I took it upon myself to start a new thread, the old one is having hot flashes.

Today I bought 6 Discworld books. I'm addicted.

Is buying books being bad??? :'(

Nay, books good, Aussie summertime TV bad!

Haven't bought any books lately, but Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is such a good story to experience it's like a 3D choose your own adventure, only you point at things with the stylus to slash them with your sword.

I am considering buying another book, but I haven't bought many books since I am forced to read books I do not like for school! HATE HATE HATE IT!

I just ordered The Quarters Novels by Tanya Huff from amazon. I was ordering something else and I didn't have enough for free shipping.

Yes, that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.

I've also been bad again:

I found the leather bound book Fourteenth Century Mural Painting and Its Symbolism on ebay. 1500 copies have been printed, and the illustrations where just too beautiful the let this chance pass:



edited to say: apologies for making the page load longer by adding a photo.

Message edited by its author, Jan 12, 2008, 8:46am.

Beautiful!

Someday I want to sit and browse through J_ipsen's library, and I do mean all day. He buys the loveliest tomes.

I am easily influenced: bought A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, and Tehanu at a used book store here on Vashon Island, where I am house/dog sitting. OK, now time to read.

Bad again today, but it's my birthday, so I think I was a little justified (and one was an exchange because I received a gift I already had, so it's not THAT bad):

Memories of Ice - Steven Erikson
Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier - have been dying to own and reread this since the first time I read it in school, and now I finally can!
The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
The Alchemist's Apprentice - Dave Duncan
The Masque of the Black Tulip - Lauren Willig

Author touchstones not cooperating today.

littlebookworm - I love Rebecca, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Rebecca ROCKS!

Okay, like I said in the old dying thread, I was really bad this past week. Here's what I got:

Treasury of the Fantastic by David Sandner
Goddess in the Kitchen: 201 Heavenly Recipes, Spirited Stories & Saucy Secrets by Margie Lapanja
Hot Flash Gal by Kelly Povo
Eternally Bad: Goddesses with Attitude by Trina Robbins
Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot by Lon Milo Duquette
The Demon Lover by Dion Fortune
When I See The Wild God: Encountering Urban Celtic Witchcraft by Ly De Angeles
New American Bartender's Handbook by Dave Broom
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
The Antichrist: a Criticism of Christianity by Friedrich Nietzsche
A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories by Hans Christian Andersen
The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud
Inventing the Abbots by Sue Miller
A Modest Proposal and Other Prose by Jonathan Swift
Bitter Sweets by Roopa Farooki

Will edit to try to give touchstones a chance to load.
Forget it. They are NOT cooperating today.

Message edited by its author, Jan 12, 2008, 5:13pm.

I got two today-- The Collected Poems: 1956-1998 by Zbigniew Herbert and Poems of Endre Ady by Endre Ady. I told myself I could get one but somehow ended up getting both. So, yes, I have been bad. :)

Wow--touchstones really aren't working right.

#9, maggie, fannyprice is really enjoying The Earthsea books right now too, so it's great that you're reading them and can add your thoughts to the discussion if you want.

#6, j_ipsen, that book looks absolutely spectacular. I love browsing through the antique book section of eBay just to see some of the wonderful books. There are such amazing finds. Yours is gorgeous!

I love Rebecca too, and A House on the Strand has always been another favourite of mine written by Du Maurier.

A Journal of the Plague Year sounds interesting Clamairy, I like Defoe's writing, I've got a biography of his on my TBR pile I should bump up higher, sounds like he had an interesting life. Good haul btw!

Even though I've been vowing to NOT buy anything until I've whittled away at my TBR pile, I'm really itching to go to the used bookstore in Nanaimo soon, as in this week, (I think I really need to visit my daughter-good excuse) and I know that I'll come out with a bundle of books. It's been a rough week, I think I deserve some books.

OK, I did it again. Pretty much because of the mushrooms discussion on another thread. All That The Rain Promises and More...A Hip Pocket Guide to Western Mushrooms, Birdsongs of the Pacific Northwest, and The Horse Behavior Handbook. The first book is self-explanatory, the second...I've always wanted to be able to recognize a few birds songs and this book has a CD with it. 165 birdsongs! And the third book because I may be house sitting for a friend who has a dog and a horse. That would be a first for me. And fun, I think.

The touchstones are not correct )-:

Message edited by its author, Jan 13, 2008, 7:53pm.

Today I picked up The Subtle Knife for my son's upcoming birthday.

I picked up Shadowmancer by G.P. Taylor at the Library Book Sale for an astronomical, obscenely high price of... 40 cents Australian, in good condition. This book is increasingly hard to find, so if you can snap up a copy, grab it!

I just found it in a bargain bin at WalMart!! (For a little bit more than 40¢, but still cheap.) Haven't had time to read it yet.

I'm trotting my cotton-tailed hindquarters down to the shop today to buy Suite Francaise. I bout the third volume of Sandman last week. I'm in the middle of moving, and if the BF (who is helping to pack and catalog the library) finds out I'm buying books, he'll probably leave me for an illiterate stripper. Or his last girlfriend. It's all the same.

I bought a book new last night, which is rare for me. I had planned on buying The Portable Atheist from Amazon.com, but with tax and shipping, it would have been the same price as buying it new in the store (and I'd have to wait for it!)

Bought the following while at ALA Midwinter.

--The Box of Delights
--The House of Arden
--The Magic Pudding

and American Jennie, Anna Sebba's new biography of Jennie, Lady Randolph Churchill (a freebie actually, handed over to me on the last day just because I walked in the booth).

Even worse, I realized today that I have a book group in less than ten days and still needed to pick up the book before I could read. That one is Evidence of Things Seen by Elizabeth Daly.

Message edited by its author, Jan 16, 2008, 3:01pm.

Oh, I've been so very bad. I was man enough, big and bad enough, in the words of Issac Hayes or whoever did the theme for Shaft in Africa, because I bought The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide by Douglas Adams
for $26 Aus when it normally is $40 or more Aus, and I even got it at that price new, since it was so rare in Aussie bookshops to get all 5 Hitchhiker's books in one volume (specifically this hardback one which I had been dreaming of for two years now)...

I got my amazon package yesterday - Bloodchild, Kanyen'keha Tewatati and Beowulf: A new verse translation - and was naughty at the bookstore. I came away with Tomorrow, When the War Began. I remember enjoying it a lot when it first came out, so I plan to go back and read the series again.

I just cashed in my coin jar for an Amazon gift certificate and ordered:

Hal Spacejock:Second Course by Simon Haynes
A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin
A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
Satan's Circus by Mike Dash
Once Upon a Spring Morn by Dennis L. McKiernan
Crusader by Sara Douglass
Wolf's Blood by Jane Lindskold
Mimi and Toutou's Big Adventure by Giles Foden

The Last Hero a large-format Discworld book w/illustrations by Kilby
The Wit & Wisdom of Discworld
8^)

I ordered Foreigner yesterday and they said they mailed it today, I should have it at my home tomorrow.

I also bought Fresh and Fabulous Painted Furniture at the used bookstore here on Vashon Is. I won't be home to pick up Foreigner until Saturday. sigh.

How lovely! Once paid $90+ for a medieval mss. reproduction at a local used / rare books store. That was when I had more money.

The one you have is a beauty. Have to check the name and see if you also have the one in my library.

Yoyogod--Good choice; George R. R. Martin's excellent. You'll enjoy these!

On topic for once, instead of responding to others.

I was bad this week: just got Dinesh D'Souza's What's so Great About Christianity, and the new Clarence Thomas autobiog, My Grandfather's Son, Flesh and Spirit by Carol Berg (first of two), and Jeffrey Overstreet's Auralia's Colors. I have a lot of Berg.

Late birthday books:

Foreigner - C.J. Cherryh
The Onion Girl - Charles de Lint
The Curse of Chalion - Lois McMaster Bujold

Really into fantasy lately.

Oh, have you read The Onion Girl yet? I've passed it in the bookstore a million times. Let us know if its good, I just might have to give in!

BTW, The Curse of Chalion is fantastic.

I'm not bad, it's my birthday! Stopped by the used bookstore on the way home and found all of these for less than $9. I feel rich.

The High King by Lloyd Alexander
The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander
The Cereal Murders by Diane Mott Davidson
Dying for Chocolate by same
Sticks and Scones by same
Jedediah Smith by Dale L. Morgan
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet A. Jacobs
The Illustrated Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Also picked up Inkheart from the library to read. I'm feeling pretty good. :)

I picked up Renegade's Magic by Robin Hobb this morning.

#32 - I've read The Onion Girl a couple of times - I think it's some of de Lint's best work.

Message edited by its author, Jan 18, 2008, 9:49am.

The Onion Girl is fantastic! Highly recommended. Charles de Lint is my ONLY completist autor. I don't believe in getting everything someone writes simply because of who they are, but this man... genius.

also Inkheart is good!
sequel is Inkspell
third (supposedly last) is NOT out yet - she writes in German originally, and takes FOREVER.

Oooo, will have to indulge myself and pick up a copy of The Onion Girl. Thanks!

I love the positive reviews! I'm even happier I picked up the book now - I just had heard a lot about Charles de Lint and when I saw this book I thought I'd give him a try.

I've been sooo naughty this week. I blame feeling sad. Finding nice books cheers me up :-)

Lanark by Alasdair Gray
The Penelopiad by Margaret Attwood
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a verse translation by Simon Armitage
The Odyssey, the Fitzgerald translation
Astonishing Splashes of Colour by Claire Morrell
Anna Karenina in the new translation
We Need to Talk about Kevin
and Pillars of the Earth

The last two especially were LT recommendations. So it's all because of you guys really. Nothing to do with my lack of self-control ;-)

Ok, I already posted this on part 3 of the thread, but I didn't get the packages until today (does that count? :P). Also, I have a small revision to make, as evident by my rant in the cranky crabcakes thread, sadly :(

Mort by Terry Pratchett
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett
Soul Music by Terry Pratchett
The Sandman: Book of Dreams by Neil Gaiman

And instead of getting this:
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

I got this:
Starhawk by Mack Maloney

:(

*sigh*

Enough ranting for tonight. I'm gonna go start reading "Jonathan Strange" now...

Ok, I already posted but I was bad again today :)

I picked up The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie and The Escapement by K.J. Parker.

I used up a little bit more of my Christmas gift card to get:

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
Magyk by Angie Sage
The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, vol. 1
Melusine by Sarah Monette

I also borrowed the first two Ranger's Apprentice books and Tithe by Holly Black from the library. Obviously, I'm in a total YA mood right now. (Well, if you discount the two titles that are obviously not YA...)

I got The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton and The Complete Fairy Tales by The Brothers Grimm.

Now I'm a guy who's read widely, and I know they sanitized the Grimm's Fairy Tales for the Disney movies, but if I need warning that my childhood innocence is going to be shocked out of its cradle, I need it now. As Tabitha from the TV Soap "Passions" said, "They don't call them The Brother's Grimm for nothing". So what exactly am I in for?

Naughty again today. *slaps wrist half-heartedly*

I bought Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler (very good but slightly disturbing) and Storm Front by Jim Butcher (on recommendation from Patrick Rothfuss' blog).

I bought these:

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Foreigner by C. J. Cherryh

I already had a copy of Collins book, but this had Clam-friendly sized print, and was only $1 at he library. ;o)

Clamairy, I enjoy most of Collins' books but found Woman in White rather slow going. I think CJ Cherryh is excellent!

I had to purchase Daly's Evidence of Things Seen for a book group discussion next Tuesday night. I had known I needed to read it since before Christmas but forgot to order it until early this past week. It only arrived from Amazon this past Friday afternoon. I am very behind in prepping.

Message edited by its author, Jan 20, 2008, 11:41am.

#45 - So, you like Cherryh, jillmwo! I hope you'll join us for the Foreigner book discussion. I'll be starting the threads either today or tomorrow.

#33 Oh MrsLee The Illustrated Cider with Rosie!! Lucky you. I've been prowling used bookstores for ages looking for Laurie Lee books, specifically Rosie books with no luck. I must confess to a little smidgen of envy here. Maybe my ship will come in and one of the bookstores will finally get a copy in sometime. I'll persevere. Please enjoy for both of us :-)

#47 - I have a confession. I have no idea who Laurie Lee is or anything about Rosie! I just saw the book and it called to me, so I guess I'm going to have fun finding out about this guy. :) It's O.K. to have you a bit envious, I think I have expressed the same about some of your purchases!

Oh, fine. I just looked him up and find out it's the first part of a trilogy! Now I have to look for the other books. Figures. At least this one sounds the most interesting to me. :)

Message edited by its author, Jan 20, 2008, 3:35pm.

No, you're okay MrsLee, I'm pretty sure The Illustrated Cider with Rosie includes all three books in one. I check it out on Abe and Alibris every once in awhile. One of these days I'm just gonna go ahead and order it!

Then there's all the other ones I want to get, like Love in a Cold Climate, Lark Rise to Candleford. I could get on a whole theme reading those types of books. It would be wonderful.

I really should start getting some of my wish list books 8-S

I just bought In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan, the same man who wrote The Omnivore's Dilema, which I have yet to read.

Oh, those touchstones are on strike again!
:o/

Message edited by its author, Jan 20, 2008, 8:13pm.

I'll be very interested in what you think of it. Eating locally and organically works well if you live in an abundant Eden like part of the country, i.e. California, Oregon, Washington. I bet there are a few more that LTers know about. But eating only locally and organically in North Dakota might be a challenge.

I think he mainly wants folks to eat fresh. I don't think it matters if it's local or not. (I read the intro and the flaps at the store.) He's very against processing, arguing that a lot of what Americans eat can hardly be called 'food' anymore.

katylit- I'm going to read that after my Gardeners book, even if I have to cheat on my random selection of my TBR books. :)

I bought The Island Within today. I think its a nature meditation set on an northwest island, probably between Vancourver Island and the mainland somewhere. Or maybe north of there.

I got tricked! I was in a discount book store & picked up Vengeance of Dragons by Holly Lisle, coz it was about a third of the advertised price, I liked the title, the blurb interested me, plus it looked pretty... Anyway, I didn't look carefully enough, its book 2 in a series of 4, which means I'll have to hunt down copies of the other 3 books (in the same format)...

The used bookstore was very good to me yesterday. I recently had a small pile of money randomly drop into my lap, so I decided for once I wasn't even going to keep a running total of how much I'd spent. I just wandered around and picked up basically everything that caught my eye.

Some were books I know I used to own, but cataloging my collection for LT proved they were somehow MIA. Some were stuff I'd never heard of till I started browsing other peoples' libraries. Some were by favorite authors. And some, I have no justification at all, but were just sort of grabbed in the frenzy.

Would you like a list? Nineteen titles, people. Nineteen!!

Somehow I get the feeling that my Centrelink Youth Allowance is not meant to be spent on books if I ever get approved for it...

I visited a Dymocks and saw a beautiful hardcover The Hobbit but did not buy it for reasons of scruples. I appear to be developing reason in that young mind of mine: Perhaps it would be wiser to read the books I already bought before I buy more, to prevent bookbuyer remorse and guilt in the face of required reading to be done for school?

And I feel really bad if I buy books when my Dad takes me to the bookshop, because he wants me to save money like he did when he was young.

There are a few books I'd like to buy but I now get the feeling that classic works such as The Hobbit will not vanish off the face of the Earth if I do not buy a copy immediately.

The flipside is that I need a new copy, since I lent my old copy to my cleaner and he never gave it back because my Mum fired him for being slack and not bothering to do all of his job on occasions.

What should I do?

#57 -- If your Dad really wanted you to save money, he would not be taking you to the bookshop! ;-)

Finally!!! After 3 month of waiting (and nearly giving up hope) it finally arrived!

It may be cold outside, but now I have Boccaccio, Giovanni 's Decameron for some warm thoughts!

Purchased a second hand copy of The Bedside Barsetshire earlier this week. I love Trollope and I'm so looking forward to getting this package!

Over the past couple days I've bought four books. the Bell Curve, the Second Coming of Steve Jobs, and a biography of Martin Luther from Good Will, and a book of Sherlock Holmes short Stories whose name escapes me from a thrift store near campus.

TA - obviously you can never be a good author without owning a beautiful hardcopy of the Hobbit (AND LoTR, really) for um... "reference" purposes.

And furthermore, if you really want to be a good person, you'll buy a hardcover for YOUR library, and a kindof dingy one for lending purposes (unless your innate niceness has already learnt to be a scrooge about lending, since you've had such a lovely book go awol on you.)

(please take above sillyness as such - but really - hardbacks are sooo lovely. They even smell better than paperbacks.)

My list covers the past month or so...
I got bookstore gift cards for Christmas. But I still ended up buying books at Goodwill and Wal-mart. And getting some online. *sigh*

NEW:
Susan Squires - 'Body Electric'
Linda Lael Miller - 'Deadly Game'
Melina Morel - 'Devour'
Jenna Black - 'The Devil Inside'
Diane Duane - 'Wizards at War' (read it - very good)
Marjorie M. Liu - 'A Taste of Crimson'
multi-author - 'What You Can't See'
Camille Bacon-Smith - 'Daemon Eyes'
Carrie Vaughn - 'Kitty and the Silver Bullet'
multi-author - 'Holidays Are Hell'
Jane Lindskold - 'Wolf Hunting'
Elizabeth Haydon - 'The Assasin King'
Cindy Dyson - 'And She Was'
Sophie Kinsella - 'The Undomestic Goddess'
Eileen Wilks - 'Blood Lines'
Shiloh Walker - 'Hunting the Hunter'
Santa Montefiore - 'The Gypsy Madonna'
Reyna Grande - 'Across a Hundred Mountains'
Jennifer Chiaverini - 'Circle of Quilters'
Terry Pratchett - 'Wintersmith' (read it - cute)
Anne Bishop - 'Dreams Made Flesh' (read it - awesome)
Nora Roberts - 'Dance of the Gods
Jeanine Frost - 'Halfway to the Grave' (read it - good)
Sandra Hill - 'Down and Dirty' (started)
Rebecca York - 'Killing Moon' (started)
Cheryl Holt - 'Mountain Dreams' (read it - good, sexy)
Patricia Briggs - 'Iron Kissed' (read it - good, fast)
Susan Krinard - 'Chasing Midnight' (started - slow)
Hailey North - 'Not the Marrying Kind' (read it - good)
Yasmine Galenorn - 'Darkling' (started)
Laurel K Hamilton - 'Mistral's Kiss' (read it - better than the last)
Rebecca Winters - 'The Vow' (started)
Kim Harrison - 'For A Few Demons More' (started)
Lora Leigh - 'Tanner's Scheme' (started)
Sherrilyn Kenyon - 'Upon the Midnight Clear' (started)

I know there are more new books, but my daughter has 3 or 4 of them. hehehe
I hadn't paid too much attention to how many I've started and set aside. sheesh...10 of them.

Got used:

Stella Cameron - 'A Useful Affair'
Rebecca York - 'Beyond Control'
Barbara Delinsky - 'The Woman Next Door' (read it - very good)
Constance O'Day-Flannery - 'Here and Now'
Katie MacAlister - 'Improper English'
Jennie Fields - 'The Middle Ages'
Susan Donovan - 'Public Displays of Affection' (read it - good, very sexy)
Keri Arthur - 'Kissing Sin' (started)
Stephen R. Lawhead - 'Taliesin'
Christine Feehan - 'Night Game' (read it - good)

#19 pscindy - list! List!

I got two in today's mail: Kushiel's Avatar by Jacqueline Carey and Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh. Both came through BookMooch, one of the most wonderful websites in the history of the universe.

#19 - I second xicanti! Inquiring minds want to know. ;)

#53, please let me know what you think MrsLee, I hope you like it.

#54 maggie, that book sounds like it will be really good!

Wow all these wonderful books people have been getting! #19 yes yes I want to know too!!

TA I really think your Dad will understand that a hardcover edition of The Hobbit is an essential additon to any respectable author's library.

I was truly bad yesterday and bought:

Clara Callan by Richard Bruce Wright, it won the Giller Prize and was recommended by a fellow Canadian bookworm, it's a beautiful hardcover, in pristine condition, I just couldn't pass it up

Away by Jane Urquhart because I enjoyed A Map of Glass so tremendously

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. I tried reading this years ago and just couldn't get into it. I want to try again, because the subject matter really appeals to me!

The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley. I couldn't find Cider with Rosie, so this was the next best thing ;-) But I have found a used bookstore further south of me that has a copy of "Rosie" that I'm hoping to pick up this Saturday *keeping fingers crossed*

I do love my local used bookstore. I never bring him any used books, so I never have any credit, but I certainly give him money, so he likes me!

I needed a ~$5 item to bump up my order total so's I could get free shipping at Amazon, so I got Warrior's Refuge for my son. He's totally enamored with the Warriors series.

#66 katylit - I recently bought Clara Callan too! I read another of Richard B. Wright's novels several years ago and really enjoyed it, so I'm looking forward to this one.

64, 65, and 66: Well, all right, then. :)

Used to own, had to replace:
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
Brave New World by Adolus Huxley
Masks of the Illuminati by Robert Anton Wilson
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick (This copy says the title is Bladerunner. Grr. The reason the movie had a different title is that they left out all my favorite parts. /rant, moving onward.)

LT recommendations:
The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas
The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton (BTW, I love you, whoever you are whose library I was browsing when I saw this. Amazing.)
Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

Favorite authors:
Into the Green by Charles de Lint
Kissing the Beehive by Jonathan Carroll
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
Soul of the Fire by Terry Goodkind
The Best of Roald Dahl
Truckers by Terry Pratchett

Selected while heady streams of book-buying-mojo clouded brain:
How to be a Villain by Neil Zawacki
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
The Boy Who Went Away by Eli Gottlieb
Little, Big by John Crowley
The Seven Lady Godivas by Dr. Seuss

That adds up to 20. Huh. I guess I'm a reader, not a counter.

katylit - I'm liking it very much!

My husband found these in the FOTL book rack, not two hours after I was there! I probably skimmed over them because they are not my favorite authors.

Someone Like You by Roald Dahl (DH is loving this)
Tis: a memoir by Frank McCourt (I haven't read this, but Angela's Ashes was a bit rough for me, though I thought it a good book.)

katylit, I read Wide Sargasso Sea last year and thought it was really good. The way she uses the setting to lend weight to the action is amazing.

mess 6

That book is gorgeous. I love illustrated pages.

mess 13

Are you reading that list? I am reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall myself and loving it. But I do have a problem with the classics. Every once in a while, I buy classics with terrible printing errors. This book is missing 50 pages of the story and has 100 pages of some other story in the middle. Yes, they will give me another book, but I have already marked this one with notes and have it all broken in nice and cozy. The kicker is that the book came individually wrapped in celaphane. hmph

Picked up Titus Groan for $3 yesterday from uni market day. It's another addition to my TBR.

Do tell how it is in quality, I might try the Gormenghast trilogy soon...

74 It could be a while; my TBR is growing (and groaning).

My school's library copies of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Dealing with Dragons, et. al.) were falling apart from abundant checkout and bookbag abuse. I found hardbound used copies online and bought all 4 to donate. My school didn't get any state money this year and we are very poor. I didn't even try to get the purchase approved with school funds. I just did it.

My school's library copies of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Dealing with Dragons, et. al.) were falling apart from abundant checkout and bookbag abuse. I found hardbound used copies online and bought all 4 to donate. My school didn't get any state money this year and we are very poor. I didn't even try to get the purchase approved with school funds. I just did it.

This week I have bought Atonement, The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Alchemyst.

Atonement was a nice read, and the first chapter of the Golden Compass was good! No comments on the other two books yet.
I thought I would never become a lover of the fantasy genre, but it seems I have to correct myself.

Ah damn, let's admit it: I have come over to the right side!

#76 -- I love the Enchanted Forest Chronicles -- particularly the hardcovers with the original Trina Schart Hyman illustrations! They're on my wishlist to replace my own battered paperbacks some day.

Is it bad that I'm looking at this thread as a shopping list?

I've been very bad this week.

I don't know about y'all, but I have between 75-100 books in my "to-be-read" pile, yet I keep buying new ones because I just have to read those first.

Here's what I ordered from Amazon this week:
1. The Artist's Way
2. The Artist's Way Workbook
3. Lolita
4. The Secret History
5. The Chocolate War
6. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil--I lost my old copy
7. What Was She Thinking
8. The Halloween Tree
9. Confessions of a Closet Catholic

I purchased an old used copy of Albert Camus's The Stranger yesterday. I'll probably start it tomorrow.

Ok, I just subscribed to the NYTimes and bought one book for my KINDLE. I am a happy camper. I'm going back into the tent, and read. (-;

Just got back from Half-Price Books -- not too many exciting finds today, but I did get a paperback of So Long and Thanks for All the Fish (not touchstoning?) that matches the rest of my set, The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander (I've been meaning to read the Prydain Chronicles for a while), and Clementine, which is a charming children's book that I've been wanting to buy ever since it came out.

Message edited by its author, Jan 25, 2008, 7:02pm.

I just spent 228 bucks on 17 books for the semester, including Piers Plowman, which I just happen to already own but in the wrong version. grumble.

I still have 5 more to get, plus the 4 I already owned, which comes to a grand total of: 26 books. For 3 classes. :}

76 - MerryMary - That's very generous of you. They're very worthwhile books to have in a school library, and I hope that you get some appreciation of the books from students. :) :) :)

#76 MerryMary - I'm sure your students will appreciate it! I know how grateful I was for the books my teachers provided for their classrooms. I never realized until years later that they'd probably bought most of the books with their own money, just as you did.

There were tons of books available in my primary school that were given via budget in the Keating era. Ah... blessed 90s education in Australia... a time when reading a book meant not having to write a 1000 word essay about it and all you had to do was talk about the actual meaning of the book (this was before books got called "texts" and Authors weren't called "composers of texts" in the dehumanising Board of Studies revamp.

John Everett Millais by Christine Riding
Medieval Swordsmanship
159 Celtic Designs
Celtic Designs and Motifs

The following arrived in the mail this week:

Duma Key by Stephen King
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

OK here comes my Kindle report: I bought The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls; The Jungle Book (way cheap...$1.54 +/-) and I am sampling Rhett Butler's People and Jim Cramer's Stay Mad to Life. I think I might buy the Rhett Butler one if it is cheap enough.

So far reading on the Kindle has been easy, and definitely helpful in avoiding sore arthritic hands. I also like changing the font size when my eyes get tired.

I also am sampling the New York Times and I'll tell you this would be a hell of a lot easier reading on the subway.

I bought The Thin Man by Dashiel Hammett as well as Dune (SF Masterworks Hardcover).

You've got to be kidding me, there's no touchstone for Dune?

Saw that White night was out, as 3for2 in local bookshops but nothing else that I wanted was. And that despite a publication date of 01/08 Deliverer still wasn't being stocked.

So I gave up.

And went online

White night
Deliverer
Elantris
Curse of the mistwraith
Furies of Calderon
A Sorcerer's Treason
Miss zukas and the library murders

Later I realised why I shouldn't do this.

Most of these are the start of series too so many many more purchases to come. I might have to purge my bookshelf space! eek!

Yay! the local bookshop chain's summer sale is on! I scored

Romanian, Bulgarian & Balkan {cookery} by Lesley Chamberlain
1215 by Danny Danziger
Only Correct by Ian Mayes
Guinness is Guinness by Mark Griffiths
Walking with William Shakespeare by Anne-Marie Edwards
Signor Marconi's Magic Box by Gavin Weightman and
Trattoria by Maxine Clark

--- mostly thanks to fambly for a birthday gift voucher!

Daughter scored
Jamie Oliver's Something for the weekend
the DK picture guide to Tunisia
The discovery of the Germ by John Waller
and a River Cafe book of desserts

>>> Touchstones erratic as usual.

A Fist in the Hornet's Nest by Richard Engel and
thanks to aviddiva's recommendation Death at La Fenice.

I was bad on Friday. Went to Barnes and Noble and picked up:

Dzur by Steven Brust
Singularity Sky by Charles Stross
Spin State by Chris Moriarty
The Prestige by Christopher Priest
Looking for Jake by China Mieville

Like my TBR pile needed any new additions.

I was very bad yesterday. I ordered:

The Golden Compass
The Subtle Knife
The Amber Spyglass
Anonymous Lawyer - Jeremy Blachman
An American Childhood - Annie Dillard
A Man Lay Dead - Ngaio Marsh*
The Echo - Minette Walters
No Other Tribute (it's research for my writing ;-)
The Night Watch - Sarah Waters*
the Night Watch - Sergei Lukyanenko*
Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris

I don't know why I do this.

*from the recommend-a-book thread.

Message edited by its author, Feb 3, 2008, 12:43pm.

Horray for Jasper Fforde! I got my BookMooched copy of The Eyre Affair in the mail on Friday, and today I used the last of a Christmas gift card to get The Well of Lost Plots and Something Rotten from Chapters. It was $7.50 for both thanks to their bargain pricing!

I knew there was something I forgot! Hmmm. First Among Sequels? or start the other series?

Message edited by its author, Feb 3, 2008, 6:01pm.

I'm blaming sophies_choice and Janny Wurts completely for my latest venture into badness ;-)

sophies_choice for starting the recommend a book thread (I am so totally not responsible for reading that thread of course!) and then Janny for coming up with such amazing recommendations that I just had to order!!

So now I am awaiting with delight Tea with the Black Dragon and The Anubis Gates both based on Janny's advice. They sound absolutely amazing.

Then, because everybody said so ;-) I just had to get the second book in the series of our group read, so I ordered Invader as well.

And today I got an amazing deal on The Red Tent a book I've always wanted to read and never gotten around to, so now I've got the chance.

Two for me today. First was Crossed, which is Nicole Galland's latest historical fiction. I was looking for Chocolat so I'd have background for my ER book, but no such luck. My mom also gave me Love in the Time of Cholera.

Two for me as well this weekend: Silent in the Sanctuary and The Lost Luggage Porter

I'm already through the first three-quarters of the first title.

With the Light: Vol. 1: This I found out about on Jonathon McCalmont's blog. It's a Manga about two parents, a new mother and her salaryman husband (this is Japan, some of the old traditional expectations of gender have survived into the 21st Century). Their newborn son is diagnosed with Autism, and at first the mother can't cope because the salaryman husband doesn't like people spreading rumors about their child being autistic (again, this is Japan, over there people still think Rain Man is enough to give them an understanding of the condition).

It has some really wonderful moments, yet there is drama as a young mother has to fight the outdated viewpoints of her society on the matter of her son's place in the world. (Japanese Mommy cliques can be so cruel sometimes) It's not just an enlightening read on the condition (it's better than The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time in explaining not just autism but people's view of it).

Once I finish reading it I will give it a review.

Message edited by its author, Feb 4, 2008, 6:16am.

I'm so excited! Near A Thousand Tables: A History of Food came in the mail today. I've had this on various swap site wish lists for so long. I can't wait to get started.

I just found a cookbook I have wanted for years but had forgotten the author's name (and obviously the name of the book, too), so I quick ordered it from Amazon, The Food and Life of Oaxaca: Traditional Recipes from Mexico's Heart by Zarela Martinez. Somehow, I'm not sure how, a mystery snuck onto my order as well! Thus Was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell. Funny, I seem to recall that was one of the books recommended to me in that "other" thread.

Waldenbooks is having their Feb. "Buy 4 romance novels, get the 5th one free" sale. The . . . In Death series by J.D. Robb is considered romance by Waldenbooks and I'm trying to complete the series so . . . The following found their way into my book bag:

Divided in Death, Survivor in Death, Visions in Death, Three in Death, and Dead of Night

And, just so they wouldn't get lonely, I also got:

Plum Lovin' and Puss 'n Cahoots.

THEN - I got a $5.00 off coupon for BookCloseouts.com that is only good until the middle of the month. Mustn't let those coupons go to waste!! So, I'm waiting for delivery on:

Hood (King Raven Trilogy) by Stephen Lawhead
Advance and Retreat by Harry Turtledove
When the Horses Came by Amanda Cockrell
Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon
A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay

Mount TBR is now officially over 200 books high. Someone stop me before I buy again!!

I am having the best luck with BookMooch and PBS lately. Lots of book that have been on my wishlists for a long time are suddenly becoming available. Today I got Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir and yesterday I got Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village by Eamon Duffy.

I ordered a book on Abebooks this weekend, and I got an email yesterday stating that my order had been canceled. The email said that the bookseller may have either misplaced the book, not had the book when they thought they did, sold the book to someone else, etc...
Seems quite unprofessional. I've never had any of these problems with Barnes & Noble, Amazon or Ebay. I don't think I'll shop there again.

My AmazonUK order arrived yesterday. It only took a week! It was But N Ben A-Go-Go, as far as I know the only SF book to be written in Scots. It's going to be interesting trying to read it, but I want to finish Neuromancer first for a bit more specialty vocab. Plus, I went into Borders yesterday, and came out with Children of Men (P. D. James) and Fool Moon (Dresden Files).

I got a remaindered copy of Ross King's The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade that gave the World Impressionism this week and I am still awaiting a copy of Binu and the Great Wall.

>msg 108 monchex -- I've never had a difficulty with Alibris if you care to use them. Visit:
http://www.alibris.com/

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out.

After just about swearing off anymore roleplaying books, especially White Wolf, I've gone and bought a bunch of stuff from them. A friend of mine has me sorely tempted to join a LARP. *shudder*

Dave!

LARP is sooo much fun! You should give it a go! I did several systems in the states and I also have tried several here in the UK.

You meet so many intresting people at LARP events.

opps! I also forgot the books I bought when I was going on about how great LARP is.

I bought the first Alice Academy Manga and The Kitty books.
Kitty and the midnight hour
Kitty goes to washington
Kitty goes takes a holiday
Kitty and the Silverbullet

apparently if you like Anita Blake then you'll like Kitty.

monohex & jillmwo: I've had reliability problems with both. I still use them but bear in mind any time I do that my order might be arbitrarily cancelled. You can get more of an idea by looking at the seller ratings - it's an indication of how often the individual sellers do this (both alibris and abebooks are just frontends for many different sellers so it just depends how reliable that particular seller is). The book I *most* wanted just got cancelled out of an order recently so I feel your pain. They should probably have a disclaimer page like bookmooch, saying that the seller could still admit they don't have it in stock...!

Back on track, today arrived through my door The Pears Cyclopaedia 2006-7, free from Penguin (I guess cos it's a year out of date, still, free book!) and Ancestor Stones, which I don't actually remember clicking the "buy" button for but apparently did (that's what I get for browsing late at night when I'm sleepy!), for a Reading Globally group read later in the year. Was a very exciting morning from the postie :-)

The Children's Hospital's paperback sale started last night, so I headed there straight from work. I usually spend tons and tons of money, but I didn't even hit the $15 mark this time. I wouldn't even have spent $5 if I hadn't found a couple of higher-priced Buffy-related books. I came away with:

Winds of Change, ed. by Richard Pini ($1.85)
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf ($0.50)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte ($0.50)
Inferno by Dante Alighieri ($0.50)
The Novels of Tiger and Del, Volume I by Jennifer Roberson ($2)
Bite Me!: The Unofficial Guide to the World of Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Nikki Stafford ($6)
and a Buffy script book ($4)

I'll be going back on Saturday in the hopes of finding more. They didn't have everything out yet, since it was just the first day.

Message edited by its author, Feb 9, 2008, 12:01am.

I'm so bad, I think I've gotten about a jillion books already this month.

Today Food In History came in the mail via BookMooch. I'll be going on a culinary anthropology binge soon!

I was at a bargain shop today & found a shelf of books for $2 each, I wasn’t expecting to find anything for me there, but I was pleasantly surprised, I got:
Safe from Harm by Rollo Armstrong,
The Wish House by Celia Rees,
Special Collectors Edition: Which Witch & The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson,
Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson,
Sign of the Shapeshifter by Dale Donovan,
Eye of Fortune by Denise Graham &
Figure in the Frost: Knights of the Silver Dragon by Lana Perez…
So 7 books for $14, I’m pretty pleased with that & it doesn’t feel like I was “being bad” at all :)

Message edited by its author, Feb 9, 2008, 11:50pm.

Yesterday's acquisitions were The Looking Glass Wars and Realms of the Underdark.

I arrived to see There Will Be Blood yesterday afternoon, but the movie theater wasn't opened yet, so of course I had to go next door to Barnes & Noble to pass the time. It was kinda cold outside.

Walked out with
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
How the Scots Invented the Modern World by Arthur Herman
Apocalypse 2012 by Lawrence E. Joseph

I went back to the book sale yesterday and got:

Blood Is Not Enough, ed. by Ellen Datlow
The Penguin Science Fiction Omnibus, ed. by Brian Aldiss
The Pushcart Prize XIV, ed by Bill Henderson
Narziss and Goldmund by Herman Hesse
The Wizard in the Tree by Lloyd Alexander
Polgara the Sorceress by David and Leigh Eddings
Belgarath the Sorcerer by David and Leigh Eddings

I finally got a copy of Foreigner. I can't wait to finish it sos I can read the thread! I'm enjoying it so far (about 1/2 way through).

Busifer, you'll be glad to know I also picked up a used copy of Tigana, of which I missed the group read. Also, I got the next Thursday Next book and a bible-ish copy of Lamb for Chris Moore to sign.

He's funny, ya'll should go to his readings if he comes to your town.

While my big betterworld book package is still on the way I snatched a copy of Smollett, George's Aventures de Roderik Random (1762) and a complete 7 volume set of The works of Homer translated by Pope (1794)

I got I Celebrate Myself in hardcover for cheaper than I expected. Interestingly enough this has been on my wishlist for a while, so I knew that I actually was looking for it, however I didn't expect I'd find a hardcover of it.

Timely too, since the copy of Howl that my Mum's friend ordered for me is apparently in stock and I have to collect it.

I'm on the Beat-en Track now!

Those nice people at Foyle's are doing a 3 for 2 on selected Penguin Classics. I came away with:

The Portable Edgar Allen Poe
Armadale by Wilkie Collins
Zazie in the Metro by Raymond Queneau

Chocolat by Joanne Harris came in the mail today. Still waiting for another shipment from amazon ...

I have promised myself I have to read my 'immediate TBR' pile (Powers (LeGuin, no touchstone...), Making Money, Faded sun and Century rain) before I'm allowed to buy anything new.
But workrelated books don't count ;-) so I ordered Tagging: Peoplepowered metadata for the social web today.

I ordered Pale Fire and Pnin, both by Nabokov (you get a discount if you buy them together) and they will arrive on Wednesday, despite the fact that I have no immediate plans to read them. Also, I am contemplating getting myself invited on a road trip with work friends to a big book fair this weekend.

What is wrong with me? Well, If lovin' books is wrong, I don't wanna be right.

Message edited by its author, Feb 11, 2008, 4:00pm.

I bought the other Boleyn girl a few days ago...

130 - Did she come quietly, or did you have to chain her?
*ducks*

- 131 - I bet she came willingly - the 'other' one was the wild one.

: >

*hides*

# 131, #132

*laughs*

I had to get some help!

*laughs*

Selling women is a bad thing. It even pops up in the original Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland... where will it end?

But yeah, unless you expose this girl to Germaine Greer books, a Medieval woman like that would usually bend to thine will...

punky's zillionth resolution to stop buying books, get to work on her to-be-read pile and save money goes pfft!

ordered from Amazon today:

Beyond the Chocolate War
Siddhartha
A Clockwork Orange
The Wanderers
Geek Love
Lost Horizon
Breakfast at Tiffany's

130 - I just thoguht to add, are you buying for the movie that's coming out, or were you unaware of its existence? IMDb page

After being plagued with dreams of my looming anti-book buying mother for two days, I am at peace, and ready to consider buying a book. Never before had I had such disturbing psychological dread of book purchasing.

Methinks Nova Express or American Gods is the ticket.

I realised the other day that I didn't have any books by one of my favourite Australian authors, John Marsden . (bah! touchstones!)
Anyway, now I have four:
Tomorrow, When the War Began
In the Dead of the Night (bad touchstone)
The Third Day, the Frost
and
So Much To Tell You

I have soooo much self control, can't you tell?

Had to come read through so that I didn't feel so very guilty after my splurge.

Just bought & finished:
Iron Kissed Patrica Briggs - loved it
Dream Chaser Sherrilyn Kenyon - slightly disappointing

Just ordered:
The Accidental Werewolf Dakota Cassidy
Cloudy with a Change of Meatballs Judi Barrett
Getting to Yes: Clicker Training for Improved Horsemanship Sharon Foley
Holy Smokes Katie MacAlister
Tiger Eye (Dirk & Steele: Book 1 Marjorie M. Liu
Swimming without a Net MaryJanice Davidson

Bad, very bad impulse control. Sigh.

Self-control is overrated. What do you get for it? Fewer books. Does that sound like something you want?

The end of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas arrived in the post today, along with Mr Gum and the Power Crystals by Andy Stanton. I've been looking forward to the first one arriving and my brothers kids have been waiting for the second, so we were all happy today.

Donated some things to Salvation Army the other day, and of course it was only polite to go look at their books.

Murder for Christmas, a compilation of deadly holiday stories from many of my favorite authors.

Outcast, by Rosemary Sutcliff I like her stories.

#136

Hi Willsteed! No, I saw the title pop-up frequently in Talk and when I saw the book in the store, I decided to buy it. I enjoyed reading it!

And well, there is more to confess:

I bought Marie-Antoinette by Antonia Fraser and a Dutch biography on Eleanor of Aquitaine: Eleonore van Aquitanië Both are very huge books.

Yikes, this is the third time I visit this thread! And looking at my wishlist it won't be the last time either...

I went on a buying/swapping/mooching spree.

BookMooch:
Warriors Field Guide: Secrets of the Clans (for the boy)
Glacial Period (graphic novel about distant future archaeologists)
The Lost Colony (again, for the boy)

PaperBackSwap:
Historical Linguistics: An Introduction (I refuse to live in the present)
The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank I expect this one to be hard to read)

History Book Club:
Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World (Istanbul, not Constantinople)
The Dangerous Book for Boys (for the boy!)
Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors (mmmm...genetic anthropology)
Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations (I don't know what it is with me and biblical history)

#144 -

Rome and Jerusalem is on my TBR as well. It's down in the list, but if you're going to read it soon, maybe I'll bump it up a notch or two. I'm a sucker for biblical history too.

>145
It hasn't arrived yet, but if you want to leave a note when you feel like starting it, I'll gladly pick it up too.

Four books arrived from amazon today:

Ysabel - Guy Gavriel Kay
Swordspoint - Ellen Kushner
Vagabond - Bernard Cornwell
Ptolemy's Gate - Jonathan Stroud

I'm really excited about these, I've been waiting to read all of them for at least a few months, more than a year in the case of Ysabel, which I may or may not enjoy, but must try given the author.

#144 - Sailing from Byzantium : how a lost Empire shaped the world sounds real interesting but it's kind of low in the star-department? Have you heard anything about it or did you buy it on instinct?

#147 - ooh, good choices! I haven't read Vagabond, but I really enjoyed all the others. Ysabel is definitely very different from Kay's usual work; when I compared it to his historical fantasies, it came up lacking, but when I considered it as a simple contemporary fantasy it was excellent.

For my part, I got a copy of The Year's Best Fantasy: First Annual Collection in the mail yesterday. I was really surprised to find it on BookMooch a couple of weeks ago.

Message edited by its author, Feb 15, 2008, 3:55pm.

>148
I read the reviews at the History Book Club website with a little bit of instinct thrown in. ;)

Back to Exclusive's sale, to discover that as it ends tomorrow, all sale books are going at 50% off the already low (by local standards) prices. yay! Came away with

Sir Patrick Moore's latest The Sky at Night
Barbara Jeppe's Irises
James Gleick's What just happened
The Real Ale Pub Guide 2006 -- wish I could use it!
Arrigo Cipriani's Harry's bar Cook Book
George Plumptre's Royal Gardens of Europe
The Making of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy
two Wallace and gromit books just for fun, and
Tim Cornell's Atlas of the Roman World

ETA: Touchstones wonky; how unusual!

Message edited by its author, Feb 16, 2008, 2:54pm.

Does a Padi Open Water Diver Manual count...OH, the touchstone worked! So I guess the answer is yes.

Oh, it might have been the fact that I watched Shaft last night, but I've been BAAAAAAAD.

Stocked up on Critical Theory books for school:

The Author (The New Critical Idiom)

Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction

Wadsworth Philosophers Series: On Eco

Aristotle's Poetics

Five Moral Pieces

Howl and Other Poems (this one came free because I had a specific gift voucher order for it that my Mum's friend gave me for my 18th Birthday recently, as a "more mature present". Looking at the subject matter I was not disappointed there...)

But I need these books for school!

I just sold a part of my bibliophile soul to the devil: I ordered the introduction offer of the Folio Society including
Andersen, Hans's Fairy Tales
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Perrault's Fairy Tales
The Arabian Nights
The Lore of the Land by Westwood, Jennifer

...sigh.....

Today I bought a picture book called Witches, Wizards & Magical People by John Patience, the blurb says "A collection of exciting stories to carry you away to a land of Magic and Enchantment, and return you safe and sound with a happy ending"... Its a gorgeous book & beautifully illustrated too :)

Today I went out and bought The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia, both by Megan Whalen Turner. I recently borrowed both books from the library and decided I liked them so much that I needed my own copies.

Well, I was a bad money manager and took some $$$ I was "saving" for property tax (due in April) and spent it on Invader, Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook, and a craft kit (typical Barnes & Noble consumer eye candy) for pressing flowers, and finally, Show What You Know on the WASL, for Grade 10. The last book is for the young lady who I tutor. The WASL is the Washington Assessment of Student Learning; a high stakes exam all students must pass before graduating from high school. Sigh. I'd so much rather just recommend books and talk with her about what she is reading but I guess we must be real.

Gah.

I think I have a sickness. Three more:

Sorceress
but, but I finished Witch Child today and just had to see what's next

The Awakening and the Struggle
The Fury & Dark Reunion

So I have the original versions of these, but falling apart. Also, the word omnibus fascinates me.

#63 - Holy Book-Shelves, Batman! That's some haul, AnjilaG!

#100 - I just loved The Red Tent, katylit. Have you read it yet? I'm a bit late to this thread.

#104 - Oh flee, that's on my B&N wishlist... I think. Is there more than one History of Food book out there? Uh oh, my touchstone seems to be pointing at something different than yours. Please let me know how that one is.

Okay, I haven't been as busy buying as you people have recently. In the last few weeks I've only bought these:

Plainsong by Kent Haruf
The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison
The Professor by Charlotte Brontë
Living Well: 21 Days to Transform Your Life by Montel William

clam-baby ! are you transforming? changing from a friendly family sedan to a power weilding all terrain vehicle? Did you see the movie "The Transformer" once too often? How do you like the Montel William's book?

Hulloooo, maggie hunny! No transforming here, I hope. I bought the book for my husband. He said it was okay, but that there really wasn't anything 'new' in it. It's all about the "eat fresh fruit and veggies" thing. I don't think I'm going to read it, since I just finished In Defense of Food a couple of weeks ago. Flippin' touchstones! :o/

i bought The Spectrum A Scientifically Proven Program to Feel Better Live longer Lose Weight and Gain Health and live to be super-human and meet many many loves of your life, yada yada yada

you know what I mean.

But Dean Ornish claims he can convince you to make small changes and it will all add up to much better living

so I'm keeping it out and hoping I'll read it in between the next Foreigner novel (book #2) and the ER book which is waiting for me to read it, too

Ah life. How do you folks do all this and work and raise kids too?

off to bed with me

#154 ooooh j_ipsen Folio Society books, okay, I'm green with envy now, and one of them The Lore of the Land! oooooh I got a paperback edition of that awhile back. Lovely book, I bet the Folio edition will be even lovelier.

#156 xicanti, Megan Whalen Turner's trilogy sounds very appealing and now your recommendation has made me add it to my wish list. CBC recommended it too, I think I should listen and get all three very soon ;-)

#157 maggie, the Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook sounds very promising. I have one slow cooker cookbook and it's definitely time to get another one, please let me know how you like the recipes in this one. I like the title :-)

#160, I've been looking at The Red Tent for years clam, always meaning to buy it so I'm very glad to finally get it, I think it's going to bump everything on my TBR and get read next. I keep hearing good things about it so I'm looking forward to it.

Katy, The Lore of the Land is just the bonus volume that I get when I order the intro package. It is definitly in hardcover, but I do not know if it is actually a FS publication.

On another note: My The Orations of Demosthenes has finally arrived. It spend 4 month in the mail, I already thought it was lost. Unluckily one of the books didn't survive the transport so well. The dry old leather of vol 1 broke and the front board detached itself :(. Its not worth too much, but as it is a 1777 edition I'm still unhappy with it. Perhaps I will have to look how much a professional repair costs.

That's so disappointing J_ipsen when you've been waiting for it for so long and it's so wonderfully old. I hate seeing any book like that, even if it's not worth very much, it's still special for having survived this long! Think of the history it's lived through.

I hope you can get it repaired without too much expense.

I went to the dentist today in a town about fifteen miles away (because it's the closest NHS dentist I can find) and took the opportunity to browse the local bookshops.

I came home with The vanishing act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell and To Major Tom: The Bowie Letters by Dave Thompson.

I'm quite excited by To Major Tom, I haven't come across it before but it sounds really good. It's about a man called Gary who has spent his life writting letters to David Bowie but never gets a reply. The book is almost entirely made up of these letters and I will be reading it as soon as I finish my current book The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas, which is also really good.

#166 katylit - I hope you enjoy them! I found the first half of the first book very slow going, but once I'd made it over the hump I was hooked!

I spoke too soon.
:oS
Just got back from Borders with The Glory Days : New York Baseball 1947-1957 by The Museum Of The City Of New York for my husband, and with The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai and Ireland by Frank Delaney for me.

I'm getting The Origin of Language: Tracing the Evolution of the Mother Tongue and The Seven Daughters of Eve from PaperBackSwap.

Message edited by its author, Feb 18, 2008, 12:58pm.

I wandered through a bookstore Friday night after a dinner of Mexican food that included 2 margaritas, knowing full well this gave me license to buy anything. ;)

I came out with A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Golden Compass, the latter inspired by the group read here that I missed. :/

The "TBR" list that I deny having just got a little longer. :)

I did, I did, I did! I really can not walk thru a bookstore for any reason and not fall prey: Gardening Month by Month in Washington and Oregon and baby sign language basics. Also, a magazine. I am incorrigible.

Well, at least we all seem to be 'suffering' together. ;o)

It's fun suffering this way together isn't it? I'm so glad of the company :-)

I decided to buy CDs this week instead of books. This is because my shelves can cope with CDs, and I can listen to CDs in a shorter time than reading a book when I have to read all this background material for school...

#174 I am incorrigible.

Me too, and I often don't have to look hard to fine incorrigement.

chuckling..... ((((((( - ;

#173 - Our favorite Mexican restaurant is conveniently next door to my favorite local bookshop. It is tradition that after we eat Mexican, we visit the bookshop. Of course, when I go in, I never come out without something. It's a given! Mexican food and books - what a great combo!

Last week I bought these:

For Whom the Bell Tolls
Watership Down
Little Women

One of my classes will be doing literature circles next week, so I just have to have a copy of everything they're doing. They are also reading The Count of Monte Cristo and The Once and Future King, but I already had copies of those.

(Why isn't The Count of Monte Cristo touchstoning?? It didn't when I put it in the 50 Book Challenge post either. Go figure!)

Touchstones often behave like the most finicky of cats. One day they do their thing, and the next day they won't. I have given up trying to figure it out.

#180 - Oh, and nice classics in that haul, hobbitprincess. :o)

Little Women is a good read, hobbitprincess. I hope you enjoy it!

It's confession time again for me:

Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensiblity, Emma, The Book Thief and Remember me?.

#183 - How could I forget you?
Oh... it's a book title.
;o)

Today I finally ordered The Unfortunate Fursey by Mervyn Wall, can't wait to get it. If anyone out there (especially in the UK) knows where a copy of The Return Of Fursey could be found for under $100 let me know!

Despite being a cranky crab pants because of stomach issues, I went to the Barnes & Noble at the mall and bought Lonely Planet New Zealand travel guide (way wrong touchstone). I did feel blessed that the weather was so nice I didn’t have to wear a hat or gloves. I then came home to listen to the Raising Sand cd, read GD posts, snack on some Dubliner Aged Cheddar cheese, while trying to avoid the roombas. I’m also worrying about the piece of fried chicken and French fries I had for supper last night since that was not on the diet plan

Ohhh, I want a muffin!.

I was feeling lazy….

Yesterday I took advantage of a Borders 40% off coupon to buy Daughter of York by Anne Easter Smith (no touchstones). I forgive myself because I've read quite a few books this month and I really liked the author's last book, so I know I'm going to read it soon!

I just bought Three Cups of Tea because the library couldn't rustle up enough copies for our book club through the inter-library loan system.

Borrowed The First Forty-Nine Stories by Ernest Hemingway, Tales from Earthsea, and Tree and Leaf from the school library.

Quite interesting to see Michael Moorcock's reaction to Tolkien's attitude towards Fairy Stories, "Epic Pooh" was very interesting in comparing the writing style and the values of different Fantasy authors.

I will begin a discussion of Epic Pooh in another thread.

#188 Wot? three cups in one go? To be consumed by you and how many friends? ;)

#189 - :o) Interestingly enough the library is purchasing a large electric tea kettle so that we can drink tea during our next discussion! :o)

I had a lovely afternoon. I got all my hairs cut, picked up an almost good-as-new edition of Tales From Earthsea, as well as The Kraken Wakes (I love that title) and The Green Man from my trusty used book store, then trundled down to the little local new book store and picked up Icefields which sounds very good. The sun is shining, it's warm outside, life is good.

I bought this for my daughter *cough, cough* but it's on our shared Pratchett shelf. The Last Hero, illustrated by Paul Kidby. Haven't read it yet, but the illustrations are wild.

Oooh, MrsLee what a great book! I have a copy in my wish list, and have carted the library's copy home several times for happy chortling over the illustrations. I'd just never pictured Conan as quite that knobby & gnarled.

The Amazon fairy has bought me

When We Were Bad by Charlotte Mendelson
Seeds of Greatness by Jon Canter
Strange Pilgrims by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I've been so baaaad. We went back to England for a few days and returned with 50 books that we didn't take with us. I thought that we'd acquired quite a few as I was loading the car to return so I counted them as they came in the door. Number 50 was Mr Brave bought at the Channel Tunnel Terminal. It's the only one I've finished so far ;-)

Some were for me but most were for my wife and kids and included new, secondhand and borrowed. MUST NOT GO HOME FOR ANOTHER YEAR - Bad Barry

Yesterday's mail brought two from BookMooch: The Limbreth Gate by Megan Lindholm, (aka Robin Hobb), and Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn.

My Bookcloseouts order just came, bringing:

When the Horses Came by Amanda Cockrell
A song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
Hood by Stephen R. Lawhead
and Advance and Retreat by Harry Turtledove

I also got an ARC from Barnes & Noble this week (The Sister by Poppy Adams) for their First Look club, and I'm waiting on an ER book.

I'd better get reading!!

dulcibelle, A Song for Arbonne was my first GGK and I loved it! Enjoy :-)

I've got a couple of Kay's books on my TBR pile - on the strength of LT recommendations alone. I think it's time to move them closer to the top of the pile however - after I get the two "review" books done.

Through this month's Scholastics order form, for my son of course, I bought the complete Borrowers series and d'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths which I borrowed from the library endless times when I was a kid.

Scuba Diving & Snorkeling For Dummies
An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear
touchstones not working

Message edited by its author, Feb 23, 2008, 1:12am.

I finally found Equal Rights to go with the book I got from my Santathing and I can't wait to start. I've heard so much from Green Dragon people and I love laugh out loud funny stuff, so these seem like a pretty good bet. Now I've just got to finish the 2 I'm in right now, I hate getting books mixed up.

sandragon - I hope you have read/will read The Borrowers, that is a favorite of mine, so imaginative.

MrsLee - definitely! When I say they're for my son, that's just the excuse I used to get my hands on more books. I've always wanted to read these and hope my son would like me to read them to him. If not, I'll just have to find time to read them to myself, or wait for #2 son to be old enough.

#188 - Clamairy - our household just bought Three Cups of Tea as an audio book, also for a book club read. Just getting into it.

#204, Mrs Lee - The Borrowers is a lot of fun - I have some a few of the series signed by the illustrators, Beth and Joe Krush, and also one of the original illustrations in black and white. I once took an illustration course Beth taught, and felt the inventive and whimsical artwork was as much fun as the story. I really need to add some of the children's titles I retained to my library listing. The fact the ones I have survived all the moves is significant.

#206 - How is it so far, Janny?

Oh, and I bought these three books today at the library for $1 each:

Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy by Frances Mayes
Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath by Kate Moses
Lost In Place: Growing Up Absurd in Suburbia by Mark Salzman

Today I bought
Coraline
Stardust (WHY IS THIS BEING WONKY?)
I'm on a Neil Gaiman binge. Can you tell? There goes my food money for the week.
It was WORTH it.

#209 - I just saw a preview for Coraline, animated. Still debating whether I'd want to see it or not.

Gigi by Colette came today and I read it and relisted it on BookMooch with 30 minutes or so.

#210 If I like the book, I probably will. I'm easily won over, lol.

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill, bargain priced. I'm hoping that Stephen King's son will tide me over until I can acquire Duma Key.

Bought Heart-shaped box yesterday, along with Coastliners.

Winter by John Marsden, and Larklight by Philip Reeve (author touchstones wokky). I'm on a John Marsden binge, I just recently rediscovered him.

#209 - I loved Stardust, ellevee! It almost made up for American Gods. :o)

Blasted touchstones. :o(

My DH bought Teacher Man: a memoir by Frank McCourt. He said it's pretty good, so I'll keep it and read it.

JannyWurts - You deserve those, and I'm glad for you and telling myself envy goes in that other guilty pleasures thread!

The library had the first eleven Footrot Flats annuals when I went there on Saturday. Now I have them and the library has ZAR 33 (a pittance!) to buy about 1/4 of a book with.

Edited for typo.

Message edited by its author, Feb 25, 2008, 5:47am.

I had told myself I had to finish some of my immediate TBR's before I got to buy another book... but then a comment by Fleela, in another thread, activated the memory of a book title and off I was to the book shopping site ;-)
So, now I've ordered Sailing from Byzantium: how a lost empire shaped the world, and as that one was cheaper than I thought I picked one more book off my 'to buy, eventually' list - In the company of others.

I love books. Now, where should I store them? I'm running out of shelf space!!!

We had an absolutely wonderful day on Saturday and visited the most lovely town of Sydney, just north of Victoria. Sydney is chock-a-block full of lovely used bookstores, and I was in heaven while my husband was in his favourite motorcycle store. I came away with a lovely brand new edition of The Illustrated Cider with Rosie, Bullfinch's Mythology, and The Ghost Road. I was really quite restrained actually, I could have bought so many more *wistful sigh*

Message edited by its author, Feb 25, 2008, 9:18am.

My History Book Club order came today, finally. (see #144) And from PBS I got Star Trek: New Worlds, New Civilizations.

#216 - Yeah, American Gods might be my least favorite of his books. But I really liked Anansi Boys. Go figure...

# 207 - Clamairy - it's somewhat leisurely in pace, but engaging. The reader for the audio version is decent - I'm only about a quarter of the way in.

#218 - Mrs Lee - well treasured tales, and in the glass front book case, I assure you.

#207 - I've become very fond of audio books lately, Janny. I think it's time to start an appreciation thread! :o)

Today brought me Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination from PBS.

101 Essential Tips Hiking (touchstone not working)
The Rough Guide to New Zealand
William Shakespeare A Compact Documentary Life

I decided to reward myself for an English Ext. 1 assessment well done with a trip to Kinokuniya.

I picked up The Stolen Child and The Phantom of the Opera. I picked up The Stolen Child knowing that yes, this would bust my conceptions of faeries being nice, and in this respect I was not disappointed. It's kind of cool that Faeries are getting their cred back, but at the same time I feel sad that real Faeries aren't like the Changelings who are "a lot nicer than they used to be" that I tend to write about. Maybe I was trying to make them likable. In any case I may be gravely mistaken that Faeries want to be nice to people. And that in itself, after years of identifying with Faeries, breaks my heart. It's still a cool story though, it's genuinely creepy.

I also picked up The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux because I like the musical. Only to find that the book is a lot grimmer than the musical is. I just wanted something light and melodramatic, not downright macabre.

Sigh. You can't win them all.

I went shopping today with my mum and she offered to buy me a book as an early easter gift. I swear that that was the only book I was going to buy but then I saw Memoirs of an Unfit Mother by Anne Robinson in a charity shop for 70p and it's been recommened to me so I bought that.

Then in the shop where the book I wanted was on sale I found Sophie and the rising sun by Augusta Trobaugh and Encyclopedia of Snow by Sarah Emily Miano, both for £1.00 each so I bought those as well.

Then by accident I bought Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman because it was on the counter in another shop while I was buying a DVD for my Mum for Mothers Day. I've just finished Coraline so I was keen to try this one when I came across it.

And then in yet another shop I found The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho on sale so I got it for £5.00 less than the usual retail price.
And on the way home I somehow managed to forget the first three books and say "at least I only bought two books today."

The only book I didn't get was the one we went for because it had sold out, so now I have to order it from the internet.

I would have been happy but now I want Teen Author's books as well because both of those sound very, very good.

Message edited by its author, Feb 29, 2008, 1:02pm.

I'm always bad when it comes to buying books--ordered from Borders Harriet and Isabella, Daughter of York and The Black Book and will be hitting Barnes & Noble for Remember Me tomorrow. Borders books I have a gift card for but none for B&N.

Ooh, momom, I'm nearly finished with Daughter of York and quite like it, I hope you do too! If you do, I'd suggest A Rose for the Crown by the same author, which is even better.

Just got Boudica by Vanessa Collingridge.

Message edited by its author, Feb 27, 2008, 3:08pm.

The annual book sale is on and I thought I'd find lots of books. But in the end I didn't, because while this originally was a way for the shops to clear out old stock nowadays it's a coordinated event complete with special (extra cheap/bad bindings) editions made for the sale.
This meant I ended up with - an encyclopaedia aimed at kids (Barnens stora lexikon), The star guide, a swedish field flora (Svensk fältflora) and, on an impulse, because it looked good - Warriors of Medieval Japan.

Tomorrow I'm going to check the local SF/F bookshop for their specials. Hopefully I will be more lucky there :-)

#233 Naturally, I envy you the Swedish field flora ...

#234 - I've wanted one for ages but normally they are quite expensive... this was at 25% of the normal price so it was a real bargain :-)
Real nice illustrations (I like those better than the pictures; illustrations can afford to show an 'archetypal' specimen, making them easier to identify), and good data, like habitat and such.

Message edited by its author, Feb 28, 2008, 9:30am.

Yet another $1 book for me! This time it is Native Son by Richard Wright. Has anyone read this?

I bought French Grammar and National Geographic Traveler France the other day so I can make myself save money for my trip. That's the ticket: spend money in order to save money. You all know that works!

#237 - Let us know if that works for you, maggie! :o)

Yay Yay Yay, my 2 volume set of Aventures de Roderik Random (1762) just arrived!

*happy dancing*

I got Conversational Tagalog the other day, and Paycheck by Philip Dick at a charity sale yesterday.

The big local book fair is on next weekend, so I'm skipping out on Friday morning to burst the bank account. :)

#240 - "The big local book fair is on next weekend"

Dagnabbit! You're too far away for that to be of any use to me! Enjoy, though.

The differences in which languages that surrounds you are interesting. Living in Sweden I have no need for tagalog as there are virtually no Filipinos around here.
But sometimes I think it would be nice to be able to speak Finnish.

clam, I've read Native Son. Quite intense.

242 - I don't know anyone who speaks Tagalog, but I collect language pedagogy books, especially for the less learned languages. I tag them all with 'language'. You can see here the extent. I'm a little obsessed by language, even if I'm getting a little pickier about the language books I buy.

I stopped at McKay's (the used bookstore) to look for Traitor's Knot by Janny Wurts but I didn't find it so I got The Once and Future King in hopes that I can read it for the group theme read. Oh, and I got Pinkie Pie's Spooky Dream a My Little Pony book as a potty training reward for my 3 year old daughter. I love using books as rewards, because that gives ME an excuse to go to the bookstore! :)

edit because I was trying to use an ampersand in the book title and it didn't want to load the touchstone :P

Message edited by its author, Mar 2, 2008, 8:09pm.

The Folio Society Edition of Tolkien, J.R.R's The Lord of the Rings just arrived. The old, flaky paperback version can now go meet its ancestors 8-)

I bought two books, but astonishingly, not for myself *gasp*!

One of my Chinese friend's favorite philosophical books is The Art Of War by Sun Tzu, so I got him that as a joke present, since although I believe he already has one, I don't think he has one in English (typical language purist). Plus the gift choice was to do with a funny discussion of the book I had with him despite the fact I hadn't read it. I recommended How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read (the other book I bought him) to him, and he said "I haven't read it, is it good?"

I replied "Neither have I", and we laughed really really hard. So in memory of that memory, I got him both those books. Because Art of War was only $11 bucks Aust. and I felt he needed a "real" present he hadn't read to go with it too. Then I remembered the other book I mentioned to him and a gift set was done and dusted.

I have bought the last book in the His Dark Materials-series.

Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe
Hidden Worlds by MHJ TH Van Der Veer and P Moerman.
Savage Garden by Mark Mills
Okko by Hub

Have all come into my possession in recent weeks.

On Saturday, I don't know how it happened but I somehow found myself in a bookstore when I went out to grab a sandwhich for dinner. I had no plans to go to a bookstore as I have plenty to read at home already. So I was totally shocked when I found myself at the register and walking out with the following:

The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber
Trudy's Promise by Marcia Preston
Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt
The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond
and The Rossetti Letter by Christi Phillips

#231 I actually have Rose For the Crown so I will definitely read that one as well. Thanks for the recommendation.

I just got a beautiful copy of Glacial Period, a graphic novel about future archaeologists rediscovering the Louvre by Nicholas De Crecy, from BookMooch.

I have Binu of the Great Wall which I'm enjoying and I also have a political book, Thumpin' It which looks interesting.

However, where I really went off the budgetary track this week, was a brief spree at Levenger.

My copy of The Winter King arrived today, so I'll be starting that tonight so I can join the group read discussions.

I have been kind of bad today.
I took a short break from work to do some random search at the local version of AbeBooks - 'Bokbörsen' - to find out if they held some promising SF titles. Initially I searched for classics - things I read as a teen that would be fun to own if the price is right. But I hadn't any luck. So just for fun I typed 'Cherryh' in the search field. It returned 9 books, and... well, the good thing I only left the shop with three of them - Sunfall, Wave without a shore and The Morgaine Saga omnibus... ;-)
I feel partly bad because I originally hadn't any intention of ever buying any of these books, but... I checked the ISBN:s and it turned out two of them had cover art by Micheal Wheelan and one by Don Maitz.
Probably I only will end enjoying Morgaine, because the others are kind of old... but.
Whatever :-)

ETA - I only paid 100 SEK = US$16.22 for all three of them. That's part of the reason I actually pressed the 'Send order' button ;-)

Message edited by its author, Mar 4, 2008, 8:02am.

CJ Cherryh is a fairly competent writer of science fiction, Busifer. I don't think you'll be that unhappy.

I did not buy any books today but in my quest to finally get all boxes emptied and all stuff either put away or gotten rid of (since my move here 4 years ago) - I am lazy, huh? - any way, in that quest: I found a box of uncataloged books! Wooo HOooo

I am excited to get them all added and put on shelves. That's today's big goal.

Message edited by its author, Mar 4, 2008, 10:53am.

I got Twilight (touchstone not working) and New Moon in the mail today!

#256 - Jillmwo - That I know!!! You only need to check my library to know that I already own 18 of her book, and if you check my read @2007 and @2008 tags you'll begin to understand my guilt... I need to read more books by someone else! ;-)

(Especially considering that since spring 2007 I've read the Foreigner books alone three times..., which the tags don't tell about ;-) )

Message edited by its author, Mar 4, 2008, 12:06pm.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
by Maggie O'Farrell

Change Baby
by June Spence

Pandora's Daughter
by Iris Johansen

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
by Eckhart Tolle

Here If You Need Me: a True Story
by Braestrup, Kate

LA Magdalena (Theo Nikonos Mystery) by Valtos, William
( cause I loved the Authenticator)

The Game of Silence by Erdrich, Louise

most used, a couple new.... all from online
all since feb 29...holy smoke!

Where am I going to PUT them?

I got the second Watcher's Guide to BtVS in the mail yesterday. It was perfect timing, since I'm on a HUGE Buffy kick right now.

Busifer, I'm sure you'll enjoy Morgaine. Wave without a shore is ... different, but certainly not the weirdest short story CJC has ever written.

#240 don't forget to add the book faire to LT Local, so other LTers get to know about it.

#248 - Lyra's oxford the sequel, or the last of the trilogy - the amber spyglass ?

Me, I've not bought any since my large amazon order.... which I've only just started reading, so I won't be buying nay for quite a whiel longer. It's nice to appreciate others' buying from time to time.

#262 - Well, I bought it because it was cheap, so... ;-)

# 262, I meant the Amber Spyglass

I just got Resistance (Star Trek: The Next Generation) in the mail from a BookMoocher. It takes place immediately after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis. I'm still in mourning over that. :(

In order today I bought:

The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs by Jack Gantos - this is meant to be a older childrens book about a young girl but is described in a Times review as having "echoes of gothic novels and the plot of psycho." I bought this online because it isn't out until Friday in the shops. I got this book for a bargain £7.00 and can't wait for it to arrive.

Then in town I bought Cash, the autobiography of Johnny Cash, written by him with Patrick Carr.

Next I picked up The Villa, The Lake, The Meeting by Mark Roseman which tells the story of the Nazi meeting on Lake Wannsee where, chaired by Reinhard Haydrich, they clarified the issue of the final solution and effectively sentanced six million people to death in the space of a two-hour meal. Only one set of minutes from the meeting survived and have been argued over ever since but this book is described as unraveling the mystery of "the most shameful document in modern history."

Free with that book I got Hester's Story by Adele Geras which is a bit of an odd combination but it was the only other book in the offer I didn't already have.

Then I bought The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt which is about two orphans with the power to change the world who go on the run after a series of brutal murders. The book seems to be set in a Dickens type city and on the first page a girl loses her job because she has been caught reading.

To finish off I got two books on special offer, For One More Day by Mitch Albom, about a man who contemplates suicide but first returns to his deceased mothers home and finds her there to welcome him home. They have one more day to spend together. The other was Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders by Giles Brandreth which is about Oscar Wilde teaming up with Sir Arthur Conan Doyal to discover the mystery of the murder of a man named Billy Wood and the bizarre deaths that followed on from his.

All six of these books cost a total of £12.00 so it's been quite a successful book-shopping day.

The Border Trilogyby Cormac McCarthy arrived today.

I have one more book that I've pre-ordered from Amazon coming in about 2 weeks and then that's it. No more buying books at all until I reduce my TBR stack on my nightstand by half! I mean it. I'm even blocking Amazon till then.

Anyone want to place bets on how long I hold out?

Old French: A Concise Handbook. Not that I actually figure I'll have to use Old French at any stage, but still... (Actually, if anyone will have to use it, I'll have better odds than most)

Book fair this weekend! *dances a jig of anticip-p-p-pation*

That would be a very interesting book for me. You see, my Elves in my book speak dialects of Earthling languages because of the repetition of elements that occurs in parallel worlds. Most of them in theory should speak some kind of modern French, but you Will, have just given me the solution to what Old Elvish sounds like in the world of my novels.

I still have to figure out what blend of Greco-Roman/Japanese language my colonised Oriental Gawainans speak in everyday use... that could be tricky...

#268 - You are sure you have that language book buying impulse under control? ;-)

Tip for language book buyers:

If you're compulsively buying volumes of extinct, or even non-existent languages, you may have an addiction.

Treatment for the condition can be found in 1096 languages, but the cure can be understood in a universal tongue: Rehab.

Went to a fundraiser booksale where they were selling over 30,000 used books. It would have been wrong not to buy some. It was a Christian club who had received the books to sell and raise funds. Sort of a white elephant gift if you ask me, because sadly, most of the books were outdated advice books. I'm sure the advice was fine, but seeing that many in one place was overwhelming. I did find several books by Francis Scheaffer, one by his wife, Edith and a biography on him. Also Cry the Beloved Country, which I've not read and several Oregon/California history type books, journals and such. I love journals.

To feed my Drizzt addiction, I got The Orc King by R. A. Salvatore from BookMooch.

>272 What is it about used book sale fundraisers and outdated advice books? I've just about given up on going because I hate sifting through 5,000 copies of books by Dr. Laura or Dr. Phil and the ubitquitous How to Solve All Your Life's Problems in (insert number) Easy Steps. It really makes me wonder about the folks who dropped these things off.

Alas, I misplaced by copy of How to Stop Buying More Books somewhere in my TBR piles and I was pretty damned bad today:
In Defense of Food: an Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollon
The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy by Robert Leleux
Unknown Quantity by John Derbyshire
The Telephone Gambit by Seth Shulman
Kenosha on the Go - a collection of vintage streetcar, train and bus photos from my hometown.
Objectivity by Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison
and a Starbucks Tall Mocha Latte

ETA: I'm surprised the OH hasn't become suspicious of the CueCat's constant presence.

Message edited by its author, Mar 7, 2008, 5:19pm.

OK, so I went to the book fair yesterday, an then again this morning (because they keep putting books out - what if I missed one?!).

So now I have about 20 new (old) books, including:

Power of Three and Black Maria by Diana Wynne Jones
A Dictionary of Sea Dayak
Elements of Acoustic Phonetics by Peter Ladefoged
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
Sometimes Gladness by Bruce Dawe
Dear Miffy by John Marsden
...and others.

Happy dance for lots of books!

I needed a new bookshelf. I know this, because IKEA knows this.

I take the thing home, only by having the flatpack shoved through the sunroof of my family's Volkswagen Golf.

You do this by bringing the back seat of the car down, and extending the flatpack through the sunroof into the boot. Then you wedge a street directory and a picnic mat between the space remaining from the end of the flatpack to the back of the boot. This prevents the flatpack sliding down and killing you when the driver makes a sharp turn.

* * * * *

Ok, I've been reading too much Fight Club already. What I have now is a Billy IKEA bookshelf outside my bedroom ready to be assembled. Instead of buying more books, I now have a new bookshelf to house my growing collection that was spilling onto my floor getting dusty. These volumes have been dusted with a duster thingy and are now resting on my bed, almost smiling at me. This is because they will soon have a home that isn't my floorboards.

Sad state of affairs... I too need a new bookshelf Maybe I should spend part of my time today trying to reorganize. I have 2 stacks of books under the coffee table in the living room.. they go all the way to the top. They have nowhere else to go. I have got to stop buying books... but I have a 50$ card for B&N and a 50$ card for Amazon. It would be wrong to stop now. Ungrateful, don't you know.

But stacking them is getting precrious.........and troublesome.
I have to be careful and creative ... my kitty munches the covers of if she is displeased. She just munched the cover off of Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell because I had closed my bedroom door and she couldn't get out during the night.

My cat just sits on books, not chewing on them. My cat and I have an understanding unspoken. She defiles my books, she's going to get a reckoning.

Add me to the list of people who've gotten new bookshelves recently. My secondary shelves are now about twice as long, so I've been able to cut down on the number of books stuffed along the tops of my primary shelves. Good times.

I resisted the temptation to buy some new books today, but I have borrowed a couple of things recently. (Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt from a friend and The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet from the library).

I have been bad again *hangs head in shame*. I just got the Easton Press Edition of Aristophanes Lysistrata, illustrated by Picasso. I thought that it would have the same size like the other Easton Books I have, but now I found out that its 11*8.5 inch *sigh*

Otherwise, I found the perfect way of restricting myself from buying more books: I let my wife change the passwords for ebay, abebooks, etc... Now, if I want to buy something I have to hand in an request paper first ;)

Foyles' promotions are more original than their rivals. They are currently running 3 for 2s on selected volumes of short stories, on the works of Michael Chabon, selected London and Paris based fiction (to celebrate their opening up a branch in St. Pancras International station) and selected Asian fiction. I consequently went a bit mad and came out of their South Bank branch with...

Werewolves in their Youth by Michael Chabon
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
A tale of 2 cities by Charles Dickens
How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers
Drown by Junot Diaz
Selected Stories by Rudyard Kipling

I spent an hour or so at Barnes & Noble yesterday and the only thing I walked out with was The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. They have a million bargain books and former bestsellers, but I didn't see anything I had to have that was on SALE. I did see a few hundred I want that weren't on sale. LOL

They are having a buy 2 get 1 free thing going on, and I think I'm going to do that online, because the table was sort of picked over.
I have to get my hands on Fast Food Nation!

I gave my Mum The Other Boleyn Girl for Christmas a couple of years ago and she loved it. I wanted to take her to the cinema to see it next week but our cinema aren't going to show it because, as they told me when I rang to book "nobody wants to see it." I'm really disappointed now because I wanted to treat her and this would have been a great film to watch together.

clamairy - I was so tempted by the buy 2 get one free selection! I want Fast Food Nation, and there was an autobiography of Sidney Poiteir and another book which I can't remember the title of. Still, to buy the two, it would have been $30! For two paperbacks. I suppose I'm spoiled by used bookstores. Anyway, I decided to wait due to budget constraints.

I bought Brave Story because I heard that it was good, and I was hoping to try some Japanese Fantasy fiction. It's certainly different to British/Western fantasy fiction because of its unique mythologies and cultural beliefs/values. And I've never tried it before, so this big fat tome will be a treat for new eyeballs.

Also picked up Odd and the Frost Giants which is Neil Gaiman's latest. I read a bit of it on the bus, and it's one of the best children's books I've ever read so far. The command of language Gaiman has to explain how amazing (and amazingly silly) the Viking culture really was is brilliant. (it is stated that there were never any full time Vikings, most of them had ordinary jobs. After reading Fight Club, which is about ordinary people who do extremely violent anarchist acts to bring down a society run by money, this is more disturbing to read than it should be)

Recently I picked up Geometric Measure Theory (I got tired of borrowing it from the library) and Realistic Image Synthesis Using Photon Mapping.

After I submit my thesis (later this month) and I get a job with a bit higher income, I hope to start buying any book on partial differential equations and variational calculus that I can get my grubby hands on.

#284 - Same here. I couldn't bring myself to fork over $30 for 3 trade paperbacks, and I had left my B&N gift card at home. It would have been $45 or more without the sale! Somehow, ordering them online with a girt card doesn't hurt as much. But I kept asking myself, "If I wait, can I get these in September for $2 a piece?" I looked last night and I see they have Fast Food Nation at my library, and it's IN, but it will have to wait because I'm already committed to read 3 books for various clubs.

"I like big BOOKS and I cannot lie, yo other readers can't deny, when War and Peace looks like a feast, you'll have read for months at least, you get SPRUNG..."

I went stir crazy last night and requested a slew of Warcraft novels from PaperBackSwap.

We're taking our after school teen club on a trip today to the local mall. Yea!!!! Books A Million here I come!
Plans are to buy the outlandish companion and dragonfly in amber. Who knows what else I may find.

#288 Hilarious!!!!

Dagnabbit. Why can't Books A Million open up some stores near me?

I somehow ended up in the bookstore near me over the weekend. I don't know how it happened. I went out for coffee - there is a short 2 min from my house - yet my car turned in the opposite direction and before I know it I was wondering happily around the shelves. I got off easy this time though and only walked out with two books (albeit hardcover books).

Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella and The Spanish Bow by Andromeda Romano-Lax

This Common Secret by Susan Wicklund

I think I made it a whole week before breaking down and buying a book.

#283 Jodyreadseverything--don't worry if Other Boleyn Girl is like Kite Runner it will be in DVD in less than 3 mos.

#292 Irisheyz77--I went to the bookstore last week for Remember Me? and walked out w/ 2 others along with it. I just cannot leave a store w/o a book--at least one. I would be interested in what you think of The Spanish Bow--I had it in my hand and put it back (now how's that for will power).

@momom248 - I went to the bookstore to pick up Jodi Picoult's new book but couldn't find it...and saw that Remember Me? was 30% and that's something I've wanted to read so I picked it up. Then I found a 30% coupon in my wallet when I was walking over the cash register and so went back to look and picked up The Spanish Bow which is a book that I've been eying for a while and thought I could wait patiently until 1) it came in at the library or 2) it came out in paperback. I should have known better.

I did put Spanish Bow down twice before I finally walked out with it. I made the mistake of opening it and reading the first few chapters and knew I had to bring it home with me, that I couldn't wait any longer.

I am so hopeless. lol

Irisheyz77, I think I'm going to have to go back for Spanish Bow when I get my this weeks Borders coupon. I too am hopeless!!

momom248 - its hard to put down a book that in the first few lines says (and I paraphrase) "I was almost born happy. literally. my name was to be feliz which is spanish for happy, but for one small letter change on my death certificate."

the real words were much more beautifully written.

I've just received Rhett Butler's People from a wonderful BookMoocher who sent a copy that's virtually brand new!

I have bought Persuasion and Northanger Abbey today! And I forgot to mention here that last week I bought Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights....

I had a very close call. I discovered last night that a French publisher, Baam, has published a graphic novel version of Assassin's Apprentice. I almost bought it on spec from amazon.fr, until I realised just how much money 28,41 euros is in Aus$. I sadly cancelled the order. It was only 12 euros without postage...

In the mail today I got The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa. This is to be my armchair travel to Brazil book...although its almost 600 pages with some of the smallest print that I've seen in a book. So it might take a bit to find some time for me to "travel" to Brazil.

#301 - wow, it seems like just about everything is getting the graphic novel treatment these days! I'm curious about a lot of these things, but I'm hesitant to try any of them in case they're crap. Too bad the library hasn't stocked any of them.

I got a copy of Sunshine by Robin McKinley today. Part of me is really looking forward to it, but the last McKinley I read bored me to death so I'm a little hesitant to leap in.

303>

The graphic novels that are deliberately made as graphic novels first are the best ones. Watchmen was serialised in 12 comic book chapters, but it's not based on a novel and is what it is, instead of a pale imitation of a prose work. Sometimes a graphic novel adaptation that isn't made for children, like the graphic novel of He Died With A Falafel In His Hand I have, is really good and provides a unique interpretation of the original work.

My suggestion: try something like The Sandman first, if you're a Fantasy/Neil Gaiman buff. Then tackle V for Vendetta, by the same guy who made Watchmen, before you tackle Watchmen itself.

#304 - I'm already quite well-versed with graphic novels as a whole; I just think it's interesting that there are so many graphic novel adaptations of prose novels cropping up these days.

You just wait until you start reading Manga: there's tons of Manga inspired or based on literary works of both Japan and Europe. When I say Europe I mean France and Italy, not England. Sometimes German inspired Manga pops up like "Elfen Lied".

Still, the best Graphic Novel adaptation of a prose book I ever read was the Comic Edition of He Died With A Felafel In His Hand. If anything the illustrations just make the already quite visual book more vivid and grimy, and it's a must read for anybody who's going into shared housing in Australia.

303, 305 - I'm a little wary of a lot of the GN adaptations I've heard of. I came across it on a site which had example of the artwork. I looked at it and thought "yes, that's Fitz!" It's in French, which doesn't bother me that much (in fact, it's more intriguing, because I see all the name translations), but might deter you. You can see examples of it here (cover only - in French) and here (in English, inside examples).
I'm quite enjoying the Magician adaptation, although I preferred the artwork on the first parts, before it changed artist.

I have zero interest in graphics...
I picked up a couple of used Amazon books over the weekend:

Haunted Ground: A Novel by Erin Hart
Lake of Sorrows: A Novel by Erin Hart
LA Magdalena (Theo Nikonos Mystery) by William Valtos

I picked up another used one about 10 days ago...

The Game of Silence by Louise Erdrich and it arrived yesterday...
POSTAGE DUE!!!!!

I paid 1.59 for the book plus 3.99 for postage. The seller used a regular padded envelope.. available for less than a dollar, and paid 1.80 to mail...I am annoyed.It was only .33 but it is the principle of it all...

Has this ever happened to you? Did you reflect it in your feedback?
I emailed the seller and so far no response...... humph!

I am in possession of a 50$ Amazon card and a 50$ B&N card. I am showing great restraint.....

I prefer to use the B&N card at the store. I feel tht I get better bargains that way....usually.

#298 Irisheyz77--I couldn't remember which thread we talked aabout Spanish Bow, but I was lucky enough to find it at B&N for a bargain $4.98. This time I bought it. Cannot pass a hardcover for that price. I loved the first lines also--can't wait to read this book.

I hate (read mega jealous) you momom248....and your B&N too!!!

Message edited by its author, Mar 11, 2008, 10:23pm.

#281 -- That Foyles Michael Chabon deal is painful for me, because (prior to today) I had all but one of his books, but I love him so much I just want to buy them all again. Also, that new cover for Kavalier and Clay is just wonderful-- my favorite of any edition anywhere.

Borders has a deal on where if you buy any Chabon book, you get a set of postcards of the new covers to all of his books, so I took advantage and bought A Model World today to get them. I'm very pleased to see his UK publishers make such a push, and I'm hoping the US publishers are doing the same-- there can never be enough people reading him (Did I mention I'm in love with him?)

Today, I also bought:
Misogyny: the World's Oldest Prejudice
The Ultimate Book of British Comics
Hell Is My Destination

Also, #308 mckait-- Be careful about writing off graphic novels, you never know what you're missing! Just, keep your radar tuned.

The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs by Jack Gantos has arrived!

I've been very excited about this book and at last it's here. It's about a girl called Ivy who learns taxidermy from some strange twins and who then puts her new talent to use when her mother dies.

It's received some very good reviews and the first few pages have been very good so I can't wait to read the rest. And the cover art is wonderful.

Shadow of the Giant just jumped into my hand as was innocently walking by a discounted bookshelf today. It begged me to not set it back down, as the bookstore it was in had bought it from another bookstore that had just gone out of business, and if it didn't go with me today, it would be PUT DOWN. :(

(Can you tell I walked by the ASPCA on my way back and saw some pictures of some sweet doggies on death row?)

The Warcraft books I snagged from PBS are starting to trickle in. Today I got Cycle of Hatred.

Message edited by its author, Mar 12, 2008, 4:38pm.

Irisheyz77, you know what I hate even more is when I buy a hardcover and then maybe 3 mos later it appears in B&N bargain table for $4.98 and I can't find the receipt for the orig. book I bought at full price. This has happened several times. I guess I need to wait a while before I buy hardcovers or wait til they come out in paperback.

oooh #308 - that reminds me...I have a bookstore gift card lurking around ....*ponder*
this is a most fortuitous event as I've been having a "wander in the bookstore" craving growing over the past few days.
I may have to take a little trip and find some good stuffs to read (or rather to add to the TBR pile)

Part two of "Dayna went stir crazy and ordered every Warcraft related book she could find"

Warcraft: The Last Guardian

hehe fleela...we go through those phases as well. We just got a bunch of WarHammer stuff and sporadically dive into the Warcraft frenzy as well.

It's gotta be the artwork that draws me in. I get to playing WoW then next thing I know I've got Blizzard merchandise all over the house.

Darn World of Warcrack! :P

I hear ya! The cards are great just for the artwork....and there are so many *different* things you can get. *twitch*

I was bad ...

The Agony and the Ecstasy - Irving Stone
Through a Glass Darkly - Karleen Koen

Went into Borders today to exchange a book...was only supposed to get 1 book. Instead I walked out with the following:

Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult
Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat
Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
Rise & Fall of the Nazis by Claire Welch
Only in Your Dreams by Cecily Von Ziegesar
Nothing Can Keep Us Together by Cecily Von Ziegesar and
Nobody Does it Better by Cecily von Ziegesar

The last 3 were in a box set for $7.99...one book originally goes for $9.99...I read the first one and have 2 others in my TBR pile so figured why not snap these up since they were such a great deal.

I really need a book buying support group.

I was doing so good but restaint was thrown to the wind when I got to work and the Ladies Auxillary was having *gulp* a book sale. 6 books 3 cd's and 75 dollars later.......

I was so so bad today, you guys!

Went to B&N, picked up 8 new books:
Brighton Rock
It's Kind of a Funny Story
The Outsiders
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
The Scary Stories Treasury
Brave New World
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

As a sidenote, when I walked in, there was a table with buy 2, get 1 free. Some REALLY good choices! Wicked; Son of a Witch; Mirror, Mirror; Rebecca; World Religions, etc...I ulitimately went with the the last 3 from the above 8. ;)

The mail was good to me today; it brought The Gypsy by Steven Brust and Megan Lindholm, Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint, and a book I'd mooched for my mother.

#311

I was pleased to see the Chabon promotion too. Werewolves in their Youth filled my last but one gap in my collection - I still need to get Gentlemen of the Road, which I will when a paperback appears.

Chabon's profile is much lower in the UK than the USA, although pastiching Sherlock Holmes in The Final Solution helped to raise it a little. I'm not sure UK editions of A Model World or The Mysteries of Pittsburgh have been available before now - my copies of both of these are American ones I picked up second hand.

325 - My OH just finished The Gypsy last night. He said it jumped around quite a bit from character to character but thought I would like it. I've moved it up on the TBR pile.

I bought a book! In a book store! I almost paid full price too! I had a 10% off coupon from B&N so I got Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Death by Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries. As a bonus the coupon can still be used one more time online so I can get something that my "local" (25 minutes away) B&N didn't have in stock.

I don't even feel too bad about spending the money because I think everyone in the house will read it at some point.

Message edited by its author, Mar 14, 2008, 12:38pm.

I forgot to mention that along with the above mentioned book, I also came home with a list of eight more books to put on my wishlist.

/sigh

at least you didn't walk OUT with those 8 books

triple love Dreams Underfoot and most anything else written by deLint

Yay for Jasper Fforde books at $.50 each - I picked up two the Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book as well as the Last Prince of Ireland and Search of the Moon King's Daughter - gotta love ongoing library book sales

Annual used book sale at church:

For my classroom (and me!):
The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
The Book of American Negro Poetry
The Norton Anthology of English Literature
The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces
The Norton Anthology of American Literature

Not for the classroom:
The Source
Big Stone Gap
John's Story
The Touch
Islands

Purchased at full price recently:
Rhett Butler's People
Plain Truth
Off the Beaten Path Georgia

Message edited by its author, Mar 14, 2008, 9:23pm.

More good book mail! Renegade's Magic by Robin Hobb arrived today.

The Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes for me, since I have to study crime fiction.

Quite frankly don't like crime fiction much because most of the clues are less than easy to follow for my brain. This may be the reason why I have to use a Game Guide for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, since I can't really do without help finding the clues and remembering what's going on with the suspects.

Damned mysteries confusing me every time!

I went to buy one book today, couldn't find it and came home with four others.

Benny & Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti, translated from Swedish and telling the story of a cow farmer and an intellectual young widow who fall in love.

A disorder peculiar to the country by Ken Kalfus, a black comedy apparently, about a married couple who both think the other has died (both are delighted) and the struggles that follow when they realise their spouse is still alive.

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist is about a young schoolboy, Oskar and his friendship with the little girl next door, a 200 year old vampire frozen in childhood. This is also translated from Swedish.

And finally The House of Lost Souls F.G. Cottam, about a group of people visit an old house. Weeks later one has committed suicide and the others are descending into madness. The brother of one of the group seeks help from a man who has previously survived the house and together they have to investigate the past to save themselves in the present.

My only problem now is I want to read them all right now and I still have one to finish and a large TBR pile.

#336 - From your description I'm pretty sure the Katarina Mazetti-book is the same as Grabben i graven bredvid - it has been made into a film; last year, I think.

I got two at Value Village today: The Night Watch by Sarah Waters and Amsterdam by Ian McEwan. It looks like the girl undercharged me, too, so I got them for half price!

#231 I want to read that book!

Having an interactive fiction binge of late because sometimes a young man needs some games in his life. I'd buy more books if I wasn't so busy with school, but I do enjoy something with a good story I can interact with on my DS when I'm in-between classes. So I picked up "Drawn to Life", which, is one of the strangest games I've ever played, because you have to draw things that you use to beat the challenges.

Also I already bought a Sherlock Holmes collection on the weekend that I've barely started, and that's "interactive" in a whole 'nother sense, because of the way you piece together how Sherlock solves the mysteries.

Hmm, I won't mention ALL the books I got since posting last (can't even remember when that was... work, work, work...and a busted pc) But last week I bought the Belgariad and Malloreon series by David Eddings in audio-editions. I saw them in a second-hand bookshop and couldn't leave without the.

I'm thrilled that the library has given me a "surplus-to-requirements" (read ancient and battered but intact) copy of Forests and Forest Flora of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope by Thomas R. Sim. This is one of the seminal works on South African trees, and one refers to it often, even though it was 100 years old last year. W00t!

(Touchstones flaky)

Michael Chabon is brilliant! Wonder Boys is my favorite of his so far. I don't own a copy of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay yet either. It's one I want to reread at some point. I still haven't read Summerland, though, so that comes first...

*mentally places it near top of that tilting piles of TBRs*

He is isn't he?

Amazon have just sent me:

Tomorrow by Graham Swift
Yes, but is it good for the Jews? by Jonny Geller

The latter purports to be produced by the Judological Institute of Spiritual Mechanics (I don't want to write that in acronym form in case I get banned), and uses a formula to determine if, for example, Madonna (she isn't) or Google (it is) are beneficial to Jews. I giggled at it in the bookstore for Jewish Book Week last year and bought a copy for a friend in Massachusetts but now it is out in paperback decided I had to have one of my own.

Bwaa haa haa!! :o) Yes, best to play it safe, Grammath.

I'll have to keep an eye out for that Geller book.

The mail has been so, so good to me lately. Today it brought The Fair Folk, an anthology of novellas.

Today the UPS man brought me:

The Omnivore's Dilemma : A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
Hell Hath No Fury: True Stories of Women at War from Antiquity to Iraq by Rosalind Miles

I'm on a non-fiction kick.

I'm on a non-fiction kick.

Welcome to the dark side.

The boy and I got a total of 5 books in the mail today.

I got:
The Little Ice Age - this one came all the way from Israel!
Mapping Human History

He got 3 Star Wars: Young Jedi Knights novels.

I've been so bad lately. I ordered a bunch of books from amazon.de despite the fact that I don't have time to read due to tons of homework...

Anyway, the first load arrived today:
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
I Am America (And So Can You) by Stephen Colbert
Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
The Becoming by Jeanne C. Stein
The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks
Child of God by Cormac McCarthy
The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper (all 5 books in a box)

And I can't wait for the next package... ;-)

I was very bad - I ordered a part of a birthday present for my fiance on amazon, but didn't reach $25, so I had to buy at least two books for me, which led to convincing myself that I could buy one more and then get a free one. *hides*

To Green Angel Tower, part 1 - Tad Williams
To Green Angel Tower, part 2 - Tad Williams
Belladonna - Anne Bishop
Outlander - Diana Gabaldon

I received today ARC of The Cactus Eaters and Origin and I also picked up Things Fall Apart at the library book sale for $1. I had this one in my hand ready to buy at Borders on Mon.--so glad I waited to go to the library book sale.

I was kinda bad. I wandered into Borders with a gift card in hand and The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver jumped into my hand along with The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber.

I've never read Shriver but heard she's pretty good and I'm already a fan of Michael Gruber and his book looks delectable.

#353 citygirl, isn't just funny how those books just jump off the shelf or table right into your hands. Happens to me all the time. Then when my hands are full the other books fight over which one gets to go home with me.

Lost In A Good Book by Jasper Fforde arrived today, and Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland came in for me at the library. These should be the last additions for the next little while.

#354 momom, Maybe we should start carrying canvas shopping sacks to the bookstore, then there'll be less fighting amongst the books.

I actually managed to wander thru Waldenbooks at lunch today and NOT BUY ANYTHING. Although my bookseller sure was trying to tempt me. But, payday isn't until NEXT week . . .

ETA - Of course, then I got online and ordered SIX books from bookcloseouts.com. It's hopeless, I tell you. Hopeless!!

Message edited by its author, Mar 22, 2008, 12:25am.

356 citygirl, for me sometimes it seems shopping cart is what I need = a big shopping cart!!

Okay flee, how'd you get a book from Israel? Bookmooch?

Aye. I really wanted this one so I spent the extra points for an international mooch.

OOOH, I love the sound of that!
'An international mooch!'
:o)

Borders Easter gift to me was £10 off a £40 spend so...

Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July
Suttree by Cormac McCarthy
The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo
Time Out London Eating and Drinking Guide for 2008

were added to the Library.

#362 - Oh, Grammath, Sometimes a Great Notion is one awesome BLEEPING book. Well, at least I thought it was when I read it 26 years ago...

I was bad but it is all the SO's fault....he dragged me into not one but 2 bookstores on Saturday. So I came home with a bunch of things (and 6 cookbooks).
The Delicious World of Raw Foods by Mary Louise Lau
Cooking by the Calendar
The Garlic Lovers' Cookbook by Gilroy Garlic Festival
Impromptu Cooking by Glenn Andrews
The Nashville cookbook
Annemarie's Cookingschool Cookbook by Annemarie Huste
That was the cookbooks - random and all over the board -
Then there were:
Monstrous Regiment by Terry Prachett
The Duke's Ballad by Andre Norton and Lyn McConchie
- side note....strangest thing ever ...the Books-A-Million store by us was selling a large lot of old library books from some library in South Carolina (we are in Ohio) - found that quite strange to find in a retail book store.
In the Hand of Dante by Nick Tosches
The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones
and finally
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

You beat me out by a mile, evedeve! I only bought these books this week

Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
Lords of the Sky by Angus Wells
Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett

I also still have to read

Dreaming in Code by Scott Rosenberg
Sovereign by C.J. Sansom

and I have to finish up The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill for my library book talk later this week.

But I like sitting in my comfy chair with the sun on my shoulders while I finish everything up.

#363

I'm hoping so, clam. It's more than 15 years since I read One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and I've been wanting to read more Ken Kesey ever since. However, apart from Cuckoo's Nest, none of Kesey's books are in print in Britain. My copy of Sometimes a Great Notion appears to be American in origin.

#366 - Please let me know what you think of it, Grammath. I have another of his in a box in my basement. I really need to go down there and add some more of those books to my LT library one of these days.

I had a "3 for the price of 2" borders voucher, so last night I bought Ursula K. Le Guin's Left Hand of Darkness & the Earthsea quartet & got Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy free :)

Feels good to have some new additions to my library coz I’ve been in a bit of a book buying drought lately (I’ve been seeing over 200 unread posts in this thread for a while coz it was too depressing to look at what you guys have all been buying, lol)...

Oh, you guys, I'm getting totally out of control!!

Here was my order from Amazon on Sunday night:
The Colour of Magic
Thirsty
Burger Wuss
Skin by Adrienne Maria Vrettos
Tenderness
Dreamside
The Wish House
Among the Dolls
Harvey Walden's No Excuses! Fitness Workout
The Fat Smash Diet
Extreme Fat Smash Diet

Preordered:
Night World No. 1: Secret Vampire; Daughters of Darkness; Spellbinder (Night World) by L.J. Smith
The Secret Circle: The Initiation and The Captive Part I (The Secret Circle) by L.J. Smith

I got The Reindeer People by Megan Lindholm in the mail today. Whee!

I got Pulp Fiction: The Crimefighters and I Sing the Body Electric! the other day. My mother didn't scold me for buying them because I explained that I needed them for my school assignments and Ext. 2 English research. The pulp fiction one was easy to justify as a valid educational purchase, since I am studying crime fiction short stories at school, but the Bradbury one was harder to be acknowledged as a true educational purchase. Then I explained that even the Board of Studies like him as a writer (though I curse them, if they like Bradbury and endorse him as literature of quality).

What's great about these purchases is not only do I get my homework done in a fun way, but I don't feel guilty about buying books again.

I stopped in my local Goodwill today and managed to pick up a bunch of books for less than what I'd pay for one at a regular bookstore. I'm not sure I'll like them all, but what the heck, they were cheap. Here's what I got:

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Millroy the Magician by Paul Theroux
The War Against the Rull by A. E. Van Vogt (a 1959 harcover edition)
Dr. Dredd's Wagon of Wonders by Bill Brittain
Floating Dragon by Peter Straub
Star Trek: Doctor's Orders by Diane Duane
Nightwing by Martin Cruz Smith
We Love you, Snoopy by Charles Schulz
Ziggy Faces Life Again by Tom Wilson

I bought The Blade Itself and Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie. They are presents for my husband's birthday, I swear! Well, ok, I got him the second in the series because I want to read it, but that's usually how it works anyway.

I bought a whole bunch of mass market paperbacks a couple of weeks ago because amazon was having some kind of sale (3 for 4, or 4 for 5, something like that). I got
Flesh and Spirit by Carol Berg
Cast In Shadow by Michelle Sagara
New copies of Storm of Swords and Clash of Kings because I will never get mine from my parents' house.
Melusine by Sarah Monette

Friends of the Library were having a sale, and 2 books climbed into my bag:-

Historic Pietermaritzburg by Steve Camp
The Mystery of the Bayeux tapestry by David J. Bernstein

Yes. Yesterday I noticed a shortage of unread "quick" books on my shelves, and that combined with my wee-hour perusal of this thread resulted in an order for:
The Uses of Enchantment by Heidi Julavits, which I heard about on Medellia's 50 book thread, ditto the P.G. Wodehouse (I think, it was the middle of the night), And while I was there...Enfance by Nathalie Saurraute, which I've been planning to reread, and Speak, Memory, Vladimir Nabokov's autobiography.

I so have to stay away from this thread.

Oh, and I forgot Side Effects: a New Orleans Love Story by Patty Friedmann.

I unexpectedly finished the book I had in my bag yesterday, so I had to buy a new one to read on the way home. *blushes*

I bought Mortal Engines by Phillip Reeve. I've had my eye on it for a while.

Argh, I just made another B&N order. They are having a huge clearance, with some of them being 'buy 2 get 1 free.'

I bought The Born Queen by Greg Keyes and The Paths of the Dead by Steven Brust. But what I'm really looking forward to is buying Small Favor by Jim Butcher on Tuesday.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home arrived yesterday. I really wasn't going to buy any more books for a good long while, but I had to buy this one because the first season of Six Feet Under was on sale for wicked cheap and I needed to bump my total up high enough that I could get free shipping. So you see, it really was a necessary purchase.

(Plus I'm kind of addicted to both Buffy and book buying).

I had a $30 voucher for Collins bookstores from my birthday, so yesterday I went shopping :) I found it really interesting that there seemed to be more fantasy books in the YA section of Collins than there were in the fantasy/sci fi section – odd!!! Anyhoo, I ended up buying Carole Wilkinson’s Dragonkeeper trilogy Dragon Keeper, Garden of the Purple Dragon & Dragon Moon…

In preparation for the baby, I started his/her library today with a trip to B&N and Borders:

The Aesop for Children
Mad about Madeline: The Complete Tales
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
Goodnight Moon
Peter Rabbit: A Lucky Escape

This last one I'm really excited about, since we're decorating the nursery with a Peter Rabbit theme. It's a fantastic pop-up book version of the old classic.

Message edited by its author, Mar 31, 2008, 5:44pm.

I love that scaifea, I get such odd looks at baby showers when I give books. I think they are necessary. :)

MrsLee: I was actually thinking of registering on amazon.com for a bunch of children's books, and I think I'd maybe get quite a few of them since most of my friends are pretty bookish.

In a gap between events at Cambridge Wordfest on Sunday, I popped into the town's chief bookshop Heffers (nowadays part of the Blackwell's chain - how the Oxonians must gloat) and came out with not one, not two but three 3 for 2 purchases:

The Post Birthday World by Lionel Shriver
Engleby by Sebastian Faulks
South of the River by Blake Morrison
The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall
Illywhacker by Peter Carey
Shakespeare by Bill Bryson
On The Wealth of Nations by P. J. O'Rourke
Slam by Nick Hornby
Persepolis I & II by Marjane Satrapi

plus I bought a copy of Jon Ronson's What I Do for him to sign after his appearance.

Picked up My Boring Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith last night, and Small Favor by Jim Butcher first thing this morning.

I bought Paris Then and Now so I can decide what I'd like to see on a short stay there. It shows pictures of, for example, Bouquinistes in the late 1800s (Napoleon III) and now. (riverside booksellers) "bouquinistes" means secondhand booksellers, I think.

A very cool book.

#6 & #8
Browse? No dear lady, I wish to set up camp in J's library. Sigh.

#6 & #8
Browse? No dear lady, I wish to set up camp in J's library. Sigh.

Today I went to the Borders that is right across the road from my work...it was my first time in the store since starting here last week. I am so impressed with my will power!! Although now that the seal has been broken (so to speak) I'll probably be a frequent visitor.

Anywho...I went into the store to pick up Jim Butcher's newest Dresden book (just released today) Small Favor. Then I slipped in my mantra of chanting 'stay focused, get in, get the book, get out' by wandering too far into the store. So ended up with The Book Thief and Persian Girls as well. There were a few others that tried to follow me home but I was able to lure them back onto the shelf with promises of next time....

I couldn't resist popping into one of the used bookstores I frequent. I had some credit there, so I got The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon for only $0.35 in tax.

BookMooch sent me There Once Was a World: A 900-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok. It's about Jewish life in a Lithuanian village - before, after, and during the Holocaust.

Oh, that sounds interesting, fleela.

I just bought three books for the Kindle so I can do a Contemporary Fiction book group at a nearby community college. Ivan Doig's The Whistling Season, Michael Lee West's Mermaids in the Basement, and Tana French's In the Woods. The group will also be reading Confessions of a Jane Austin Addict but that is not available on Kindle.

Those darn touchstones are not functioning properly!

#382 & 383, scaifea & MrsLee, when I was pregnant with our first I put a bookcase in the nursery and everyone said how useful it would be for toys and blankets etc. I corrected them and said "No, I've got all the books he/she will need that will be in it. There might be room for a toy or two, but mostly books." I sure got lots of strange looks too.

My favourite independent bookstore opened their new location yesterday, so I popped by. I managed to resist most of the pretty, shiny books, but I did pick up a paperback copy of The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It's my very favourite sort of book purchase: I've already read it, so I get the excitement of purchasing something new without the pressures associated with adding to my TBR list.

Nearly, tried to convice my 13 year old brother that he had to get my mum to buy (from Amazon) Once Upon a Time in the North, by Philip Pullman and Airman by Eoin Colfer, but then we had to make it over £15 so we should buy magyk by Angie Sage and the next two as well. But my brother woudn't play along even though he's a fan of Pullman and Colfer. I'm still trying though

My mum did however buy me Bitten, Dime Store Magic and Industrial magic by Kelly Armstrong from the local charity shop - they were all brand new unread for £1 for all three!

Message edited by its author, Apr 2, 2008, 2:15pm.

Oh, blast it. B&N.com is having yet another big clearance sale, with buy 2 get 1 free thing, going on. I ended up with:

Dave Barry's History of the Millennium (So Far) by Dave Barry
Bad Dogs Have More Fun : Selected Writings on Family, Animals, and Life by John Grogan
The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt
700 Sundays by Billy Crystal
Geno: In Pursuit of Perfection by Geno Auriemma

Flippin' touchstones...

Message edited by its author, Apr 2, 2008, 2:34pm.

A gift: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. My daughter read it all in one go and told me to read it soon. :)

Today on Amazon:
The Cooking of Russia by Helen and George Papashvily
Yes and No Stories by Helen and George Papashvily
Thanks to Noah by Helen and George Papashvily

Yes, I love these authors. :)

after months of only library-ing the book habit, got caught by an evil* salesperson and walked out with Three Cups of Tea and some Juv titles, The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs, Crispin the Cross of Lead, and Here There Be Dragons, plus whatever the boys already have their bookmarks in... it happened so fast I didn't know what hit me... but aahhh it feels so good...

*"evil" as in good -- she talked to the boys first, asked what they were reading, placed her recommendations in their hands, and just smiled (evilly, I say) as I signed the sales slip...

I got K.E. Mills' The Accidental Sorcerer yesterday. K.E. Mills is actually Karen Miller & her Kingmaker/Kingbreaker duology is one of my fave reads, so i broke my rule of not getting books if they are part of an unfinished series because I want to be a part of a discussion on a different site about it which she may get involved in...

Bought a bunch of stuff when I was home for Spring Break. Probably going to be very bad next week when my college's library holds its annual Spring book sale.

#400- I didn't know Karen had already diversified enough to start writing with a penname. I've combined KE into the main Karen author page. Innocent mage is a favourie of maine, I'm waiting for her next series to be available in the UK.

#397 Clam--let me know how the Geno Auriemma book is. I recently saw him on the streets of Hartford before a game and he's showing his age--and he's a little paunchy in the belly, but I still love him. Go UCONN Women!!

#403 - You know, I was just thinking last night that I thought his face look a bit beefier than I remembered it looking last season. have you ever eaten at his restaurant? I'd love to give it a try at some point. I did read the Foreword by Diana Taurasi, and it made me very emotional.

(o: Go Huskies!!!! :o)

I got Serenity: Those Left Behind today. It's a Firefly graphic novel.

I had preordered The Name of the Wind, and it was delivered today. My husband was at home. Now the amazon tracking page for that package says the following:

Status: Delivered
Location: Delivered to male adult

I honestly chortled when I saw this. Do they want to warn me there might be a male adult in my house? Or if my book is lost, I should go looking for an unidentified "male adult" who signed for the package? :)

405 - You won't be disappointed. It's good to see a couple of old characters back in the saddle. *sniff*

I just bought a hardcover copy of Terry Jones' Barbarians from the History Book Club. Only $11 including shipping.

Went to the Charity shop, because I knew there was nothing in there since I'd been on tuesday, However:

Dennis Wheatley To the Devil a Daughter
(Because the name rang a bell - is it a film or something?)
Roald Dahl The wonderful World of Henry Sugar
(I've been watching Tales of the Unexpected - a 1970's BBC TV series based on some of his short stories)
and Edmond Hamilton The Weapon From Beyond(which is probably going to be very bad but he's a Name from the Golden Age - and it was 3 for 2 anyway even though they are only 50p each)

I managed to get out of B&N with only a Giant Book of Optical Puzzles, but I also managed to find three more books to add to my wishlist.

Message edited by its author, Apr 4, 2008, 2:41pm.

B&N is having a buy 2 get 1 free sale on all of their clearance books so I managed to order 6 online. Shipping is also free for orders over $25 so how could I resist? I'll post the books when I can check my e-mail.

#411 - Yeah, I did that last weekend... I may have to go back again and see what's left. Doesn't it seem like they are having big clearance sales more often than usual?

I bought Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson to go with the copy of Red Mars I already have. Need to find the middle book next, then sit down and read the trilogy.

Also got Dark Of The Moon by Susan Krinard on a whim. I know her husband online, and you ought to support your friends, right?

Picked up Feet of Clay a few days ago, too.

#390

Oh Irisheyz, I've done that, I have soooo done that...

I just used gift card credit to get

The Silver Pigs and Shadows in Bronze by Lindsey Davis

The Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald

and The Religion by Tim Willocks

all new authors, for me, hope they're fun.

I had to stop at B&N to pick up the next read for my Women's Book Club: The Geography of Bliss : One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner.

Blasted touchstones. :o(

Message edited by its author, Apr 6, 2008, 11:23am.

Here's the link to the book. I don't want to edit the above post, because I'll have to fix the author touchstone again. Who would have thought there'd be more than one Eric Weiner out there?

http://www.librarything.com/work/3930263

>415 The Lindsey Davis books are quite enjoyable. I do recommend them; I'm told by those who are relatively knowledgeable about the period that she handles historical background well.

(And what *is* going on with the author touchstones?)

edited for punctuation

Message edited by its author, Apr 6, 2008, 11:46am.

#418 - I don't know, but it's very frustrating. And it's not just the authors, the books themselves are whacky.

I bought Mother Come Home yesterday.

And I ordered The World's Major Languages ($9.00!)and Five Fists of Science from Amazon.

Might almost be time for a new thread...

I reckon monthly threads for this & "What are you reading?" would be much easier to manage & find, what do u guys think?

ETA: I ordered Karen Miller's Empress of Mijak & The Riven Kingdom, plus Kate Forsyth's Heart of Stars on the wknd :)

Message edited by its author, Apr 6, 2008, 9:15pm.

I think monthlies sounds like a good idea. I don't have problems with loading long threads but I understand others do.

I've acquired many books since I last posted here ...

Beneath a Marble Sky - John Shors
The Killer Angels - Michael Shaara
Atonement - Ian McEwan
Blood and Roses - Helen Castor
Quicksilver - Neal Stephenson
Cry, the Beloved Country - Alan Paton
Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak
Shield of Three Lions - Pamela Kaufman
The Venetian Mask - Rosalind Laker (my ER book)

This is all over the space of about a week. I also haven't completed a book in nearly two weeks since my fiance has been visiting. He's left now, so it will be me and the books for three months again.

ETA: Monthly threads do make sense, although I don't have loading problems myself.

Message edited by its author, Apr 6, 2008, 10:25pm.