Quote of the day

"It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much. Life is long enough and our allotted portion generous enough for our most ambitious projects if we invest it all carefully. But when it is squandered through luxury and indifference, and spent for no good end, we realize it has gone, under the pressure of the ultimate necessity, before we were aware it was going. So it is: the life we receive is not short but we make it so; we are not ill provided but use what we have wastefully. Kingly riches are dissipated in an instant if they fall into the hands of a bad master, but even moderate wealth increases with use in the hands of a careful steward; just so does our life provide ample scope if it is well managed." - Seneca, "On the Shortness of Life"

More discount book buying

Went back to the library book sale and picked these up for a dollar each.

The Age of Uncertainty (hc) by John Kenneth Galbraith

Planet Earth (hc) by Jonathan Weiner

The Whole Shebang: A State-of-the-Universe Report (pb) by Timothy Ferris

The White Plague (hc) by Frank Herbert

Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman (hc) by James Gleick

The Ascent of Science (hc) by Brian Silver

The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity by Jeffrey Sachs

Trigger Happy: Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution (hc) by Steven Poole

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin (hc) by Erik Larson

A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World (hc) by Tony Horwitz

I already have a Kindle edition of Genius but will gladly add it in hardcover to my collection given my admiration for Feynman.

Latest discount book buys

Got these at the library book sale, $1 each.

Freedom: A Novel (hc) by Jonathan Franzen

Silent Spring (pb) by Rachel Carson

Mason and Dixon (hc) by Thomas Pynchon

The Blind Assassin: A Novel (hc) by Margaret Atwood

The Enemy Within: A Short History of Witch-hunting (hc) by John Demos

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (hc) by Eric Schlosser

Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (hc) by Marion Nestle

What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets (hc) by Michael Sandel

Contact (hc) by Carl Sagan

The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science (hc) by Natalie Angier

The Goldfinch: A Novel (hc) by Donna Tartt

Regret the Error: How Media Mistakes Pollute the Press and Imperil Free Speech (hc) Craig Silverman

The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap (hc) by Matt Taibbi

Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities (hc) by Martha Nussbaum

The Physics of Star Trek (hc) by Lawrence Krauss

I already have Kindle editions of Silent Spring and The Divide but am happy to add them in print to my collection at such a bargain price; and I have a paperback copy of Fast Food Nation which I will be donating back to the library since I've now upgraded to hardcover.

Mason and Dixon, Regret the Error, The Canon and Food Politics are former library books which look mint and appear to have never been checked out. (What Money Can't Buy looks close to new, as well.) The Canon, The Divide, The Physics of Star Trek, and Not for Profit are donated new books; Fast Food Nation is used with someone's name inscribed in the first page but appears to have never been read. Contact is also a donation and a first edition that looks like it has been sitting on a store bookshelf somewhere since its original release.

And I didn't pick this up at the library sale, but Barnes & Noble had Superheroes!: Capes, Cowls, and the Creation of Comic Book Culture (hc) by Laurence Maslon and Michael Kantor for $10, which I could not resist given how much I enjoyed the 3 part PBS documentary it is the companion to.