September Splurges

I just can't stop buying books, nevermind that I don't have any more bookcase to fill.

Moonsilver by Kathleen Duey because it's a book about a unicorn, a childrens book.
The portable Milton Must read Paradise Lost!
Stormwarden my first Wurts
Sea Lord Cornwell
Conventions of War Walter Jon Williams
1610: A sundial in a grave Gentle
A Sourcerer's Treason and Camelot's Honour by Zettel
Galactic North, The Prefect and House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds.

6 of them are full sized hardbacks and 2 more are paperback as big as a full sized hardback and I really, really don't have the space for them, I can squeeze more paperbacks in but not hardbacks, between the charity shop and the library sale though...

Really really need some more shelves.

* shakes head sadly* More shelves won't you you, you know. They just won't. You get more shelves, and you fill them with the books you have stacked here and there.. and you give a book to the neighbor and feel all good about it, and then you just go out and buy more books until ...

You get more shelves, and you fill them with the books you have stacked here and there.. and you give a book to the neighbor and feel all good about it, and then you just go out and buy more books until ...

You get more shelves, and you fill them with the books you have stacked here and there.. and you give a book to the neighbor and feel all good about it, and then you just go out and buy more books until ...

well, I don't work for Amazon, and I am not a shill, but

until you buy a Kindle (or some other electronic reader)

It was my brothers birthday so these are the books I bought him.

Magyk, Flyte and Physik the first 3 Septimus Heap books by Angie Sage and Sabriel, Abhorsen and Across the Wall by Garth Nix, no Lirael because they didn't have it, but it was 3 for 2. I would have gotten the Bartemius Trilogy too but they only had the third book.

They are going in my catalogue because I will read them too - yes i bought them for him so I could read them, but the choices were based on reccomendations for the books he already has.

I have recently joined BookMooch and have identified about 100 books that can go..... of course I've already mooched 19 and have also bought a few here and there.

I'm slowly putting the books on BookMooch so I'm not overwhelmed. As I get new books, I'm finding it easy to release some of the old ones.

If the idea of getting rid of any books makes you twitch, I recommend a 12-step program.

I came home with Survival today, and tomorrow I'm going to pick up my copy of Anathem from the shop were it lie waiting for me.
What I didn't know was that I could had done that today - the email notification was there waiting for me when I came home AFTER having been to the shop!

If I had only known, but the official release date is set at September 9th, so I wasn't expecting it yet...

I just bought World War Z on my Kindle. Wooo Hoooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

SFBC was running one of their better sales and I, despite my (not so) best efforts, ended up ordering:
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
Saturn's Children by Charles Stross
Preying for Mercy by Patricia Briggs

In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden

The Extra Large Medium by Helen Slavin

Middlemarch by George Eliot

From mooch and used Amazon

Atlantis in America: Navigators of the Ancient World by Ivar Zapp

from a sweet friend I found here on LT

it looks interesting...

BookMooch has been good to me lately. Eight things off my wishlist have come available. Today's mail brought two of them: Nymph by Francesca Lia Block and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.

I went to the bookstall at the uni market. I came away with Contact, and That Hideous Strength and Voyage to Venus. Perhaps it's a little odd to be buying Carl Sagan and CS Lewis in the same transaction, but well, they're both interesting in their own way.

A Charmed Life: Growing Up in Macbeth's Castle by Liza Campbell

The Smallest Color by Bill Roorbach

Spellfall by Katherine Roberts

Still Life with Chickens: Starting Over in a House by the Sea by Catherine Goldhammer

Sister India by Peggy Payne

Further Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

Michael Tolliver Lives by Armistead Maupin

Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies by Laura Esquival

The Sister by Poppy Adams

Most from the 1$ sale at Bookcloseouts.

A visit with my daughter led to going to wonderful used bookstores in their town which led to:

a beautiful hardcover replacement for my beat-up paperback of The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay,

a good-as-new hardcover edition of Consolation by Michael Redhill which I've been wanting to read for ages (and was half the price of the paperback now out in bookstores),

Charity Girl by Georgette Heyer, 'cause I've never read anything of hers and heard her mentioned time and again here so thought she'd be good for a light read some time,

The Child From the Sea by Elizabeth Goudge, one of the historical romances from my teenage years that I want to reread,

and a gorgeous edition of The Selfish Giant and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde, illustrated by Charles Robinson which is just a treasure.

It was a pleasant day.

I went to Borders on my birthday on Thursday, but only came out with one book, Armed and Magical by Lisa Shearin. I read Magic Lost, Trouble Found last year and enjoyed it so it was a good one to pick up.

#13 katylit

I love Oscar Wilde--I have his complete Short Stories illustrated--different illustrator. Does your edition have The Canterville Ghost? It's one of my favorites.

Charity Girl is fun and cute--I enjoy it but there are others I like better. If you find you like Heyer I'd be glad to recommend a couple of others you might like. She is one of my favorite "comfort" authors--to read when stressed or depressed!
After I finished Of Mice and Men last month I read Black Sheep to "dry my tears."

The Forest of Uruvela by Osamu Tezuka arrived in the mail yesterday. Horray for the Buddha series! These are some of the best books I've read in the past couple of years, and I'm thrilled to be getting personal copies.

Black Trillium
Dark Dance
Deryni Rising
and Best Science Fiction Stories of the year fourth annual collection
From the bookshop in the mill again

#15, Thanks MusicMom, I would really appreciate any Heyer recommendations. I just saw Charity Girl at the used book store for the amazing price of $2, so didn't have anything (much) to lose. Our winters here are long, dark, rainy and gloomy, so I thought a nice, light, fun read would be good for a winter's read :-)

I too love Oscar Wilde. This book contains The Happy Prince, The Nightingale and the Rose, The Selfish Giant (my personal favourite), The Devoted Friend, and The Remarkable Rocket. I have another little book (unfortunately not illustrated) that has the Canterville Ghost in it. It's wonderful too isn't it, such sacrilege when the Mr. Otis uses Pinkerton's Champion Stain Remover and Paragon Detergent on the age-old bloodstain? I love that part :-)

#18 - The bloodstain part reminds me of my MIL. Haunted houses wouldn't have a chance with her. :)

LOL @ MrsLee

LOL! I must confess MrsLee, I'd probably try and scrub it out too ;-)

For shame! You probably take down the cobwebs too? ;)

My (well, not my, but my local) comic book store had a sale on saturday, so I got more up to date with the Astonishing X-men trades (Dangerous and Torn), and Buffy Omnibuses (there's no good plural for omnibus - it already is!) - Buffy omnibus 4. And we stopped at the second hand store in Holbrook on the way back from Albury on friday, with Candide, Inferno, They Fly at Ciron and something else I can't remember all found their way into my possession. I also picked up Conrad's Fate from the Border's booksale yesterday.

I've been a bad, bad, boy. I have to go to your room.

23>

Stay away from mine, it's messy and there's embarrassing collectables in there.

As for my purchases, I got How to Draw Manga: Female Characters and a sketchpad. The checkout girl rolled her eyes at me and started talking to her assistant behind my back as I was leaving. She wasn't usual staff.

Let's just say the How To Draw Manga series has a reputation for being... how shall we say this... comprehensive and detailed... when it comes to addressing everything you could possibly want to draw. If this book was racy I'd hate to see How to Draw Manga Bishonen Characters...

#23 WillSteed: Book-buying-wise you may be a bad boy, but I officially excuse you from going to your room for knowing that omnibus is already plural - the Latin teacher in me is so proud of you! :)

oh, scaifea, you have to practice being a little bit more strict now that Charlie will be here soon. No more forgiving someone just because they know their Latin -

maggie1944: LOL!! Point taken!

An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England: A Novel by Brock Clarke

Grange House: A Novel by Sarah Blake

Savannah's Little Crooked Houses: If These Walls Could Talk by Susan B. Johnson

What Vets Don't Tell You About Vaccines by Catherine O'Driscoll

all came into my house today...

I just bought for my Kindle Flat, Hot, and Crowded, Change We Can Believe In, and Anathem. And the airplane flight to Paris is only 9.5 hours. How will I do it?

Latest additions to my library, courtesy of throwing some money at a river in Latin America:

The Essential Groucho edited by Stefan Kanter
Hothouse by Brian Aldiss
Exit Ghost by Philip Roth
Tokyo Year Zero by David Peace
Batting on the Bosphorus by Angus Bell
Kennedy's Brain by Henning Mankell
The Book of Other People edited by Zadie Smith

Maggie, I know you're already on your way by now, but Anathem is close to 900 pages and his writing style can be kind of elaborate so I guess that one will last a while.
I know I wouldn't manage to read it in 9 hours flat!

Well, I wasn't going to buy any books in September, but I did! I got:
The Odyssey by Homer
Edith Wharton: Selected Poems by, you guessed it, Edith Wharton
Liebling: World War Two Writings by A. J. Liebling
The Complete Maus by Art Spiegleman
Shadow & Claw: The First Half of the Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
Sword & Citadel: The Second Half of the Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
The Magic Lands by Mark Hockley
Kristin Lavansdatter by Sigrid Undset

and it's not even halfway through September yet! Oh, well, I will do better next month!
--BJ

So, despite the fact that yesterday I had $4 in my bank account, I got paid today which obviously means I can splurge on books (who needs to pay the rent anyway!). Cheap editions of books will be the death of me...I walked into Dymocks and 3 minutes later walked out with 3 of the new Penguin Popular Classics which have the old-school orange and white covers. They were only $10 each! (Which is cheap by Australian standards) I now possess: Breakfast At Tiffany's by Truman Capote, Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer and Crimes Against Humanity by Geoffrey Robertson, which I can at least justify to myself on the basis of its relevance to my study (never mind that it is specifically relevant to a course I have already finished...)

Also, my copy of Good Omens from betterworldbooks finally arrived, so I suspect that will be my weekend fluff read (a Terry Pratchett book I haven't read? There are so few now...maybe I should savour the experience. Fortunately, I still have heaps of Neil Gaiman to read)

mckait let me know how you go with An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England it got a really good write up in out local paper, but me, money and it have not been in the same spatial location

I did buy Transported: Short Stories by Tim Jones which does give me the double wammy of both a New Zealand Author and a librarything author - possibly even a GD author.

A quiet month on the book front! I have done my essay so can come in here and catch up before I have to go away and start the next one - who thought study would be a good idea?

I have a copy of Good Omens signed by both authors. How I did it? I went to both of their book talks in Australia deliberately.

Spicy, will do..

got very little read yesterday, as I went out with my sister for dinner.
So far looks pretty good though. :)

#36 mckait

Glad you have your priorities straight--family before books. Unless of course it is a real page turner and you only have 50 pages to go! ;-) (Just ask my family.)

LOL @ music mom :D

Did not like the book btw

:P

moving on today, I think to Midwife of the Blue Ridge, but not sure...

Back to school night.
Last night
Book fair.

I said that I would not get caught up into the hype of the Twilight series because..well, I am not a vampire fan. But they were all over last night. So, after I closed my little table advertising my teen club, I went to the book fair. (2nd time this week)
They were sold out of Twilight. Go figure. So, instead, I got Look for me by Moonlight, Double Identity, and The Alchemyst.

I got a copy of Stalking Darkness by Lynn Flewelling in yesterday's mail. Otherwise, I've been really good about adding to the TBR list.

I finally got my folio package with:

Epics of the Middle Ages
Borges Labyrinths
The Folio Book of Days
and Faust

We also had back to school night last night with a book fair. I could not go to the book fair, because I had to go to a meeting about GradFest, so I sent money with my daughter to school today and asked her to buy me a book! I gave her some extra money because she always finds books she wants to read, too.
--BJ

#34: I sure am, SpicyCat - a New Zealand author, an LT author, and for the last month or so a GD author. Those pesky touchstones for Transported seem to be playing up again - I am going to try:

Transported

That seems to work ...

As for book buying, I have made a firm resolution that I am going to stop, having spent money on books that should be going into the hungry maw of the tax department. My latest purchases are four recent New Zealand poetry releases:

AUP new poets three
My Iron Spine
Moonshot
Paneta Street

and I have two books on order which will have to be paid for:

Tiny Deaths
Dark Shadows of Yesterday - it looks like I will be the first to load this one!

And then that's it. No more till Xmas. Promise.

Back to Barbary Lane: The Final Tales of the City Omnibus by Armistead Maupin

Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason by Nancy Pearl

Heart in the Right Place: A Memoir by Carolyn Jourdan

# 43 Tim Jones

Is that a pledge? or a "pie crust promise"--easily made easily broken. ;-)

The book Transported--is is available in the USA? I read the review on LT and it sounded interesting, but it isn't on Amazon so I wondered where I could find it?

#45 - it's at least as solid as any politician's promise! (There are election campaigns running in both NZ and the US at present, so political promises are flying around...)

Transported isn't available from a US retailer, but it is available worldwide from New Zealand Books Abroad, via this link:

http://www.nzbooksabroad.com/shopdetail.php?%20a=9781869419844

I would make sure to choose the cheapest postage rate, though.

Thanks for your interest!

Regards
Tim

Damn those Penguin Popular Classics! We finally decided to get them in at work, so now I have 2 more...with 5 more on order! Sigh. This time I justified it because they were cheap versions of some books from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list which I am currently tackling, plus I figure reading books is like professional development for me...I wonder if I could claim my book expenses on my tax return...

Anyway, I returned home with: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess and A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh.

*sigh* The Folio Edition of the Canterbury Tales

#13 katylit - my favorite Georgette Heyers are These Old Shades, The Devil's Cub, Lady of Quality, The Talisman Ring..... but I really like all her Regency Romances. I'm working my way through her mysteries - they're Agatha Christie-ish and enjoyable but not outstanding.

#15 MusicMom41 - Heyer is one of my favorite authors of all time! I have many ratty copies from high school of her books - I'm slowly replacing with newer editions.

#28 mckait - I want Arsonist's Guide... you'll have to tell me whether you liked it or not.

After leaving work early yesterday to open a money market savings for the Band Boosters (I'm treasurer), I rewarded myself by getting to the Thrift Store 15 minutes before they close and for $4 came away with:

A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diane Gabaldon - hardback, perfect condition!!!
The Doorbell Rang by Rex Stout – hardback – The Best Mysteries of All Time series
The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber – hardback, perfect condition!!!

Two paperbacks: The Babes in the Wood by Ruth Rendell and The Zero Game by Brad Meltzer

Plus I bought Independent People by Halldor Laxness at B&N on Saturday.

>40 xicanti: I love the Nightrunner books :-)

Thanks karenmarie, I've made a note in my wishlist book. Heyers books don't seem to come up very often in the used bookstores - people must hold on to them, which is telling. But I'll keep a lookout for them.

I went back to our local used bookstore and got two more of the Agatha Christie set they have there: At Bertram's Hotel combined with A Caribbean Mystery and Curtain combined with Sleeping Murder. I think I'm the only one in town buying them, which is good. Hopefully I'll be able to get the whole set :-) There's obviously one or two books missing, as The Murder of Roger Ackroyd isn't there, nor Murder on the Orient Express - some of her better known books.

The store had a magnificent annotated edition of The Hobbit that was notably drool-worthy, but I resisted *sigh* Our car needs new shocks, which I guess is important, at least my husband thinks so.

Well, I thought I hadn't bought any books in September, but then I remembered my impulsiveness on Amazon last night when I ordered The Name of the Wind.

Oh you're right MrsLee, I ordered The Name of the Wind too! Boy, August and September have been book buying binges. I'd better rein in a bit I think, catch up on the TBRs. *blush* (just a little though)

Message 49: karenmarie

Arsonist's Guide~ didn't like it~ I had it up on mooch before I was done.

Clumsy, and I just didn't care about any of the characters.. none of them were likable. It went quickly.. I almost felt guilty.

Today I was bad. But after a few frustrating days of payroll problems that prevented me from getting a paycheck, I decided to splurge.

Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay
Toll the Hounds by Steven Erikson
Too Many Curses by A. Lee Martinez
About a Boy by Nick Hornby
A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
The Scourge of God by S.M. Stirling

#54 mckait - thanks for the heads up. I won't hold my breath or get terribly upset if it doesn't come my way.

When I got home this evening, I had my August Bonus Book, Any Given Doomsday by Lori Handeland and a bookmooch Mr. Darcy's Daughters by Elizabeth Aston.

I need to take a two week reading vacation just to get to the point of being behind in my reading! No way, of course, that that's going to happen, though - I barely get in 2 hours reading a day as it is.

Oryx and Crake for Au$7.

Yesterday I just had to go to Barnes and Noble for my sister-in-law's birthday, and I got The Name of the Wind, Siddhartha, The Selected Letters of Anton Chekhov, and Clean if Fast, Clean it Right. Most of them were on the bargain table. I don't know why I bought the last one. To assuage my guilt, I guess, because it is practical and I can use the advice.
--BJ

Based on some recommendations from the obscure book group I ordered "The history of Japan written in words of one syllable" from abebooks

Who how what where when! J_ipsen tell me more about this book. I've never heard of it but I should surely be adding it to my collection of obscure Japan related books. It should sit nicely next to "Men with Yen" and "Aiueo-sama".

Title: History of Japan in Words of One Syllable.
Author: Smith, Helen Ainslie
Publication: George Routledge, New York or A. L. Burt Co., New York
The first edition was printed around 1887. The cheapes copy you can find on Abebooks costs US$25 at the moment.

Ok, so I bought a few things in September, but the one I'm most pleased to have found, and the one I am going to mention here is: Neverending Story. I loved, loved, loved the movie as a kid (hell, I still love it now), and I am very pleased to have got a copy of the book (translated from the original german)...

So, I was supposed to be NOT buying books, but I completely caved and bought two after a horrible afternoon, for sheer reasons of book-retail therapy:

The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt and Dark Alchemy: Magical Tales from Masters of Modern Fantasy, which I can't wait to get stuck into, but will have to wait awhile at least. Stories about wizardry and all things magic by Neil Gaiman, Patricia McKillip, Tanith Lee, Garth Nix, Gene Wolfe and many others....

~drool~

eta - bah, stupid touchstones, honestly

I was birthday shopping at Barnes and Noble and found a copy of Pride and Prejudice for about $1.50. Can't beat that! Didn't find any presents though.

Oh, and did you know their return policy has changed? Now you have to have the the receipt and return the item within 14 days. I'm kind of bugged. I bought a lot of presents there. What happens if the recipient wants to exchange the present? Why require a receipt if the item is still in saleable condition? Does it really matter if it was bought somewhere else or 2 months ago?

I like to buy some things online, but I like browsing at the actual store and I spend some money that way. But if they're going to be so strict, I may just buy it all online.

First Ladies by Margaret Truman

March by Geraldine Brooks

from mooch

The Observations by Jane Harris

used, Amazon

Goldengrove: A Novel by Francine Prose ( vine)

Beside a Burning Sea by John Shors ( vine)
from Amazon Vine

I bought the Hippocrene English-Albanian Dictionary. It was only $15.

And it's Albanian!

I have to ask... will you actually use an English-Albanian dictionary?

Not directly, at the moment, but in my defence, I am a linguist with an interest in historical reconstruction. Albanian does come up at times in that. That and I collect bizarre language books. And Albanian is a bizarre language as European languages go.

This morning I realized that my bookstore credit was dangerously close to running out, so I went on over there and renewed it by trading in two books and coming home with three:

Light Before Day by Christopher Rice
Collected Ghost Stories by M.R. James
The Sixteen Satires by Juvenal

Forgive me, LT, for I have sinned.

I went into the Canberra region's best second-hand bookstore (Winch Books in Bungendore) and spent $50. But I got Women, Fire and Dangerous Things, The Anglo-Norman Voyage of St Brendan, The Waning of the Middle Ages, The Life and Times of Alfred the Great and a few other books for it. I almost had to be dragged from the shop.

Edit: And I was naughty on Amazon. And BookDepository. Eek!

If naughty wasn't so much fun, we'd never be naughty to begin with!

#70. I love that place. It just seems to go on and on. Ever since I got a car, I've had to restrain myself from heading out there weekly. It's not just the books, there's the petrol to consider too! My poor wallet...

Speaking of my wallet, the dreaded/anticipated bi-annual Lifeline book fair starts on Thursday. I'm going to be very poor.

#71 - Exactly!
And if money was meant for holding on to they would come with handholds, wouldn't they? ;-)

I'm really not buying any more books at the moment, as I have to work on Mount TBR. But yesterday I sent for The Name of the Wind and Brasyl. It was triple bonus points for anything purchased during Saturday at the on-line bookshop I mostly use, so how could I NOT?!
I was very restrained, I did not even go look in my to-buy book for additional ideas - just those two.

I'm going to be very poor.

Tell me about it. I've got the rent money set aside already, to make sure I don't spend it...

The Mystery of the Olmecs by David Hatcher Childress

The Crystal Skulls: Astonishing Portals to Mans Past by David Childress and Stephen S Mehler

More Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason by Nancy Pearl

And I have three more coming from Amazon that I paid for.....

Recent additions:

The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox
The Professor of Desire by Philip Roth
A Fine Balance by Ronhinton Mistry
The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland
Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje

76- A Fine Balance was one of the epic reads of my lifetime. It's disturbing at times yet always keeps you reading. One of the rare books that made me cry.

I told myself I'd hold off from book buying altogether this month. Not happening! Just bought (albeit deeply discounted) a collection of Baudelaire poems, and a couple of medieval history books.

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald is all that came today.

Mark, Interpretation by Lamar Williamson, a biblical commentary on the Gospel of Mark, which is the gospel emphasized in the next lectionary cycle.

The Poetry of Robert Frost: The Collected Poems, Complete and Unabridged by Robert Frost, obviously.

This is all thanks to some late b-day money.

Well, my first trip out to this weekend's book fair resulted in a few purchases. I'm sure more will be forthcoming as I head back there tomorrow, and maybe on Saturday and Sunday as well.

The first installment is:
Ada by Vladimir Nabokov
Kindred by Octavia E Butler
A Child's Book Of True Crime by Chloe Hooper
Blood and Guts In High School by Kathy Acker
Creation by Gore Vidal
Claudius The God by Robert Graves

I haven't even made it out of the fiction section yet!

Finally bought a book called Peace Lagoon. Its Sikh scripture, and I've been wanting a copy since I visited a Sikh Gurdhwara (church) last year with a group from my college. Haven't read it yet, but looking forward to it.

Got 4 books yesterday My sister is a werewolf by Kathy Love, a new writer to me.
Ghost Stories a treasure press anthology.
Lost in a good book and The big over easy - Jasper Fforde fans, is it necessary to read the Thursday next books in order?

And delivered today from Amazon Nation and Brisingr.

#82. It's not necessary, but I would recommend it. I read The Well of Lost Plots first, because we had an advance reading copy at work. That's how I discovered Jasper Fforde. It didn't ruin the book for me, but it does help to have the background knowledge of the earlier books because certain things aren't explained with as much detail as it's the 2nd or 3rd time round for most readers.

Mmmm, I'd recommend reading them in order if you can because there are plots that carry through the books. But as dreamlikecheese says, it's not critical.

#77 - ...and a couple of medieval history books.

Makes me wonder if you really meant "books on medieval history"?
Medieval history books sounds VERY expensive?

Alas, no new purchases to report. I have to read a few of my TBR books before further acquisitions are allowed.

Only one actual purchase, a coffee-table offering with no readily discernible author on The Overberg; nice seeing we're going there in January. (Touchstone wonky as usual.)

Let me preface this by saying that one of the reasons I love my husband is because he knows how much books mean to me. He gets excited when I get excited about buying them. He said I was actually giddy this morning on my way to the Friends of the Library Sale, where I got:

The Agatha Christie Who's Who by Randall Toye
In the Absence of the Sacred by Jerry Mander
The Years with Ross by James Thurber
O Pioneers! by Willa Cather - a 1929 edition!
92 Stories by James Thurber
Outfoxed by Rita Mae Brown
Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick
Blue Smoke and Murder by Elizabeth Lowell
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
Lady Susan, The Watsons and Sanditon by Jane Austen
Mistress of the Elgin Marbles by Susan Nagel
The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte
Where Dead Voices Gather by Nick Tosches
The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories chosen by Micael Cox and R.A. Gilbert
Scottish Ghosts by Lily Seafield
Five Victorian Ghost Novels edited by E.F. Bleiler

I only spent 1 1/2 hours and $49 USD. Major excitement. One of my themes for next year is ghost stories, and I found 3 books of them!

Oh, karenmarie, I love library book sales! It's like spending for a good cause, right? I just read The Watsons by Jane Austen and I really enjoyed it.

I only bought one book lately and it was a present for my daughter. I don't want to say which one it was, but it was by one of her favorite authors and I know she'll like it. Oh, and well, one for me too. Just to sort of keep her company. You know. I got There Came Both Mist and Snow. Just to get the free shipping. Not because I really, really wanted to read it. Certainly not anything like that.

hey cmbohn - that's the way presents are supposed to work. One for the giftee, one for me. Christmas is great that way. Lots of presents to give, and ..... sometimes..... lots to get. Just for the free shipping, of course. Or the two for one.

I was particularly excited to get the Austen book, having never read any of those stories.

And since we are working on money for the new library, it IS for a good cause.

Fifth Sacred Thing, The by Starhawk

Five Mile House by Karen Novak

The Longest Trip Home: A Memoir by John Grogan

ABC3D by Marion Bataille

The first two used from Amazon.
The next two from Amazon Vine.

I already reviewd ABC3D.. very interesting little book!
Next up will be Grogan's book

Busifer, msg. 31, yup. I finished The Piano Shop on the Left Bank and loved, loved, loved it. It was fun to learn about pianos and read about Paris and learn some french phrases. My splurge, of course, was going to France in the first place. I did start on Anathem on the plane coming home today and recognized "dense" writing quite quickly. Uff da. I also finished In the Woods for the first book of the new Green Dragon book club near Seattle. I liked it too, a good Irish mystery! I need to write some reviews. Been dipping into Change We Can Believe In and Hot, Flat, and Crowded. I am not finding Obama's book compelling in the least, but Friedman's might be considerably better. I have lots to read now that I am home and do not have to go out and look at cathedrals and castles and eat in the bestest restaurants.

Back from the bookfair...

I now have:
Family by Pa Chin (Ba Jin)
The Butterfly and other stories by Wang Meng
Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach (an awesome name...)
A Mandarin Primer by F. W. Baller - a lovely Chinese-bound book
Learn to Speak Afrikaans by Groenwald
A Sanskrit Manual for High Schools by Robert Antoine
The Decameron in two volumes
The Book of the Courtier
Sabriel by Garth Nix
Teach Yourself Romanian
Stained-Glass World by Kenneth Bulmer - yes, I had to...
and a couple more I've forgotten.

When I picked up Anathem by Neal Stephenson from my bookstore the other day I noticed that I was only $30 short of having spent enough to claim another $50 voucher in their rewards scheme. So I went back in on wednesday and picked up:
The Last Colony by John Scalzi
Iron Sunrise by Charles Stross
Outrageous Fortune by Tim Scott
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

..all for just over $30! (Not bad when you consider that mass-market paperbacks are $16-$22 to buy new in Australia, and that Little Brother was in hardcover.)

Picked up Astro Boy Vol. 1 and 2 in one volume today, if I didn't pick that up, I wouldn't have seen my female otaku sweetheart again in the manga section. We're both too shy to say anything to each other, all we could do was exchange glances today. But she smiled at me, peeking up from her romance manga reading.

That and Astro Boy manga rocks, long before Hideki Anno put the death threat letters sent to him into End of Evangelion, Osamu Tezuka drew himself in a dialogue with the reader over why he was unhappy with the Americans censoring the Astro Boy TV series as compared to Japan, and he OWNS THEM. Somebody should start a Tezukowned meme because some of the stuff he says when drawing himself into the story is hilarious, and witty. A pacifist and animal respecter before his time, shine on you crazy mangaka.

Oops...I bought Anathem.

I spent ten cents on a used copy of The Adventures of Sally. It was P.G. Wodehouse; I couldn't resist.

I am awaiting the arrival of three books by Craig Childs.

They won't be here until the 29th, because Amazon tortures you if you don't have Prime by holding onto your order for DAYS!!!

I guess I will have to hope for something else to show up tomorrow..

Just wondering - Is it pronounced ANN-an-them or ann-AN-them?

ANN-an-them, I do believe.

I just bought the Kindle version of Brisingr. I know many think Paolini is kind of a farce but I like the books and I like talking to the grandson about them.

I liked the first two books, Maggie. I have not read the third. I found them entertaining and enjoyable... good for a lighthearted and fun read.
I will borrow Brisingr from my niece.

I enjoyed the first two Paolini's as well. I take them for what they are, but I sure couldn't write like that when I was his age - not even now! I'll be getting Brisingr at some point, just to finish up the trilogy. The movie was truly dreadful though I thought.

I thought there was a fourth book?

I turned the movie off. I just couldn't take it. The books were fun, story-wise, but Paolini needed a much stricter editor to tighten up his prose.

I'd planned holding off on the book buying until the Children's Hospital held their fall paperback sale. Then I learned they were holding it today.

And all the money goes to sick kids, so I really had to buy stuff. Really. It would've been a crime not to.

I held myself mostly in check, but I got:

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
A Voice From the Attic by Robertson Davies
High Spirits by Robertson Davies
Robertson Davies: An Appreciation, ed. by Elspeth Cameron
English Fairy Tales, ed. by Joseph Jacobs
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte
Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) by Ann-Marie MacDonald
The Elric Saga: Part I by Michael Moorcock

And on my way out, I caught sight of a beautiful little facsimile of a medieval manuscript, so I bought that too.

Well, if it was for a good cause. The only Robertson Davies I've read was Leaven of Malice, which I thought was extremely funny.

Paolini is enjoyable in a bubblegum kind of way, cute story but hardly very original. Promising talent, but nobody should get thier first book published unless they are genius, and he's not.

Anyway, I squealed when I saw 6 Christopher Pike books today, ended up with 4 of them because I already had 2 of them, I used to love Pike when I was ~14-16 but I didn't buy books back then and read as many as I could get my hands on from the library, so I don't have all that many Pike books despite him being one of my favorite authors. So now I have The Dance, The Graduation, The Tachyon Web and Execution of Innocence

Also got Slaughter house 5, Sacred Ground Lackey. The last Dragonlord Joanne Bertin, Sorcerer's Legacy Wurts. Poe's Selected Tales, The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl. Uncovered and Uncanny by Paul Jennings - I was a fan of Round the Twist.

Paolini is enjoyable in a bubblegum kind of way, cute story but hardly very original. Promising talent, but nobody should get thier first book published unless they are genius, and he's not.

Anyway, I squealed when I saw 6 Christopher Pike books today, ended up with 4 of them because I already had 2 of them, I used to love Pike when I was ~14-16 but I didn't buy books back then and read as many as I could get my hands on from the library, so I don't have all that many Pike books despite him being one of my favorite authors. So now I have The Dance, The Graduation, The Tachyon Web and Execution of Innocence

Also got Slaughter house 5, Sacred Ground Lackey. The last Dragonlord Joanne Bertin, Sorcerer's Legacy Wurts. Poe's Selected Tales, The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl. Uncovered and Uncanny by Paul Jennings - I was a fan of Round the Twist.

5 gods! this is why I have a list, I've just bought a second copy of Slaughter house 5!!!!

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild by Craig Childs

The Secret Knowledge of Water : Discovering the Essence of the American Desert by Craig Childs

House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest
by Craig Childs

arrived today. The first one used.... the others new..

I made a big splurge today, I bought The Scapegoat by Daphne Du Maurier for 80 cents. I've read it, but for some reason couldn't find it in my house, now I've decided I NEED it.

Of course you did.

Went to the charity shop, got
Bodily Harm, Atwood
A Shadow on the Glass, Ian Irvine
Another Fine Myth, Robert Asprin
plus 3 horror anthologies Point horror 13, The Undead, and Horror by lamplight.

I've joined BookMooch, going to give it a try. I've received requests from Finland and England for two of my books and I've requested two books in return. Cool! Postage will probably be a fortune, but it's a neat concept, hopefully will even out with the books I receive in the long run. I love looking forward to getting books in the mail :-)

I love Another Fine Myth.

it's sad to think how many books one could buy for the price of the washer and the dryer I just ordered (or for the money to pay for installation). . . shed a tear

Esta--oh man that is sad indeed. What about a basin and a washboard--that way you could buy lots more books :-) (just kidding really--I can't live w/o the washer & dryer.