Continued from here.

Robert

Just bought Cannery Row by John Steinbeck to read on my vacation to - appropriately enough - California next week.

Message edited by its author, Aug 16, 2008, 5:32pm.

Thank you.

I will post the books I have ordered, all as a result of what I have seen on LT by the way.

On Order - Amazon

Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors by Nicholas Wade

Discoveries: The Bronze Age in Europe
by Jean-Pierre Mohen

Apartment in Athens by Glenway Wescott

The Mystery of the Copper Scroll of Qumran: The Essene Record of the Treasure of Akhenaten by
Robert Feather

Nine Lords of the Night by E. C. Gibson

have already gone onto August number 3 as one got too long

Message edited by its author, Aug 16, 2008, 5:53pm.

thank you *so much* for starting a new thread...we are, all of us, sewing our way to bibliolism..is that even a freakin" word..and i studied Semantics

snicker..snicker

ktleyed: to tell a really embarrassing bit about myself, it wasn't until sometime last week that I thought Cannery Row was called Canary Row as in yellow song-birds in a line.

John Steinbeck's Canary Row

alright, laugh at me.

Naw, you're telling it on yourself; I, for one, am laughing with you.

Robert

>oh #6..that is so precious..and i'm not being snarky...i love your picture..i had a parakeet, when i was but a wee child..i also had a cat..parakeet figgered out hou to open his cage door...Ma & Dad and I went out for an evening..come home...torn drapes..birdy feathers on the carpet..a very happy cat..life goes on..i still love cats...

boy..you must think me weird..you be right....
Read On!

oh, since we're on/in the same Group..check out my Library..it ain't half bad...she smiles behind her hands...

Books a Memoir Larry McMurtry
The Guernsey Literary and Potatoe Peel Pie Society Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
1776 David McCullough
The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls
Benjamin Franklin Walter Isaacson

Interested to hear what you think about "Guernsey.......".

I went to the library thinking that I'd just stop in and renew a few books. Instead, I came out an hour later with quite a few extra.

The Dark is Rising (complete series volume)
The Black Cauldron
The Eyre Affair
Ender's Game
The Descent
To Say Nothing of the Dog
The Cloud Atlas
Out of the Silent Planet
Storm Front

I'm pretty excited for this stack.

>jdt, from last thread...yeah, I complain about others showing me the tempting tasty nummy book sale sites and then turn right around and wave another one in y'all's collective face. Mea maxima culpa.

>mckait from last thread, what? You liked Memoirs of a Geisha? I thought you told me you loathed it, thought it was execrable.
*chortle*
I spent a lovely afternoon with Lucretia McEvil and Mr. Man and random family members. Lovely. I am so glad that this woman and I will no longer be sharing a time zone. OTOH, Mr. Man finally sees what I'm complaining about. This isn't a bad thing.

I am saving myself for tomorrow. I will go to ArmadilloCon 30, our local Austin SF convention, and my friend Nicole who is taking me there says the dealer room is awash with signed copies and general goodies.

I will NOT spend $500, or even $50. No no no, to quote Amy Winehouse in that dumb song "Rehab." Wait...I think I just said the opposite of what I meant....

From the previous thread...

richardderus, I doubt I'll really make it until Christmas. I went to a seminar today, and one of the things they said was that it was good to put aside a specific percentage of money to "play" each month. So I could still save money to move out, but still get to bring home new treats once a month.

Look at me, making excuses already. The good news is, I've gone three whole days now without buying any books.

*sigh*

Hubby and I brought home three books purchased for a buck a piece at an antique mall, to take to the book shop for credit...however the first two listed have captured our interest and may have to be read first....*sigh*.....I am wondering how much taller the TBR pile will get before it finally topples.

Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child
Justice Denied by J.A. Jance
Dreamland by Dale Brown & Jim DeFelice

>13 starr, budgeting begins with one basic principle: Pay Yourself First. Then the bills. Then savings.

You don't set aside your money at the beginning, well, things go very wrong very fast. Humans can't feel deprived for very long without making bad decisions (on average, of course, since there are plenty who can and do function well enough).

Good luck with the new regimen. I'm sending financial success vibes your way now.

>14 porch, well now that's one I never thought of before...buy a book to resell it. Huh. Good gravy.

Message edited by its author, Aug 16, 2008, 10:57pm.

#15 ~ richardderus..... our local book shop takes used books in for credit. It works like this: they re-sell a paperback for half of what it's original list price is. They give the "giver" (me) one quarter of the list price of the book for credit. Usually, it's anywhere from $2-$3.50 since most new paperbacks and softcover books sell for $8-$14. If we can find a book for a buck, we can turn it in for credit for at least $2. Then after our credit builds up for awhile, we can pick out books that we really want for free.....sort of. It's sick, I know. LOL

If we can hit a garage sale and find paperbacks for like 25 cents, we've hit the motherload. Woo Hoo!

Hey, I'm getting older....it doesn't take as much to excite me as it used to. :o)

Message edited by its author, Aug 16, 2008, 11:08pm.

>16 now that sounds like a great bookstore! They're generous in their valuations. Yum!

#6 - koolaid - now of course, that's what I'll be thinking everytime I pick up the book! See what you've done? - cute story!

the koolaidmom

Don't feel alone. We've had students coming into the library all week asking for "Canary Row." Guess it is on the summer reading list!!

Message edited by its author, Aug 17, 2008, 12:26am.

Just started Nerve Damage by Peter Abrahams....I'm about 35 pages in and it looks excellent. I love this author! He's a thriller/suspense guy.

richardear.. I am certain that we never discussed Memoirs of a Geisha. I loved the book! That must have been one of your other LT friends .

Sorry to hear that you had a Lucretia day. blech.
Today however, sounds as if it will be a lot of fun. Enjoy!

Then come back and tell us all about it..

porchy, I used to take books to a store like that. I got out of the habit though, as the nearest one is not all that near, and I would end up with unused credit because I had a hard time finding what I wanted. Way too many romances and copes of books by Stephan King...

mckait....our book shop here is a busy little place, if you hit it just right you can find current bestsellers for half the regular selling price. They have the newest releases right up front and the older books toward the back. People are in and out, always checking to see what's been brought in that day. It's a gold mine!!! We love that place. We actually have two of these shops in town but the one is within 10 minutes driving distance from our house, so extremely tempting to visit often!

I sometimes have a hard time deciding which paperback books to take to the shop and which to put on the Mooch. The shop will sometimes refuse a book if they have too many of a certain title, or if it's too old. So I usually try taking my paperbacks to the shop first, if they don't accept it, then I might Mooch it. They don't accept ARCs, or hardcovers.

Sometimes when I'm at a book store I'll see a new book I'm interested in, but somehow I just know that if I'm a little bit patient I'll be able to get it much cheaper elsewhere. Yesterday was a perfect example when I ran across a beautiful copy of Daniel Isn't Talking at the Friends of the Library for $1. Also snagged Plum Wine for $2.

#24 ~ whymaggiemay.....that's the beauty of our little local book shop, when we turn our used books in for credit, we can get more books for free, depending on how much credit we've accumulated. :o) (see post #16) Although, I have purchased some books from the shop that I just had to have immediately, when our credit had bottomed out at Zero. Half price still ain't half bad. :o)

From a short stop at a fleemarked, I got:

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Ian Fleming by Andrew Lycett
The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
Bodily Harm by Margaret Atwood

Message edited by its author, Aug 17, 2008, 2:34pm.

I went to ArmadilloCon 30 today. The dealer's room was, as I was warned, chock-full of tempting goodies.

I bought two books, and only two books:

Finding Serenity
Serenity Found

I resisted books by authors there at the convention because, if I bought one, I would have had to buy so many more so as not to play favorites among the authors. And I waited until my friend who took me there was ready to leave before I dragged her back to the dealer's room to get the books. That way I was insulated from the "oh, well, I'm here already, so..." syndrome.

It was a blast, ladies and gents. I recommend the convention scene for any biblioholic who likes SF.

You went to a convention and only bought 2 books? For shame! And all this time I thought you were one of us...

Bought as in took home with me, Devourer. I ordered eleven more from three different websites from the business center at the Doubletree Hotel. All three sites indy presses, all dedicated to SF: Wheatland Press, DarkWood Press, and Old Earth Books.

*eep* The bills, the bills....

Really richard, that is more like it.
At least that is 11 that you don't have to pack.

I too try not to buy a lot of new books. I sometimes do it, but most often I wait for the book to hit the bargain table, or buy it used from Amazon. I have a niggle of guilt about that, I do admit.

I have 7 coming from amazon and a few from mooch. I have some coming from bookcloseouts, too and that I blame on porchy, bless her!

I do take responsibility for the actual buying but porchy tantalized me beyond endurance with her news about a summer sale.

Well, there will be some keepers in that batch, and a few to mooch. I just sent my kids books this past weekend, so they will all be well read after I finish with them,

Oh thank goodness! I was a bit worried about you for a bit there.

keep worrying.... If the husband is home when a box of 21 books shows up I may be in trouble! I hope they don't get here til he is in Canada!

Yah, yikes. I'm not sure how my husband would react if 21 books all showed up at once. It is bad enough when 21 show up in a week, even when they're from publishers and bookmooch.

Edited to remove a stray 'e'

Message edited by its author, Aug 17, 2008, 4:55pm.

yeah, when they come in one at a time from mooch or publishers, its okay.

But seriously, who needs to buy 21 books at once even if they are only a dollar each? I have no self control, sigh

#30 ~ mckait.....okay, missy, just a gall-derned minute here....(lol)....if you're blaming Me about the 21 book purchase, then I must point the finger at cameling, who turned Me onto bookcloseouts.com in the following thread: http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.ph...

I would never, EVER lead anyone astray like that unless I had been led astray first....**innocently batting eyes**....

(how's that for passing the buck....heeee!)

Message edited by its author, Aug 17, 2008, 5:54pm.

I will light a candle for you, and say prayers that your husband will be in Canada when the books arrive. :o)

I had to send my "husband" on a snipe hunt for my "lost" favorite pen so I could hide in the business center and order the books. My friend who took me to the convention caught on and acted like she bought me the pen, and I acted like my joints hurt more than they did, and Mr. Man bought it bless his cotton socks. He even splashed out for a chair massage for me because I was hurting.

I guess I should feel guilty, deceiving the man I love and all. Funny thing, though, I just don't. It's BOOKS, not like I'm trying to cheat on him or anything. Besides, by the time he gets to New York they'll just be part of the great mass of books he's never seen before.

mckait, **whammywhammy** on husband/Canada/book delivery nexus.

porch, hah! on your eye-bats. I snort with derision. You know perfectly well you're a book-crack-enabler!

God bless you, sweetness!

awww porchy, thank you for the candle and prayer.
And you are absolutely right, you too, are the victim of
circumstance. And you do bat your eyes very prettily!

richardear~ thanks for the whammy! I am perfectly sure that between you and porchy the books will not come while he is home. richard, did I tell you that I found my earring? Your earring mojo worked. It had a kick to it, as I found it after dumping half a bucket of water out on my bedroom floor, and I was on my knees mopping it up.. and there it was, under my nightstand, barely visible.

I have just returned from BookCloseOuts and their $1.00 sale. I ordered 12 books. I blame everyone :)

ETA:

Just got the email confirmation. With this little gem included:

"Our Customer Service Department takes personal security very seriously and may contact you prior to shipping for additional information."

So are they in a War Zone or do they think NH is ?

Message edited by its author, Aug 17, 2008, 9:41pm.

McKait and FicusFan, I am delighted to read in these pages that you ordered my book Nine Lords of the Night! I hope you like it. Based on your postings, I think there is a good chance you may enjoy it. It was written for readers like you in mind. People who like something a bit complex, that takes them to another world.

As for me, I am reading Depths, by Henning Mankell. I am about of a third of the way in, and am totally engrossed. I admire his stark narrative style. This is the first book by Mankell that I have read and will probably read several more in a row in the coming weeks. I do that sometimes...go on a binge with one author.

Message edited by its author, Aug 17, 2008, 10:36pm.

I'm in Cambridge, MA for a conference. After today's session, I took the T to Harvard Square, went to the Harvard Book Store for the first time (great store!), and bought the following:

1. How Fiction Works by James Wood
2. Karnak Cafe by Naguib Mahfouz
3. Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
4. The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine

It is a great store, and if you are downstairs when a train passes you can feel the room vibrate.

Hello everyone ~ I have returned from the second party of the weekend, and omg, I am so glad to be home! We don't do parties often, we are old and tired folk here. But my rich cousin, who lives in a mansion, had one last night for family and I had to go see my aunts and uncles (and the mansion) for the first time since last year....(it's so nice to "Porch" among the rich!!)....and then tonight was a birthday bash at a friend's house, for a mutual friend visiting from Fresno... but thankfully, now I am home, I'm tired, crabby and I just want my book and my blankee. :o/

Richard ~ you didn't buy my eye-bats??? LOL I never was good at passing the buck. Okay, okay....I confess. I am an enabler. Should I find a Book Anon meeting somewhere?? At least this time I didn't fib and say it was an "accident". Heee! So that makes me a "recovering" enabler, K?

mckait ~ consider the candle "lit" and will stay "lit" until said husband is in Canada and the 21 books have arrived afterwards. :o) I'll throw in a little hoodoo for good measure.

Goodnight all, happy reading....going to bed.

# 318: vintage_books, last from the first link this month: What a haul. Didn't you take a cat too ?

Almost. My cat died a week ago, and it was a REALLY friendly cat. But there was barely enough room in the car for 2 people, 2 dogs and a box + .5 of books! No room for kitty...

**Shameless reposting from last thread that I didn't know was moved over here***

Visited my mother for her birthday, and asked for the first time if there were any used bookstores in town. She said no, but there was a Book Sale. We stopped by and I picked up a whole bunch of books to benefit the local Animal Shelter and met some darling cats for adoption too! A box and a half later, I staggered out with the following:

Physical Culture Cook Book
Bernarr Macfadden
1924

The Complete Jell-o Recipe Book
The Jell-o Company
1929

Precious Pet Recipes for 2 or 4 or 6
Pet Milk Company
1936

The Best from Midwest Kitchens
Ada Belinda Lothe
1946

EASY WAYS TO GOOD MEALS : 99 Delicious Dishes Made with Campbell's Soups
1950

50 Wonderful Ways to Use Sour Cream (from Appetizers to Desserts)
Test Kitchen of American Dairy Assoc
1950

Mother Barbour's Favorite Recipes: 20th Anniversary Souvenir, One Man's Family (radio show)
Fanny Barbour
1952

The Complete Book of Home Preserving
Seranne Ann
1955

Golden Book of Sour Cream Recipes for Modern Homemakers
The Staff of California Dairy Industry Advisory Board
1957

Baker's Favorite Chocolate Recipes
General Foods Corp
1958

21 NEW WAYS TO SERVE HAMBURGER
Hunt Food Inc
1960

MISS FLUFFY'S RICE COOK BOOK
No Stated Author
1961

Cake and Food Decorating Ideas
Wilton
1966

Japanese Stencil Designs:100 Outstanding Examples Collected and Introduced by Andrew W. Tuer
Andrew W. Tuer
1967

The Illuminated Alphabet (Colouring Books)
Theodore Menten
1971

The 1974 Wilton Yearbook of Cake Decorating
1974

American Treasures in the Library of Congress: Memory, Reason, Imagination
Margaret E. Wagner
1997

Celtic and Medieval Alphabets: 53 Complete Fonts (Dover Pictorial Archives)
Dan X. Solo
1998

Full-Color Victorian Fashions: 1870-1893
JoAnne Olian
1999

Holiday Treats Hc (Custom Pub)
2002

Victorian Fret-Work and Wood Carving: Patterns and Instructions (Dover Craft Books)
F. Edward Hulme
2005

Joys of Jell-O Gelatin Dessert
General Foods Corp
no date

Downright Delicious Sun-Maid Raisin Recipes
Sun-Maid
no date

Metropolitan Fashions of the 1880s: From the 1885 Butterick Catalog

La Mode Illustree Fashion Plates in Full Color

80 Godey's Full-Color Fashion Plates (1838-1880)

Full-Color Victorian Fashions: 1870-1893

And this was after my mother removed 3 books from my pile, stating she needed them for her quilting more than I did. LOL.

My additions this weekend:

The Kindness of Women by J.G. Ballard (sequel to Empire of the Sun)
The Philip K. Dick Reader
Americana by Don DeLillo
Essays by George Orwell
Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy

From BookMooch today:

Writers Inc., a text book for my oldest daughter's English class. Apparently, they give the kids the book for their freshman year, and intend them to use it for the rest of H. S. She mislaid hers and I had to scramble to find one. it's great too, because the cost of a new one is $17, as opposed to free from BM. I smooched the giver two extra points for sending it quickly, too.

The Mailman by Bentley Little. One day, I'm going to find the time to read some of my books as opposed to Mt. TBarc, and my Bentley Littles are going to be some of the firsts!

Specials by Scott Westerfield. I now have all three... and I haven't even read the first one yet. What is this series called, anyway? Uglies Saga? like Twilight Saga is after book one of that series? Which, btw... I'm still dying for Eclipse to show up, dang it!

>38 mckait, you're wish is my whammy. I have a good success rate. Part of the whole Power of the Curse thing my family passes from father to son. As I have no living sons, I wonder where it will go. hmmm.

>39 Ficus, this close book outs thing, I am not the english having, I can not this idea understand. A interweb place it cannot be, or know of it I would.

>43 porch, sounds like a lovely time! Not too many of them, of course, since late nights disagree with us seasoned citizens, right? My brother has had two or three reeeeally late nights here lately and, as he just turned 40, it's killin' him. I snicker when he drags his hangover down to drink coffee the mornings after. So glad I don't fall into the "but I'm still YOUNG!" trap anymore.

"Recovering enabler." OMG. A new publishing category is born! The self-help books are writing themselves as we speak!

>45 vintage, watch my library in September. I will be entering my mother's entire vintage cookbook collection. A huge task.

After two weeks away from work, I came back to a nice stack of ARCs with my name on them:

The Dying Animal by Philip Roth (how on earth is there no touchstone for him? that's a crime). The book came out several years ago but has been adapted for a film called "Elegy," so we got a staff copy that I snagged.

The Longest Trip Home by John Grogan...I guess this means I'll finally have to read Marley and Me

Acedia and Me by Kathleen Norris

The Terminal Spy by Alan S. Cowell--I'll be passing this one on to Mr. Booklady

Descartes' Bones by Russell Shorto, which looks good, but I'm not sure I'll get to it.

yay!

Richard: I hope this satisfies your need for a list.

>49 booklady, *scribbles notes for wishlist like a wild thing*

don't be hasty, richard...we'll have to wait and see what I actually like :)

I should be receiving a review copy of Why We Hate Us in the next week or two, and I'm very excited about that.

>51
If I end up getting that copy of Why We Hate Us too, I'm pretty sure it is going to shove its way forward to the very front of my ARC/review pile, release dates be damned!

>richardderus,

I am looking VERY forward to seeing your mother's collection posted. I haven't yet posted my cookbook collection, and I am purchasing someone else's vintage cookbook collection shortly.

Please, please, please upload cover pics so I can covet your collection!

I am enjoying looking at everyone's books *so much* and am embarassed that I forgot to post books I purchased Friday night. Oops.

Just got The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani. I hadn't heard of it, but hope it's good.

also snagged an ARC of The Gone Away World by Nick Harkaway...interested to see how that one is.

Today was a bookmooch bonanza:
Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavic
The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart
You Can Prevent Global Warming (and save money!) by Jeffrey Langholz
Sold by Patricia Mccormick

I also received Months and Seasons by Christoper Meeks from the author himself. I'm quite excited, because it has been getting good reviews.

Oh, I spoke too soon, an ARC of The Gone Away World by Nick Harkaway just came for me as well, from the FedEx man. The cover is so bright it is hurting my eyes. Hopefully the inside is a little better...

devourer: I feel your pain re: The Gone Away World. I'm having a really hard time looking at it and am wondering if it will glow in the dark.

booklady - I had the hardest time finding and reading the stupid ISBN in order to add it to my library. It looks like it will have a different cover when it is released, but I wonder what on earth made them decide to go with neon pink and neon green for their ARCs. It makes me want to hide The Gone Away World behind the rest of my TBRs so I don't blind myself.

Stopped by Hastings and picked up the new Sandra Brown Smoke Screen and from their used books section a brand new copy of Spook and Lost by Gregory Maguire.

Thanks all for your kind thoughts and prayers. I'm bolstered also through my little LT family...which gives me a thought ...wouldn't it be fun to organize little regional LT annual parties? We could bring books to trade and discuss. I used to meet up with someone I met on a hike a few years ago for drinks and dinner, and he turned out to be a voracious reader, so our evenings turned out to be even more enjoyable as we talked about books we've read and authors' styles we've enjoyed ...or disliked... two turned into 4 into 7 and now we meet up whenever we're all in the same city at the same time and have a great literary time.

Mailman was kind today ... brought the following books
Paula by Isabel Allende
The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes by Jennifer Cruise
A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee

>56 DevourerOfBooks, I loved the Hummingbird's Daughter. I hope you enjoy the book too.

Universe God's Jewel by Nick Kostovic from the author

The Treasure of Montsegur: A Novel of the Cathars by Sophy Burnham from mooch

>61 cameling, glad to know you're okay and back in form at home again.

I like the idea of meetups for LTers! I will look into that for next year.

>62 mckait, oh oh. On the Cathar trail. *tsk* I warn you, the Zoe Oldenbourg novels Cities of the Flesh and The Heirs of the Kingdom books loom in your Crusader-era readings...they're doorstopers that will take even you a few days to read. *heehee*

From the library:

Arkham Asylum
Strange Doings: 16 Stories
Cold Hand In Mine

I have read a bit about the Cathars in reading of the Magdalene, and books on the theory that she and Jesus were married etc. Interesting. I will beware of the doorstoppers!

( ??even me?? )

cameling, I too like that idea. I know that there are a few others nearby who LT

I came home to a beautiful copy of Why We Hate Us that I received in response to an email I sent Crown Publishing after seeing the author on The Colbert Report. Woohoo! *does little happy dance and bumps this one up to the near-top of Mt. TBR*

Also: I somehow received 2 ARCs of The Gone Away World by Nick Harkaway. I'm giving one away at The Book Lady's Blog . Enter by August 27th.

Message edited by its author, Aug 18, 2008, 5:41pm.

Vintage_Books, I'm jealous. You found some goodies. ( pouts)

I went to my usual spot and snagged:

Tips From The Old Gardeners
The Romance of Tristan and Iseult
The Misanthrope
Great Expectations, an early 1900's edition
Psychologie De L'Art (total score: a Swedish print edition from a private collection)
and Complete Guide to Drawing From Life

Not the best haul today, but not the worst, either.

Hmm... A Lick of Frost by Laurell Hamilton appeared in my mailbox ...no return address, no packing slip and no invoice. I would have been surprised by an invoice though because this is not something that I ordered .. or remember ordering.. hehee...

that looks fascinating, cameling!

closing tags...

Todays old bookbox had a bunch of Tarjei Vesaas's books. I was so happy to finally see them again. He is a great author, one of the best of Norway. Anybody out there who know about him ?

Two bookmooch books:

Darcy & Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberley by Linda Berdoll
High: Stories of Survival from Everest and K2 by Clint Willis

I must try bookcloseouts.com!

I am 200 people away from finishing 1000 Years...
I will probably finish Day of the Vipers tonight
and will start Sugarplum Dead tomorrow

Also went to the library today and picked up Prince of Frogtown by Rick Bragg. He's a Pulitzer winner who lives around Anniston, Alabama. We got to meet him and hear hm talk a couple of times, once about his book I am a Soldier, ... He's a real down home type of guy.

I posted this on the August "part 1" site too.

Message edited by its author, Aug 19, 2008, 12:51pm.

beware karenmarie... they have $1 books... they reach out and suck you right in!

#48 Richard and #45 Vintage -- I can't wait to see your cookbook collections... a particularly awful weakness of mine...

These came home with me from the library today:
OK, So Now You're a Vegetarian by Lauren Butts, which was recommended over in the Cookbookers group, and *breathless pause* The Lace Reader. It's finally my turn (the holds list at the library is up to 107, so I'm glad I requested it early), and after all the endorsements here I really look forward to it!

I'm still working through The Sex Lives of Cannibals, but I'm just not feeling it...however, after nearly 200 pages, I'm not about to give up. I was going to finish it tonight, but homemade peach ice cream and drinks with the neighbors just sounded like more fun.

# 40: EricCGibson

Thanks. Funny you should mention Henning Mankell. I just ordered the first book in his series. He is an author my Mystery group is reading, somwhere done the road.

#57, #58, #59

Well LT hates it so much that if you go to the book page for Gone Away .. and click on the Amazon link you get the page for

The Wages of Gonzo Lubitsch

by the same author I think. A confused link, unless that is the original title wherever it came from first, it says Gonzo is an import.

>AMQS, I have started posting part of my cookbook collection for you and richardderus today. I should be posting more vintage cookbooks starting later this week.

>MoiraStirling, you got a nice haul too! If you liked what type of books I collect, I'd like to welcome you to visit my brand-spanking new bookblog located at:

http://antiquebooks.typepad.com/

It's brand new and is being worked on, so I hope you will excuse some of the hiccups. Come drop on by - I'll keep the coffee hot and the pastries are freshly-cooked!

Warmly,

vintage_books

Message edited by its author, Aug 19, 2008, 2:41am.

#76: AMQS
If you love cookbooks you are invited to take a look at mine- search: food, and you find all food-related.
Or just cooking.

Message edited by its author, Aug 19, 2008, 3:00am.

hemlokgang:

Re. After Dark: Thanks! I'm a big fan of Murakami's work and I'm looking forward to reading the book.

>79, That's really strange, particularly because Amazon has the book cover for The Gone Away World but a different title. They do have an actual page for The Gone Away World with the new, hot pink cover too.

Message edited by its author, Aug 19, 2008, 7:56am.

On the topics of garish colors ... and cookbooks -- I wanted to put cool compresses on my retinas after reading recipes printed on the bright-red pages of Food 2.0: Secrets from the Chef Who Fed Google.

Well. Think of it like this, what can you save your money on to keep a certain amount of money set aside for books each month. I don't spend money on much outside of books, moleskines and funtain pen refills. I set aside money each month for books. I kind of budget it in. I get my books from www.edwardrhamilton.com, so they are deeply discounted. Skimp on the things of little consequence, put aside money for your passion. I think they call that frugality.

Eclipse is here! Eclipse is here! Eclipse is here! Eclipse is here! Eclipse is here!

YAY!!!

can you tell I'm excited?

Why? Did you get anything??

:-p

vintage and Iaas: thank you! I will take a look. And only a look (that's for my husband, in case our credit card starts quivering.)

Finally got Day of the Vipers done, I have the second part of the Terok Nor saga and I think part 3 is coming from Buffalo for Labor Day weekend

I am determined to finish 1000 Years... and have less that 150 to go. I am getting tired of looking at the book. Next it goes to the ACL Friends booksale box.

My husband has Prince of Frogtown though I may snatch it if he doesn't get to it by the time i finish 1000 Years.. and Sugarplum Dead.

Now if I can only get those events for the ACL working on Local Events, I'll feel satisfied.

Please nobody tell my husband I've already gotten 8 books this week, I put my 6 from yesterday away quickly this morning while he was in the shower.

The two today were both ARCs (although the second book has actually already been released in hardback, just not in paperback yet):
The Green Beauty Guide by Julie Gabriel
Last Night I Dreamed of Peace by Dang Thuy Tram

DoB--married for just a month or so and already hiding books from the husband? For shame! I just stack 'em up on the table in our entryway, but I appease Mr. Booklady by requesting ARCs he's interested in also. One of these days, he'll do a guest review for me.

I needed a book about food allergy. I went to betterworld.com and found one. Then I also needed to type my entire wishlist in there and buy everything that was less than $4. This netted:

God's Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America by Hanna Rosin
The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville*
Life on the Ice by Roff Smith
God Knows my Heart by Christine Wicker
Bachelor Brothers Bed and Breakfast by Bill Richardson*
Caring for Your Child with Severe Food Allergies by Lisa Cipriano Collins
The Town that Forgot How to Breathe by Kenneth Harvey*
Letters from a Nut by Ted Nancy*
The Spiritual Tourist by Mick Brown*
The Thyroid Sourcebook by M. Sara Rosenthal
Food Allergies for Dummies by Robert Wood

*=Books that I would not know existed if not for LT and for which, therefore, I have no personal responsibility in purchasing.

Nancy, that's a fantastic way to go about it, just buy everything under X dollars, don't worry too much about how it adds up!

bnbooklady, well, he knows I'm getting them, but if he knew the exact number he'd worry about where on EARTH we are going to put them all and how I'm ever going to get even a fraction of them read. I don't feel too bad because they're all either from BookMooch or review copies - basically free! - so it isn't as if I'm running up our credit cards and hiding the evidence...I'm just going to make us need more bookshelves.

nancyewhite -- Oh my goodness, I'd almost forgotten about Letters from a Nut. I hope you enjoy it! If you like it, there's a few more in the series....

>92,
I'm so going to use that excuse! That takes away personal responsibility for most of the books I've purchased this year!

I'm actually toying with the idea of stopping by the used bookstore before work this afternoon to part with some of my precious babies. Give them a chance to be loved by others and all that. Haven't decided for sure, though.

nancy: I read God's Harvard when I found it on the bargain table at work a few months ago...scary stuff! Well, I suppose that depends on your personal views, but for me, it was a little creepy.

>76 AMQS, The Lace Reader? Why does that title ring a bell...I seem to recall someone around here making a kerfuffle about this book...now who was that....

>77 booklady, homemade peach ice cream and drinks? What time shall Mr. Man and I be there? We've got a killer-diller recipe for sourdough sherried cheddar souffle puffs.

Give up on the cannibals, honeybee. It never gets better and even at *cough*five there are a finite number of heartbeats in a lifetime.

>80 vintage, ooo! Liking the blog!

>81 IaaS, oh no...cookbooks...oh no, I must shop! I mean, I must NOT shop!

>86 koolaid, dear I hate to be the one to break it to you, but the next eclipse isn't today, it's...oh wait...the BOOK, okay, I get it now.

>90 Devourer, what? I'm sorry, Mr. D, I seem to remember Devourer taking The Pledge and sticking to it.
No really!
(QUICK hide 'em I got his attention)

>92 nancy, I am so with 95/starr I will totally add this to my repertoire of evasions and misdirections I squid-ink out to Mr. Man during his "no more books 'til we get rid of some" lectures.

>96 booklady, I cannot finish God's Harvard because it makes me so queasy. Just cannot do it. I gave it to a right-wing relative of mine to get it out of my house.

Thanks richardderus! That worked, now he'll never know...mwhahaha...

richard: I'm going to stick with the cannibals because I may as well finish it...I was surprised to see that the average rating here on LT is pretty high, so I think it's my duty to write an honest review and bring that down a notch.

We still have some peach ice cream...toss Mr. Man into the car and head on over! And I don't blame you for not finishing God's Harvard. It totally creeped me out, especially since it's not too far from Richmond.

Today we was at a shoppingsenter with two bookstores. The small one has only paperbacks, and 3 for the price of 2 of English paperbacks. I snooped around, but didn't find one to bring home. In the next bookshop, a large one, I lifted some up, sniffed them, read on the back, weighted them in my hand----and put them back. Just near the door out was a pile of cookbooks from Toscana in Italy for halv price. I was so tempted, but went out with empty hands. The last one I really want. I nearly can taste and smell the food and the culture when reading cookbooks.

>97,
Richard, you'll have to let me know if Mr. Man buys the excuse before I try it on my loved ones.

I picked up from a library sale:
Blood Dreams by Kay Hooper
Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (I love her!)
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver Has anyone read this, it sounds very intriguing?

# 95

Be very sure you want to part with them. I can't tell you how much I've spent buying back books that when I was "young and dumb" I thought I would never read again or that I could do without.

Now when I get into a "get rid of the clutter" fit I find something else besides books to get rid of--and hope my husband doesn't notice. :-)

#102 ~ msf59......yes, I read Prodigal Summer awhile back and recall that I did indeed like it and would recommend it to others. I do like Ms. Kingsolver and the way she writes.

Message edited by its author, Aug 19, 2008, 8:47pm.

yeah - good book - Prodigal Summer

forgot I had read it.

>103,
I ended up not going, since I'm sure subconsciously I have no interest in parting with some of them. There's a few I'm reasonably sure I won't be reading again. And I try to remind myself that I'm in no danger of running out of new books to read, so parting with a few "already reads" isn't so bad.

Today I received the ARC of Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter, and Just Breathe by Susan Wiggs.

But, I finished My Lady of Cleves by Margaret Campbell Barnes, and it was just as good as when I read it thirty-five years ago.

I had to work in the children's/YA section of the library I work at today, and came home with three new YA reads:
So B. It by Sarah Weeks
Playing with the Grown-ups by Sophie Dahl
A Little Friendly Advice by Siobhan Vivian

That's more than I'd intended to come away with, but I figured it was time to get off the LT boards for a few minutes...

(ETA: Touchstones rebelling as usual...)

Message edited by its author, Aug 19, 2008, 10:12pm.

>1 Sorry, been AWOL from this thread. Thanks for rescuing it from post overload!

>90 I think we need a thread about how we sneak books in past our unsympathetic partners! Share techniques, etc.

Isn't it better to confront them. We are who we are and if the partners want us they should take us as we are. Books are a part of it.

>111 IaaS -- I was being facetious.

While on holiday in Mauritius, found the following English books amongst all the French titles on sale:
A Good Year by Peter Mayle
Nabeel's Song by Jo Tatchell
Educating Alice by Alice Steinbach The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith
New Beginnings in aid of the Indian Ocean Tsunami earthquake charities
Collins Easy Learning French Dictionary

#112 teelgee: Yes, I suspected that, but people talk anyway a lot about it and as it says: "no smoke without fire"

Brought in today from the library:

The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz

Books: A Memoir by Larry McMurtry

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Saints and Strangers by Angela Carter

The Queen's Head by Edward Marston

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter

Earth Abides by George R. Stewart

and Livingstone by Tim Jeal

From BookMooch:

The Final Solution: A Story of Detection by Michael Chabon

#96, 97
Regarding God's Harvard... oh dear, now I am nervous. One of the reasons I was interested in this book is that I am working toward not demonizing (pardon the pun) folks with whom I don't agree, and I read this was a book relatively free of agenda. Oh well, it was under $4 :-)

>117 nancy, the BOOK is relatively free from agenda, but the place described is, to me, absolutely infuriatingly unacceptable. As I am to them, of course.

Read on, and perhaps your tolerance for difference will exceed mine. I really don't care what anyone thinks, so long as they don't push it in my face. (HAH! It feels good to say that BACK to the homophobes who've used it at me over the years!)

nancy: Richard's description is correct. The book doesn't have much agenda, but what the school represents and the way it programs young people is pretty frightening to me. Let us know how it goes for you.

As young starry-eyed college grads, my husband and I both got graduate degrees at Harvard.....so I guess you could say we're their people, only we are not! Their endowment could fund several small countries and they continue to harass people for money and raise tuition making their institution available to only a minute percentage of applicants. We are appalled and frankly try not to mention our connection if we can, this post being an unusual exception! That doesn't even touch the issues noted by bnbooklady...............

>120 hemlok, I guarantee that you're on a different page from booklady, nancy and me. We're talking about a book called "God's Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America" and not a book about HARVARD Harvard. Oh nay nay nay!

Here are two book reviews of the tome in question, copied from the 'zon:

From Publishers Weekly
Envisioned by its founder as a "Christian equivalent of the Ivy League," Patrick Henry College positions itself as a training ground for God's cultural soldiers to take on the secular mainstream; at the seven-year-old Virginia school for evangelicals, religion and political journalist Rosin reports, girls are warned by e-mail if their bra strap is showing, dating requires parental permission and students fast forward through sex scenes in movies. Though they might seem out of touch, students here are as ambitious as any Ivy Leaguers, interning in the White House and Hollywood, volunteering on political campaigns and doggedly pursuing studies like baraminology (creationist biology). Having spent a year and a half immersed in the campus culture, Rosin weaves a deft and honest narrative of evangelical education, combining historical background (the roots of evangelism, the story of founder Michael Farris), close observation and skeptical wit. Among other students and faculty, Rosin introduces Derek, the fresh-faced, idealistic political volunteer; and Farahn, who gave up dancing for the Lord. Making it clear that the American evangelical population is growing in political and cultural influence, Rosin provides an illuminating, accessible guide to the beliefs, aspirations and ongoing challenges of its next generation.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Patrick Henry College, just outside the nation's capital, is a small school preparing Christian Fundamentalist youth to become the elite of the future, permeating politics and American culture to change what they see as an ungodly nation. Washington Post reporter Rosin spent a year and a half among the faithful, watching the efforts of school founder Michael Farris to mold the next generation of evangelicals. She follows the lives of students, nearly all of them previously homeschooled, as they cope with college life, the world of Washington politics, and questions about their faith and their futures. Farahn, a ballet dancer, is an attractive, somewhat cynical misfit, who struggles through the year. Daniel Noa is trying to reconcile his conservative persona at school with the greater tolerance of his hometown of Hollywood, where growing numbers of Christian filmmakers are making their mark. Elisa is a bright, earnest young woman, chafing at the expectations that she will curb her ambitions and devote herself to a future husband and children. A captivating look at struggles within the conservative movement. Bush, Vanessa

This book completely nauseated me.

Message edited by its author, Aug 20, 2008, 2:26pm.

thanks for clarifying that, richard....I was preparing to write my response when I saw that you took care of it for me.

I think that I shall go in with a "know thy enemy" approach. My partner's unfailing absolute rage at folks who fall on the less liberal side of the spectrum than we do as well as reading about Anne Lamott's struggle to pray for President Bush made me want to understand the folks with whom I virulently disagree. To see their humanity so to speak. I'll let you know if this book helps me to do that or not... I'm beginning to suspect it may not :-)

Whoa.......now I fell slightly moronic...........now you know all about how I feel about Harvard University! Like you care..........sorry!

I fell off the "not buying any more books for a while" wagon and picked up The Ministry of Magical Cases and The Other Woman: Twenty-One Wives, Lovers, and Others Talk Openly About Sex, Deception, Love, and Betrayal by Victoria Zackheim. I can't resist a good sexuality/sociology/cultural studies book.

I bought A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz at the Borders in Cambridge, MA today.

Bookmooched: Remainder by Tom McCarthy. This book sounds incredible. Anyone read it, yet?

>121..Richard

sounds like Bob Jones University..wherever that is...when i was in college (ANTIOCH/1969-1973) there was a young man who went "over the wall" from some ultra Conservative "school" to attend Antioch..didn't take him long to drop out and go to a Real School..
i guess i am trying to say that the ultra Leftist schools are just as bad, in their ways, as the Crapulous CHRISTIANS are..

ahem

i am gone

berate me as you all (most surely) will..i can take it

As I had not heard of the Harvard book in question, I clicked on the link. There seems to be two different books, one richardderus and bnbooklady read - God's Harvard: A Christian College..., the other, very different, The search for God at Harvard. The touchstone for me defaulted to the same book until I added the Christian college part.

Message edited by its author, Aug 20, 2008, 5:32pm.

After all that, forgot to add the book I received today.
The Fire: A Novel by Katherine Neville. A very nice LT'er let me mooch her ARC (thank you mckait!!).

anytime ! I just emailed you with a question about sending to Canada...

Those fundamentalists are the same all over the world, they look at us others with disrespect and stupidness. It is a crime to "educate" children to "belive the earth still is flat" or whatever lies they tell them. Good on the guy who escaped to a real school.

I had a little troll in my ear that reminded me about the very nice cookbook from Tuscany, so I went back to the bookstore today and bought it. I had to- really.
"Smaken av Toscana" (Flavours of Tuscany) by Maxine Clark
Touchstones gave wrong book on the title.

Message edited by its author, Aug 20, 2008, 6:27pm.

Same as mentioned many posts above

1000 Years... but only have 100 people to go
Sugarplum Dead

Every time I think that I will soon be finished entering books I have read over my many years, I spy another on the recently entered list or one on the Tag list or in one of these posts.

I'll never be done - it's an infinite thing; I'll get close but never reach the end.

And, of course, this doesn't count what I have hanging around the house unread or what will be published in the future that I'll want to read.

And that library less than a mile away has so many books in it....Just hope my glasses don't break (as I said in another group post a while back!!!)

>128 jdt, hon, you just point me at someone who criticizes your point about the craptastic nature of the extremists. I'll take care of 'em with you.

>132 IaaS, the title doesn't seem to be available in the USA. Maxine Clark only seems to have two cookbooks, one about Risotto and the other called Easy Summer Food. And that seems to be that. Odd, Tuscan food is super-popular here....

>133 koalamom, that you only have 100 people to go...gogogogo! Whip it out!!

Message edited by its author, Aug 20, 2008, 7:18pm.

My library had volume 1 of Imadoki! which was a very cute manga that I wanted to read the rest of (5 volume set) I requested them from another library to be delivered. After a month or so passed I inquired about my requests to find that the library that had them had been flooded and that they weren't filling any of the other library requests :( I hate the idea of flooded libraries!!

So, I bought the complete set off of ebay and they arrived in the mail today.

When I have a coupon and the opportunity to go to a bookstore, I like to get my money's worth in savings. Yesterday I had a 30% coupon for Borders (I filled out a questionnaire that told them I buy most of my books at BN.COM) and time between a dental appointment and a church affair. So no Norton Critical Editions or other reasonably priced books.

The Ultimate Collection by Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell

The young woman on the cover has strong abdominal muscles.

I was temperate. I got only that and a discount DVD and a copy of Opera Now magazine because it had an article about Daniel de Niese. I went to Barny Noble's and didn't get anything but titles.

Robert

I bought The Thirteenth Tale and Austenland today. I've already read and loved both, so I'm looking forward to rereading them someday.

>134..Richard..thanks for being in my corner..i think if anyone called me on my point,,i.e. that the Left is just as culpable as the Right in Crapulous Philosophy....
i can't think of anyone else i would like there..your sense of humor and smarts are wondrous to me..thanks for being a friend!

man/woman the barricades with books/wine/good food/song!!!

I got Nine Lords of the Night from Amazon today. The cover art is nice, looks like a precolumbian jade mask floating in a thunder storm at night...and now to begin.

Got Salamander by Thomas Wharton yesterday.

>richardderus, thanks for the nice words on my book blog! I've added some more content and am working on organizing it followed by graphics, etc. It's been up for 2+ weeks total.

I was very interested in the description of the Harvard Book(s), so thank you (all) for taking the time to list the description plus your thoughts. Seems like interesting reading!

I went to a conference today and shamelessly asked for a book in a vendor booth and they gave it to me as they were packing up. I'm so bad...

And I won three books on ebay in the last 24 hours or so. So very bad....

Message edited by its author, Aug 20, 2008, 11:40pm.

From across the pond today I received The Virago Book of Witches.

I went over my montly limit, but couldn't resist buying these books from the bargain bin of a local bookstore:

Memory and Dream by Charles de Lint
JPod by Douglas Coupland
The Venetian's Wife by Nick Bantock

Well I just finished Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer, very good.
Now im workign on.....
The Damsel by Claire Delacriox
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
The Host by Stephenie Meyer

The author, Christine Blevins, sent me a copy of Midwife of the Blue Ridge. I'm looking forward to reading it. Thank you, Chris!

Alright, but I warn you...it's a lot.
I just got a job so I splurged...big time...

Terrier by Tamora Pierce
Trickster's Choice again Tamora Pierce
A Game of Thrones
Wuthering Heights
Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer's Night Dream
Blood and Chocolate
Masquerade
Night's Child by Cate Tiernan

I'm pretty sure I'm leaving a lot out, but I don't rightly remember anymore...it is only 7:45 in the morning but that the basic gist...
Now I have to find time to read all my treasures...classes start Monday...and boys will be around....and ... neh.

The last from betterworldbooks:
Buddhism for Mothers of Young Children by Sarah Napthali

A quick stop at Goodwill:
The Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav
Glamorama by Bret Easton Ellis
The Waterworks by E.L. Doctorow
I Don't Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson
The Woman's Day Cookbook by Kathy Farrell-Kingsley

from Book Mooch:

The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen L. Carter

have many books On Order from various pushers::::i mean booksellers.
will post "em as i get 'em

I'm currently reading Inkheart by Cornelia Funke and Inkspell by the same for a young adult/children's literature reading group I moderate at my library school!

I'm also working my way through Susanna Gregory's Matthew Bartholomew books and Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, but am stalled out on both accounts because of waiting for books through ILL. I'm currently too poor to buy, so I must borrow...

Now I will leave you for rest of the month, because I'm going to Turkey on vacation. I think I will not take any books with me, so when I come back there is for sure new books coming home with me. Specially I will look for Cookbooks from Turkey (In English or German)

I've been so busy I haven't hardly had time to breathe lately ~ but knew that you'd all be anxiously wondering what books Porchsitter has found at her doorstep the past few days.....*wink*......today I got the SECOND batch of books I accidently ordered at bookcloseouts.com (dollar sale), which are:

Easy Silence by Angela Huth
Walking on Air by R.S. Jones
Her Daughter's Eyes by Jessica Barksdale Inclan
Back Roads by Tawni O'Dell

I haven't even had time to read for the past several days....alot of out-of-town guests and family visiting this month. I am hoping to get a few hours later this afternoon to catch up on my latest book....

I bought four more books from Harvard Book Store this morning:

1. Treatment Kind and Fair: Letters to a Young Doctor by Perri Klass
2. A Better Angel by Chris Adrian
3. The Best Practice: How the New Quality Movement Is Transforming Medicine by Charles Kenney
4. Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra (to replace the copy I lost earlier this year)

Hello to each and every, well the moving men packed my transit cubes with EVERYthing I could have hoped to move except Mr. Man, and in the process I found books I had overlooked! O frabjous day, calloo callay!

Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd

O Ye Jigs and Juleps by Virginia Cary Hudson, a favorite of my mama's

The Blue Afternoon by William Boyd again...I seem to have gone on a William Boyd kick a few years back

La Repertoire de la Cuisine by Louis Saulniere

One Hundred Best Novels Condensed edited by Edward Grozier (whoever he was; it was a book of my papaw's)

And I got a catalog of the cookbooks which I will be entering as and when I can.

>11 SpiraledStar, I am also reading The Eyre Affair by Fforde.

Enjoying this tremendously -- much more than his Nursery Crime book I read. If the rest of the book continues this way, I will declare the Thursday Next series equal to Discworld.

I received in the mail today Society's Child by Janis Ian, Alta by Mercedes Lackey and Isaac Asimov's Magical World of Fantasy:Giants Edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh.

I am really excited about Janis Ian's autobiography. Her fans have encouraged her for years to write it. Her life has been a fantastic series of highs and lows. Can't wait to start it.
N

I had a book buying ban in force for me until last month. Since then I've gone a little wild, however all but the last 3 of them were either used or remaindered so I didn't spend much.

Truman by David McCullough

The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendahl

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (I've read but this was a B&N Hardcover for $2! to replace my PB)

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (I've avoided this for years, still not sure I want to read it, but at $0.50 it's worth taking a chance and I've seen it mentioned a lot on LT. Any comments? Yey or Nay?)

Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb (My Dad and I read these together when I was about age 10-12 and I've been in love with Shakespeare ever since. I'd like to read these to my grandchildren when they are old enough.)

Messages from My Father by Calvin Trillin (I loved Tepper Is Not Going Out and this one was only $0.50)

Maisie Dobbs, Birds of a Feather, and An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear (I've read the entire series except the last one, Incomplete Revenge, --borrowed from a friend. I decided I would like to own them. I need to find the other two--I''m on the hunt!)

The Oxford Murders by Guillermo Martinez (based on a recommendation of an LT member in one of the threads--I think--or maybe in a library comment)

The Library at Night by Manguel Alberto (books about books--I can't resist them)

American Bloomsbury by Susan Cheever

Collapse by Jared Diamond (Loved Guns, Germs and Steele so decided to spring for this one.

Now all I have to do is find time to read them!

(I don't know why Truman isn't coming up with touchstone--Ive edited twice to get it!)

Message edited by its author, Aug 21, 2008, 9:24pm.

I finally finished 1000 Years...
and now can read Sugarplum Dead to its conclusion, maybe tongith even

I made a trip to the library today and came home with:

Origin-Diana Abu-Jaber

The Commoner-John Burnham Schwartz

In The Company of Liars-David Ellis

Bridge Called Hope (stories)-Kim Meeder

any comments?

MusicMom-I haven't read The Poisonwood Bible but I do have it in my collection. I have heard some good things about the book. I bought it at a library bag sale. If I don't like it, I won't mind so much.

MsGemini--maybe we should both read it in the next few weeks and compare notes! If you are up for that, let me know. It may be the only way I'll ever get down to reading it. Does anyone else on this thread have any opinions about Poisonwood Bible?

My copy was on the "friends of the library" sale shelf. Unfortunately I don't know which "friend" donated it. I might ask at the next meeting and find out what he/she thought.

I read Poisonwood Bible a few years ago and thought it was excellent. You both should love it!

21 you did not tell me it was 21 ..
you are in trouble!!! LOL

I've been good for a whole week and haven't bought any new books (that leaves how many weeks til December? I'm never going to last...)

Anyway, that's not why I'm here. I had a story to tell, and figured my fellow LTers would appreciate it. I work at a public library, and had a mom come in with her small son. She got a new library card, and got the keychain sized one. So she looked at her keychain and the cards on it, grabbed the one for Curves, and pulled it off to throw it away to make room for the new keychain tag. Granted, she had already cancelled her membership, but I was amused, and figured someone here would be, too.

MusicMom - what a great haul! So many great books on that list, including (IMO) The Poisonwood Bible. When I first read it, I had people on the train (while I was reading!) tell me how much they loved it.

While I was under the buying ban this year I really made use of the library. In fact I learned that during that time our little library had the highest circulation in the county--excluding Fresno city, of course--but I won''t take full credit for that. :-) Now I wonder where I should post my comments and keep a record of my reading of these books? I notice some of you on this thread list the library books you bring home. Do you enter them into your LT library? If not, how to you keep track of your reading? Any suggestions?

A book is a book and should be counted, regardless. You might try prefacing the title with and L like this
LSugarplum Dead to indicate that you got this one out of the library.

The galley of American Wife I received several weeks ago was missing the last 100 pages...so I emailed them about it, and today, the mailman brought a beautiful new hardback copy of it!

Yay!

Two of my requests at the library came in today:

Irish Journal by Heinrich Boll
The Merchant's House by Kate Ellis

Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver came in the mail today.

Finding it hard to get as much reading in these days because watching the Olympics games on tv has been grabbing my attention.

I started reading Paula by Isabel Allende and have had to put aside after only completing 2 chapters. *sigh* by the time the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics is over, I think i'm going to have to start the book all over again because the momentum of the book will be lost

163: shootingstarr7, haha ... your library patron showed great sense. Books definitely take priority over staying in shape. After all, chairs and couches come in all shapes and sizes these days so it's no problem finding something that one can settle in comfortably to read. :-)

#156 ~ MusicMom41......I recommend The Poisonwood Bible......read it a long time ago and enjoyed it very much.

#170 ~ cameling....LOL! How true, how true!

#158 ~ MsGemini.....Interesting that you brought home Origin.....I was just updating my wishlist on BookMooch and I have it listed. I'd love to know what you think of it once you've read it.

#153 ~ richardderus......"transit cubes".....oh I LOVE that!! My hubby is a truck driver, I'll have to share this new term with him....I'm sure he'll find it great too, since he works with transit cubes all day! LOL

Message edited by its author, Aug 21, 2008, 11:32pm.

>165 MusicMom41

I tag library books I've read as "library". My catalog is all I own (including TBR) and all I've read (since I've joined LT). If I give a book away, I label it released. Wish list is a spreadsheet elsewhere. Also, others have noted you need to keep a book in your library to post a review on LT.

MusicMom41-I would be interested in reading The Poisonwood Bible at the same time. Maybe we could start it after Labor day? I have a few books going right now, plus I would like to read the library books before their due date. Let me know....

Today the mailman brought:

The Way the Crow Flies by Anne-Marie MacDonald
Poison by Kathryn Harrison-i read this quite q while ago and loved it!
The Last Magician by Janette Turner Hospital
London Fields by Martin Amis

...these were purchased through ...biblio.com....

Message edited by its author, Aug 22, 2008, 11:12am.

From a dastardly stop at Barnes & Noble to show it to the German teens visiting us:

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
The Shadow Catcher by Marianne Wiggins
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

Castoff from 17 year old's summer reading assignment: Our Town by Thornton Wilder

Message edited by its author, Aug 22, 2008, 11:12am.

I have now entered 12 of 13 crates of cookbooks from my storage unit. I think my sister relieved me of the burden of about 20 more crates at some point in the past few years. Can't say as how I'd've said no if she'd asked, but she didn't and that's what annoys me.

Oh well. A task done as it's gonna get. Now I'm off to get on a plane and talk to y'all maybe next Monday?

#173 MsGemini

Starting Poisonwood after Labor Day sounds good to me. I've been a teacher all my life and even though now I teach privately the first day after Labor Day has always signaled the start of the new year. Starting a new book is a good way to start the year. I, too have some decks to clear in the book reading category and that will give us time. I'm excited about reading it now--it's more fun if someone else is sharing either the joy or the pain!

# 161 msf59
# 164 jfetting
# 171 porchsitter

Thanks for the encouragement. As you can see we are "taking the challenge!"

# 172 CEP

Thanks for the suggestion. I have already acted on it with a book I just finished, Infidel that I want to keep track of. I'll be entering others that I want a record of--that's a good solution. I also like the idea of "released" because that frees one to down size when it is absolutely necessary.

A system that I have used since I joined LT is to add a tag "lent to..." when I lend a book. I have several listed in my library tagged "lent not returned" that I couldn't remember who had them when I wanted to enter them. Now I'm losing much fewer books because I know how to track them down!

Message edited by its author, Aug 22, 2008, 1:51pm.

Karen Harrington (also an LTer) sent me a copy of her book Janeology and it came today. I'm definitely looking forward to this one!

Picked up a variety of books today. Via bookmooch I received volumes 1 and 2 of the manga Vanilla. At the used bookstore that I had managed to avoid for the last couple weeks I picked up a collection of Tennyson poetry, a supernatural/historical romance novel Dreamcatcher by Dinah McCall and a sci-fi adventure, Death Sentence by Roger MacBride Allen and The Frog Prince, A Fairy Tale for Consenting Adults by Stephen Mitchell

richardderus--best of luck w/ the movethis weekend. We moved to a new office building this week--so I have deep sympathy for you and all the work that goes into moving yourself.

I've decided on two books from my TBR shelves.A Walk in the WoodsBill Bryson and The Girl with no Shadow Joanne Harris.Has anyone read The Girl with no Shadow?

I love the Oxford University Press book sales and ordered from the End of Summer Sale. There's no choice in shipping method, so I tracked the packages' progress on line and worried how delivery would go today if I didn't answer the door. I got up, and, going out for the paper, I nearly stumbled over two boxes.

Was Hinduism Invented? by Brian K. Pennington
The Woman Who Pretended to be Who She Was by Wendy Doniger
Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment edited by Alan Charles Kors

I have plenty in progress already, but I want to get to the Hinduism book right away.

Robert

Wow-that Hinduism book looks pretty controversial. Has their been any outcry about the book's subject matter?

I also have a .50 library purchase Poisonwood Bible sitting on my Bookshelf. Very very tempted to join everyone who will be reading it at the same time. Name a date to start reading it!

I got a nice fuzzy final copy of The Gone-Away World, about which I am very excited, along with two copies (one for me, one for giveaway) of After the Fire:A True Story of Friendship and Survival, which isn't something I would normally read, but the publicist was really nice.

# 183 vintage_books

We are planning to start after Labor Day to read Poisonwood Bible I hope to start the day after Labor Day--I have so many on my tbr list to finish this year and September means the days are getting shorter!

If anyone else wants to join in--welcome. If there are too many maybe someone who know haw could start a new thread for this--we don't want to hi-jack this site. But if there are just a few others might like to see our progress.

You can join even if your book cost more than .50! :-) In fact we even allow library books--they sometimes get read faster.

Message edited by its author, Aug 22, 2008, 7:59pm.

I'm over the moon at having received an arc of Nelson DeMille's upcoming The Gate House -- a follow-up with John Sutter from The Gold Coast.

176: richardderus, safe travels and enjoy the relative cooler weather of LI. I would love one day to take inventory of my mom's cookbooks. She's got some really interesting ones from different countries and some really old ones as well from my grandmother and grandaunts.

182: rdurick, I hope you'll post a review after you finish the book on Hinduism. I saw it at a bookstore and it's on my TBR pile .. but I don't know when I'm going to get to it.

The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith came into my mailbox today. Hubs says I ought to bake a big box of cookies for the mailman because of the number of books and magazines that he has to keep delivery to us.

I fell off the wagon and went to Barnes and Noble today. No, that's not entirely accurate. I gleefully jumped off the wagon. I did one of those neat twisty-somersaulty dives they're doing in the Olympics, and I came home with:
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Sweet Love by Sarah Strohmeyer
Duchess by Susan Holloway Scott

The cover of Sweet Love has the most delicious looking cupcake on the cover.

Today's haul from the fleemarket:

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
My Invented Country by Isabel Allende
Atonement by Ian McEwan
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I was in Border's the other day and hadn't been in a bookstore in a few moths. We are in search of a copy of The Maltese Falcon. Our Library System has what they call "Scranton Reads" (that's PA) and it's a way to get people, well, reading. The pick a book and have all kinds of events and things that surround one book. Last year it was Grapes of Wrath. I have Steinbeck on my "want to read' list now.

Scranton Reads kicks off in September and we wanted to get the book before the rush, but Borders had nary a copy, so we have asked my sci-fi supplier to look for it in NY when he heads this way from Buffalo next week for a visit.

Right now I am reading Prince of Frogtown by an author that I have met and have a picture to prove it. He's a real down home boy.

Next I am thinking I'll placate my sci-fi group and read something Piers Anthony, but not the one that Touchstones picked, by the way.

today the mailman brought

A Place of Hiding
For the Sake of Elena
Missing Joseph
A Suitable Vengeance
........all by Elizabeth George
i am trying to find her Linley/Havers series used

also
Speaks the Nightbird:Volume1:Judgement of the Witch by Robert McCammon-i read this already but want to get it, and its Volume II

>190...i unearthed an old omnibus edition of Hammett's novels yesterday..it brought back memories (sigh) and added to my TBR pile/the Re-Read portion

almost forgot my Book Mooch:
Mama Day by the wonderful Gloria Naylor

Message edited by its author, Aug 23, 2008, 11:04am.

Since the last time I posted, I got:

from BookMooch I got Commodore Hornblower by C. S. Forester

and two ARCs Last Night I Dreamed of Peace by Dang Thuy Tram, and The Organ Grinder and the Monkey by Sam Moffie

I think that's all I've missed telling y'all about. :-D

two thumbs up on Poisonwood Bible!!!

nothing here lately.......nothing new.

Message edited by its author, Aug 23, 2008, 11:57am.

A Bookmooch book arrived in my mail today ~ But Inside I'm Screaming by Elizabeth Flock. I've had it on my wishlist for awhile, I hope it's good.

A successful day of yard sales brought me:

Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester
Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer
The Last Juror by John Grisham and
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

I have already read the last three, so I know I'll like them. The other two were "why not tries" for 50 cents apiece.

OK, I am new here. what is Book Mooch?

>197,
BookMooch is a book swapping site. Members list books they're interested in giving away, and with the points they earn listing books and giving them away, they can mooch books they're interested in. The only thing you have to pay for is the postage.

ETA: There's a group here on LT devoted to BookMooch. You can explore there to see what other LTers have to say about it: http://www.librarything.com/groups/bookm...

Message edited by its author, Aug 23, 2008, 3:10pm.

From Borders (with 30% off):

Northanger Abbey
The Great Game, the Struggle for Empire in Central Asia

and from the Library:

The suspicions of Mr. Whicher (recommended on LT)

From Borders, also w/ the 30% coupon:

Special Topics in Calamity Physics - I know a lot of people don't like it, but it was remaindered! How could I resist?

Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips which I've wanted for awhile

The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

#153 richardderus - are you chortlling in your joy? Hope the move/settling in is going well.

I went into B&N for just a few minutes while waiting for another store to open.... was just going to look for The 351 Books of Irma Arcuri by David Bajo to see if I want it.... but drat! The Remainders table stepped right in front of me and these books leaped out at me and forced me to buy them.

Leonardo's Swans by Karen Essex - I loved Stealing Athena and hope this one of hers is good too

The Lost Diary of Don Juan by Douglas Carlton Abrams

Bookmooched:
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. It sounds very good, anyone have any thoughts on it??

Just got back from Barnes and Noble and found Arthur & George by Julian Barnes and All Aunt Hagar's Children by Edward P. Jones, both on the bargain table.

Message edited by its author, Aug 23, 2008, 7:22pm.

cindysprocket I just started The Girl With No Shadow the other day. So far so good. I loved Chocolat. Let me know how you like it as well.

The siren call of Borders lured me in today (along with a few coupons), and I came home with five books.

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Katherine by Anya Seton
Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan

momom248 I also liked Chocolat.
Picked up The Lace Reader at 40% off with Borders membership.

cindy--I got Lace Reader too--a coworker is reading it now. Said its good so far. I can't wait to read that--maybe after The Girl With No A Shadow

Message edited by its author, Aug 23, 2008, 10:07pm.

I stopped at a Borders on Copley Square in Boston, and bought The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry, another of the 2008 Booker Prize longlisted books.

#202 - I read The White Tiger and enjoyed it. He writes well, and the view of the underside of current Indian society is enlightening.

I love this thread, and learning about all the new books I could be reading. Keep posting!

MusicMom41, sounds good and the timing is good too. Please post here when a new thread is announced, so we can join in the fun. :-)

vintage_books

nothing lately. I am waiting for two orders from bookcloseouts.com
( woe is me porchy) and some random second hand buys from amazon, and a mooch or 5. please cross fingers and hold thumbs for me that they do not come while the husband is here..

does bookcloseouts mail or ups?? are they by any chance in invisible packaging?

I think I am going to start having my books delivered to a neighbor so I can bring them home under cover of darkness or when the husband is away. Then the mailman can hate her instead!

*shudders at prospect of 20 book order showing up when I am at work and he is not*

I am going sci-fi with my next read - one I have had laying around for a while.

Pet Peeve a novel of Xanth.

After a serious read like Prince of Frogtown, which I have reviewed here on LT, I wanted something on the lighter side to read, though not necessarily quicker as it only took two days for Prince - a good book.

I have almost finished Nine Lords of the Night but I am slowing down because I do not want it to be over yet. Does anyone else do this when they really enjoy a book?

I do somethimes feel sad when a book like that comes to an end and hope there will be a sequel, though most sequels are not the same.

#210 ~ mckait.....hey there, friend!

Bookcloseouts.com uses both USPS and UPS. It does take awhile for standard shipping.....hang in there.

I just got an email from them, telling me that they just added 250 more titles to the August dollar sale. Oh joy. Now I have to (yes, HAVE to) go see.....I already have 5 more books in my shopping cart there, waiting. Oh well, what can I do? We are talking a DOLLAR sale......*groan*

#213

Koalamom, your response has me thinking now about how often sequels meet or exceed the original book...maybe I will start a discussion thread on it since nothing comes to mind right off.

new ideas for threads come from the strangest thoughts, i.e., you never know what will spark that thought!

The Sweetest Taboo by Risque. I got in online. You can probably get is at one of the discount online bookstore located on my book club link page. freewebs.com/worthreading

#209 vintage books

We need to post a new thread on September 2 but I don't know how to do it. Could someone give me directions and I'll do it and or if someone else wants to that's fine, too.

I assume it should be "What are you reading now: The Poisonwood Bible"

And yes--as soon as the thread is started I will post it here.

Hallelujah! I finally found out how you join a group! (Three people have been trying to help me--but It wasn't until just now that I noticed the "group" information above the name of the thread. So then clicked on it and finally found the icon they kept telling I would find on the right hand side of the page. Am I a slow learner?)

So now I also know how to start The Poisonwood Bible thread. This is the first group I have joined.

It will be: "Poisonwood Bible group read"

I just went ahead and created a new reading group for Poisonwood Bible, so we can move this discussion off this thread.

Please sign up with me here:

http://www.librarything.com/groups/poiso...

If you want to create new groups, simply go to:

>Groups Tab
Go to right hand sidebar on screen (under search box) and go to:
Groups on LibraryThing
than
Create a new group

Cheers-

vintage_books

Thanks! vintage books

That is beautiful--I never could have done that--I was just going to start a new thread. This will attract more people than my way.

Thanks also for the information about the book. That is really helpful. I know very little about the book except that it was talked about a lot and I managed to avoid reading it in spite of nagging from several friends. It will be a joke on me if I end up loving it!

Thanks for the nice words! I hope we can motivate some people to join us, and still remember to post your new books on this thread! :)

I am anxiously waiting my new purchases - one of my new books weighs 16 pounds, boxed! Ai-yi-yi!

16 pounds! what is it? An unabridged one volume edition of the OED?

(cough, cough... Furtively looking around hoping husband is not reading over her shoulder and won't be home when this baby arrives)

It's a vintage men's clothing catalog from 1910. Here's the details:

Chicago Tailoring Company Fall and Winter 1910-11. Fashions for Men Leather cover, had gilt impressions.

Sample rectangles for cloth inside along with printed drawings of clothing on being modeled. 19½" X 17", 35 boards printed on both sides, Cloth samples were not in good condition, due to age, and have been removed. Large and heavy sample book.

So, in English, this was the Fall Fashion line from the Chicago Tailoring Company which sent out these large books to sit inside tailor's stores at the turn of the century, show customers the pictures, and last the Fall season so tailor's could sell their suits. It's a vintage sample book.

Unfortunately, it's not in great condition, so I'm going to scan in the fashion images and see if I can fix them up.

Since I can only post one image, I will be posting more images of the book in my blog after it arrives.

For those of you who don't believe in purchasing books in poor condition, nevermind. You will shirk when you see this book. And for the record, I am wondering if I made a mistake. Or not.

And for those of you interested in costuming and fashion, please contact me! I'd love to hear from you.

#210 mckait--I'll join you in waiting for orders. I'd never visited Book Closeouts.com until today. Thanks to you I ordered 20 books for a buck each. Some great finds. Thanks!

#224 Vintage_Books

It sounds fabulous! I'm sorry the fabric samples weren't usable. In a former life (when I lived in Savannah) I was a weaver--sold my work at a coop Gallery--and fine fabric is a love of mine. I'm also a sewer so the pictures would be interesting also. Hope you can make it work for you.

The pickle has landed! I am in New York at last and it’s as delightful as I expected it to be. I am so glad not to be in transit anymore I could sob. The Baltimore airport is much much much more familiar to me that I would ever have wished it to be. The extra hour on top of a two-hour layover wasn't anyone’s fault except Hurricane Fay’s, but it still made things tetchy.

So I got here after a hejira of two and a half hours post-flight (too painful to go into) and was greeted with smiles, hugs, happy faces and a hefty slug of scotch in my hand from the train station in Rockville Centre, whisked homeward to greet Auntie who had stayed up until 2am to say her hellos, and see my beautiful new room! (Well okay, the wallpaper is AWFUL but we knew that going in and changes will be made.) A corner of the room is a reading area, with a beautiful cloverleaf table and a rocking chair between east- and south-facing windows.

So what, I hear you grumbling, get to the good parts…the books! I found awaiting me a haul of goodies that I canNOT wait to sink my eyeteeth into!

Amuse Bouche by Anthony Bidulka
Flight of Aquavit by Anthony Bidulka—these are the first two entries in a series of mysteries LTer P_T Mack made me aware of; set in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, they feature a gay PI and a fun and witty style (first line of Amuse Bouche: “I have to believe that Hercule Poirot and Jessica Fletcher, along with the current slate of mystery novel and television detectives, had to start somewhere. Somewhere unworthy of a book or possible syndication rights.”)

Sons of Darkness, Sons of Light by John A. Williams—I have loved Williams’s work since I discovered him while working at Thunder’s Mouth Press 20 years ago. I read !Click Song and was entranced, then Sissie which was a gorgeous book (cover art by Romare Bearden, woot!), and so on…look in my library, he’s well-represented there. I’d never heard of this book, so I had to have it.

A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester—I was born in San Francisco. I can’t imagine wanting to live there, but the 1906 fire (that followed an earthquake y’all might’ve heard a little something about) is a fascinating subject to me.

From Johnny Temple of Akashic Books arrived my two-buys-and-a-freebie:
The Swing Voter of Staten Island
The Sacrificial Circumcision of the Bronx—both by Arthur Nersesian, a novelist of the odd interstices of life, the bubble-and-a-half off plumb. These two are part of an alternate reality series in which New York has been nuked and the survivors are living in a New New York created in the Nevada desert. Can’t wait to get into these!
Also arrived from Akashic Godlike by Richard Hell—a novel about a man’s affair with a teenaged boy-poet. Set in the 1970s, this promises to be some interesting stuff; it was chosen and edited by Dennis Cooper, a fine novelist of transgression.

Escapement by Jay Lake—I loved his first book in this alternate universe steampunk world. I couldn’t believe Mr. Man was so sweet as to give this to me as a travel read! He’s not just decorative, that Mr. Man. He also gave me:

Rocket Science by Jay Lake—his first novel, an alternate history of WWII’s end, and very different from his Mainspring universe. Promising!

By Schism Rent Asunder by David Weber—sequel to a delightful book called Off Armageddon Reef, which was my first read by Weber. Mr. Man loves Weber’s stuff, and he was thrilled I liked Off Armageddon Reef so much so he decided to keep his favorite in front of my eyes as long as possible.

Seven more to go, so I think I’ll break this into two posts.

As I was saying, seven more books to inform y’all about (read: brag about owning!):

The Magician and the Fool by Barth Anderson—to be completely candid, I have no idea where this book came from, and suspect Mr. Man’s barked knuckles of sending it to me. Whatever its provenance, it looks pretty darn interesting with its Tarot theme. I’ve never read anything by Mr. Anderson, so I look forward to the day it comes to the top of Mt. TBR.

An ARC of David Liss’s novel The Whiskey Rebels came from Random House, and I know someone on this forum scored it for me…but I don’t remember who! Please, kind entity, make yourself known to me so that I may grovel most sincerely in thanks. It’s getting to the top of Mt. TBR immediately.

Months and Seasons by Christopher Meeks—per booklady’s recommendation, I ordered it. Now booklady must apologize profusely to me for failing to mention that the publisher is called “White Whisker Press” and their logo is the face of a black cat, aka Satan incarnate. I’ve had one bout of allergic sneezing from opening the package already. For shame, booklady.

A String of Flowers, Untied… translated by Jane Reichhold and Hatsue Kawamura—these are translated and contextualized love-tanka from The Tale of Genji. It’s always been a wonderful experience to read this work. The more modern translations of it (my copy is the 80-year-old Waley translation) are more fluid and graceful than the older ones, and none can be more interesting than a poet translating the poetry that was the main artform of Japanese literary culture at the time Murasaki was inventing a wholly new narrative artform, the novel.

Fast Forward by Eric Spitznagel—a memoir of a screenwriter’s descent into porn. Cain’t wait!

Shadow and Claw and Sword and Citadel by Gene Wolfe—for my Group Reads-Sci Fi forum. Never found it in me to read these two before, so I’m looking forward to this!

And that haul, ladies and laddies, is pretty sweet to find when you get off a plane, a train and an automobile. Thus endeth our lesson.

And to all who wished me happy moving mojo, it worked. I am not going to have my desktop computer until my stuff arrives so I am laptopping at various hotspots around the area. I'll be here sporadically and unpredictably, in other words.

RMD

Richard, so glad your move went well even with the airport issues. At least you are there and starting to settle.

I did fairly well today, 3 bookmooch books and an ARC:

This Earth of Mankind traveled to me very quickly, considering it was coming from Switzerland. I'm excited to get to this book at some point, because I'm pretty sure I've never read anything from an Indonesian author.

A Wrinkle in Time, which I decided to mooch after another LTer noted that she had just added it to her inventory. Now I may have to find the rest of the books in the series and take a trip down memory lane.

Nine Parts of Desire, which I've been interested in for some time, due to conversation about it on LT.

Something Wickedly Weird: The Icy Hand. Evidently I requested volume 1 of this book from the publisher, but they ran out and sent me volume 2 instead. This looks fun and fast, I'm pretty sure I could finish it over a lunch break.

Oops, wrong thread.

Message edited by its author, Aug 25, 2008, 1:00pm.

Wow! What a great day THIS is turning out to be...three more books arrived:

Published and Perished which is a collection of the published eulogies and obits of American writers (I wanna know what I should expect)

The View from the Center of the Universe br Joel Primack--what to expect when the door closes on the oven, basically; rdurick's interest in reading about the nature of his relationship to the cosmos has influenced me to start reading myownself.

Predicting New Words by Allan Metcalf because I am constitutionally unable to pass up books about words. mckait, this is one you should look into and let me know if you want to mooch.

It was a good morning. I received three ARCs in the mail, A Single Thread by Marie Bostwick, Hangman Blind by Cassandra Clark, and Bones in the Desert by Jana Bommersbach. That last book is a true crime book about an event that took place here in Arizona, and Bommersbach is scheduled to speak at my library in December. Woo hoo!

225: theaelizabet, Sadly I've fallen into the clever trap of Book Closedouts.com too. They make it so easy for you to start ordering books without thinking because they're so well priced and before you know it, you've got boxes the size of a house arriving at your door and a very disgruntled delivery person sweating outside.

228:richardderus, I loved Shadow and Claw and Sword and Citadel so you have to post your review so we get your thoughts on these books after you're done with them.

Nerd Gone Wild by Vicki Lewis Thompson arrived today for my niece who's addicted to romantic crime solvers.

First I hope anyone who is interested in the group read of Poisonwood Bible saw message #220. Vintage_Books has created a new site for the read and it really looks great. There is a link in that message for anyone who wants to check it out.

Oops--just found a smalll pile of books I bought after the buying ban expired--I hope I don't find anymore because I' really trying to be more controlled now! However--I guess it's better to get drunk on books than on alcohol!

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson--mmy older son lives in Cicago and highly recommended this book (he's also a member of LT and got me started. I don't think he's doing any groups, though. There are more people in the Chicago area to talk books with than where I am).

The House of Mondavi by Julia Flynn Siler--we inherited a house that is about 30 minutes from the Napa//Sonoma wine country so we go there a lot on weekends (about 3 hours from our own home). We have become very interested in wine and the wine industry. This is one we will both read.

Bound to Please by Michael Dirda--I have wanted this so long I ordered it in hard cover from Amazon the day the ban went off. I've already spent quite a bit of time with it and forgot it was new. The first sentence in the introduction: "Bound to Please intentionally resembles a cocktail party more than a work of criticism: it's meant to be entertaining, sometimes provocative, above all a way to catch up with old friends and make new ones." It also abounds with lists of books which I just love--I may have to start a thread somewhere to talk about this book.

from the library I am currently reading:

An Open Book by Michael Dirda--I just love him, too! :-)

An Episode of Sparrows by Rumer Godden--mine came from the adult section, but I have seen this listed YA also. It was recommended to me by LTer augustdreams and so far I'm liking it very much. I think is was written in the '50s and it is British so it might not apeal to everyone. "Sparrows" are London street children--not birds, but gardens feature in it.

The Bat, Haunted Lady, and Yellow Room a trilogy by Mary Roberts Rinehart--I remember my mother reading her when I was young and when I saw her name mentioned on an Amazon list of best mystery writers I decided to give her a try. It took 2 months for the library system to dig up a copy; I hope they don't mind if I review it several times!

Killing Floor by Lee Child--this was recommended to me in January by a friend who has read most of the series (I'd never heard of it, but it seems to be very popular). She said I had to read this one first then I could read them in any order (of course I'm sort of compulsive about reading series inorder--hence my love affair with Fantastic Fiction!). Can you believe in the entire Central Valley of California library system there wasn't a single copy of this book?! I must not have been the only one wanting it because they ordered 4 copies (for 4 different libraries) and one finally came in. After all this, I hope I like it. Especially since I get it for a shorter time and can't renew it so I have to interrupt my other reading. OHHH! the agonies one suffers when one is an uncontrollable bibliomanic! (That's a good book, too)

MusicMom, Bound to Please was not very informative; I think the form may have prohibited it. What I loved about it and why I will go back to it is the contagious excitement he brings to bear. That is to say, when I read his book I wanted to read the books he was excited about.

Have fun!

Robert

225: theaelizabet, you are very welcome, and I am very sorry.
cameling, please don't say as big as a house. Take it back okay?
please..

Are the boxes at least invisible? I am waiting for a 20 and also a 10 book order from bookcloseouts. woe is me.

richardear, I am so glad you are home again.. I did miss you!

Richard, will check it out, and also pls tell e your thoughts. I do love word books.

Message edited by its author, Aug 25, 2008, 5:33pm.

#220 - vintagebooks and musicmom, I might join in...I've managed not to read the Poisonwood Bible for years. Will come over to the new group soon.

#223 - richardderus, great that the move went well! Will be interested to see what The Whiskey rebels is like. I read the coffee Trader and enjoyed it, but not quite enough to hang onto it forever.

#235 musicmom, have you read Jancis Robinson's autobiography yet? I think it's called A Tasting Pleasure...nope, looks like it's Confessions of a Wine Lover.

We went on holiday for a week and I found 2 lovely bookshops, one just for children's books. I came home with:
- Imperium by Robert Harris (at $11, couldn't resist)
- Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell
- What's Happening to our Girls? by Maggie Hamilton (interesting but so far extremedly annoying to read - every point is REPEATED and has a BIG BOX AROUND IT)
- Through the Children's Gate: a Home in New York by Adam Gopnik, because we lived there for 2 years and I miss it still
-Snake and Lizard by Joy Cowley, for our 4 year old son
-Down the Back of the Chair by Margaret Mahy, for our 1 year old
-Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
-The Wind in the willows by Kenneth Grahame

And I came home to find The Year of Magical Thinking and Nuns and Soldiers in the mailbox, mooched from another LTer.

Just in case I run out of books, I went to the library and found the 2nd Outlander novel, Dragonfly in Amber.

Oh and I had LT withdrawal symptoms for the first few days...

Two recent purchases arrived on my doorstep today:

The Lace Dictionary: Including Historic and Commercial Terms, Technical Terms, Native and Foreign - now I can FINALLY identify the lace I have!

The Milliner's Guide,: A Complete Handy Reference Book for the Workroom, Embraces the Professional Experience of Ages, published 1915.

***Join our Reading Group for the Poisonwood Bible, starting September 2! See the Group area for more info**

#236 rdurick

I've read several of Dirda's books and that's what I like about them--the contagious enthusiasm.

It's been several years since I've anyone to talk books with on a regular basis and Dirda filled a hole--even though I couldn't answer back (except to take notes in the journal I finally started out of desperation)-- I could enjoy his side of the conversation. It's kind of like these threads at LT (which I only started using about a week ago!); only here I finally get to give you all my 2 cents worth! (boy--am I glad my 8th grade teacher can't see this paragraph's sentence construction! HeHe)

#238 cmt

I hope to see you there.

I'm going to check out Confessions of a Wine Lover as soon as I finish here. Let me know what you think of The Year of Magical Thinking. It was given to me but I haven't read it yet.

I'm taking my computer with me when we leave Thursday so I won't have withdrawal. We finally broke down and bought a Verizon thingie that gives us internet where ever we are. (Don't you love my computer tech language!)

Today I received The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher from Amazon UK.

237: mckait, I should wash my mouth out with soap .... after posting the comment about boxes arriving the size of a house, wouldn't you know it ... the mailman delivered 2 large boxes to me. One from Book Closeouts.com with 15 books and another from Book Depository with 8 books. *sigh* TRB pile? Try TBR towers

238: cmt, I've been eyeing the Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series ... is it as good as it promises to be?

#242 - yes, it is really good, in the 'can't put it down" sense. But I did find some of the things that happened a bit hard to swallow. I usually read non-fiction and just don't do sci fi or time travel! I'm having trouble explaining myself without giving the plot away, but I found the time travel more convincing than some of the amazing escapes from...things....

cameling, I was totally able to believe the time travel in Outlander series. I loved it and have read it more than once. The earliest books more often than the later ones. I have to admit that I totally believe in many kinds of magic.. but it is a fun read. Do try at least the first one!

As for boxes... woe is me. I gather they were not invisible then? Were they postal service or brown guy?
This is it .. really seriously. No more books.. or at any rate no more than one a week as suggested by porchy..

Think I could convince the husband it is a box filled with early review books?

Oh! and today I received 28 Barbary Lane: A "Tales of the City" Omnibus by Armistead Maupin

mckait ~ I am proud to say that I exhibited incredible restraint after our "agreement" to only purchase one book a week.....my hubby and I went to the book store and I picked up and then put down FOUR different books. I was practically hyperventilating by the time we rushed out the door.....it was so hard! But I told myself, you can always get these at a later date!!!!! You don't need them right now!!!! So I am guilt free today!!!! As for tomorrow, who knows?? My hubby is addicted to books too, so it's doubly hard....plus he's on vacation this week and we nearly stopped at B&N earlier tonight!!!! OMG....this is going to be so hard. One day at a time, one day at a time.....deep breaths, deep breaths.... God grant me the serenity.......etc, etc. :o)

mckait.....P.S........remember, this "agreement" is not totally binding....since we didn't sign our names in blood or anything....LOL....if you decide to buy more than one a week, don't feel guilty for heaven's sake!! It's just something we can aim for......one book a week......at least it gives us an "out"......but if you (or I) feel the irresistible urge to buy more than one, I perfectly understand! :o)

Richard, that's quite a haul! Like Christmas morning! Hope you get settled soon.

What a bunch of ravenous book hoarders this month! Do we need Thread #3??

I live in an old house that has been made into apartments. I don't have a mailbox, just a small slot next to the door. I also live in a very high traffic area where boxes can't be left. I have my book orders shipped to me at work. Can you do something similar McKait, and then bring them home a few at a time, sans boxes ? Just a thought.

I am a bit behind on my book purchase posts.

Borders
Seen on LT and Ordered
Voices From The Other World: Ancient Egyptian Tales by Naguib Mahfouz
Rhadopis of Nubia by Naguib Mahfouz
Raven Black by Ann Cleeves

Ordered
Dreaming the Bones by Deborah Crombie - Local Book Group
Hidden in Sight by Julie Czerneda - Completing a Series
Just Desserts by Mary Daheim - Local Book Group
A Share in Death by Deborah Crombie -Local Book Group
Bloodsong by Melvin Burgess - Completing a Series

Non-Fiction
Justinian's Flea by William Rosen
Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron * LT Inspired

Picked up in the Store
The Naming of the Dead by Ian Rankin
Blood Engines by T.A.Pratt
Poison Sleep by T.A. Pratt
Under Darkness by Savannah Russe
Hunter's Prayer by Lilith Saintcrow
The Riven Kingdom by Karen Miller
Nerve Damage by Peter Abrahams * LT Inspired
Wanderlust by Ann Aguirre
The Battle of the Hammer Worlds by Graham Sharp Paul
Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell
Scots on the Rocks by Mary Daheim
Tokyo Year Zero by David Peace

BJs Warehouse
Masquerade by Melissa de la Cruz

Amazon
The Bronze Age In Europe by Jean-Pierre Mohen * LT Inspired

The Amazon book came by itself. The rest arrived today. I haven't had a chance to enter them yet. I will do that on my next post. My Closeout books are still in transit (USPS). And the book I ordered from Alibris in the UK on July 30th, has just left Nevada, and is on its way to NH. I am told to expect it after the holiday. They shipped it UPS for me, but GROUND. !

porchy... true, it isn't written in blood. For a while I thought maybe I should stop coming here to LT and learning about more great books. Then I thought..NAH!
that won't work. I would be whimpering and drooling on my shoes after 12 hours.

I am thinking I am toast. The husband ( who has never read a complete book)
is going to be off tuesday and wednesday. He will work thursday and be off friday.

I work school hours.

Well.. I have to admit, what with labor day approaching, it might be nice to have the big order arrive so that I have the weekend to try to find homes for them on my shelves.

Saturday would be good. And it is sad if too many days go by with no new books on my porch when I get home.

Does mooching count? ( but I only have 9 points there.. ouchies)

oh well.. maybe something will be waiting for me today when I get home?

I am afraid to click on the links t some of the wonderful sounding books listed here. I am lacking in self control....

Whew, mckait , you got it bad, girl...hiding books, "invisible boxes"..sounds like an Addiction to me..but this Doctor is out..way out..in that land of BooksAddicts (not Anonymous!...i am proud of my Disease..keeps me away from the dreaded TV)

anyway..today brought:

The Liar's Club and Cherry by Mary Karr
Local Girls by Alice Hoffman
FannybyErica Jong
The Seal Wife by Kathryn Harrison
Holy Foolsby Joanne Harris

and a mooched Book Mooch:

Weaveworld by Clive Barker (thanks Alisha!)

that's all for now.

#251 ~ mckait......hey, did we make an agreement?? What agreement? I don't recall any agreement. I am not sure what you are referring to?? **batting widened eyes in wonderment** (LOL)

I woke up this morning and changed my mind. It's too stressful to limit myself. I am thinking that you feel the same. Let's just do it this way....if we see a book we just gotta have, we'll buy it. If we see one that we would like to own, but can pass on for the time being (unless there's another dollar sale) without having shortness of breath and heart palpitations, we will wait for another time. No enforced limits, no bans, no moratoriums.....just a modicum of restraint. I don't know about you but I have just been going a little wild lately....and I know I can cut back if I just use a little self control.

Does that sound better? After all.....books are like therapy to us.....and I think all of us here deserve to have therapy on a regular basis, and often! LOL! If we are addicted to buying books and can afford it, it's not like we are doing anything wrong. As it's been said here before....we could be spending our money on any number of worse things!

I'm lighting another candle in hopes that your husband will be in a good, understanding mood when the books begin to arrive.....

Message edited by its author, Aug 26, 2008, 12:35pm.

Only one book for me today, Wuthering Heights, from the library.

I accidently X'ed this thread and now have 62 to read!
FicusFan: I'd be jealous of your haul if I wasn't in danger of an avalanche from Mt. TBR now!

jdthloue: Welcome ;-)

teelgee: I think we might need a third thread next month at the rate we're going! And I'm not a hoarder! I just can't read as fast as I get... ;-)

Oh, any Outlander readers out there might like to know one of B&N's book groups (I forget which one) is doing Outlander next month. If I didn't have so many ARCs to get through, I might try to join in.

Richardderus: Fast Forward sounds like a very interesting book. You'll have to share with us when you finish it!

Since the last time I posted here I've gotten:

an ARC copy of Something Wickedly Weird: The Icy Hand by Chris Mould. This should be interesting, and Maggie may make a guest review of it, as it's reco'd for ages 9-12.

From BookMooch:
Beat To Quarters by C.S. Forester
The Lazarus Child by Robert Mawson
The Man Who Ate a 747 by Ben Sherwood
Valley of the Far Side and Night of the Crash-Test Dummies both by Gary Larson. I love Far Side comics, and our newspaper quit carrying them. I've been reduced to reading greeting cards to get my fix. Now I've got a couple books of them. Yeah, that'll last about two days ;-)

edited to add: Just stepped outside to let the dog do her thing and found out the Book Fairy had left Blue Genes by Christopher Lukas on my doorstep. That MIB who drives the Big Brown Sleigh is sneaky-sneaky!

Message edited by its author, Aug 26, 2008, 1:28pm.

The Big Book of Jewish Conspiracies just came via BookMooch. Did my wishlist actually get any smaller? Of course not.

UPS brought me an ARC of Blue Genes while I was off at lunch. Forget more bookshelves, I need another ROOM to keep my books in.

ROFLMAO! DoB, you and me both! My mom was frightened of Mt. TBR. She commented on the bowing shelves, and collapsed bottom shelf. She had a hard time finding the phone, as well, since it's behind some of the overflow stacked on the desk. Next time I've got film in my camera, I'm taking a picture of Mt. TBR and Mt. TBARC and posting it!

One of the shelves on my TBR bookcase actually collapsed on one side. Luckily, it didn't fall too far as there are such high piles of books on the shelf below.

Did you see my picture of my TBR pile off my shelf in my Sunday Salon post? It was as wide as the door and came up to the doorknob, even though it was a few books deep. Scary stuff.

Greetings and solicitations from Buns and Nubile, where I have the best luck getting a wi-fi connection...how awful for me....

Oh you just KNOW that no move can go smoothly. I can't get the cubes shipped until someone repositions the weight. It can't be the shippers for liability reasons and my brother is in Mexico for a vacation and then there's Mr. Man just flat refusing to do anything that will keep me here, bless him, and and and....

Never mind. I found two more books today:

The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
The Flanders Road by Claude Simon

Now really. Shouldn't Nobel Prize winners have touchstones in first, before any and all others??

Back to work job-hunting.

koolaid & devourer: I'm in the "need a room, not a shelf" club also...I'm a pretty organized kind of girl, but I have a feeling that if I were to get a whole room for my TBRs, it would quickly look like one of the rooms you see on an Oprah episode about "my hoarding obsession." Talk about a fire risk....

ETA: I also got Blue Genes today, but I'm not so sure about it.

Message edited by its author, Aug 26, 2008, 3:10pm.

If we are all book nuts, I have found one of the greatest bibliomanics of the world! From Amazon--A Gentle Madness,Bibliophiles,Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books by Nicholas A. Basbanes I am only into the introduction where he tells of the nut from Iowa who STOLE 20,000 books before being caught. He also had 10,000 door knobs. We must all advance with caution about our book passion. Ha!

And our door knob passion so it seems. It must be related...

Following the example of many of you, I found Book Closeouts and will soon have MORE books....Every Book its Reader by (who else?) Basbanes------Through a Glass, Darkly by Donna Leon----- and A Bigamist`s Daughter by Alice McDermott. I need another room, too!

# 261: bnbooklady

koolaid & devourer: I'm in the "need a room, not a shelf" club also..

I am in the "need a new house, not a room or a shelf" club.

My whole apartment looks like a 'Hoarding Obsession' (never seen Oprah).

>260..a big Shout-Out to you richard..for surviving your move(so far)
Barnes & Nublie???LOL LOL..roll around on the floor..
i hope all moving/nonsense works out eventually..i got your back:)))

>261 bnbooklady
yes..if Oprah (who supposedly advocates READING) took a look at my bookshelves-all over the house- she would probably scream)..and i would laugh'''MEA CULPA

porchy... sigh, we just have to admit it... it is hopeless! We are hopeless!
Not to mention helpless , especially in the face of one dollar books.

The last couple of days these wandered in...

Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott

Midwife of the Blue Ridge by Christine Blevins

Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All by Allan Gurganus

28 Barbary Lane: A "Tales of the City" Omnibus by Armistead Maupin

Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky

Three Junes by Julia Glass

#264 I loved Through a Glass Darkly

Jude.. I do not think invisible is a bad thing. It is just the packaging after all....

I have resolved to purge the bookcases this weekend.
That should help! I have friends that need books. I am being charitable.

#246 porchsitter55

I hear you! The other bookaholic in my family is my older son. Last Christmas we made a pact that we would not buy any book in 2008 until after July 1st; in addition we had to read at least 3,500 pages from books we currently own during that time or we couldn't buy books until that number was reached.

Of course, I had to go to bookstores during that time because my husband also likes books (he buys them one at a time and probably never more than a dozen a year--don't you admire him? or maybe pity him?) and he was not allowed to buy anything I might want. I know that panicky feeling. I made copious lists for future purchases.

The upside was, I really enjoyed reading out of my library--after all, at one time or another I had intended to read all these and now at last I was working on it. Besides what I read from the public library (allowed but did not count toward the page total) I read 33 books I already owned, totaling 7763 pages. I think I may try this again next year. Of course now that I can buy I have to be careful not to go overboard---oops! too late!

#251 mckait

"I am afraid to click on the links t some of the wonderful sounding books listed here. I am lacking in self control...."

Personally, mckait, I'd settle for 'shelf control.' :-)

>mckait

Yeah, Sure..
love you anyway for your intentions

Yeah, Sure
*smiles all around*
JUDE

ROFL@ apt comment by #251

jude.. you know what they say about good intentions and the path to hell.

#257 Devourer

"Forget more bookshelves, I need another ROOM to keep my books in."

You can get them all in one room?! ;-)

Yes i know THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTONS...so what? i still Need books

help me, or not
i am definitely in the wrong place if i want a cure for my BOOK LUST ***slaver slaver*

i'm outta here
:)))))

273 etc.> If I could afford it, I would buy the penthouse at the Pierre, put my books in the main living room, and live in the capitol of the world.

Robert

yeah.. Jude.. I need them too, but I am pretty sure that I don't need so many at once....considering that my tbr pile has turned into tbr shelves.. ( note the plural)

I can relate to the shift from a pile to shelves............it brings tomind that expression for the flu........."the creeping crud"......hope I never find the cure!

cmt and mckait : I used to be a sci-fi and fantasy fiend ... I still read those, but I add in alot more genres in between readings these days to stave off being a total dweeb. :-) So I probably won't have a problem with the 'things' or time travel aspects of the Outlander series. I'm really dying to try these books out now....

246: porchsitter55, you have admirable strength of character ... to put down 4 other books and only walk out of bookstore with 1 book?! I feel faint already at the thought.

Pigs In Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver and ARC The Swap by Anthony Moore swooped in today ..... i'm as happy as a pig in mud.

>275,
It would be so amazing to live there (plus it comes with a library!).

$70 million is a pretty hefty price tag, though.

bookmooched Owls Well That Ends Well and Gardens of the Moon. Arrived today.

#268 ~ MusicMom41.....that's awesome!! You should be proud of yourself for delving in to the books you already owned and for being able to resist buying more until you reached your goal. Kudos!!! My goal is to get to that point of contentment with what I have, and not to constantly need more... (is that really possible???)

#278 ~ cameling.....actually we left with NO books that day. I was going to allow myself one, but the plan didn't work out. We had just popped in to the shop because we had a few minutes to spare before an appointment, and it was on the way (honest!!).... we began wandering the aisles....and yes I really did pick up 4 books and then gently returned them to the shelves (while biting the inside of my cheek practically raw) .....before we knew it, we realized that we only had a short time to make it to the appointment.....I did have one book in my hand that I really, really wanted to buy, but due to the time....we had to practically run out....and I reluctantly put the book back on the shelf and waved at the clerk as we hastily departed.....I really did feel so very deprived!!! I couldn't believe I made a trip to the bookstore and left empty-handed. But after doing some deep-breathing exercises in the car (LOL) I realized that I would survive without buying any books that day and decided that it was a good thing. Although it's a better thing to come home with a BOOK!!!! AGGGHHH! Oh well.

mckait is right.....we are hopeless. :o)

Message edited by its author, Aug 27, 2008, 2:05am.

#267 mckait -- I loved Three Junes. It sounds like you have some great books wandering in.

If you're serious about trying to buy less books, do the following: keep a spreadsheet with all your purchases, their total number and their prices and of course the grand total. I did and it is not only a lot of fun, but pretty impressive too :) To sum up:

- I read 43 books in total this year (including on-line versions and books I already owned)
- I bought or received 62 books so far this year (this kinda freaked me out...)
- From these 62 I read 24 so far...
- Total amount spent is 275 euro's (which isn't that bad at all, time to buy more books! Oh, wait...) ^^

283: Vonini

I am speechless. I am way too busy buying books to do that~ not to mention that making a spreadsheet boggles my mind.

You have my respect, however.

Now, off to bookcloseouts.com! (expecting to find porchy already there)

AMQS did you? I haven't seen any discussion of it, but it appealed to me.
I look forward to reading it.

cameling, let me now how you are liking Outlanders, if you think of it. I would love to know.

What can I say... things are slow at work. That and I'm a complete geek! ^^

don't mind them vonini

I have three seperate spreadsheets that I use to keep track of my reading...

and a flash drive dedicated to nothing but pictures of book covers.

Message edited by its author, Aug 27, 2008, 12:52pm.

I got The Best Place to Be by Lesley Dormen for a blog tour I'll be participating in on Oct. 22nd.

Also got a second ARC of The Longest Trip Home by John Grogan, so I feel a future giveaway in the works.

When I got home yesterday evening I was surprised and delighted to find I had received a huge book containing 1,246 pages.

Just a brief survey of this enormously well researched book revealed a cast of characters to surpass War and Peace, and that easily rivals anything that Charles Dickens ever invented.

For example:

Mr Clutch: the dodgy auto mechanic.
Bill Newman: the dashing and debonair portrait artist.
Mr Sooty: the dark and devious chimney sweep.
Lesley Sharp: the charismatic and handsome sex therapist.
Mr Chippy: the cheerful, chirpy, cockney fish and chips seller.
The seductive Stephanie: the hair and beauty therapist.

The plot is a bit rambling and piecemeal but with characters like these, and there are thousands more in this magnificent book, who needs a plot?

I thoroughly recommend that you obtain a copy of Yellow Pages today!

My mailman brought me The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde from BookMooch.

The postage was paid with five giant 41 cent Star Wars stamps, a 17 cent goat stamp, and a 1 cent tiffany lamp stamp.

It was fairly entertaining.

Hey ever'body...you'd think an unemployed guy with no money wouldn't be acquiring books. Ha. You would be so so wrong. Yesterday and today, the Boy in Blue from the USPS brought:

The Lights in the Sky are Stars by Fredric Brown--an underappreciated "hack" of the Golden Age of SF, whose work is simple and direct and very readable even after 60 years. I think it's fun to read books set in "the future" that's already turned into the past. This one starts in 1997, and ends in 2001; it looks to me like it's gonna be a widgin different from the 1997 I remember through the haze of cocaine and booze.

Jeb and Dash edited by Ina Russell--a detailed diary kept by a gay man from 1918 to 1945 (that's the end point the editrix chose) with much detail about gay life in those years. Since I had a passing-for-straight uncle who was almost exactly contemporaneous with this gent, I thought it would be intriguing to read the book.

Want to hear a sad story? I mean, seriously sad? The only two places I can use free wifi (no internet at home yet) are a Starbuck's one town over which has a **used book store** with ***excellent and unusual books not bestsellers*** in it; and Buns and Nubile.

So use my computer, lose my self-restraint. Poor, poor pitiful me, as Linda Ronstadt sang so many years ago. Do I hear the hankies unfolding, the weeping beginning, the empathy flowing?

*heehee*

Got my August ER book today - Chicken A La King And The Buffalo Wing: Food Names And The People And Places That Inspired Them.

From BookMooch: Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift....

The 19th Wife just crossed my desk. It was on hold for me, and I got so excited I nearly put it away without thinking to check it out first. My boss had a good laugh at my expense.

I know what I'm reading tonight. The musketeers can hold on for a few days.

Found another secondhand bookshop while I was waiting to pick up a prescription from the chemist (tr. from NZ - noun, pharmacy or drugstore). Came out with Herzog by Saul Bellow, The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning and Devil in the White City. The last is because I've seen lots of good recommendations here on LT.

283: Vonini, That sounds like an exercise I would not even like to attempt .. I'm not sure my heart would take the stress if I find out how much I spend a year on books ... thank goodness for libraries and book exchanges otherwise I think I really will be in the poor house.

286: kcs_hiker, I'm impressed and just a wee bit scared of you now. Pictures of book covers, interesting project, but what made you decide to put this together?

290: richardderus, wow... no ready wifi use? nevermind the hankies unfolding, an EMT is summoned. That could be considered a near death experience. You might need to drive over to WHPL everyday and camp out by their computer terminals or bring your laptop over there .. they have free wifi there if I'm not mistaken.

These came in the mail today.. whoohooo...
The Shop on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber
Four to Score by Janet Evanovich
Plum Lovin' by Janet Evanovich
Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs

291: fleela, that sounds like an awesome book. I hope you'll post a review when you're done. I love books like that if they've got good content.

>295
It has recipes, which I think is a nice touch.

>294: cmt
The Balkan Trilogy is quite good.. be sure to look for The Levant Trilogy to finish the story, as well as the TV miniseries "Fortunes of War"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092353/

>295: cameling
don't be frightened... it's just that I adore book covers, and save pictures of ones that I like. There was actually a thread somewhere around here a while back discussing covers, which led me to several websites and blogs of others with this same obsession...

#288 TheTortoise

When you finish it let me know how it turns out. It can't be any harder to read than Ulysses and it will have as much plot as some of Virginia Woolf's novels. :-)

(Before y'all jump on me--I do love both James Joyce and Virginia Woolf--however I haven't made it all the way through Ulysses--yet. Tortoise will probably finish the yellow pages before I finish Ulysses!)

Recieved in the mail. Rise to Rebellion Jeff Shaara

* unfolding hanky* Poor dear man, dreadful to have to go to a bookstore to
use wifi.

DoB interesting postage :) My book from BM made grey snow all over my living room =;-{

oh well.

I received The Ghost Writer and Pigs in Heaven used from Amazon....

I agree btw, knowing how much I spent on books would definitely be bad for my health!

I went to the library today to return some CDs as a favor for my son. I didn't have time to browse to checkout anything (besides I have 5 library book that have to be read by September 13th--plus all the things I'm reading for groups here. That's enough already.)

Unfortunately, the sale tables are right by the door--so I did bring home some books. These have no time limits--one of the reasons I prefer to own.

Going in I spotted Savannah Breeze by Mary Kay Andrews for $.10. Good condition but Large Print. I can deal. Shortly after I moved to California from Savannah I read Andrews 1st novel (I think it was called Savannah Blues). It was an okay story but for someone who was homesick it was great to read all the descriptions of Savannah and the surrounding area. It's been more than ten years and I'd like to "visit" again. I hope she has improved as a writer--but I can risk ten cents.

Going out, on the "Friends" table (a little more expensive--$.50 each) I spotted 2 J.D. Robb's I haven't read (I'm reading the series in order--just discovered her this year--can't stand Nora but love J.D.--go figure!). It will be a while before I catch up to them but at least I won't have to wait for the library to get them for me when I'm ready and then I can donate them back. I also saw a Ruth Rendell novel, A Guilty Thing Surprised with Inspector Wexford. It has been years since I've read one of hers so I grabbed it.

When I went to pay I discovered I didn't have the right change so I went back and got Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. This one is like The Poisenwood Bible in that I have never intended to read it but for fifty cents I might take a chance (yes, I know I can get it for free at the library, Mom, but then I have a time limit. I will never take this one on a time limit basis--not that convinced yet.) There wasn't anything else that interested me to bring it up to $2.00 even and I have seen some favorable comments about it on LT since I started reading these threads.

Anyone here want to encourage me about Cold Mountain?

BTW I don't know if any of you have noticed, but we are going to have a group read on LT on The Poisenwood Bible. The group is set up and we will start reading September 2nd. Vintage_Books has volunteered to moderate and it looks like it is going to fun. At least it guarantees I will finish the book--I never quit a book group read unless I'm comatose!

(Edited for typos and grammar)

Message edited by its author, Aug 27, 2008, 7:08pm.

MusicMom41, I really liked Cold Mountain (I have never seen the film). I know the book has its detractors, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

AMQS

Thanks for the input. Now that I own it, I will probably try it.

Yippee! I got an advanced reader's copy of Kissing Games of the World by Sandi Kahn Shelton today from the BookBrowse website......perfect timing too, I'm just about finished with Quality of Care, which was very good. I'll start the ARC next!

In addition to The 19th Wife (posted earlier), I came home to find a lovely copy of Midwife of the Blue Ridge, which was sent to me by the author to review. In a reverse of my earlier post, I'm starting with Midwife, since I did promise to review it. The 19th Wife can wait a few days with the Musketeers.

#301 I owned both Poisonwood Bible and Cold Mountain for ages before I forced myself to read them, thinking I wouldn't like either of them. I loved them both!

>286 kcs_hiker

I feel less weird now, thank you ^^ (LT seems to have that effect overall, it's such a relief. Not only to me, but to my boyfriend too! :-D)

I just couldn't resist this book I found on sale: Hogfather by Terry Pratchett. I should keep out of bookstores if I don't want to go beyond my monthly buying limit!

Oooohhh, Hogfather is one of my favorite Discworld novels (that and Witches Abroad)! You're in for a treat, enjoy!

#301 Teazle

Thanks for the encouragement. I think I may experience the same thing--and wish I had read them when my friends did!

From a B&N visit: Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman (reading now), Death of a Writer by Michael Collins, A Brief History of Philosophy by Derek Johnson and Snow Falling in Spring by Moying Li (which was the book I went to buy in the first place).

The mailman's got to be happy about my slowing in requesting books. I just got two today:

an internat'l BookMooch from Australia: The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham. I got this book because it's on the 1001 book list... or at least it was, I don't know if it's on the new one or not.

from PBS: Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake-Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia by Dennis Covington. I read about this book here on LT and thought it sounded fascinating. Finally snagged one... woot!

theaelizabet> I really enjoyed Ex-Libris. Let me know what you think.

Ex-Libris is one of my favorites, also. I love "books about books" and this one feels like "sharing with a friend." I hope you like it.

>301 I also liked Cold Mountain very much - for $0.50, you got a deal!

>312 koolaidmom - I loved Salvation on Sand Mountain. But I'm so fascinated by snake handling (signs following) folks that I drove several hours out of my way on a vacation to see the church in Jolo. What's great about this one is that it doesn't portray the people in it as freakshow nutjobs. I hope you enjoy it.

Yesterday's trip to the unusual bookstore in Rockville Centre yielded one book:

The Short Reign of Pippin IV by John Steinbeck (now seriously...who's in charge of touchstone addition around here, so I can volunteer to do some data entry?)

I had heard of this one a few times, but hadn't ever so much as seen it before, and I got a hardcover copy (Book of the Month Club edition, so less desirable than the trade edition) for six bucks. Cheaper than the currently available trade paper edition, and I really prefer hardcovers because they's easier on my hands.

Until I am gainfully employed, I am forbidden by practical reality from visiting Amazon or the other online crack emporiums.

>295 cameling, good idea and I need to go introduce myself anyway! I'm not far from there now, and the West Hemp Pub Lib is on my way to the grocery store. Tonight is burgers, roasted taters and carrots night. Gotta get some ice cream.

>300 mckait, oh yes indeed it's a sore affliction, having to go to the bookstore. >sniffSalvation on Sand Mountain was an amazing book. I felt like I was reading science fiction. I am not a passionately religious person, and I fail the commitment test for people who would so much as imagine handling snakes, so it was a treat to get so completely inside the experience of these folks with whom I share nothing but the right to trial by jury. The writing was so clear and convincing, never tendentious.

Ooof. Back to business.

I got somebody's ARC of What Happened to Anna K today from BookMooch. I can't wait to read it.

DoB: I've been wanting to read that as well...requested it from Shelf Awareness but haven't seen anything yet. I'll be stoked if it just shows up one day.

I picked up an ARC of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo from work. Looks interesting.

Heads Up..we need a new Thread here..i will do it if someone tells me how to(and for an English Lit major my grammar..is..poor...Mea Culpa, me)

>317 Richard.*i feel your pain* and if i could shoot you some $$$$ through the ETHER i would...the PIPPIN title is wondrous sure

>318...What Happened to Anna K has been in my sights since it was published..let me know what you think, once you read it? okay?

>320, I will!

As for the new thread, this one is bad, but there will be a new one Monday, so I think we will probably just deal with it. Three threads next month, I think, though.

It's no one's responsibility, to be sure, to make new threads in these long-list-prone topics, but maybe we can come to a general consensus on how many posts there are in a thread before someone just takes over and makes a new one.

I propose 250 posts and then a new thread starts. Other ideas?

>321 DoB, the fact we're starting a new one on Monday seems like a good enough reason to let this one go. Betcha we to 350 easy by then.

>322, Richard, particularly if we keep posting back and forth to one another ;)

250 is probably a good number. Or we could just go to 3 threads a month, every 10 days or so. Pretty soon this will have to be a weekly thread, like "what are you reading now?"

Just ordered Ludmillas broken English by DBC Pierre en Nine stories by J.D. Salinger.

>321 &322..yeah 350? at the rate we are going? good luck

but seriously..250 is a good number. we do, uh, do the back-and-forth do quite often, so please make allowances >323

i am so guilty of the back-and-forth :) but am not sorry, not a whit>>>

a Weekly Thread? try Daily!!!
LOL LOL

I vote for 250.....................

I vote for making it a weekly thing a la the "What Are You Reading the week of..." threads. That's much more manageable.

These threads are really dangerous for bookaholics! We are going to the Bay Area (actually East Bay--between Sacramento & San Francisco) this weekend and I get to visit a real Barnes & Noble. I'm trying to control my buying but from this list alone I have added two more to try to find: I love Steinbeck and I had never heard of The Short Reign of Pippin IV either. And Salvation on Sand Mountain sounds like it would be really interesting--I lived nearly 25 years in the Deep South and I happen to like snakes (my son had a boa constrictor for a pet) so that one sounds right up my alley--especially since it doesn't treat the people like nut cases.

I am not a snake handler although I used to hold Noah the Boa sometimes--and catch him when he escaped. Why a snake? you ask. Because it's definitely better that a rodent! Absolutely no hamsters in my house! (sorry if I offended anyone--I'm phobic)

I don't care how many post you limit it to--just let me know where to find it!

Just got two books from Bookmooch- The Outlander by Gil Adamson and A Great Deliverance an Inspector Lynley Mystery by Elizabeth George. I have seen the Inspector Lynley TV series on PBS and decided that I wanted to read the books.

Well, right now next to me in bed lies Harry Potter book 2 & a copy of the National Geographic. Must say though I am beginning to change my idea of Harry. Its just starting to grow on me, just a teeny weeny little bit. Hopefully things will improve by book 3.

Operation Blue Light: My Secret Life among Psychic Spies by Philip Chabot

came today, and I am looking forward to reading it.

That box of 20 books from bookcloseouts did not show up today.. whew!
It has my permission , in fact entreaty, to come tomorrow.

The husband will be oh his way to Canada.

finally

In the mail: Who is Conrad Hirst? by Kevin Wignall. This one looks like a lot of fun. Anyone read it?

I just got Adjunct: An Undigest through interlibrary loan. There are only two libraries in the entire state of California that have it listed on OCLC... I've heard more than once that it's something of a beast to get through, in spite of the fact that it is only 75 pgs. Looking through it, I can see why.

I just picked up Edward Trencom's Nose at Borders today, because it caught my eye and I need a book to take up on the train and...you know...it's not like I happen to have tons of books to read that I already own...oh wait. I do. Oh well!

I had bunches of books waiting for me at the post office today --

Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi
The Sagan Diary by John Scalzi
The Last Colony by John Scalzi
The Moneylender of Toulouse by Alan Gordon
The Lark's Lament by Alan Gordon
An Antic Disposition by Alan Gordon
The Widow of Jerusalem by Alan Gordon
A Death in the Venetian Quarter by Alan Gordon
Indigo Dying by Susan Wittig Albert

Received in the mail.The Mists of Avalon inside was a bookmark from Germany, that looks like a liitle German doll. Well, I'm ready for the group read. My book was only $1.99.

>Message 336: cindysprocket: Is there a Reading Group for Mists of Avalon? I don't think I've read that for at least 15 years...

(cough, cough)

I picked up a box and a half at the ongoing Library Book Sale today. My absolute favorite:

Memories of the Home Front:

Celebrating the lives of our heroes, Atria Senior Living Group offers a unique reflection on the lives of the women who were called to action on the home front and supported their families, led their communiteis and strengthened the country.

I purchased this book for .50, and all books for less than $20 total. Just found this book on a book site for $100 & $190! WOW!

***Join our Reading Group for the Poisonwood Bible, starting September 2! See the Group area for more info**

Message edited by its author, Aug 28, 2008, 10:20pm.

I bet we bust 350 before the weekend!

Major blues .... no books in the mail for me today .. I feel lost, I feel forgotten ... and so I went out and bought a National Geographic magazine. ;-)

I am in the midst of a "no books in the mail" drought......bordering on biblio-withdrawal...........maybe even a biblio-emergency!

By the way type in italics?

Yoo hoo...I got two books at the Rockville Centre crack emporium yesterday. I think I mentioned that Auntie gives me a book allowance so I don't go into book withdrawal (knows me well):

The Turquoise—Anya Seton

The Book of J—Harold Bloom, translations by David Rosenberg

Hey vintage, we're going to have a group read of The Mists of Avalon this fall! We've been bandying it about for November. Any votes for moving it to October, say Halloween-tide?

The consensus so far seems to be in favor of a 250-message, then new thread, format for this thread to follow. Let's try that and then, if it becomes a widge unwieldy, we'll try the weekly thread idea mooted by booklady. Sound agreeable to all? BTW booklady, the only reason I feel like a 250-message format is more desirable is that we've had a lot of folks going into previous threads to post their comments even on the thread titled "What You're Reading the Week of x" and I suspect we'd get a lot of the same issues if we went weekly over here.

And folks, hey! The back and forth is the FUN of this place! A mere list of things that one has acquired is useful, perhaps, but unexciting. If we don't talk about what we read and what it makes us think about and what others are reading/buying/acquiring and what they say about the stuff we're talking about, this place would be replaceable by a spreadsheet.

cameling, hemlok...drought-ending mojo shooting your way.

mckait: ***20 books today*whammy*20 books today*whammy*** There. All done. Toodle-oo hubby!

A 20+ year old copy of Here be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman with a romance novel-y cover came to me today from a BMer in NY. Also from New York arrived Lesley Dormen's The Best Place to Be from Ms. Dormen herself, for a blog tour. This book is somewhat later than expected. I'm not quite sure what the post office did with it, as there is no postmark and none of the stamps are canceled, but they did eventually deliver it, so all is well.

nancyewhite: The fact that Salvation on Sand Mountain's written by a former pastor and does NOT treat them as a freakshow is a lot of what appealed to me. I have long been curious about the whole "signs following" movement, but wanted to read it from an objective point of view. Even though it's written first hand from a leader in the movement, I believe it'll be more fair than an "expose'"

In the mai today:
from PBS: Lieutenant Hornblower by C.S. Forester. While it doesn't have a A&E feature tie-in cover (with Ioan Gruffudd drool as Horatio), I know who what my imagination will make HH look like :-D

An ARC of Nation by Terry Pratchett from Harper Collins. It's got an interesting premise; I'm looking forward to reading it.

and a purchase from Walden's (I was a good girl, only bought one book.... and ordered another): The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. I've been wanting to read this book since seing the History Channel's show based on it. The idea that nature is just waiting in the lurch for us to get lazy... or worse... and not take care of the upkeep of our habitats: Our cities, houses and gardens. The movie "I Am Legend" touched on this with the environment Neville was in. As a gardener, I am painfully aware I am locked in a battle of wills over the turf.

#340 richardderus

The "back and forth" is why I have this one starred and keep returning even with 340 posts. I'll try to find you when you move.

Anya Seton! I read one hers years ago ( in a former life) and now can't remember the title or even much of what is was about. But her names brings nice feelings so I know I must have like it. When you read the Turquoise I would love your opinion. Maybe I will go on an Anya Seton "hunt" if you like it.

I'm on my way to my favorite B&N in a few minutes (its about 4 hours from where I live but 20 minutes from a place we come to for "get-aways". Unfortunately, I'm afraid it will become just another "ho-hum" B&N because my "Book guy" who knew the answer to any question I ever asked no longer works there as of the first of this month.

I think the bnlady works for Barnes and Noble? Where is that one? She sounds like she really works at being able to help her customers. I really admire that.

>344,

Unfortunately she works on the opposite coast from you. You just need to get her expertise via LT before going to YOUR B&N!

I too like the back and forth... I'm just not very good at it.

But I really like the idea of being able to talk about books with people. Most of my life I've been a bit of an odd duck with my nose always stuck in a book, and outside of my mother, really having no one to share my passion with.

LT solves that problem. So thanks for that...

oh yeah, received Better Off by Eric Brende and a brick-like package containing a hardback copy of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell from BM. Guy paid $8.50 to send me JM&MN... wow! Many many thanks!

Woo-hoo for back and forth! kcs, I also love having a place to go to 24/7 when I am just bursting with emotion, positive or negative, about something I have read. I have a couple of friends who fulfill that for me, but not 24/7. for some odd reason, they seem to want to sleep!

Eagerly awaiting the mail, hoping richard's mojo did the trick!

Message edited by its author, Aug 29, 2008, 7:33pm.

In the Mail.
Inkspell
The Forest House
From B&N
Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Letters
Stopped a a Bargain Book Store. Had used books and overstock books.Used ran anywhere from a $1.00 to $3.00.in some case a little too much .Overstocks about the same prices as B&N and Borders. It was still fun to look. May find something some day.

Went to the used bookstore after work, and came home with a few new treasures:
Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho
March by Geraldine Brooks
The Master by Colm Toibin

In my defense, I did sell four books, so I came home with fewer than I left the house with.

Got Jester Leaps In by Alan Gordon today.

I stopped by Half Price Books and went a little nuts when I saw they had a 20% off sale for the Labor Day weekend. (Maybe I should not have told you all that.) Most of these I currently have checked out from the library but I know I won't have time to finish them now that school has started. I must stop - I have nowhere to even stuff these in on my bookshelves.

The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
The Locked Room by Paul Auster
The Noodle Maker by Ma Jian
Property by Valerie Martin
The Collector by John Fowles
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

You got The Gargoyle at Half Price Books already? That's an amazing find.

OOOOOOO ~ 20% off sale. Be right back.

No books today: Got a 40% off coupon from Borders, but it was for music. I allowed myself a quick look at the magazines, but made sure not to go near the history/biography section. (It was a little easier for having just started a book today.)

Well, shoot....the closest Half Price book store is about 3 hours away. **sniff**

On a happier note, hubby & I visited B&N tonight and while there, I circled one bargain table about 10 times.....then slowly moved away, struggling not to look back as I walked.....I was trying so hard to be good......but then I spotted hubby, who had a book in his hand. "Are you getting that??" I asked. "Yeah, I thought I might". "Oh.....well.....hmm. There are about three over here at this bargain table that caught my eye.... so..... if You get one, then I should get at least one, if not two..." Back I went to the bargain table and decided, okay, ONE. I left with two. LOL In all fairness, his shouldn't have even counted. It was a word search puzzle book. Heeee!

Titles purchased tonight:

Paint It Black by Janet Fitch
One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson

The rest of my Amazon order. All LT Inspired by the way.

Fiction
Apartment in Athens by Glenway Wescott
The Mystery of the Copper Scroll of Qumran by Robert Feather

Non-Fiction
Before the Dawn by Nicholas Wade
Nine Lords of the Night by E.C. Gibson

I was bad and went back to bookcloseouts.com, and ordered another 10 books, not of the $1.00 variety. My first order has not arrived yet. I wish the site would give you more info. I know my books shipped and that its the slowest way, but where are they shipping from ?

On top of that I had a computer error at the site. I was browsing and got some 'system 4 error' and it gave me a link to notify the system admin. Which I did. Then I went to buy the books I had (didn't include the one that caused the error), and got the error again ! Again I did the email link to notify the admin. This was late last night. This morning nothing from them about the error. Obviously terribly spoiled by this site and the fact that even if you don't get a personal response, you can see the issues are being worked on.

My books still in the cart, but who knows if my card was charged. Called the 800 number during business hours, won't call it a customer service number. Immediately got a voice-mail. Left a message asked about what happened to my card. Was it charged or not ? Left number and email, still no response. I guess I am going to have to wait a few days to see if there were one or two charges from the site.

To add injury to insult, I lost a book that had only 1 copy, when I couldn't process the cart last night. Someone else came along and bought it, when I couldn't.

I hope there aren't anymore problems, because the site seems not to be good at dealing with them.

My book from the UK was last spotted in Illinois as of the 28th. Tomorrow it will be exactly a month since I ordered it. Thank you Alibris ! It boggles the mind, the miles it is accruing. Too bad it didn't come with a frequent traveler account. Only 1000 miles more NH, if it comes direct: Ha, Ha, Ha.
I wonder where it will spend the holiday ?

To drown my sorrows, I went book shopping after work, at B&N and Borders. Whats with both of them having new returns policies ? Was suckered to the door at Borders, and I got a half sheet flyer at B&N. So, once I get them entered everywhere I will list them here, or in the new thread.

I saw all the posts about Book Mooch, and a light bulb went on. I have a good size stack of new books that are duplicates (why I started my own Data Base 7 years ago), and some hardcover that I replaced with paperbacks. I figure I could get rid of them, and use them to get books I want.

Message edited by its author, Aug 29, 2008, 11:53pm.

I had a lovely time at B&N this afternoon. My husband and son dropped me off and went to do the tour of the Jelly Belly factory about 2 miles away. I had almost 3 hours to browse before they returned. I looked at a lot of books and had narrowed it down to only 10 to bring home--I was really trying to be careful (ever since the buying ban has been lifted I've been trying to be more reasonable than I used to be!). Unfortunately my conscience (aka my son) showed up before I paid for them and convinced me to return 5 of them to the shelves. (I don't have a problem about books with my husband as some of you have. I have the opposite problem--he's an enabler and encourages me to go over my limit.) So I returned the 5 novels I had chosen because I won't get to reading them until at least after The Poisenwood Bible group read and that will give me something to look forward to when we come up here next month--without our son. :-)

So here's the diminished haul:

I was picking up a copy of Truman for a friend (who saw the one I got last time I was here and asked me to get her one) and this time it was on a 3 for 2 table so I had to find two for me--I can't pass up a bargain.

I found The Final Solution by Michael Chabon. I have been wanting to try this author, so even though I know nothing about this book except that it is a "story of detection" and is quite short it will let me see if i like his writing style. (It's the freebie because it's the cheapest.) I couldn't find anything else on that table that really appealed to me except a book I had read years ago, loved and had to leave behind when we moved from Savannah to California: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks. I've read some of his others but this one is my favorite and I will enjoy reading it again.

I had planned to buy a new (for me) Mary Oliver on this trip because the B&N in Fresno never has any. This B&N had so many this time I had a hard time limiting myself to just two: What Do We Know and Red Bird, her newest and I believe the one after Why I Wake Early which is one of my favorite book of poems by anyone. I love to look at nature--Mary Oliver teaches me how to "see."

The fifth book is an impulse buy. I've mentioned (about 100 times!) how much I love "books about books" and lit. crit. is right next to poetry at this store. An intriguing title caught my eye: How to Read Novels Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster. I picked it up just to browse through. After I had made all my selections I found a seat to look through them and make my buying choices. I saved this one til last because I was just killing time with it waiting for my family. I read the preface and in the first paragraph found this: "The novels we read allow us to encounter possible persons, versions of ourselves that we would never see, never permit ourselves to become, in places we can never go and might not care to, while assuring that we get to return home again. At the same time, the novel holds out its own possibilities, narrative miracles, and tricks that are rewards in themselves, seductions for unsuspecting and even canny readers." It only got better. Then the Introduction gave a brief and enlightening "history" of the novel form. By the time my family arrived this one was a definite keeper!

I probably won't get to a book store again until we come up here next month (at home the nearest one is 40 miles away) but I do have an order from Amazon that should come next week.

(Edited for typos)

Message edited by its author, Aug 30, 2008, 12:05am.

#357 ~ MusicMom41.....I LOVED the quote you shared about novels from How To Read Novels Like a Professor. I'm going to have to look for that book! I've always loved novels the best. I have some chronic health issues and a good novel can give me a brief, yet welcome respite from all my woes....they can transport me, at least for a little while, outside of myself and give me a much needed break.

#356 ~ FicusFan....I, too, got the notice from B&N about their new return policy tonight when we were there.

Sorry to hear about your troubles at bookcloseouts.com. I hope you hear from someone there soon, or at least find out for sure if your card has been charged or not.

I found my receipt from my second batch of books I ordered from them and they were actually shipped to me from Ontario, Canada. I will need to search the house for the first receipt.....am curious now to see if they were also shipped from there. I have a third batch on it's way....will let you know what the shipping place of origin is when I receive it.

I know, it seems to take forever for your order to arrive.... but will be worth it when that big box of brand new books is in your arms!!

I came back from visiting my sister-in-law and she gave me her hard copy of The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie which she loved and told me I should read it. I've never read anything by Rushdie yet, though I've always meant to. Now, the time I guess.

Porchy~ you have to come visit me someday... I will take you to our half price books and make you copious pots of Irish tea! ( with crumpets and pie)

Nothing for me yesterday. I too, am now waiting for books from bookcloseouts. As of yesterday I am free to receive them.... lol. Hope they come soon , now.

I also placed a third order, but that was gifts for christmas.

Like MusicMom41 I love books about books and I got three in the post today!

All LT inspired:

Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
More Book Lust by Nancy Pearl (Book Lust is on its way, too!)
Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature by Gene Edward Veith. Chapter One is on The Importance of Reading. I second that!
I also recieved today The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver ready for the group read starting on Monday.

***Join our Reading Group for the Poisonwood Bible, starting September 2! See the Group area for more info***

-TT

Just found at the Recycling Centre:

The Laughing Cavalier by Baroness Orczy A Story of the Ancestor of the Scarlet Pimpernel. As I have six books by Baroness Orczy in my library this is a welcome addition, as it sounds like a fun read. It purports to be the true story of Sir Percy Blakeney's ancestor, The Laughing Cavalier who had his portrait painted in 1624 by Frans Hal. I had never heard of this story before now.

-TT

Edited for typo

Message edited by its author, Aug 30, 2008, 9:36am.

Nothin'. I got nothin'. *snivel* AND I have a house full of guests cominig for Labor Day to be near the beach. At least they'll only expect dinner and drinks. That I can do in my sleep.

See y'all Tuesday before my JOB INTERVIEW!!!

The Legend of Fire Horse Woman by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston

Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole by Jerri Nielsen

Looking for Carroll Beckwith: The True Story of a Detective's Search for His Past ... by Robert L. Snow

Kindred Souls by Edna P. Gurewitsch

Auriel Rising by Elizabeth Redfern
The Light of the Falling Stars by J. Robert Lennon

A Hole in the Heart: A Novel by Christopher Marquis

Little People: Learning to See the World Through My Daughter's Eyes by Dan Kennedy

Make Believe: A Novel by Joanna Scott

Her Daughter's Eyes by Jessica Barksdale Inclan

Blue Ridge by T. R. Pearson

After Life by Rhian Ellis

Inamorata by Joseph Gangemi

Boo by Rene Gutteridge

A Treasury of Carolina Tales: Unusual, Interesting, and Little-Known Stories of North Carolina and South Carolina... by Webb Garrison

If I Never Get Back by Darryl Brock

The Merlin of St. Gilles' Well by Ann Chamberlin

The Dharma King: The Thrilling Novel of One Man's Quest to Save Tibet--and Himself ... by B.G. Stroh

Maybe the Moon: A Novel by Armistead Maupin

From a variety of sources..
an author
a mooch
and mostly bookcloseoutes.com

Message edited by its author, Aug 30, 2008, 11:28am.

Made a quick sortie to the local Charity shop and picked up the following:

1001 Books:
Schindler’s List (Ark) by Thomas Keneally Priced at £5.99 ($11.00). Cost 60p.
Because I thought the movie was so moving.
The Reader by Bernard Schlink Priced at £5.99. Cost 75p.
Because its on the list and I have heard that it is a worthwhile read.
Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes Priced at £6.99 ($13.00). Cost 70p
Because I like Flaubert’s Madame Bovary and have enjoyed other books by Julien Barnes and because when I wrote to him he sent me a hand-written reply!
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell Priced at either £1 or £1.99 as it is a Penguin Popular Classic. Cost 95p. Because it was there and said “Please, take me, too!”

Others:
The Patience Strong Omnibus) by Patience Strong Priced at £5.99. Cost 60p
Because I like her simple and uncomplicated but profound and moving verse.
A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar. Priced at £8.99. ($16.50). Cost 90p.
Because I loved the movie.
Journey to the Hebrides by Samuel Johnson and James Boswell. Priced at £6.99. Cost 70p
Bought mainly for Johnson’s A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland to replace the one I had to leave behind in South Africa along with the rest of my Johnson and Boswell collection.
The Captive of Kensington Palace by Jean Plaidy. Priced at £1.25. (Published in 1980). Cost 50p.
Because I am collecting Jean Plaidy and I don’t have any of her books in the Victoria Saga series, of which this is the second.

So the total price is £43.19. Cost £5.70. The eight books cost about the price of a bottle of wine or less than the price of a single paperback.

So today I have added a total of 13 books to my collection. I promise I won’t buy anymore books ever again – today!

-TT

So I went to the Half Price Books 20% off sale looking for three specific books: We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed with Our Families, Escape, and Shattered Dreams. I was also hoping that maybe they would have The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead, and Unaccustomed Earth.

Out of all of those they only had The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, but I found some other books to console me. In addition to Guernsey I got...
They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky by Benson Deng
Bonk by Mary Roach
Stiff by Mary Roach
The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir
Four Queens by Nancy Goldstone

#362 ~ mckait......I would love to come have tea and crumpets with you someday! I would also love to come see where you put all your books!! :o)

As of last night, the set of book shelves that I found at the storage unit and brought home a couple weeks ago is now FULL. Now, I once again have no more room for new books......probably won't stop me, though. HA!

#363 TheTortoise

Ex Libris is one of my favorite books--it's like sharing with a friend. That's one book in which I have lots of marginalia because I would write my "replies" to her in the book. I also read huge chunks of it aloud to Hubby. I hope you enjoy it!

I know about the Nancy Pearl books but have never seen them. Besides lists of suggestions, do they give reviews? Are they just about current books?

I would love to know how you like Reading Between the Lines. I've never heard of it and I would love to find out about it. I is new? I will probably research that one.

See you next week in the Congo (Poisenwood Bible read)

these books came in yesterday & today:

Speaks the Nightbird Volume II:Evil Unveiled by Robert McCammon
Rebel Angels by Libba Bray (i have the first volume of the trilogy on order)
The Houdini Girl by Martyn Bedford
A Burning in Homeland by Richard Yancey
The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer
The Geographer's Library by Jon Fasman

and 2 Book Mooches
The Poisonwood Bibleby Barbara Kingsolver
Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles

>366 mckait
you might want to check out Music of the Spheres by Redfern...it's wicked good..."debauchery, murder, and astronomy"..oh my!
i read Inamorata too...seem to recall it's rather creepy as well

i have checked out the bookcloseouts.com website..and somewhere there they say they are based in Canada..i can't buy from them because i don't have a credit card(don't want one either)..if i did i would be homeless after a very short while :)) **

visited a charming little used-book store in Sikeston Missouri called the Book Bug. Took 8 unwanted paperbacks into the store... came out with 6. Cost me $0.86 and I still have ~$4 in store credit.

The Best American Mystery Stories 2007 ed. by Carl Hiassan; Queen of the South by Arturo Perez-Reverte; The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maughm (thanks to Richard for this suggestion, I've read Maughm before but it's been years); and three by Arthur Clarke...Against the fall of Night, Imperial Earth, and The Songs of Distant Earth.

Not to mention my library stop to gather The Poisonwood Bible, The Mists of Avalon, and the first installment of my fall project Civil War: Fort Sumter to Perryville by Shelby Foote.

gotta go... some reading to do

Message edited by its author, Aug 30, 2008, 2:55pm.

I got two ARCs in the mail today:

Shadow of Colossus by T. L. Higley and My Father's Paradise by Ariel Sabar

These I can blame on LT. I didn't even know there was a book store in Del Mar until I looked at my LT "local" tag and discovered The Book Works, a lovely independent book store. Well, of course, I was forced to check it out. It was well worth the 20 mile round trip. I came away with:

The Other by David Guterson
The Assassin's Song by M. G. Vassanji
We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee

I also ordered two books, but I'll list those when they arrive.

Message edited by its author, Aug 30, 2008, 4:18pm.

# 360 Porchsitter
I found my receipt from my second batch of books I ordered from them and they were actually shipped to me from Ontario, Canada. I will need to search the house for the first receipt.....am curious now to see if they were also shipped from there. I have a third batch on it's way....will let you know what the shipping place of origin is when I receive it.

I know, it seems to take forever for your order to arrive.... but will be worth it when that big box of brand new books is in your arms!!

Thanks. The web site said something about a store in Canada (Toronto maybe), and the accent on the voice mail sounded Canadian.

I just like to click on a tracking link and see the progress - of course I don't want to pay for the link (Fed-Ex, UPS).

I sent out 3 Book Mooches today. I thought it would be a slow process, but I put up 11 books and have 5 requests. Of course I wasn't prepared to ship, no supplies. So I scurried to Staples this AM to get stuff and pack the books and get to the PO before it closed.

So I am in Staples parking lot with boxes, padded bags, tape, bubble-wrap address labels, scissors and pens trying to get everything wrapped, in the bag, and copy the address from the packing list to the labels, all on the trunk of my very small car,in a stiff wind. LOL. Trying to keep everything including my trash from blowing away. I am sure it looked a sight.

I didn't have time to take the stuff home and pack it there and then go to the PO before it closed.

Message edited by its author, Aug 30, 2008, 4:47pm.

porchy

Its a date then. Someday we will meet!

Have you ever had coconut rum?

I have a theory about the bookcase problem. If you leave books alone for too long, they sometimes clone themselves, and the clones wander to different bookcases and hide.

This also explains the multiple copies of things like The Photograph .

Jude... I like creepy now and then. :)

I am determined to stop buying books until I read a few of these. I have been sidetracked by two ARCs right now .... but I will read my TBR mountain(s). I will I will I will!

My drought continues.....picture stout, disheveled, 50 year old woman, sitting crosslegged at end of driveway, open mailbox door swinging in the breeze, tears are falling, wailing can be heard, "Why not me? Why not me?"

oh no! would you like me to send you something?

What would you like?

woman at end of driveway suddenly becomes alert......No, such a generous offer, but it would feel like cheating. woman will try to be less melodramatic about it and be more patient! Thanks mckait!

Message edited by its author, Aug 30, 2008, 5:51pm.

richard--good luck on the JOB INTERVIEW! I hope it goes well for you.

hemlokgang--I'm sorry for your drought--may it rain books on your very very soon!

Have a safe and Happy Labor Day everyone! Happy Reading.

Message edited by its author, Aug 30, 2008, 5:53pm.

>376
i did not mean Creepy=Gross..Inamoratadeals with the whole Spiritism thing in the early 20th century..table tapping, mediums and such..that is an intriguing and, well, slightly creepy subject. i would never recommend anything truly Gross to you. you are my friend

oh..coconut rum??no, but strawberry/rum daiquiris are definitely paralytic after the third one:)

>377 if the drought continues..check out my Profile page..a link is there to Book Mooch..nothing exciting..but desperate times ...one can't be too picky, no?

:))

no... I didn't think you meant gross.. I did think you mean creepy creepy.

no strawberry for me thanks..

but coconut... yummy!

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
The Food and Cooking of Finland by Anja Hill
The Food and Cooking of Sweden by Anna Mosesson
Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics by bell hooks
Goddesses in Older Women: Archetypes in Women Over Fifty by Jean Shinoda Bolen

MMMmmmmMMM! Rum in any flavor sounds divine! I'm easy to please! LOL

Yes, mckait, I bet that is what is happening during the wee hours....my books are secretly cloning themselves during my slumber, and since I don't examine the books closely unless it's time to choose a new one to read, I never notice it.....! Sneaky little devils, they are.

Morton's Steakhouse is near one end of the shopping center. The Macy's hair salon is at the other end. Barny Noble has a place in between. The shopping center is in town; my house is not -- I like to get as much out of one trip as I can. Traffic between here and there is unpredictable.

A friend and I decided to have dinner at Morton's. I made an appointment to get my hairs (on my head) cut. I left home early in order to be sure to make my appointment, knowing I could entertain myself if I arrived early.

I did not entertain myself solely at Barny Noble's, but:

The Savvy Convert's Guide to Choosing a Religion; the cover says that it is "most approved by God."

I also got a copy of Trains magazine and a half dozen titles for my wishlist.

I had a tuna in sesame crust entree and a 48 ounce porterhouse main course that demonstrated God's good will to me.

Robert

In the mail;
The Tenth Gift Jane Johnson Also had a nice inset with a profile about the author with pictures of her husband and herself in a Berber wedding crown.She is a publishing director for HarperFiction at HarperCollins.She met her husband in Morocco. They have an intersting story to tell.

musicmom & DoB: thanks for the love! I'm sorry to hear your favorite B & N guy left, but you can probably find a new one...or as DoB suggested, feel free to use my expertise here :)

DoB: enjoy your time with Mary Roach & the Guernsey book....all wonderful!

I'm in Kansas City for a wedding this weekend, so I don't know what I've gotten, but I think a few things are on the way.

Message edited by its author, Aug 30, 2008, 9:24pm.

# 365 richardderus

Good luck on Tuesday with your job interview.

BTW I liked what you said about Salvation on Sand Mountain. I've put it on my 'to buy' list. I love trying to learn to understand people with whom I have nothing in common--it broadens my perspective.

#381> That's the problem....I am awaiting several mooched books!

#313>hemlogang
and #314>MusicMom41

I just finished Ex Libris and will join you both in your admiration for this book. What a lovely reading experience! I'm sending a copy to my best friend from my college days who has a birthday next week.

#363>TheTortoise I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did. It's definitely on my "to be read again" list.

Message edited by its author, Aug 31, 2008, 12:09am.

Yesterday from BookMooch I received The Serpent Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt and Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey.

>370 Nancy Pearl, rather than just book lists, writes mini essays based on a theme. Lters rave about her, so I couldn’t resist buying her books. If you check out Amazon.com you can look inside and see the contents and a couple of the essays.

Reading between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature was published in 1990. The author is Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and Associate Professor of English at Concordia University-Wisconsin.

>370 and >390. Your enthusiasm for Ex Libris has made me pick up the book, and will actually start reading it!

-TT

Message edited by its author, Aug 31, 2008, 10:42am.

Ooh, big book binge lately.

Yesterday, I acquired:
Northanger Abbey, which I picked up at the library's $1 cart.
Boquitas Pintadas by Manuel Puig from bookmooch.

And some trips to the local used book stores today turned up a bounty:
Perdido Street Station
Trujillo
Pet Food Nation
The Mysteries of Udolpho
The I Ching for Writers

I envy you The Mysteries of Udolpho! I'm dying to find that one. When you read it I'd love to hear what you think about it.

#393, #394 re: Mysteries of Udolpho--Ditto!