Library Sale... AKA: I DON'T Have A Problem!

So, yesterday, after breakfast, The Boy spotted a library sale. And then told me about it, which was his first mistake. He then had to wander around after me, bored, for not nearly as long as I would have liked, but out of consideration for him I cut it short to just an hour. 

It was $3/bag day. I got all of the above books in that bag. I would have gotten more, obviously, but almost all of the paperbacks were romances or Dean Koontz, or... Ones I already owned. *cough cough*

Here's my haul: 

The Thief of Always by Clive Barker

An ARC edition of Vurt by Jeff Noon (on of The Boy's favorites! Imagine that- he CAN read!)

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

*A Van Vogt Omnibus, containing Planets for Sale, The Beast, and The Book of Ptath

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

The Sweet In-Between by Sheri Reynolds

Beware of the Dog by E.X. Ferrars

The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates

Sapphira and the Slave Girl by Willa Cather

Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote

Tinkers by Paul Harding

* I picked this up purely on a whim. I never heard of any of these stories, but it looked well read, and I always think that I should read more science fiction, and for about $.14, you can't beat the price. ;) 

These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner

The Rainy Season by James P. Blaylock

The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

Dixie City Jam by James Lee Burke

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn

The Crisis by Winston Churchill

The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton

After the First Death by Lawrence Block

Ordinary Heroes by Scott Turow

Obviously, a lot of these books are ones that I wouldn't have likely ever read, or even heard of, otherwise. But getting 21 books for the price of a half off mass market paperback is a good incentive! 

After leaving the sale, we ran a few more errands, and stopped at one of my favorite discount stores, where I bought... yeah, more books. (I SAID I don't have a problem!)

I picked up The Illustrated Sherlock Holmes, which contains 37 short stories and a full novel. I also got The Haunting of Granite Falls by Eva Ibbotson, because a friend loves her, and I've never read anything of hers. And finally, an apparent steampunk book about Jack the Ripper called "Ripper" by Stefan Petrucha... because why not? 

... Now I just have to find a way to fit them onto my shelves. O_o

Booksies!

I'm not sure if anyone's noticed, but I've been having a bit of trouble finishing books lately. Or, I will finish them, but it's either:

A) Ridiculously short - lookin' at you, WeGiveBooks books & free Tor novellas...
or
B) Ridiculously slow - lookin' now at you, every other book...

So apparently, my logic is, "If you can't read 'em, buy 'em!"

I've pre-ordered and/or otherwise acquired these signed editions*:

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
Double Feature by Owen King
The Ocean At The End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
We're All In This Together by Owen King

Special thanks to Kathy for getting Locke & Key, Heart-Shaped Box, and We're All In This Together signed for me! :D

In addition to the above awesomeness, I bought some other books:

G.I. Joe: Hearts & Minds by Max Brooks
Roses by Leila Meacham
One-Act Plays by George A. Goldstone
Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss
Psycho by Robert Bloch
The Descent by Jeff Long

*No author legs were humped in the acquisition of these titles... But not for lack of trying... *sigh* ;)

Review: People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks ★★★★

I've had this book on my to-read list for a long time, 3 years or so, but it was one of those books that I didn't really think that I would ever really get to. A 'lifer'. I'd read Brooks' Year of Wonders back in 2008, and I liked it, but about 4 years has passed now, and the more I read in those intervening years, the more I came to feel like it wasn't really all that impressive, after all. I especially feel that way after finishing People of the Book. The writing in YOW just doesn't even hold a candle to the writing in POTB. It's a beautifully written, moving book, and I'm sorry that I put off reading it for so long.

I will say that there were parts of POTB that felt too modern for the historical sections, and even too "British" (mainly because the 'could/should/would have done' phrase sticks out like a sore thumb to me), and I thought that the romantic interest was awkward and didn't really ever sit right with me, but aside from those two things, I couldn't really find anything to criticize in this book.

I read for pleasure, and this book drew me in. I thought it was a fantastic melding of history, bibliophilia, socio-political issues, and life. I thought the characters were interesting, and even though most of them were only bit-players, I never actually felt like that's what they were while reading. They had history, and depth, and personality, and I very much enjoyed reading their stories, even when they were disturbing or heartbreaking.

But mostly, I loved this book for the story of the haggadah itself. I loved the way that the history of the book unfolded, with each clue to its journey through the years being shown as a story in itself, moving backwards in time until the origin of the book is shown. The historical sections were wonderful - they all felt completely real, although they were all horrifying as well, especially the 1492 Inquisition section.

I remember studying the Inquisition in school, and somehow it never really conveyed just how fucked up that shit was. That's probably why we never learn anything. We sanitize history to the point where it's completely lost all meaning, so we just keep doing the same shit over and over. We're still killing each other over differences in opinion regarding which religion is "right", or because a man dares to love another man and want to share his life with him, or because someone's skin is the wrong color, or because... we're just fucking bored and hate-filled. For fuck's sake. When will we grow up?

"You've got a society where people tolerate difference[...] and everything's humming along: creative, prosperous. Then somehow this fear, this hate, this need to demonize 'the other' --it just sort of rears up and smashes the whole society."

/soapbox

Fantastic book. I highly recommend it.

Thrift Store Score 3

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

I don't usually do many IMM posts. But today I'm doing one, because I'm kind of excited about the books I've acquired this week.

I did two book buying splurges this weekend... one at the thrift store around the corner from my house... (Seriously... DANGER ZONE.), and one at a local bargain store that is, thankfully, across town.

Here's what I got.

Thrift store (Used books): 

Robert Bloch's Psychos (A collection of horror stories)

Shadowland by Peter Straub (Sorry for the craptacular pic of that one!)

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin 

P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern (OMG, even the first page made me cry!!)

A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Bargain Store (New Books): 

Dust City by Robert Paul Wilson

Endgame by Nancy Garden

The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga

And finally... 

The Talisman Graphic Novel, Vol. 1: The Road of Trials

OMG. I paid $3.99 for this. It's PERFECT. ♥♥♥

Excuse me while I squee all over the place!  SQUEE! :D

The Talisman is one of my all time favorite books, and I've been wanting to read this graphic novel for ages... but budgets being tight, I can't justify buying at full price. $3.99 I can manage though! O_O

All of the books in this week's IMM post cost me less than $20 combined. Super awesome haul this week. 

SQUEEE!!!!

My New Reading Room... err... Bedroom.

I do the majority of my reading in the bedroom. The living room is the Boy's domain... where he does his art, and whatever else it is that boys do. I do have a nice sunny chair in the extra bedroom, but I don't like to read in there very much... I like to sprawl out on the bed and read.

The problem is that my new(ish) downstairs neighbors like to have parties... a LOT... and they like to have these parties in the room directly below my quiet bedroom sanctuary. Unfortunately, it was too much of a distraction for me (seriously... it sounds like they play circus jug-band music every day... I couldn't take it anymore!), and so my boyfriend and I decided that the living room and the bedroom should swap places, because it doesn't bother him.

So we did... This has been a work in progress for 4 days now, and I've finally gotten things how I want them.

And it's nice and quiet and peaceful. *contented sigh*

Pictures below! Read on!

1st 2012 Thrift Store Score! :D

I haven't been buying physical books lately, since I've been doing so much reading on my Nook, so naturally, I haven't been raiding the thrift store book section, either. Which is a shame, because 1) thrift store books are super inexpensive and 2) those purchases help my community.

So, the boy and I were out and about last night and stopped in on a whim. And I bought these:

From left to right:
- The Fate of Katherine Carr by Thomas H. Cook
- Why We Can't Wait by Martin Luther King Jr.
- Odd's End by Tim Wynne-Jones

Hmm... 3 books... 3 authors... 3 names each. Weird.

Anyway, The Fate of Katherine Carr and Odd's End are both unknowns to me... just thrillers that sounded interesting, but I was really excited to find the MLK book. A little late for MLK Day, which was Monday, but not the end of the world... But, since I did miss it, I'll definitely be reading this book for Black History Month.

I ♥ MLK.

Where the Magic Happens... and an INTERVENTION!!

My boyfriend, enabler that he is, kindly put up these pretty new purple bookshelves for me over the weekend, so that I could get the book piles and stacks, the ones that were taking over all of the flat surfaces in my bedroom, onto some shelves. Of course, now that I have the extra room, some of the areas look a little sparse, and this is making me crave new books! It's a never-ending, vicious cycle.

So this weekend, I reorganized, I catalogued, I counted... and I decided that I need an intervention. I have 213 books sitting on various shelves in my home that I have not yet read. That's a freakin' lot! I'm not quite at the point some are with owned-unread books (*cough* Tweety "429" Bird... LOL!), but I will be if I don't pace myself.

So... I've decided that I will not be buying any new books for a while... I will still accept review copies because that's a service to the reading community *buffs halo* ;), but unless it's a book that I just HAVE TO HAVE NOW NOW NOW, I will restrain myself from buying new books or visiting the library.

*shudder* It hurts already!!

Anyway... Let's take a look at why I need an intervention. Brace yourselves for the beautiful horror. O_O

This photo was taken with my cameraphone last night, because silly me, I forgot to take a picture of these shelves with the good camera, which The Boy had with him. The angle isn't the best, but with only the overhead light, it created a wicked glare on the artwork behind the shelves (which I created myself using super-secret methods), and glare is annoying. So I went with a more obscure angle, which means I'm artistic and quirky. Or something. *sigh*

Oh well. Here we have both sets of my Harry Potter books, US and UK paperbacks, one of my Tolkien trilogies (the omnibus edition) along with The Hobbit and the Silmarillon, the Masters of Rome series by Colleen McCullough, the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson, and a bunch of other random books. I won't list the books in every picture for you, that would take a reeeee-he-heallly long time! (Plus I have a different list which I'll talk about later...) Just this one because of the glare-reducing  artistic angle. :P

In the corner there on the right is the cat-tree where our little monsters like to watch The Outside. The plant you can see is some kind of sage, I think maybe? I don't know. It's pretty and soft and smells lovely, though, so I like it.

This is Bedroom Bookcase #1. My bookshelves are all in kind of awkward positions because my house is old and it leans and sags. So unless the bookcase is bracketed to the wall (and some are) it has to be strategically placed in a position where it's not likely to fall over. This is a strategically placed bookcase, which is to the left of my little workdesk (which is always a disaster area!)... I cropped out the desk. You don't want to see that. Your retinas will thank me. :)

This one has lots of random books on it. At one point I had tried to sort between what I'd read and was to be read, but now I have no sorting system except for my Stephen King books, which I'll get to a little bit later.

As you can see, I'm a fan of the double-stack. Which is why I feel like I have wasted space in the other book-strewn areas of my bedroom. This should not be confused with the double ROW, because that's just wrong. You can't even SEE the ones buried behind... I need to see my books, to admire them.

This is the view I have of my BookZone from the desk where I sit right now. Well, I'd have to turn around, or develop a really flexible neck, but you get the point. So we have 4 sections of books here, from left to right:

1. On Top O' The Dresser
2. Big Tall Bookcase
3. Under The TV
4. New Purple Shelves

On the dresser, sideways stacked, are the books that I need to mail out soonish, including Matched by Allie Condie and The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff, both of which are going to Star Book Tours to make their way into some readers' hands. If you're interested, stop by and join!

Big Tall Bookcase has ARCs that I need to read stacked up top. They are hard to see in the picture. =\ The rest is just random and series books.

Under the TV are the books that I don't really "read" or read books that I am willing to give away or swap. Reference books, duplicates, etc.

And finally, the Purple Shelves. My new favorites. (Is it fair that shelves would automatically become my favorite book-holding items simply because my favorite books are on them? I'll give it some thought.)

Sing it with me now... ♪♪ These are a few of my FAVORITE THINGS! ♪♪

Aren't they beautiful? I think so. :) The sketch in the first picture is of The Boy a few years ago, done by a NYC street artist in Central Park. Expensive, but I love it, so it was worth it. :)
These are organized with a few smaller hardcovers first, then on top the rest are books that relate to the Dark Tower series. The last book, facing front, is a book about King himself. 
The bottom shelf is in no particular order at all, except that the paperback Bachman books are together toward the end, and the non-fic books are together, then there are my graphic novels, and then another About King book.

Go ahead and admire... I'll wait.

So there you have it. About half of these books are ones that I haven't yet read, so I need to do that before I buy more. Remember all that cataloging and counting and stuff I mentioned? If you want to see the full list of the books I own but haven't read yet... Click here... :)