What Books Came Into Your Home Today?--January 2009, #2

We're over 300 posts so it's time for a new thread, eh what?

Okay. I am reading a cook book right now. I know that is something weird to be reading but I am looking for some new recipes and healthier choices. Eat and Stay Slim by Better Homes and Gardens. I am also reading Pilates body in motion by Alycea Ungaro. A little theme going on here. I have to get my TBR pile organized or I should just say my shelves of TBR books. I just don't know where to begin.

Richard - in response to your impertinent surprise in thread numero 1, yes first names - which now gives everyone the opportunity to be headmistressy and if I say something very controversial and they disagree in disgust, look down their bespectacled noses and call me Eleanor instead. :-)

I must admit, I try not to let Mum actually catch me buying books as she despairs of the mounting stacks which I've bought but not read yet... still, getting away with two today wasn't bad given that I've been buying all week! Every one was for a good cause, after all. *ahem*

>3 elliepotten: Miss Eleanor Potten! I reject charges of impertinence from those young enough to be my daughter! *harrumph* Frankly, though, that includes more than 80% of the world's population, and if that don't give ya pause....

Haha, fair enough...

#2......OMG, don't let my husband hear of someone reading a cookbook, lest he get some crazy ideas for MY reading fare...... shhhhhhh!!!

It's so funny, when we go antique hunting, he's always pointing out the old cookbooks..... I just shrug and say.....see what they used to do back in the old days before they had drive thru's?? Heeee!

# 6 I am not a great cook, my son goes through my cookbooks and will choose a recipe then I get stuck going to the store and helping him in the kitchen (which I really don't mind). I am mainly reading them for my 999 challenge. I just couldn't think of any other catagory so that is what I chose.

I am a binger.....I cook in binges, I avoid cooking in binges. I am currently avoiding cooking like the plague, which makes cookbooks off limits!

umm... how does the Plague cook? I would guess it is a good idea to avoid emulating it though....

;)

* smooches richardear on top the head and arranges his shawl*
( 80% huh?

And LOL @ porchy.

"Message 2: crazy4reading; I am reading a cook book right now. I know that is something weird to be reading" ???

What on earth gave you the idea that cookbooks is weird reading ? Someone must have misinformed you.
;-}

I was just making a general statement. I don't see too many people saying on here that they are reading a cookbook that often.... :}

My mom read cookbooks like most people, including her, read novels. Some cookbooks can be pretty interesting with more than just recipes. Sometimes I wish they'd leave out the full color pictures because one, I can never get it to look that good and two they look so good, I gain 5 pounds just looking at them!

:o-)

>10 mckait: Careful there, girlie, you'll mess up the comb-over. And yeup...anyone over 40 is older than 86% of the world's population. The stats for larger numbers are simply revolting, so I ignored them.

I have a confession: I am a cookbookaholic. I read them almost every day, getting ideas for dinner. For dinner in a week. For dinner I might never make but would love to serve to guests, like the dessert called "sailor's duff" that I served to Mr. Man's homophobic sister Lucretia McEvil...only telling her what it was called as I left the table...the spluttering!

(It's basically just steamed pudding spice-cake style.)

So be proud there, crazy4, you're in the company of angels. And me.

I love cookbooks, too. I used to work at a gourmet cookware store, and didn't take home much of my paycheck... Now I try new ones (new to me, anyway) at the library, and only buy if I feel there's one I can't live without.

I still live where I can have a free roof over my head, so I don't have a lot of cookbooks. But I do like history books. In fact, I got a new one today through BookMooch: The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe.

I don't so much read cookbooks as drool over the photos. I like the idea of cooking in theory, but... well, in my defense, I do have four kids and a very busy job to boot. Cooking all too often ends up being what I call dinner-in-a-bag. Those of you who do read cookbooks have to check out the Culinaria books - they are great. Lots of history, culture ,etc. about food from different countries.

In today's mail I received a copy of Hear the Wind Sing, the first novel by Haruki Murakami, which I bought from an eBay seller in Japan.

#17 emaestra, thanks for the recommendation of the Culinaria books -- I will check them out.

I have never really read cookbooks until this year. Usually I just look at the pictures and know I will never make anything look that good. I will look for the Culinaria books too.

Glad for the new thread, the other one was too long.

I have had a blizzard of books arrive in the last 2 days.

I got my ER book from the publisher today. I picked up books at Borders at my RL book group last night, and today I also got an Amazon order in.

Will be back to list soon, am now going through my threads, and then have to enter them. :)

Has anyone out there heard of Bookswim? It's a book-rental service along the same lines as NetFlix is for movies. You selected books for renting, and get a certain number at a time, which you then get to keep for as long as you want before returning the book and then getting more. I got sucked into joining a couple of weeks ago before I discovered they only carry books that are #10,000 or below on Amazon's sales list, so I don't know how useful it will be to me, since the vast majority of the books on my Amazon wish list are way over the #10,000 mark. However, I did get my first order today. I received The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky, and The Good Mother by Sue Miller.

I also received The Inklings by Humphrey Carpenter from a used book dealer in the UK. It's a biography of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and their friends.

I received a couple of books yesterday which i ordered from amazon:
Anne of green gables by L.M Montgomery
Overheard in a dream by Torey Hayden
Somebody else's kids by Torey Hayden
The Sunflower forest by Torey Hayden
A wrinkle in time by Madeleine L'Engle (i am going to read this once i have finished Anne Frank's diary)

I have read WHISPER OF FEAR, the True Story of the Prosecutor Who Stalks the Stalkers by Rhonda B. Saunders, in Los Angeles county, California. Few men are ever stalked, and those who are stalked are often Gay or Famous, or both, so most men have little or no concern for men, or women or their sons and daughters, who are being threatened daily with kidnapping, torture, rape and murder-and often all of these- by letter, email, telephone and in person. Most men in this case will offer to accost the individual and threaten or assault him or her. They do not realize that the stalker is violently insane, but not legally insane, and has only committed a misdemeanor, but is prepared to murder the victim by gunshot at the slightest sign of hostility, as he has already stated hundreds of times already. Women are unable to even express this foolish bravado. Mrs. Saunders realized that the laws, police procedures and liberal attitudes of politicians are such so as to provide the victims with no effective protection. The insane person then often carries out the horrific threats, then kills himself or is remanded to a mental hospital, but by then this is of no help to the victim or spouse or offspring. Mrs. Saunders has helped to revise the laws and legal procedures to allow public safety authorities to arrest, detain and effectively prosecute these criminals so as to prevent them from destroying any more lives. The number of people being stalked in this way in the USA at any one time is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands, according to Mrs. Saunders. If you do not live in California you are in great danger, with little or no effective protection by law. Think about those who are driven to consider illegal, and immoral, actions to protect themselves and their most beloved from this insanity. Persons in the entertainment industry such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Stephen Spielberg and Madonna have experienced exactly this kind of threat and have been helped by Mrs. Saunders and her colleagues. If you are being stalked by a homicidal maniac, the best thing to do would be to move to Los Angeles, just to save your own life. In my own city, threats to murder someone are so common that Police often will hesitate to even accept a report, despite 300+ murders a year in a population of only 650,000.

Not sure, Jim, but I think you may have meant to post that one in reviews (though if you had, I'd never have read it and it does sound jolly interesting!)

Books that arrived today - more work/health-related stuff The Essential Carer's Guide by Mary Jordan and Treating Your Back and Neck Pain for Dummies

The Ringed Castle by Dorothy Dunnett from PBS.

That was a very interesting review Jim.

No books arrived yet today...

Commiserations, crazy4 - you must be having a terrible day. I wonder if we should set up some kind of support group for people who are having a bookless day?

Haha 8> hemlokgang - I do the same! For a few months I will actually be Bree Van Der Kamp, then for months (including right now) I'll live predominantly off toast, crackers, 10-minute jacket potatoes and other completely, inexcusably lazy comfort food...

A BookMooch book Death of a Bore by M. C. Beaton and my December ER book The Perfect Scent by Chandler Burr.

Ah Booksloth, thanks for thinking about me. I am expecting books that were just shipped recently. Plus I am waiting for my December ER book. It is still too early for me to receive my mail so hopefully later today I will go home and see some packages in my mail box.

I am reading two books where war is part of the theme. Passing of the Armies where the war is over and how the last few months of it went and Mounting Fears where the possibility of war looms - I'm only halfway through it so I can't (and wouldn't anyway) tel you how it turns out.

The two authors seem very diverse but the ideas are horrific.

Stopped at the HPB yesterday and picked up the following from the $1 and $2 shelves:

The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout
Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

All of which I've read good things about right here in LT...

Stopped at the HPB yesterday and picked up the following from the $1 and $2 shelves:

The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout
Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

All of which I've read good things about right here in LT...

Ooooh, The Shadow of the Wind is AMAZING! It was so exciting I read all night, spellbound, now it's one of my favourite books.

A couple of days ago I bought Three To Get Deadly, the third mystery in the Stephanie Plum series .

# 34, nancyewhite, I enjoyed Shadow of the Wind, and I loved Crow Lake. Enjoy!

I just got a copy of Here Be Dragons from a kind LT Bookmoocher who was searching out Ms. Penman's work for me in the local thrift stores.

From BookMooch:
Everyman by Philip Roth

From a friend:
The Short Stories by Ernest Hemingway. I have never read any of his short stories, this should be a treat!

Barny Noble sent me by mail:

The Connected Discourses of the Buddha translated by Bikkhu Bodhi; this completes a three book set of the Buddhas discourses.
Rail-Trails: New England; no touchstone; no author credited. This was on the slowly-acquire list, for nostalgia's sake.

Robert

In the mail today from a moocher:

The Red Badge of Courage, The Missing Ring: How Bear Bryant and the 1966 Alabama Crimson Tide Were Denied College Football's Most Elusive Prize (Touchstone not working), Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, The Stone Diaries and The Book of Ruth

I stopped at Borders to use a giftcard so I could be sure they wouldn't go out of business before I could use it. They didn't really have any of the specific things I was looking for, so I drifted over to Jean Plaidy and picked up the recently rereleased Uneasy Lies the Head as well as Murder Most Royal.

Ran into town to pick up my contact lenses from the mall, and happened to wander into B&N. I came home with The Temptation of the Night Jasmine by Lauren Willig and Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster. And over the course of the last week or so, I've received several books in the mail: The Swedish Gypsy by Mary Paulson, Women of the Revolution by Robert M. Dunkerly (my December ER book), Canvey Island by James Runcie, and The Triumph of Deborah by Eva Etzioni-Halevy.

I got my ER book The Perfect Scent by Chandler Burr, a non-fiction book about an inside look at the global perfume industry, and the making of two new perfumes.

Then I got in an Amazon order. I needed to order 2 books for a RL book group, and I added an LT Inspired book. I decided to order from Amazon, because I can't do it on Borders Stores anymore, so why not get a discount if I had to order on-line. The shipment was enough for free shipping. The LT inspired book was more than $20.00 cheaper to order through Amazon than through B&N or Borders. The copy they were selling was $42.00 for a paperback and Amazon's was $19.95. The one from Amazon was published in India !

RL Book Group:
The Fugitive by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Story of a man who leads a failed nationalist revolt against the Japanese at the end of WWII. It takes place in Indonesia and follows him as he tries to find safety and avoid those who will kill him, not only the Japanese, but those who betrayed him, and others with different political views.

Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon
The book that the play and the movie were based on. British schoolteacher goes to Siam in 1860 to teach the children and concubines of the King of Siam.

LT Inspired - thanks Carlos McRey
Confessions of a Thug by Philip Meadows Taylor
Story set in India during the Raj and told from the POV of a Thug. They were a gang of criminals (Thuggee) who preyed on people. They robbed and killed them, and often the bodies of their victims were never found. Adding a terrible mystery to their crimes. They were also a sect that worshiped Kali in her aspect as the goddess of death and destruction.

Fresh out of the Amazon box: I'm reading Perversity by Francis Carco (translated from the French by Jean Rhys), about a sexually immature guy who lives with his prostitute sister and her pimp in Paris (say that fast), and a brilliantly written memoir called Love's Work by the philosopher Gillian Rose, who died from cancer in 1995. That's definitely a lot more serious.

I finally braved the one way streets and no street signs of downtown to find the independent bookseller. Not only did they have the book I wanted, they had one I'd despaired of finding! I'm wondering if they had other books places like Borders and Barnes and Noble has stopped stocking.

Unleashed
Cry Wolf

Supporting my community, plus a frequent buyer program!

New to LibraryThing, hope to figure this out soon!

> Welcome AmyLynn!

I received a BookMooch book today: The Love Wife by Gish Jen.

AmyLynn, you're a newbie! Welcome to LT!

yesterday these books showed up...
all used but Beedle.

Be Near Me by Andrew O'Hagan

The Story of the Cannibal Woman: A Novel by Maryse Conde

The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Standard Edition by J. K. Rowling

The Woods by Harlan Coben

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde

At least I think the Fforde came yesterday, too. I am a little behind in things this week.

I hope my husband is out of the house today when mail arrives, in case more show up. It is getting hard to explain.

#50 Thanks mckait - your mention of Andrew O'Hagan reminded me what a great book Personality was and I've just been off to order Be Near Me and The Missing. If the other half comments, I'll blame you.

We are all enablers here. It is what we do. :D

You say enablers, I say bad influences!

tomatoes, toe-mah-toes, same, same, same

LOL

I hope to run out to the Good Will store to see if they have any good books. I should be receiving my order from Doubleday book club soon....

Hi AmyLynn.....welcome!

I picked up Compulsion by Jonathan Kellerman yesterday at the book shop. Nothing came in the mail, though. It's always a little let-down when I don't see a book sticking out of my mailbox. :o/

We went to the library this morning... of course I came home with about 15 books and everyone else had 2 or 3...

I'll be back shortly to list them all...

Yes I received a book in the mail today. My ER book arrived: The Addict by Michael Stein. Still waiting for my other books. I am just so happy to receive the book...

From BookMooch:

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle

I just got back from Goodwill and I picked up the following books:

The Story of Boeing and Its People Legend & Legacy by Robert J. Sterling
Contact by Carl Sagan
Buddy Boys by Mike McAlary
Critical Mass by Steve Martini
The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller
Killshot by Elmore Leonard

All 6 books for $3.18.

A BookMooch day:

Death of a Dentist
Death of a Scriptwriter
Death of a Perfect Wife
all by M. C. Beaton

She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan

I received one BookMooch today: Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert A. Heinlein.

I also received an Amazon order:

- The Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf
- Hand & Machine Quilting Tips and Tricks Tool: Quilt Like the Experts by Harriet Hargrave
- Dies the Fire by S. M. Stirling
- Sideshow by Sheri S. Tepper

From the used book store one town over I brought home Kabul Beauty School by Debrorah Rodgiguez, Personal Geography by Elizabeth Coatsworth and Shelf Life by Suzanne Strempek Shea. From Allibris I received The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery and Colcorton by Edith Pope. On the sale self at my local library I picked up Bachelor Brothers' Bed & Breakfast and also checked out the The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid which I was surprised the library had. It was a good Saturday.

My Latest batch of books

From Borders:

Three Unbroken by Chris Roberson (touchstone not working)
Another book in the Celestial Empire SF series. It is about the Aztecs and the Chinese, both of whom have space-faring empires, battling each other for control of various resources; one of them is Mars, which the Chinese have colonized.

Now I must confess, I read the first book, and I REALLY, REALLY DISLIKED IT. So why did I buy this book, because I keep hoping it will be better, and I still love the concept of Aztecs in space.

Unfallen Dead by Mark Del Franco
Book 3 in the Connor Grey series.
The series is set in Boston. The world of Faerie has leaked into the real world. Connor is a druid (fey) who has his magic blocked, so he is disabled as far as the fey are concerned. He is cast aside, and lives on the margins working with Boston PD, to help with magical crimes in the Weird.

This book has the veil between the worlds possibly lifting again on the night the dead walk. Connor is trying to keep both humans and fey happy, stay alive and save the world.

The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross
Book 2 in the The Laundry series. About a super-secret British agency called "The Laundry". No James Bond, just computer nerd Bob Howard, who deals with the supernatural. An evil Billionaire is raising a monster from the depths of the ocean to rule the world.

Last Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
Book 4 in the Night Watch series. Set in Russia after communism, it deals with the battle between good and evil, through the various 'watches' who are the police force for each side. Apparently in this final book Armageddon is on the way.

Oops, forgot one.

A Venetian Affair by Andrea Di Robilant
A non-fiction story set in Venice in the 1800s. It follows the story of star crossed lovers. One of them is related to the author and he found all kinds of letters they sent each other. It is supposed to be full of all kinds of social and cultural details of the period. I love Venice, and I saw the book on Tag Watch, so this is an LT Inspired book.

HEEEEEELLP! I've just got the Bibliophile catalogue in the post (for those who don't know, it's a company run by Deric Longden's daughter selling cheap books, and their catalogue is basically a newspaper crammed with books, in small print to cram EVEN MORE in). I've spent all afternoon combing through it and found about forty more books I want - and my wishlist is already at about 200! SOMEBODY HOLD ME BACK BEFORE I ORDER ANYTHING!!!

ellie STOP CONTROL YOURSELF!!!! Limit yourself to say 2-3 books every couple of weeks until you hit the 200. That way the damages are a little bit every so often. Yes I know easier said then done--but you must have willpower!! Good luck.

BUT I HAVE NO WILLPOWER! You know what Henry Ward Beecher said - "Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?" Well, now there's the internet and mail order to corrupt us even more! I bought about seven books last week in the charity shops - that's the thing with agoraphobia busting, there's a lot of going to the local towns and they're all full of charity shops, which are all full of cheap books...

Oh hell Ellie, get on about the buying and let the chips fall where they may! Unless there is food/rent money owing, books are the next item down on the list, so spend without guilt or shame.

Ahahahaha, someone who says what you secretly want to hear... Yeah okay, sure there's a few quid of Christmas money lingering amongst the rest of my paltry bank balance... It would be a shame to spend it on anything else, really. Think I'll just, *ahem*, 'pop' onto the website for a little look for, er, 'research purposes'. ;-)

I have never seen this catalog or the website for Bibliophile. I think I need to research this site so I can do some research too. If anyone happens to know the web address please let me know...

I have decided to buy a few books each week just for the hell of it. Even though I don't have any room for them, I will find/make room for them..!!!

I bought two books from Borders tonight, which are both on the current longlist of the Best Translated Books of 2008 by Three Percent:

Bonsai by Alejandro Zambra
Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolaño

YES!!! I love to do, um, research. Tell us the website address, please, ellie!!

**practicing deep breathing exercises, trying not to hyperventilate....**

#70/72 Try www.Bibliophilebookshop.com

Thank you so much. I will definately be looking at it later.

Mine's www.bibliophilebooks.com - it's British but maybe it posts abroad as well for everyone else...

And >70 crazy4reading: crazy4reading - I like your style! Tragically my mum gets all my post before I do (my flat has no letterbox) which makes flamboyant book-ordering difficult - when I was at uni I spent all my non-food money on Amazon!

Thanks Ellie, My hubby thinks I have enough books and wants me to get rid of them. I just can't part with any books, unless I really dislike them (which is not very often). Even if I did get my children's posts I wouldn't get upset. I would be happy to see her spending her money on books rather then clothes or something else.

ellie - you really haven't got the hang of this yet, have you? It's when you're spending all your non-book money on food you have to really start worrying.

And c4r, as I've mentioned on other posts, I have a non-reading husband who after 30-odd years still doesn't really understand why anyone would need to own more than a car manual and a book about football. The thing to remember is that he's the weird one, not you, and - if it's the money that bothers him - you can bet your life he has secret expenses too, you just have to find out what they are. He almost certainly buys computer games, CDs, tickets to football matches, beer, car stuff, electronic 'guy-stuff' etc, etc, and it probably comes to at least as much as you spend on books. Try and find out what he is spending and hold that knowledge in reserve for the next time he gives you 'the look' as another parcel of books drops through the door.

Booksloth, I know what he has spent money on and it wasn't even listed in your list. He has spent it on some adult things... Plus he goes out to lunch everday at work where I bring my lunch so that I can save that money for books. Mind you I picked him up a book the other day and he was pleased to see it. The book was about Boeing. He says he will read it. Since he works there that is why I bought it. He has started reading he just doesn't get the reasons as to why I love to have books in the house, even if I don't get a chance to read them all right away. He just doesn't like the fact that I don't have enough room for my books and I have mentioned that I need more shelves. That means he has to do more work..

Oh yes, non-reading boys are much worse with their money. My ex would rolls his eyes at me for buying a few books, then go out and buy a few games, a new shirt and a games console, followed by a night out getting drunk... I don't buy many clothes but when I do I tend to buy them from the charity shop as well, thus leaving MORE money for a book or three 'while I'm there'. I'm only 21 though, I have plenty of time to learn the devious ways of more experienced LibraryThingers!

#78 Well, I'm assuming there was some 'work' for you to do concerning those 'adult things'?

No there wasn't. They were videos he bought, he doesn't know I know. I found them hidden in one of his drawers...So no 'work' for me...

In that case you're definitely entitled to your books, work or no work!

I picked up Agatha Christie's The Underdog and Other Stories and L.P. Hartley's The Go-Between at a little independent bookstore today. However, this revelation isn't nearly as interesting as crazy4reading's.

Oh but it is! The Go-Between is one of the most gorgeous books and MUCH more fun than those videos.

I got a completely pristine copy of The Forbidden Daughter from a bookmoocher who also sent the book much faster than I expected. I also got three copies of Robin Maxwell's new book, Signora Da Vinci from the people at Penguin so I can have a giveaway for the extra two copies.

Anything is better then the videos. ;) I see you guys all getting books everyday. I am lucky if I get books once a month.

Yeah my order from Doubleday arrived today. I only ordered 2 books and these are the ones I ordered:

Tempting Evil by Allison Brennan
Hot Six by Janet Evanovich

Allison Brennan was the first ER book I won and I fell in love with her writing. I can't wait to read this book. ON to the TBR pile it goes.

I received Getting Things Done by David Allen from Amazon today, and Homestead by Rosina Lippi from a BookMooch.

crazy4reading
Ever hear of a library?

I received Family Plots: Love, Death & Tax Evasion by Mary Patrick Kavanaugh. This one looks really interesting and fun! I've added it to my 999 Challenge list!

morfam: Yes I have, I prefer to own my books then to get them from the library. I have to return them or check them out again if I am not done. I do have a library card and have taken books out but since I don't have 8 hours in a day to read let alone an hour to myself some times it makes it hard to check out books and then have to return them when I am not finished.

Today I stopped at Half Price Books to get some study guides for my daughter's upcoming AP tests. Well, of course, since I was there, you know. I got God of War and Ocean of Words. Later I stopped at the library and picked up The Penelopiad, Olive Kitteridge, and The Hakawati. I am looking forward to these last few - after I read the fifteen or so library books I already have! It's a sickness, I know.

Thomas Mann's The Magic Moutain (translated by John E. Woods) arrived yesterday.

Delighted to receive The Communist Manifesto, and So That You Can Know Me, a collection of short stories, translated from five different Pakistani languages.

I'm getting better at this sneaky book-buying lark. At the supermarket today I nipped out 'to go to the bank'... which tragically just happens to be on the same road as an Oxfam Books. I came back to find Mum waiting impatiently in the very last aisle, three books stashed in my bag and no-one any the wiser (and my food shopping much cheaper since I did the lot in about three minutes). Anyways, I bought a shiny new-looking copy of Written Lives by Javier Marias, Yes Man by Danny Wallace, and an old Penguin paperback of Thomas Mann's Death in Venice - three books, less than a fiver, sorted.

And since I 'haven't bought any books' this week so far, tomorrow's planned trip to the much bigger retail outlet half an hour away, with its large remainder bookstore (and, er, Cadbury factory shop) should yield more fun! Books and chocolate, my ideal day...

I like the cut of your jib, Ms potten - a book obsession and a basically sneaky personality. I'm worried about your mum, though. Has she got something against books? Surely she realises you could be spending your money on alcohol, drugs or sponsoring organised crime? Now I'm not suggesting you should really be picking up bad habits from other addicts like the ones you'll find here on LT but I'd be thriiled to bits if my kids were spending all their dosh on books.

From Audible:
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama

booksloth - She doesn't mind my bookishness - what she minds is my crazed need to buy every book I get my hands on, most of which inevitably go straight on the towering TBR pile/shelf/whole house... Sometimes it's hard to keep up, but then again the more beautiful the leaning tower of books, the more inspired I'll be to read them, right?! RIGHT?! (*rocks gently, giggling at the deliciousness*)

From Housing Works Used Book Cafe I picked up the following:
Drop City and Talk, Talk both by T C Boyle
Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coehlo and
The 19th Wife by David Ebersoff

My ER copy of The Perfect Scent arrived late yesterday afternoon. Yea!

Ellie dearest, most delightful soul...then again the more beautiful the leaning tower of books, the more inspired I'll be to read them, right?!

I have now the final draft of my epitaph. Thank you!

*sighs contentedly, able to Rest In Peace at last*

Nothing has come into my home so far this year - the only books I've gotten are loaners back from friends which I've already read (I find it hard to lend books I haven't read yet in case they either don't come back when I'm ready to read them or don't come back at all...).

I really want to focus on my TBR pile this year: just for fun, whatever comes in this year will be put aside just to see if more actually get read than received (I do have one major buying trip with friends yearly during the summer months but aside from that will try to keep buying at a minimum, because I know my friend Sylvie will be passing me quite a few).

>102 kmbooklover: - Congratulations! You have more will power than me (and most of the rest of us, I imagine). Kind of like a recovered alcoholic here to show us that There Is Another Way, should we ever need to turn away from our book gluttony because we can only afford a single carrot each week and our partners are threatening divorce after a terrible accident involving a falling bookshelf... :-D

#99 I often buy at Housing Works online... never disappointed.

Today~

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Time President Obama: The Path to The White House by Adi Ignatius

From Amazon

The Seance by John Harwood

Skeletons at the Feast: A Novel by Chris Bohjalian

From vine to review

The Terror: A Novel by Dan Simmons

Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas (50th Anniversary Edition) by Mari Sandoz

from better World Books

eta

touchstones

From a library trip: Cold Moon for $1.00 and The House of Stairs and A Demon in My View. I was so good, I didn't wander around looking even though I saw that A Mercy had just come in.

BookMooch delivered up a couple romances to me today, The Wolf by Jean Johnson and Bride and Groom which is an anthology with stories by Deborah Johns, Linda Madl and Patricia Waddell.

I took a trip to the Goodwill store to see if they had any new books. I did find a few:

The Aviator by Ernest K. Gann
700 Sundays by Billy Crystal
The Pigeon Project by Irving Wallace
Lifeguard by James Patterson
The King of Torts by John Grisham
No Good Deeds by Laura Lippman

I know I will be going back again soon...

A friend who had advance ordered Carl Hiaasen's newest children's book offered it to me to read first.

Scat

That's my kind of friend.

I received These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer today from Amazon.

Oh ellie--can I come with you--books and chocolate--you are correct not a better combination anywhere!! Well maybe a little wine w/ it as well.

>108 whymaggiemay:
I've been good for a week, but new childrenbook from Carl Hiaasen looks fun

Just one from Sainsbury's today - Bleeding Heart Square

Bought Graceling by Kristin Cashore and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, after resisting for many months (I was waiting for the paperbacks). Absolutely can't wait to start them!

#104- thank you so much for supporting Housing Works and the Book Cafe- I've been a Housing Works employee for almost 6 years- i'm a social worker and the Book Cafe is my secind favorite site of the agency- thanks again!!!

From an often closed rarely open jumbled bookshop on Court Street I bought Life of Pi by Yann Martel for a bookclub discussion in February. On the way home, I "rummaged" two books hospitably left out on the curb: The Partner by Grisham, and Fodor's Ireland and then discovered in my bookcase at home a very slim Selections from the Essays of Montaigne which I plan to reread in February as part of my New Year's resolution to "organize and optimize" my life. I've resisted thus far visiting the second floor bookshelves at my favorite haunt, the Salvation Army store, and I've pruned considerably my shopping list at Amazon.com.

oh WOWZER!!! So I had someone that gave me 105 books today!!! Don't know what I'll do with myself!!! check out my bookmooch page for the ones that I've already read. I don't have time to list all of them here... I'm too busy looking through the boxes...:-)

Wow that is great!!! It is nice when you get books that no one else wants. Have fun going through those boxes.

Codiebelle--lucky you!!!

codiebelle78 -- that's like winning the lottery! Let us know what the highlights are.

codiebelle - did you actually have to kill that person? We're all green with envy even if you did!

#115 God, I LOVE Life of Pi. Hope it gives you as much of a great time as it did me (and still does at least once a year) - enjoy!

We look out for books on Freecycle - we've had a few classics from a lady who bought boxes full from a school closing-down sale, and a couple of boxes of mixed stuff from someone having a clear out... Not gone through them yet though.

Anyway, today as planned we headed to the retail village, and after behaving myself VERY well round the clothes and shoes and kitchen stuff, I bought Eating for England by Nigel Slater (there was a big bio of Agatha Christie and some ingenious packs with a classic book and the movie accompaniment for only £4.99 each, but I was good!). Then on the way out, a large bag of mixed misshapes from the Cadbury factory shop, hooray!

My USPS guy brought me three packages today - two had books in them:

The Magic Cup by Andrew Greeley
Antony and Cleopatra: A Novel
Star Trek: A Singular Destiny by Keith DeCandido

and in the other box:

Patterns of Force, a Star Wars novel

I had a bad day (well, it's actually been a bad couple of weeks- I blame the economy, as well as my employer for putting all their eggs in one basket). So I engaged in my favorite form of therapy: a trip to the local used bookstore. I came home with

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
The Fig Eater by Jody Shields
The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman

Fewer calories than chocolate, and more long-term satisfaction.

(though I did have a brownie when I got home, too)

Love in the Time of Cholera just came in from bookmooch today, which was very exciting. I also picked up Jamaica Inn and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil from a used book sale the other day for my 999 challenge!

I promised myself I would make a dent in my tbr stack before getting any more books, but I think I might still have a few mooches coming in...

shootingstarr7--hoping you have better days ahead. Great book choices--enjoy!!

shootingstarr - don't you know that calories consumed while book buying don't count? Loved Year of Wonders - hope you do too.

And sarahbird - you've got three gems there.

For me today it was The Reader which I thought I'd already got but hadn't (for more on that little dilemma, see the Name that Book thread here - http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.php?topic=56266) and Be Near Me (thanks to mckait #50)

Like Nowhere Else by Denyse Woods arrived yesterday from Alibris. Thank you Akeela for your comments about this book.

#120 Just started Life of Pi but I'm already taken by the strength and simplicity of the story. A welcome read!

#128 Such a beautiful book and funny with it (I love the bit quite near the beginning about sloths - part of the reason for my screen-name! Made me laugh out loud.) It's definitely up in my top 10 of all time and probably even somewhere in the top 5. Hope it stays good for you.

shootingstarr - I hope you like Year of Wonders too - I've read it twice now and loved it - and considering how close I am here in Derbyshireland I'd like to go to Eyam and see the village for myself one of these days.

Anyways, another day, yet another trip to a retail village (the closer one again this time). I popped into Book Depot just for a quick nosy, expecting nothing much new in, only to find it was all go on that front. I bought Interview with the Vampire - I read it a few years ago but I was going through the morbid gothic teen phase then and get the feeling I didn't really appreciate it... Oh, and (*looks around furtively*) this time Mum was in the kitchenware shop and I was 'just nipping to the loo'...

#130 Interview is wasted on morbid teen goths (much as I love 'em). I was very young when I first read it and it was only when I reread it later in life that I realised what a beautiful, lyrical book it is (unlike everything that follows it, which is, to greater or larger degrees, derivative dross). How it is possible for the same person to write one such gorgeous piece of literature, then go completely to hell with all it's follow-ups, is a mystery to me.

Yes, I have to admit that I remember liking Interview better even then - I read The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned afterwards but they were a bit long-winded - I actually preferred the movie. In fact, that's what reminded me about it, I've got the QOTD movie but Interview with the Vampire was on TV the other night. :-)

Haven't been here in a while....bad weather and anticipation thereof cramps ones computer time....so, these in the past weekorso:
Vittorio:The Vampire by Ms Rice Herself
Fear Itself by Walter Mosley
Resurrection Men-Ian Rankin
North of Nowhere-Steve Hamilton.....my new address by the by
...these last from the local Discount House
Uncle Silas
Therese Raquin
The Beckoning Fair One
Three Gothic Novels: Vathek, Castle of Otranto,The Vampyre
With by Donald Harington
.....from Better World Books

A Quiet Flame by Philip Kerr....an ARC from Shelf Awareness
..........................whew!
;-p

Added to my Agatha Christie collection with Postern of Fate, a bookmooch that arrived today.

From the library today:

The Graveyard Book
Blood and Iron and
The Brothers Karamazov

These (and my 4 other library books) should keep me busy during vacation next week! :-)

The Devil's Acre: An Unlikely Mystery by David Holland

A Time of Angels: A Novel by Patricia Schonstein

My Steve by Terri Irwin

The Year of Past Things by M. A. Harper

The Sooterkin by Tom Gilling

Ship Sooner: A Novel by Mary Sullivan

Child of My Heart by Alice McDermott

Second Sight by Meg Henderson

Annie Dunne by Sebastian Barry

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

all wandered in today.. and it's porchy's fault.

really

At the bookstore I picked up my order for Satisfaction Guaranteed volume 5 and from the bargain table picked up Jack's Black Book by Jack Gantos.

When I arrived home my Amazon package yielded Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle volume 20 by Clamp, A Dangerous Game by Julia Templeton and Faire Grounds by Willa Okati.

From Bookmooch:
A Fatal Inversion

From Amazon:
To Fear a Painted Devil and A Dark Adapted Eye

I received one BookMooch today -- Obscure Destinies by Willa Cather

I also picked up another book from my Club's library -- Thomas Hardy by Claire Tomalin. She's one of my favorite biographers, so I'm really looking forward to this.

From the library:
259 Leaps, the Last Immortal by Alicia Kozameh
Not Quite What I Was Planning by Larry Smith
The Lizard's Tail by Luisa Valenzuela
Havana Gold by Leonardo Padura
The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

Only one that wasn't ordered or on the wishlist so that's pretty impressive for me - I usually bring home at least double what I went in for.

#136....now wait just a gol' dern minute there, missy. LOL You blame ME?? The one who shows such unbelievable restraint when it comes to buying books?? The one who only once in a great while will order maybe just one (huge) box of books from bookcloseouts.com?? The one who grits her teeth and wrings her hands whenever she comes within a mile of a book store?

I think not.

Er, well.....maybe just a little bit. But you started it. :p

I got home after dark last night and happily stumbled over a UPS Ground package from TriLiteral LLC (Yale University Press, among others) at my front door. I get the Anchor Yale Bible by subscription; this volume was Philippians (no touchstone that I could see) translated and commented on by John Reumann.

Robert

From the wonderful folksat Amazon I picked up the following- The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga and Slumdog Millionaire

QI Advanced Banter - The QI Book of Quotations. Love QI, love quotations, love less than half price - one good reason not to buy? Nah, me neither.

Picked up Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx and The Reader by Bernhard Schlink while shoppinmg yesterday. Also got Brave New World from school for free (!) because it's required reading for the coming semester, yay!

Well yesterday I had to stop at Borders and I got on the buy 1 get 1 1/2 off--My Lobotomy and Night Train to Lisbon. Has anyone read Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet yet? I was tempted to buy that one as well but I was good and didn't :(

My phone dinged and it was an email from the library saying that my requests were in... Divine Secrets fo the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and Ya-Ya's in bloom.

An order from Chapters arrived today and I received Night Frost and A Touch Of Frost as well as Ritual. I love the Frost series so well that I am going to order the last two books today.

A book cart in front of a recently opened book store on Atlantic Avenue beckoned to me and I bought Living By Fiction by Annie Dillard, and Did My Mama Like to Dance a collection of short stories edited by Geeta Kothari. Two bucks. I resisted picking up several books by John Updike from the cart, but I'm sure they will be picked up quickly with his demise.

I got a package today with Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips inside. I won it in a contest, and I'm excited to start reading it!

From Bookmooch:
Never Let Me go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I read The Remains of the Day many years ago and loved it. I've been hearing great stuff about this book also, so I thought I would give it a try!

My dad bought me Watchmen by Alan Moore...

#150 - I loved Gods Behaving Badly, it's so amusing - a great read!

I received a few books today from B&N: Marrying the Captain, What a Scoundrel Wants, Scot on the Rocks and Romeo Romeo, all light reading for these cold winter days and nights!

Although I don't usually read popular adult contemporary lit I picked up The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time at the thrift store on my lunch because I had heard so many good things about it. Also in the mail today came Black Sun Silver Moon volume 4 and Switch Volume 1. My manga collection is quickly overtaking the traditional books in my house. I am afraid.

Getting into The Unknown Terrorist by R. Flanagan....it's steamy and full of intrigue! Set in Sydney, Australia, this is a different kind of book for me. Very good so far.

In the mail today I received The Angry Smile: The Psychology of Passive-Agressive Behavior in Families, Schools, and Workplaces by Jody E. Long, Nicholas J. Long and Signe Whitson.

Monday at Barnes and Noble:

Escape by Carolyn Jessop
Capturing Paris by Katharine Davis

Wednesday at Barnes and Noble:

My French Kitchen: A Book of 120 Treasured Recipes by Joanne Harris and Fran Warde
All You Need To Be Impossibly French by Helena Frith Powell
Quite a Year For Plums by Bailey White
10th Grade by Joseph Weisberg
Darkness, Tell Us by Richard Laymon

And - Friday at Barnes and Noble:

Star Trails: 50 Favorite Columns From Sky & Telescope by David H. Levy (Touchstone doesn't seem to be loading)
and
America's Back Roads and Byways by Ron Fisher

By the way, I don't think I've introduced myself. I'm Pam. I've posted a little bit here and have been reading everyone else's posts. I suggest a lot of your recommendations to my customers (at Barnes and Noble). I recently recommended The Elegance of the Hedgehog to a customer and he came back to tell me he loved it. I have since told him about Lark and Termite. I haven't read either of those books, yet, myself but I'm finding it very helpful to read what you guys are saying about the books you've been buying, borrowing, and reading.

From Amazon UK: Shadows of the Workhouse by Jennifer Worth

One BookMooch: Before the Frost by Henning Mankell

One used book from Amazon: North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

I have some new books from Barnes & Noble:

The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, Volume Two by Gordon Dahlquist
This is one of those deals where they split one book in HC into 2 trade paperbacks (in US anyway).

Dark Haven by Gail Z. Martin
Book 3 in the Chronicles of the Necromancer series.

The Fox by Sherwood Smith
Book 2 in the Inda series

Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips
Those wacky Greek Gods sharing a London flat.

From Book Mooch

Nightrunners of Bengal by John Masters
Historical fiction set in India during the Raj. A story of the Indian Mutiny, and part of the Savage Family series.

Then when I was moving things around so I can winterize the windows (just in time for spring :() I found a couple of books that I never cataloged. Either that or my books are breeding in corners.

Mother Father Uncle Aunt by Garrison Keillor,
An audiobook of the radio show, with Stories from Lake Wobegon

The War at Troy by Lindsay Clarke
Historical fiction redoing the Trojan war. This is the first book. I knew I had both, but this one was hiding from me.

I was very bad tonight. Celebrating that I still have a job, got paid, and my tax refund came in. So of course I bought, ahem, a few books. I will start on them tomorrow.

#153 ktleyed:
I don't really read romance as a genre but I like to look at the covers sometimes (have to at work). Some of the dresses are so beautiful that I sometimes want to buy the book just so I can look at the dress. The dress in your book Marrying the Captain is beautiful. I'd wear that if it would only look good on me.
:)

>157 JolieLouise: Hi Pam! Glad to see you. You're due for a pleasant surprise reading Lark and Termite, if today's Buns and Nubile couch read of 40pp is any indicator.

>159 FicusFan: Ficus!! Glad to see you! I was concerned that the ice and general nastiness had swallowed you whole. Instead, you're off buying books. Good!

I brought The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky from the B&N tonight and picked up The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver from the bargain section while I was there.

Richard, More like being frozen. I am fine, but have also been slogging through a book and not on-line as much in the last week. Thanks for your concern.

msf59 - Good luck with Never Let Me Go. It's a great book, as are all Ishiguro's so, once you've finished that one, you have to go get all the others too! You're in for a real treat.

And vampir - a gift-book-buying dad! I hope you realise how lucky you are!

#160 jolie - I was struck by the cover too! I thought her dress was lovely as well. I bought it for the cover (and actually made an icon of it) but also because it's the February Monthly Book Choice at Romance - from historical to contemporary group.

Another book sale at the local library. My husband and I donated $20 and came away with a car full:

Seeds of Yesterday by V.C. Andrews
The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox
Steven Spielberg by Joseph McBride
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
Salem is My Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne by Edwin Haviland Miller
Red Sea by Diane Tullson
Cruel & Unusual by Patricia Cornwell
Blow Fly by Patricia Cornwell
Black Notice by Patricia Cornwell
Next by Michael Crichton
Playing for Pizza by John Grisham
Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig
The Mapmaker's Wife by Robert Whitaker
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
Finding Caruso by Kim Barnes
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Execution by Hugo Wilcken
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
Eating Chinese Food Naked by Mei Ng
Sophie by Guy Burt
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
Summer Sisters by Judy Blume
The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham (first edition, no less!)

... I definitely bought a new bookcase last night in preparation for all of this.

I've been cleaning out the guest bedroom and found a box of books in the dormer. They're my mother-in-law's - I don't remember seeing them before at all. So, how did they get there? Good question. I haven't cataloged them yet, but there is one from 1899 and one from 1917..... maybe when we get back from dinner I'll indulge.

From B&N:
Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges

Hit the Friends of the Library sale today and got:

Alas, Babylon a re-read from 40 years ago
Founding Brothers I love history and it looks good

a bunch of books in from half.com:

Rereadings by Anne Fadiman (the essays are by other people, though)
Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony by Lewis Thomas - another collection of essays. It was an impulse buy - about $0.75, I liked the title, I like Mahler's ninth, so I bought it.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. I may be the last person in the world to read this. Liked the movie!
Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann. I read it before and loved it and wanted to own it. Now I do!

Books I have entered so far, from my binge last night. I was at Barnes & Noble. I was doing catch up, and picking up books that are in series I have, but didn't get the latest book.

I am so sad, Borders, besides killing their store-order web site, just doesn't have enough books for me to enjoy browsing in the store.

Earth Ascendant by Sean Williams
Book 2 in the Astropolis series. SF, set in the far future, far flung space empire encounters problems.

The Merchant's War by Charles Stross
Book 4 in the Merchant Princes series. Stross usually writes SF, this is a science fantasy which blends the real world and a fantasy-based medieval trading family.

At Grave's End by Jeaniene Frost
Book 3 in the Night Huntress series
Urban/dark/paranormal fantasy set in the modern world. Has vampires, adventure, thriller, romance and mystery.

Victory Conditions by Elizabeth Moon
Book 5 in the Vatta's War series
Military SF. She does space adventures that have a military SF/space opera feel, often with some aspect of trading thrown in.

Vampire's Revenge by Raven Hart
Book 5 in the Savannah Vampire series.
Another modern day paranormal/urban/dark fantasy with mystery, thrills, romance, adventure and vampires.

The Moon in the Mirror by P.R. Frost
Book 2 in the Tess Noncoire series
Another modern day urban fantasy. Main character is in a society to protect us from demons who invade earth. She works with an imp for a sidekick.

I just bought The Big Book of Baking and Emily Windsnap and the Castle in the Mist. Yay TJ Maxx.

moi, porchy? I think not...!

Well, maybe I did, but still....

It was you mentioned the BOGO.. lol

Frankly, after reading some of the lists here.. I don't feel too guilty.

Today 4 came home, and I listed them here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/56589

a new thread for a new month

Heck, it doesn't matter who started what, we are all in the same boat.....addicted to books and talking about books! LOL I'm just glad we have LT so we can share the madness. :o)