It's book you-know-what!

I've been a busy kid this week. "Summer" started and all of the sudden its almost like I have a life. I work a lot. I engage in social events. I host friends from out of state. I go out of state. I go other places in the state. And (and most importantly?), I go to book sales! The towns on either side of us had book sales on back to back weekends, which means I have a bunch of new (old) books. So, of course, I've got to share the plunder. And yes, this time, I've overcome my intrinsic laziness to provide...pictures! Okay, they're not the best pictures, but at least you can better drool over the pretty books, right?

First up we've got the book sale from last weekend. I didn't find too much on my wish list, but I (and my parents whose books I've factored in because I suppose I'll inevitably try to read them) got a bunch of tasty looking books nonetheless. Click on the pictures to make them ginormous, of course.





Let's see what we've got here (let's see if I can manage just highlights) - well, there's my dad's serendipitous purchase of two books on my wish list Turning Angel by Greg Iles, who I continue to think is one of my favorite authors since I read his book Black Cross and loved it (yet haven't read another of his since despite owning several), and Saucer by Stephen Coonts, the first chapter of which I read through one of those e-mail things where they send you a bit each day of a week so that you get all curious and go and buy it.

Island by Alistair MacLeod whose No Great Mischief was one of the first books I reviewed here. He writes like he would be a great short story writer, and I plan to find out with this rather lengthy collection.

A Wedding in December by Anita Shreve that I had convinced myself I didn't want but it looked so sparkly and interesting I decided I had to give it a try. The River Midnight and The Queen of the Underworld, a pair of wish list books. The Secret History of the Pink Carnation that had its glory days of people loving it on BookObsessed which, of course, made me curious. Tales of Burning Love by Louise Erdrich which I hope reminds me more of The Master Butchers Singing Club which I loved than The Beet Queen which I, uh, didn't. A cast off ARC of Something Rising (Light and Swift) which I somehow managed to never know existed. Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner which Matt reviewed not so long ago. And Jihad vs. McWorld which could very well be awful but calls out to political science me and the me that likes cool book titles. Okay, that was some pretty extensive highlight for the rest you'll have to go and make the picture huge.

Next up, we've got the Bloomsburg Library book sale. I went early with the Friends. And the library has a lot of friends, and one evil capitalist with a bar code scanner that must be running some sort of bookselling operations somewhere which kind of just bothers you when you're looking for books that he's just planning on reselling. This was a rough and tumble crowd, but I emerged relatively unscathed and with yet more tasty looking books, which I've done a particularly dismal job of capturing on camera for you.



And highlights. I spotted sparkly new looking copies of Pete Hamill's North River and Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union which I elbowed some old ladies out of the way for. I'm telling you, it was a tough crowd, elbows were your only chance of even looking at the books. Everybody in blogland is talking about Marisa de los Santos' new book, so I jumped at the chance to grab the old one, Love Walked In. The History of Love has been on my wish list forever. A pair of Orhan Pamuk's because I'm curious. Shadows & Lies by Marjorie Eccles because one of you bloggers wrote a good review of it, though I'm hard pressed to remember which one. Wendy sold me on The Blackwater Lightship, I believe. Lisey's Story by Stephen King because Stephen King is one of my old habits that die hard. I'm always thinking about devouring a good Stephen King in the summer because I remember staying up til all hours or going on vacation with one and not being able to tear myself away. A Good Dog by Jon Katz because he came to my old Borders to sign and I remembered the books from all the advertising. And it sounds good, of course. My mom picked up a copy of Dogs Never Lie About Love, the title of which I thought sounded kind of cheesy, but it's by the same guy that wrote When Elephants Weep which I've got and think sounds fabulously interesting.

Since I'm at this whole picture thing, how about some bonus bookpile shots?

Here's the "My name is Megan, and I have a problem with seeking out and/or accepting free books" pile that's starting to get me into trouble because they all want/need reading/reviewing soon.



And then there's the "Really, Megan, you should stop promising people books before you've read them" pile that's also getting me in trouble. It (still) contains several books that I said I was going to read for the Spring Reading Thing challenge, which I have, as you might conclude, pretty much failed at. But the pile is definitely smaller than when I started, and I choose to blame Elle because I had to divert from my reading plan to read the free books they sent me. Not that I really mind about that all that much.



I'd love to hear if you've read any of the books on the bookpiles and whether you happened to like them! And that's all for significant book acquisitions until well...next month. Now, I really must leave you and go read.

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