A promise I probably won't keep...

I literally have a library in my house. Probably around 2/3 of the books have not yet been read. So I plan to start working on that. This weekend I pulled two books off the shelf, and started and finished one last night. Except there are a couple of authors that I simply MUST get their newest title. And I volunteer weekly at the public library, and they always have new books on display. Oh, and an indy bookstore just opened less than 10 minutes away, so I gotta support small local business, right? Oh, who am I kidding?

>1 theretiredlibrarian: You sound like me (except for the bit about volunteering).

Happy new thread, and welcome back!

>1 theretiredlibrarian: 🤣

>1 theretiredlibrarian: I try to work on my TBR pile, but like you, there's always a new and different book catching my eye.

>1 theretiredlibrarian: 💪😆

Happy New Thread!

>1 theretiredlibrarian: I consider it to be a civic duty to support any near-by indie bookstores. (Actually, any brick-and-mortar book stores.) So you keep right on supporting local business. And you continue to volunteer at your library. They need you.

Happy new thread!

>1 theretiredlibrarian:
Happy New Thread and Happy Reading.

Tsundoku is a sacred practice and using it to support a local independent bookshop is very charitable thing to do.

>1 theretiredlibrarian: Happy New thread!

"I literally have a library in my house." You say this like it's a bad thing. ;)

Of course, it's fun to roam through the titles and discover all those gems. And even pull out a few and read them!

This activity has nothing to do with snatching up the new titles at the public library or supporting your local bookstore. That's near to being a sacred duty!

Enjoy that library of yours! :)

Happy new thread! Living in one's own library is the best thing ever!

But a new book would keep all the other ones waiting to be read company, right?

>10 catzteach: You do know the books don't like it when we anthropomorphize them, right?   ;-)

>11 ScoLgo: :)

>1 theretiredlibrarian: I hear you! Once upon a time, I had a used bookstore. I still have boxes of books from that time even though they've been culled down a few times. My dream is a room lined with shelves to give them a home instead of a box in a storage unit.

My kindle needs replacing, and is on order. It was late; the public library was closed. So last night I checked my library shelves looking for something not too deep. Passed over Go Set a Watchman; Refugee; a couple of Margaret Atwood, some history books...and behind my husband's guitar and stand found a collection of Mary Stewart that I bought in a lot several years ago and promptly forgot. Currently halfway through Wildfire at Midnight. It's specifically set in 1953, Queen Elizabeth's coronation is mentioned a couple of times. The protagonist is a divorcee, which I have to think was pretty unusual for when it was published (1956). A divorcee stranded with a hotel full of suspects in a recent murder (including her ex-husband),along with nice descriptions of Skye make it a good read.

It's been ages since I read anything by Mary Stewart, but I will be interested in hearing your final assessment of Wildfire at Midnight. I imagine it's more suspense than it is a typical puzzle mystery?

>15 jillmwo: I enjoyed it when I read it a while back (can't remember when!). It's a bit of a period piece now - the upper middle class heroine being expected to marry... Having said that, even when I grew up 20 years later, it was still expected nice girls didn't have careers; they supported their husband in his career.

>15 jillmwo: I read a tranche of them a few years back, and they've mostly aged pretty well.

Wildfire at Midnight held up pretty good. I think I'll look at my collection again and pull another one out.

My new kindle finally arrived, but I'm saving new downloads for my upcoming vacation. Looked among the books in my library and found Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray, which is an ARC I probably got at the last Texas Library Association convention I went to. Last week I read Daughters of England by Philippa Carr who is also Victoria Holt. And last night I found a paperback copy of Anansi Boys. Two chapters in, and I'm wondering why it took so long to pick it up. I've ready several other books by Neil Gaiman and like them a lot.

My kindle has lots of pop up ads making it very hard to read.

P.S. Claudia Gray is one of my favorite authors.

I got the Paperwhite. I sure hope ads aren't part of it. That's annoying. And another reason for paper books...tbh, I go back and forth between the kindle (and sometime read on my phone), and paper books. I always take the kindle when on vacation because it saves room in the luggage.

>21 theretiredlibrarian: When I bought my 1st generation Paperwhite, (over 10 years ago!), Amazon offered it in two versions, one with ads and another more expensive option that was ad-free. I opted to pay a little extra up front and have always been glad of it. I despise advertising in any medium but having it in the midst of reading...? No, thanks!

>22 ScoLgo: All of my Kindles have been the ad-free versions. I pay extra for ad-free streaming music, because I also cannot abide the intrusion. (I was under the impression that you could opt in after you purchased the Kindle with ads to have them removed.)

>21 theretiredlibrarian: and >22 ScoLgo: Yes, the extra payment to go ad-free on a Kindle ereader is relatively small and worth it. However, my husband has ads on his Fire tablet and says he doesn't notice them at all. (In the actual Kindle app on that tablet, he doesn't see ads at all. The ads are just on the "waking-up" page.

I have never seen ads on my kindle. It does not appear to be a thing here.

>1 theretiredlibrarian: What's the promise?

>26 Meredy: I believe it was inferred that the promise was to read all of the unread books already in the house, and to not acquire more. As if!