Things have been rough lately and I’ve been spending much of my time finding ways to keep my mind busy. Basically, I’ve been working like crazy during the day and spending my nights tucked away into a book until I exhaust myself. The rest of the time I’m dealing with not fun family stuff. A friend finally forced me to consider doing something fun and for myself. So I spent most of today in Niantic at my favorite used book store. As per usually I came home with a couple piles worth of books.
Pictured:
The Eight by Katherine Neville
Flaubert in Egypt edited by Francis Steegmuller
You Suck by Christopher Moore – In fact, I’ve heard lots of great things about Christopher Moore but never read any of his work. This is the sole Moore book I found today, so I figured I’d give it a go.
The Rotters’ Club by Jonathan Coe – I actually picked up this book entirely because of the cover. I still don’t even know what it’s about. I’m hoping to enjoy the surprise.
Interred with Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell
The Electric Church by Jeff Somers – This will be another wait and see book. I originally noticed the little publisher icon, and when I picked it up and saw the cover it went directly into the bag.
The Blooding of Jack Absolute by C.C. Humphrey’s – It was the title that caught me on this one.
The Machiavelli Covenant by Allan Folsom
Yeats is Dead! A Mystery by 15 Irish Authors – which I simply couldn’t leave without
Centuries of June by Keith Donohue – This book was added to my TBR List after I received an email about it, so I was quite pleased when I came across it today it went directly into the bag.
White Oleander by Janet Fitch
Between the Bridge and the River by Craig Ferguson – How do you say no to Craig Ferguson? You don’t.
The last pile (or pile’s…)
Left pile: The Rising Tide by Jeff Shaara, The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (which I’ve been saying, ‘I’ll read this, I’ll read this’ and now that I own it I can!), Blood Ties by Kay Hooper, Midnight Rain by Holly Lisle, No Good Deeds by Laura Lippman, Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, A Rich Full Death by Michael Dibdin, To The Power of Three by Laura Lippman, Shock Lines by Warren Newton Beath (Zebra Horror!), City of Night: Frankenstein, Book 2 by Dean Koontz (which I’ve been trying to find for six months!)
Right pile: Omega by Jack McDevitt (Every. Single. Time. I go to the book store I walk by this guys books. It’s high time I stop walking by them and buy one to read), Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett (After finishing my first Neil Gaiman book recently I decided I needed more of his books), Daughters of the Forest by Juliet Marillier, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father by Jane Jensen (which is supposedly based on a video game…), Lion’s Blood by Steven Barnes (A book that was recommended to me a while back), Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds, Warrior by Marie Brennan, American Gods by Neil Gaiman
All in all, I have to say I made away with some great books today. Now for finding a place to put all of these new books… and the ones that I haven’t found a home for before buying all of these.
With that, I’ll be curling up in bed with the pupster and a good book.
Any good book swag of your own lately?
Among Stories 
I was @ the Hay Book Festival a few weeks ago with friends and thought I’d come home with a good haul. Last time I was there I picked up 10-12. This time only 4:
A Very English Agent by Julian Rathbone
By Permission of Heaven by Adrian Tinniswood
A Brief History of The Samurai by Jonathan Clements
The Great Disruption by Francis Fukuyama
Shockingly enough, I’ve never actually been to a book festival. Every time one is going on it seems I have to work and can’t get out of it. I do hope you had a good time though.
As for the books you got, they look quite interesting, especially By Permission of Heaven. I do look forward to your thoughts.
I’m coming to the end of a run of 10 historical novels. The next batch are going to be fairly random then it’ll be 10 novels based on a variety of Future Earth’s…… and after *that* (which will be at some point next year) 10 novels that have been made into movies.
Not that I’m planning *too* far ahead [grin]
I’ve been following your reviews, looks like you’ve been reading some great stuff. I envy your ability to plan ahead for reading like that. I always have an idea of the books I’d like to read sooner rather than later, but I’m so jumpy with my interests that I always end up picking up something random and then its months before I go back to that book that I just had to read.
I’m the kind of person who wants to read a book as soon as I buy it. As time goes by my interest fades, so if I don’t read a book soon after buying it – and it drops further down the pile – it might takes years before I get around to it. I realised that I was missing out on some great books (confirmed by my reading over the past year or so) so I started delving deeper into the pile to dig out the almost forgotten gems. Reading books with a theme is also a challenge to me as basically I have a butterfly mind which is always hopping from genre to genre. I do have the safety valve of a selection of ‘random’ books from time to time but I’m planning on reading books in blocks for a while longer.
I definitely see a big upside to your method of reading a few books in a group then moving onto a new topic. That upside being, less chance of burnout from reading too many of the same books.
I can never decide which book to pick up. Sometimes I’ll pick one up and then if its a series or genre I’ll get completely sidetracked by that group. I’ve actually had to ‘eeny meeny miny moe’ a few books to choose one to read. That and I stole this idea from another blogger, using a random number generator and then reading whatever book is in that number slot in my little database of books I own.
Isn’t it funny how those books that have been at the bottom of the pile the longest turn out to be some of the best reads? I’m thinking there are quite a few people who notice that eventually and have *facepalm* moments because of it.