I’m posting the Mieville List — the fifty-book list that I am planning to slowly work my way through over the next couple of years — mostly to note that some of these books are going to be pretty damned hard to get my hands on in Korea, seeing that they’re either out of print and the kind of thing you mostly only find in used book stores. Yes, this is a kind of appeal to the kindness of strangers, but not a loud one. After all, with the degree of traveling I’ve been doing, in some ways I have a feeling the 16-odd books on this list that I can’t get in Korea, I could probably pick up in one way or another, given enough patience. Still, since I have some friends who occasionally look around for books that might amuse me, I’m posting the list in the extended section of this post, with markings to indicate what I cannot get for myself, within the country, without a credit card.
I’m going to use several different markings. Bolded means I cannot get the book in Korea. Italicized means it’s possible to order the book, though only as a new book. Finally, strikethrough (like this) means that I already have the book in my possession, either here or in a box in my mother’s garage in Saskatoon, and that it’s therefore unnecessary for me to get any.
If anyone sees anything in bolded format, I’d love if you remembered me and nabbed it.
Iain M. Banks—Use of Weapons (1990)
Edward Bellamy—Looking Backward, 2000–1887 (1888)
Alexander Bogdanov—The Red Star: A Utopia (1908; trans. 1984)
Emma Bull & Steven Brust—Freedom & Necessity (1997)
Mikhail Bulgakov—The Master and Margarita (1938; trans. 1967)
Katherine Burdekin (aka “Murray Constantine