBR list has gone over the 200 mark. Should the Zombie Apocalypse come, I can always get myself and my books into a bunker and I have reading material for the following 2 or 3 years.

Happy International Day of the Book

I could make a bigger post out of it, but I'm tackling Mt. Doom To-Be-Read, in what I'm calling Operation Manga! Since I've come home for holidays I've taken care of the 6 volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist. Now I think I'll go read the 3 volumes of Nausicaa that I still have to read, followed by The Legend of Drizzt or Escaflowne.

So:

Happy International Day of the Book

Do a lot of Reading!!


Also, happy Easter!

ANIGA MIX '11 - de 31 de Março a 3 de Abril

This post is in Portuguese

Olá olá leitores tugas!

Um pequeno update para informar sobre o ANIGA MIX '11, que se vai realizar entre os dias 31 de Março e 3 de Abril, na Exponor, no Porto. O ANIGA MIX combina Banda Desenhada, Animação, Videojogos e Entretenimento, bem como a Cultura Japonesa, que ganha cada vez mais adeptos em Portugal.

Serão 4 dias de actividades e com alguns autores convidados. Por acaso vou estar em Portugal neste fim de semana (realmente por acaso), e como é uma visita um pouco relâmpago, não sei se terei oportunidade de dar um saltito à Exponor. Mas havendo tempo, decerto que vou aparecer por lá.

Autores Convidados
Filipe Melo 
I.A Dog Mendonça e Pizzaboy, I'll See You In My Dreams, Mundo Catita 

Filipe Pina 
BRK, Under Siege

João Mascarenhas
Menino Triste, Butterfly Chronicles

Rui Ricardo
Sonho Sem Fim, Superfuzz

Expositores presentes
O Lobo Mau

PressPlay

Oblivion Shop

Naraneko

Invicta Indie 9 Arts

Kuri Kuri Shop

Anjos Urbanos

Ekstra Shop

Warner Bros

Actividades

Oficina de Artes Marciais Japonesas | Lohan Tao Kempo Chinês, por Koji Azevedo | 31 de Março

Apresentação de Visual Novel | Por Luís Ferreira | 31 de Março

Cerimónia de entrega dos VIII Troféus Central Comics | Por Hugo Jesus e Daniel Maia | 2 de Abril

Concerto J-Rock com Yoshi O Puto Dragão | 2 de Abril às 15h30

Oficina de Língua Japonesa | por Inês Rocha | 2 e 3 de Abril

Oficina de Guionismo para TV e Cinema | Por Filipe Melo | 3 de Abril

Oficina de Balonagem e Legendagem Digital | Por Hugo Jesus | 3 de Abril

Oficina de Fotografia | Por Vânia Santos | 3 e 4 de Abril

Apresentação e exposição dos álbuns «As Incríveis Aventuras de Dog Mendonça» e «Pizzaboy 2» | De Filipe Melo e Juan Cavia

Apresentação e exposição de «Butterfly Chronicles» | De João Mascarenhas

Exposição de BD «O Sonho Sem Fim» | De Hugo Jesus e Rui Ricardo

Exposição dde Ilustração | De Pedro Pires

Prémios PressPlay - Produção Nacional de Jogos 2011 | Por Diogo Stuart | 3 de Abril

Karaoke Japonês | 2 e 3 de Abril

Salão de Visual Japonês - Hairstyling | Por Anjos Urbanos | de 31 de Março a 3 de Abril

Concurso de Cosplay | 3 de Abril


Outras Actividades

Oficina de BD e Ilustração
Concurso de Desenho/Ilustração
Oficinas de Origami
Projecção de Filmes de Animação
Zona Comercial
Concerto de 8 Bits
Música de animação, videojogos, cinema e televisão
Torneio de Videojogos
Oficina de Pintura Digital
Workshop de Cinema
Quiz Geek
Oficina de videojogos
Restaurante Japonês

Podem ficar a saber mais em www.anigamix.exponor.pt

Book Fair Haul, part 5

This week I made two more visits to the book fair.

On Monday  I ended up buying three books that I wasn't counting on. It is really one book in three parts, that was originally published in two books. Confused? So was I. It is O Planeta dos Dragões be Anne McCaffrey, which corresponds to Dragonflight and Dragonquest, the first two volumes of the Dragonriders of Pern series.



Yesterday I visited again, determined to do my last shopping, as the Book Fair ends next weekend. I bought four books: one that I've been trying to buy for quite some time (the one that disappeared from its shelf before), A Rainha do Sul [The Queen of the South] by Arturo Pérez-Reverte; one that I picked up on the first day, because it was pretty, and been looking at it ever since, Terra de Neve [Snow Country] by Yasunari Kawabata; the book of the day in one of the stands, that seemed nice, O tempo dos Imperadores Estranhos by Ignacio del Valle; and finally a book that caught my attention in a review, O caso das Mangas Explosivas [A Case of Exploding Mangoes] by Mohammed Hanif.


To top all of this, I received Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel in the mail, that I won in a competition made by the Portuguese publisher.

Book Fair Haul, part 4

Now that the fair is on its second week, it takes me much less time to walk through it. I know where most of the books are, and only check on some stands to see if there is anything new, or at a better price.

Today I went to buy one book, but ended up with two. And the name of another to check reviews and on bookmooch.

The one I wanted to get was A Escriba by Antonio Garrido (La Escriba in Spanish, not available in English), an historical novel set on Charlemagne's time.

The other one was a random book that I encountered on a stand that had some of Tim Burton's books. It is A Loja dos Suicídios (The Suicide Shop) by Jean Teulé, and it is a black humour novel. The first sentence of the book is (roughly translated by me):

"It is a little shop where a sun ray never enters."

It will probably be a fast but delightful read.

The one I will try to get on Bookmooch is a crime novel, based on Fairy Tales (because I like them, even if I had a bad experience with a book based on them). It is Brother Grimm by Craig Russell.

Book Fair Haul, part 3

It is Saturday and the weather seems to have mellowed down. Still warm, but not overly so. The perfect day to go check the book fair (yet again). And everyone seemed to have the same thought because it was packed!

It was a flash visit for me, because I only wanted to go buy one book: it was the book of the day in one of the stands.


I ended up with 2 books (it would have been three if the third one hadn't disappeared from its shelf): the one I was looking for, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun by J. R. R. Tolkien (A Lenda de Sigurd e Gudrún), and The Caballero in the Yellow Doublet by Arturo Pérez-Reverte (O Cavalheiro do Gibão Amarelo).

Book Fair Haul, part 2

Second day of the fair, and there I was under the blazing sun, and a list of books I wanted to find in hand!

Today I only bought one book (I mope, while my mother rolls her eyes and asks where shall I put all the books). Here it is, isn't it beautiful?

This is The book of imaginary beings by Jorge Luis Borges, and was on my wishlist for quite some time. I still haven't read Fictions (it's on my evergrowing To Be Read list), but I think I'll start with this one, because it's so pretty and seems so fantastical.

Upside of the fair: I can finally say I have something of a tan (even if it's more red-ish than brown).

Book Fair Haul, part 1

It is that time of the year, when the temperatures rise, the clouds gather threatening rain when there should be none and the book fairs pop up like mushrooms.

The biggest one here in the north of Portugal is Porto's book fair, now in its 80th edition. And it started today.

I went with some books in mind; of those I bought one: The Third God by Ricardo Pinto (O Terceiro Deus in Portuguese). I waited long for this book to be published, waiting for it be translated into Portuguese so it looked nice with the rest of the collection. It's a big book (888 pages, and I was afraid I was going to dislocate my shoulder just by carrying it around), and the last in the trilogy, so I really can't wait to read it.

I found two books in English, The legend of Sleepy Hollow and other stories by Washington Irving, and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.

The legend of Sleepy Hollow was one of those books that was on my maybe-to-buy/mooch/borrow list, this is, I might read it if I found it around, but I was not in a great hurry to get it. Still, it was there with a nice price and coming with "other stories", so I bought it.

Persepolis was probably one of the greatest finds in the book fair. I have watched the film, and loved it; and was aware that there was a book that was its basis. To find it in a book fair was amazing, and I had to take it home with me.

The other two books, in Portuguese, were on my wishlist for quite some time. Lord of the Light by Roger Zelazny (O Senhor da Luz, in Portuguese) and The Eye of the Heron by Ursula K. Le Guin (Explusos da Terra, in Portuguese). In fact, I had almost lost hope of ever find the last one. Both books were very old publication of pocket books, and extremely cheap.

Here they are, in all their glory!

There are other books that I found that I might buy on a future visit, and a lot more that I have to jot down the name so I can find more about it.