Remember that summer book buying ban I imposed on myself? Well, I was doing pretty well, until a few weeks ago, when the newsletter from my favorite independent bookstore, Read Between the Lynes, arrived in the mail. A few of the books higlighted really interested me, and since I was having a bad day, I sent an e-mail to the store’s owner to put aside copies for me. This Monday was the first time I was able to make it to the store since then (it’s either a good thing or a bad thing that the store is about 12 miles away from my house and not on my route to work), and I picked up my books and added a few more:
Paris: A Love Story by Kati Marton
City of Women by David R. Gillham
Read This!: Handpicked Favorites from America’s Indie Bookstores edited by Hans Weyandt
Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks — I had pre-ordered this book because I’ve read and enjoyed his other novels and I’ve heard very good things about this one.
Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt — this was recommended by one of the other members of the book group I attend at the store, and for the most part she and I have similar tastes.
Plainsong by Kent Haruf — this is our book group’s selection for next month.
THEN last week was my birthday, and though I did not receive any books I did receive from my parents a gift certificate for The Major Online Bookseller. I don’t normally shop there anymore, but who can turn down “free” books? These arrived at my doorstep this week:
More Baths,Less Talking by Nick Hornby, one of my favorite writers. I didn’t know that he had published essays so when I noticed this collection was just being released, I “had” to have it.
Shakespeare Wrote for Money also by Nick Hornby. The Major Online Bookseller was offering this one with the above at a discounted price so I couldn’t resist.
Howard’s End Is on the Landing: A Year of Reading from Home by Susan Hill. This is about a woman who when looking for a book on her shelves found many others she forgot she had and thus decided to forsake purchasing new books to read the ones she already owned (um, sound familiar?). I was looking for a book to make my order up to $25 to qualify for free shipping (yes even with the gift certificate I still didn’t want to pay for shipping!) and when this one came up as a suggestion I just knew this was the one for me.
My name is Suzanne and I am a bookaholic. Let’s re-set that book-buying embargo for the fall now, shall we?
City of Women has such an intriguing premise, and you can’t go wrong with Nick Hornby! I have one of his that I have been dying to read for the longest time. I also broke my ban, but only bought two books, so that wasn’t so bad!
oh, i love all your new books. City of Women has been getting raves, and I need to get the independent bookstore-recommendation book, even if the store where I work is not in it. Sigh! They all look really great!
Oh, Suzanne, what a great bunch of books! I plan on perusing each one when I have more time. Book-buying embargo? Who are we kidding? LOL!
But at least you did well for a while, right? Your book haul gives me instant book envy and I’m really not entitled to order any, because my summer was er… laden with new books :/ e-books are the sneakiest of all, because you don’t really “see” them
I’ve heard great things about Tell The Wolves I’m home and Nick Hornby’s essay collection. I suspect that you won’t have a problem finding a good book to read anytime in the near future. Happy reading!