What Did You Buy Today?...new Message Board

In yesterday's mail from Amazon, a copy of Matthew Sharpe's new novel Jamestown.

I hit the jackpot yesterday. While traveling home from my vacation, I noticed a sign on the interstate for a used bookstore...and of course couldn't pass it up. The store is huge, and has books from .75 to $4. I think most of the books I bought were one dollar. So, despite my recent book-budget, I purchased about 60 books. But, I only spent $80.

I'm now wondering if 4 hours is a reasonable trip to just purchase books. I'm fairly sure my husband will not think so. I am itching to go back already. :)

I have a bunch of books I need to read, but I never looked at the used bookstore in the library before. I wonder how often they get new books...? For $4.75, I got these:

(the first three are Ace Doubles, which I'd never heard of before joining LT, so there are two titles and two authors)
Listen! The Stars!/The Rebellers by John Brunner/Jane Roberts
Ships to the Stars/The Million Year Hunt by Fritz Leiber/Kenneth Bulmer
Endless Shadow/The Arsenal of Miracles by John Brunner/Gardner F. Fox

The Pride of Chanur by C. J. Cherryh (that is a very strange last name)
Quicksand by John Brunner
It's the Little Things: 300 Simple Ways to Indulge Yourself by Amy Collins

I confess, I went on a binge.....I wanted to go to the library store JUST to browse, but of course there were too many books I had to have....and here they are:

Eucalyptus by Murray Bail
Shosha by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Scoundrel time by Lillian Hellman
Good behaviour by Molly Keane
Ahab's wife by Sena Jeter Naslund
Time and again by Jack Finney, which I already had, but this is the hardcover first edition!
The namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Ladies almanack by Djuna Barnes
A London child of the 1870s by M.V.Hughes
The piano by Jane Campion
Don Camillo takes the devil by the tail by Giovanni Guareschi
The little world of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi
Don Camillo's dilemma by Giovanni Guareschi
The house that Nino built by Giovanni Guareschi
My secret diary by Giovanni Guareschi**

Also, in the mail, from Amazon
The truth about Lou by Angela von der Lippe

**Giovanni Guareschi was an Italian writer, who became famous for a series featuring Don Camillo (the town priest) and Peppone (the communist mayor). Their friendship/rivalry, and the depiction of their life in a little town in the center of Italy, surrounded by a bunch of quaint and hilarious characters, is quite funny.

To ward off the potential disaster of having nothing to read on a 3.5 hour flight (was nearing the end of The Fourth Durango by Ross Thomas) I bought Lamb by Christopher Moore in a fit of desperation in an airport bookstore. I didn't count on as much time between flights as I had and only had the one book in my carry on. Yikes.

I found a Christopher Moore book on the half-price table of the bookstore. I've heard so much about how funny his stories are I had to pick it up. This particular one I haven't heard much about, it is The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove.

I also picked up Chicken soup for the Mother and Son Soul for my friend who has a birthday coming up. She loves the Chicken Soup books, I just hope this isn't one she already has.

>4 aluvalibri: You bring back memories with "Don Camillo"! I read those books many years ago (high school?) and really enjoyed them. Hmmm, I may have to do some more ILL-ing...

>6 Jenson_AKA_DL: I hope you like The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove as much as I did. It has a couple of classic lines in it, one of which is how I got a friend hooked on Christopher Moore.

Meanwhile, this has been a exciting week so far for books coming in:

From Amazon:
Command Decision
Change of Command
Terrier
A Dangerous Man
The Seventeen Traditions

From Book Mooch and Paperback Swap:
Everything and the Moon
Simply Unforgettable
The Truth About Love
The Ideal Bride
The Promise in a Kiss
Death By Inferior Design
Affair
Seduction

Most of the "swaps" were fill-ins - books I had read (borrowed from the Library) and wanted to add into complete runs. Thank goodness because my TBR shelf is now expanding to shelves....

>7 heyjude: I loved Don Camillo as a young girl, in Italy, as well as the movies they made out of the books. Unfortunately, I believe they never arrived to the US. What a pity!

That was some binge Miss Paola!! I'm green with envy!

Well, Cate, LUCKILY they were not there when you came!!! (Wicked grin...;-))

Is Lust Lizard the one with the gag about red shirts? That cracked me up!!!

Today I picked up Broken by Kelley Armstrong to add to my TBR pile.

I also received a library notice that 8 of my requested books came in. Guess what I'll be doing for the next couple weeks?

This evening, as a matter of directional chance, I happened to find a Barnes & Noble...

So, in addition to the March/April Issue of Bookmarks, I picked up some titles that were sadly missing from my library (for whatever reason!)

Wuthering Heights
Howards End
Night and Day

I won't even dare try to touchstone the authors for I believe we all know who they are!!)

I have a horrible habit of going into a bookstore looking for a certain book, not finding it, browsing the store, and leave with something in my hand.

Today I bought Kate Remembered (a biography of Katharine Hepburn)

The Complete Idiots Guide to Crossword Puzzles. Just because it looked fun and was only $5.

#13> as a matter of directional chance.....? Yeah, right! FAT chance at that!!!

**wicked grin once again**

I've hit a readers block-I went into the Borders next to my office building- and walked out empty handed!!! No books called out to me!!! Have I lost my reading mojo???

I'm looking for a great book, any recommendations?

Hi Suge,

Here are some I have read recently that I loved:

Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Zafron
The Space Between Us Thrity Amrigar
Second Glance by Jodi Picoult (anything by her is great)
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
If You Lived Here by Dana Sachs

I wish I could say I've gone into a Borders and left empty handed but that is never the case with me!!

Hope you get your reading mojo back!

Thank you so much, momom!

Suge!!

Three Excellent books that may get you out of your reading bleus.....

White Oleander by Janet Fitch
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

I've got money in the bank, a B&N coupon, and a need for some retail therapy. I'm thinking Coraline and The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters (love the title). The latter I had to return a few months back due to financial difficulties and never went back to reclaim. I'll report back after the weekend.

I just got The Egyptologist in the mail and may start to read it, but there's a huge pile of books to choose from...

Elenasimona, I hope you enjoy The Egyptologist MUCH MUCH more than I did. I confess I was disappointed.

Walked by a bookstore downtown and only came out with one book. Amazing.

The Education of Mrs. Bemis by John Sedgwick

Found out that I missed his signing by something like 12 hours. He had just been at that store the night before. Gah!

Oh and in the post later that day came;
A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
Because She Can by Bridie Clark (having one more go at chick lit before giving up forever. I swear.)
The Watchmen: A Joe Pike Novel by Robert Crais (which no amount of touchstone fiddling will get right)

So much for my "not buying new books" resolution! I went to a used book sale yeseterday and picked up (among others):

All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot
the Complete Plays of Aristophanes
the Montessori Method
the Handmaid's Tale
Tales from Shakespeare
Kidnapped, Stevenson
Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Howard Pyle
the Water Babies
Out of Africa
Of Human Bondage
Euripides, Medea and Other Plays
Quilts from the Civil War

and a handful of Newbery Medal and Honor books. 24 books for $21! woohoo!

I went to the bookstore the other day and picked up my copy in Inkspell. My friend loaned me Inkheart and I fell inlove with it.

Amazon delivery brought Ian Rankin, Rebus: The Early Years which has Knots & Crosses, Hide & Seek, Tooth & Nail in it.
Also, Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate

Needed some fast 'n fun reads.

A bunch of books about math on Powells.com in the under $8 category. I felt guilty because I have too many books.

Well, technically it was bought on Saturday by a very good friend as a present for me, but One Taste by Ken Wilber just arrived in the mail from amazon today. I'm really looking forward to reading this, but I'm already in the middle of five books (not counting assigned reading for college) and have decided to finish one before starting it.

Technically I didn't buy these today but this is the amazon order that came in my mail today:

The Dead Girl's Dance by Rachel Caine

Jennifer Scales and the Ancient Furnace by MaryJanice Davidson and Anthony Alongi

Dark Protector by Alexis Morgan

Hard Days Knight by Katie MacAlister

The Smoke Thief by Shana Abe.

I walked in to the bookstore to buy No way to treat a first lady by Christopher Buckley (on the recommendation of a co-worker). The store didn't have a copy. So . . . I left with Elantris, The Book Thief, books 1 and 2 of the Sisters Grimm, and all three volumes of Nora Roberts' Circle Trilogy. Hey, I had a 30% off coupon and the Nora Roberts books were buy 2, get one free. Can't beat a deal like that!

Library Thing is going to be the death of me. 72 books on the TBR shelf (shelves) and counting . . .

Picked up Astrid & Veronika by Linda Olsson from Borders (at 20% off) based on recommodations posted on LT. Otherwise, I added to my list of books-to-be-purchased-elsewhere far more economically.

Did come across a book that I think many LTers will like The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay about an Australian girl working in a bookstore in Manhattan and in search of a lost manuscript by Herman Melville.

The author is a former bookstore employee as well.

My latest 2 buys are Star by Pamela Anderson and Girls in Trouble by Caroline Leavitt

Got them both at Barnes & Noble on the Bargain Shelf.

#31> Bleuroses, I bought The secret of lost things yesterday, while shopping at Cosco.
By the way, to all of you, there is a new "What did you buy today" thread for April.
I just posted there the books I got today.
:-))

**Touchstone does not seem to be willing to load...

Well, I swapped not bought (from Bookmooch)

1.The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker which has been on my wish list for ages.

2. You Just Don't Understand by Deborah Tannen
Which I THOUGHT was on my wishlist but was actually already on my shelf! D'oh! I meant to get a copy of That's Not What I Meant by the same author which was wonderful and lent to my father who (typical for him) never returned it. But lo and behold, I go to enter it, all excited and giddy, here into LT and find it's the one I still have a copy of in my library.

--Soooo, if anyone wants to swap, it's already on Bookins and Bookmooch. Pleeeeaassse???

got Hesse's Demian and a book of Rilke's poetry. Need to finish up A Wild Sheep Chase first though. Self-control...argh.

I picked up the anthology Prom Nights From Hell today. I'm looking forward to reading it, but I have a very large library pile to get through first.

I dropped off a donation at our local thrift shop to support our hospital, and I came away with Fast Food My Way by Jacques Pepin for ONE DOLLAR!

It is brand new, never been cracked open, and I've wanted this book forever!

I happened to have family in town today that love going to goodwill stores. We have 5 in our town and we have to hit them all... between all of them, I came home with 57 books and only spent about $30. So this was my binge for a while....hopefully :-)

During the past two days, 4 new books arrived:

Never Saw It Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the Worst by Karen Cerulo (because I'm interested in such things).

Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulemia by Marya Hornbacher (because I teach the lecture on eating disorders in a college of nursing)

Old Boys by Charles McCarry (because I love, love, love espionage stuff)

Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe (because quite a few people send me emails which tick me off).

This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin

and Hearing and Writing Music : Professional Training for Today's Musician by Ron Gorow which I'd already begun reading from a library loan. It's fabulous and I can't wait to really dig into it now that I don't have to worry about returning it.

Both have been on my Wish List on various bookswapping sites and I finally couldn't wait any longer and ordered new from Amazon.

The first 9 pages of Your Brain on Music and I know it's worth the price of buying it new.

Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life Of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser To Kings, Ally of Lawrence Of Arabia by Janet Wallach - a timely read, given that it was Gertrude Bell who began the Iraq Museum in Baghdad in 1923, the museum from which thousands of artifacts were looted in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Yesterday, I got The Last Colony by John Scalzi.

I had preordered it from Amazon several months ago, with the assumption that I would get it basically as soon as it was available (right? isn't that generally why one pre-orders a book?). And though the technical release date of the book was yesterday, it was available in stores at least as early as Saturday.

However, as of yesterday evening, Amazon still said that it wasn't going to be available until the 27th. Ummm....

So, I said screw them, cancelled my order, and went and bought it from B&N.

(Posted on a couple other threads as well. Please forgive the duplication.)

Hi, my name is Riva, and I'm a Biblioholic.

Today I bought:

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
The Expected One by Kathleen McGowan
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
and the sequel Rebel Angels
The Scent of Shadows by Vicki Pettersson
and its sequel The Taste of Night
and
The Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd
and its sequel The Rebels of Ireland

(anyone see a pattern here??)

Now, I did get some from the 3 for 2 table, and I had a 10% off coupon, and I had a gift card to use. But, I have over 70 books on my TBR stack (not on a list - in a physical stack). 70+ books staring at me, wondering why I'm not reading them!!

Someone, PLEASE stop me before I shop again!!

(Oh, did I mention that the library sale is this weekend??)

Saturday I picked up the new release, Masquerade by Melissa de la Cruz and when I arrived home I found the copy of Raging Hearts: The Guardian Heart Crystal series by Kat Blakenship had come in from AuthorHouse. I was very pleased by the length of the novel. It was rather expensive and I didn't see a page count before I ordered it. I simply went by the book description and excerpt which sounded facinating. The cover was a definite attraction as well!

I bought a whole bunch of books left over from the sale my local library had this past weekend.

Sadly, none of them are for me:( Okay, to be fair, the two bags I bought Sat. were.

But I got two more huge bags-full of various genres of hardcover books which I'm going to take to my local long-term care hospital here in town- along with 2 30-gal. size trash bags full of craft supplies my Mom is donating. I'm hoping these gifts will bring lots of smiles to the hundreds of patients who live in this facility.

I also grabbed a Mom's day gift:
Medicinal and Other Uses of North American Plants: A Historical Survey with Special REference to the Eastern Indian Tribes by Charlotte Erichsen-Brown
I must admit, this one is going to be painful to let go of, even though I know she'll enjoy it more than me. Of course, since I'm an only child, I know it will come back to me one day:).