Sunday, June 15, 2008

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.

13 comments:

  1. That's quite a treasure trove of books! I especially loved that you elbowed old ladies to get the Chabon book. Great story!

    Take care,
    Jill

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mmm. The River Midnight. One of my all-time favorites.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm drooling over all those books! I have only read one Greg Iles book, but I knew long before I finished it that it wouldn't be my last. He's a great writer. There are quite a few you got that I have on hand to read but haven't managed to yet. Happy reading!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've read couple of these books. Didn't like The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, but I thought that Devil in the White City was very good. I alo really liked The Painter From Shanghai (all three books are reviewed on my blog, somewhere). Happy reading

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hotel du Lac is really lovely, and I'm dying to read the new Chabon - but perhaps I should read the old Chabon I have before I get more books.
    I'm so jealous, but I have put myself on a book-buying moratorium. I won't be able to walk in my bedroom if I don't.
    Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I deleted the last comment b/c I posted under my husband's id. Sorry :)

    Anyway, your book piles look like tons of fun. I've only read 2 of the books - Uglies and Devil in the White City. I liked both, but didn't LOVE either. I also tried to read Lisey's Story, but I couldn't get into it. I'll be interested to hear your opinions!

    I'm also a shameless collector of free books. I've got around 35 at the moment. Far Keep is one of them - I can't wait to read it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I've heard the Three Cups of Tea book is good. Other than that, I've heard of some of the others, but really can't comment.

    On the subject of book sales: they are the best or worst, depending on how you look at it, although as several people when I'm there keep reminding me, I could have worse addictions. I think I should get a shirt with that on the back: "Hey, I could be addicted to cocaine, you know?" and wear that to the book sales (of course, it might give some of those old ladies a heart attack on the spot ;).

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow! You got a lot of good stuff! I love book sales.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh my gosh...just look at all those yummy books!!!! I bought two of the same books as you at our last library sale (Lisey's Story and The Devil in the White City), but haven't read either of them yet. And I've got to say it's nice to hear that I'm not the only who's going to fail miserably on the Spring Reading Thing.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Beautiful pile of books. Now you're geared up for summer reading! :) I've been searching for other Brookner books after Hotel Du Lac. I recommend The Blackwater Lightship and other Colm Toibin books, which are a bit grim but very insightful and candid.

    ReplyDelete
  12. _The Road from Coorain_ is a wonderful book. It is my favorite of Jill Ker Conway's memoirs.

    I, too, love book sales! I posted about some recent finds here

    ReplyDelete
  13. Jill, sometimes you just have to elbow some little old ladies to get what you want in life...uh...don't you? ;-)

    Susan - Ooo, that's a big recommendation. Now I'm doubly looking forward to it!

    LF - have you read Black Cross? It's a chunk of historical thriller awesomeness! If you like Greg Iles, you'll love Black Cross. Okay, I'm done with my book commercial, back to our regular programming. ;-)

    Katherine - Oh, too bad about Secret History of the Pink Carnation. I got it home and during book "debrief" time actually looked at it and then wondered why it is that I had particularly wanted it in the first place because it doesn't sound like something that's even normally my cup of tea, but I get all grabby and insane when you unleash me on cheap books, it's like I can't even help it! LOL. Glad I've got some winners in my future, too!

    Andi - I've run out of space myself - I'm developing stacks, on half of my purchases are still in a box camped out on my bedroom floor. But then there's that other book sale in July, you know, the *really* huge awesome one..... Oh my. I wish I had the willpower to put myself on a book-acquiring moratorium, but I can never quite managed it... =/

    Susan - I love Stephen King but I never know what to expect from his books as they seem to go in all different directions these days. My best friend claims to have liked this one, but uh, she doesn't read too many books, so I don't know whether to trust her. I mean, can you really trust people who don't love books? ;-)

    justareadingfool, I'm reading Three Cups of Tea right now. I'm enjoying it, but it's kind of a slow read for me right now. Don't know if it's the book or that I'm a little burned out on non-fiction! What you said is how I try to rationalize my book sale problem - I mean there *are* plenty of worse things to be addicted to. Books, for the most part, are cheap and harmless (unless you trip over the accumulated piles and hurt yourself.....).

    ti - there's nothing not to like about a good book sale! =)

    Debi - ah, yes, just looking at the tasty books puts a smile on my face. I'm selfishly glad to have company in my Spring Reading Thing failure! Now if there were a Spring Book Buying Thing, then I would totally have it made! =D

    Matt - oh, yes, I'm definitely geared up for some summer reading, and fall, and winter, uh next spring and summer and ... yeah. ;-) One thing I've noticed about myself as I've gotten older is that I prefer books that are grim and insightful. A friend of mine asked me to recommend her a happy book when she was having a hard time, and I was hard pressed to think of even one (I've managed to get a few into my recommendation arsenal now, but it was hard!). I can recommend good books but none of them are exactly...cheery. So grim but insightful? That's good news for me!

    Toofondofbooks, glad to hear you say that about The Road from Coorain! It was one of the few that we picked up that I really hadn't heard much about, so it's great to have it recommended! =)

    ReplyDelete