Wednesday, October 8, 2014

It's time for a book thread

Schizoid market, but it looks now like we may get that new high after all, after which the waves will tell us if it is the ultimate one.  We will pray this can end quickly with a sharp spike instead of weeks trapped in some tedious ending-diagonal pattern.  Let's give Bryan Franco credit for now for his historical model that demands one more all-time high for the chart gods to be satisfied.

So what's new on the bookshelf?

Well, I found this 1956 Mencken collection at the Ballard Goodwill.

H.L. Mencken, A Carnival of Buncombe, Johns Hopkins 1956

And A. N. Wilson's book on the decline of Britain, at Value Village.

A.N. Wilson, After the Victorians: The Decline of Britain
in the World
, FSG 2005

I've been picking up solid book club science fiction published by Nelson Doubleday, like these.

Harry Harrison, The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat, et al,
Nelson Doubleday, early 1980s

Anthony Boucher, ed., A Treasury of Great Science Fiction,
Nelson Doubleday, 1959

I'll buy Nelson Doubleday sci-fi books all day long.

Mark Anderson's shop in Ballard is now my favorite bookshop in Seattle.  If you're in the area, stop in on a Saturday and spend some time in his stacks.  Here's what I have got from him lately.

J.R.R. Tolkien, Rings trilogy, Houghton-Mifflin, 1965 revised ed

I upgraded my old boxed set of Tolkien to one with dust jackets -- for $45.  Such a deal on the set!

Immanuel Velikovsky, Worlds In Collision, Macmillan, 1950 1st ed

Velikovsky is crackpot science, but it holds a special place in my heart due to the 1978 release of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", one of my favorite cult films.

I also picked this up from Anderson's, Naipaul's account of his first visit to India.

V.S. Naipal, An Area of Darkness, Reprint Society London, 1966

This will go well with this other Naipaul I found at the Value Village over on Lake City Way in Seattle:

V.S. Naipaul, India: A Million Mutinies Now (signed), Viking 1990

This one is signed, from 1991, and worth at least $50.  Who gives a signed book away?

Here's another signed book, James Howard Kunstler's latest from the World Made By Hand series.  I've been a real putz not to get to this just yet.  Soon, very soon.  The story may go well with Kondratieff winter.

James Howard Kunstler, A History of the Future (signed),
Atlantic Monthly Press 2014

A book from my local Value Village.  All you need to know about the French existentialists is that Sartre was a salon commie piece of shit, and that Camus was the real deal, and a very good guy.

Olivier Todd, Albert Camus: A Life, Knopf 1997

A clean, crisp edition of a Northwest mountaineering bible:

Manning ed, Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills,
Mountaineers Press, 1967 2nd ed

I wanted my daughter to read "To Build A Fire", so I picked up this fine edition of Jack London from AbeBooks.com last week.  I wish more books were published with such care as this.

Jack London, The Bodley Head Jack London, Bodley Head, 1968

When she's a little older, I'll get her into Fritz Leiber.  Stacks of paperbacks will help.

Fritz Leiber assorted paperbacks, hells yeah!

And here are a few books from Robert D. Kaplan.  I really like his work, and have just about all of his books.

Robert D. Kaplan miscellany

Of course, this has all been leading up to something, a very special book I found, heavily discounted, from the closing sale at Wessel & Lieberman Books (R.I.P.) in Pioneer Square, Seattle.  I walked out with one of their gems, on the relative-cheap.

J.H. Speke, Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile,
William Blackwood & Sons, 1864 2nd ed
Speke, Source of the Nile

A fine copy of a rare book, and one actually worth reading.  Now I just need to get more and better Sir Richard Burton to match.

Anderson's Books has even got a set of Captain Cook's journals, pretty badass, and waaaay too rich for this collector.

It looks like I'll have plenty to keep me busy when the fall rains arrive.

9 comments:

christiangustafson said...

Chart 5 looks like the markets in the 70s sci-fi pulp novel Lucifer's Hammer.

Bryan Franco said...

That's what I'm playing for Bicycle. Hope they just finish this off. But to reiterate, if below 1905 on SPX first, then I play for just the lower 1700s, followed by new ATHs.

Phat Repat said...

Wow, quite the selection; thanks for that. If only there was more time... ;-)

But I will pick some of those suggestions and go from there.

Phat Repat said...

Let's see, aside from numbers, what major event is on the horizon that will influence the markets? Right, the November elections. New ATH then? Hmmm...

But, let's go with the SPX numbers as they are now:

Sell below 1941.14 Stop 1964.43
Buy above 1973.38 Stop 1950.05

Phat Repat said...

Yeah, not looking good for a new ATH right now; let's see what 3pm brings.

No electricity??? Now that's some dire stuff. Hope not. Heard that's an excellent book, though rather scary. I prefer unicorns, rainbows, skittles type stories. Ignorance really can be bliss... ;-)

christiangustafson said...

Careful -

Was 2019 - 1926 A?

Are we inside a B-wave triangle now?

C back to ... 1814 support?

Phat Repat said...

Good stuff. I'll go with WTI is an opportunity. Much lower and a crisis of some type will be fabricated. Or this truly is the end. Hmmm... ;-)

christiangustafson said...

EOD situation: IMO equity bears want a rally back to 1962 SPX into Monday to complete the triangle.

If we can get that, then I can give you an outright market CRASH in January, no foolin'.

I'll post a sketch tonight. It's a violent and ruthless end to the 3PDH.

christiangustafson said...

He who eats his neighbors first laughs last.

Hurry! Before it's too late.