Books, so many books! Recent buys and books to be reviewed

Inspired by this post by need-tea with all its pretty pictures of books, I thought I’d show you pictures of books I have bought in the past month.. Some of these I have posted on twitter, but not here.

Crown Duel and Court Duel by Sherwood Smith: I have read (and own) this duology (I also have the eBook!), but I don’t ever see the hard cover versions of the books where they are actually separate. Plus they were $1 each at a library sale in Kennebunkport, ME. Soo… I have rescued them.  Consider this post as evidence of my book addiction!

Speaking of library sales and books I’ve already read.. there was a 5 paperbacks for a dollar sale at my local library, and I couldn’t resist getting copies of old-school versions of books I already own: Beauty by Robin McKinley (with $1 B&N sticker still on it!), War For the Oaks by Emma Bull, and Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones. Linnets and Valerians by Elizabeth Goudge was an impulse buy based on its cover. I actually can’t remember what I got as book #5..

.. but I think it was this Kristan Higgins book, Fools Rush In. In another used bookstore I got me some Jennifer Crusie since I haven’t read anything but Bet Me. I bought Charlie All Night and Manhunting there.

Speaking of used bookstores, I got the above in AZ used bookstores. Gentleman Takes a Chance by Sarah Hoyt, The Goblin Wood by Hilari Bell, Amazon Ink by Lori Devoti, and Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale.

And then I just bought stuff online, like these two British Chick Lit books, From Notting Hill With Love.. Actually by Ali McNamara and Chasing Daisy by Paige Toon (unfortunately I am not loving them now that I started them, but that’s another post).

And more stuff bought online. Oh Bookcloseouts and your sales! Feeling Sorry For Celia by Jaclyn Moriarty, Hero by Perry Moore,  The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting, Need by Carrie Jones, Mistwood by Leah Cypress, Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer by Laini Taylor (not included because I’m reading it and forgot to put it on the pile is Coronets and Steel by Sherwood Smith).

And even more stuff bought online. Kitty Goes to War by Carrie Vaughn, Stealing Heaven by Elizabeth Scott, Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty, As You Wish by Jackson Pearce, Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride, Dull Boy by Sarah Cross, and Pink by Lili Wilkinson.  Hmm, I’ve been buying lot more YA than I used to!

These pictures do not include the few ebooks I have also downloaded.. *shifty eyes*.

Oh so my to-be-reviewed list is long now. It’s killing meeee. Yes, I don’t have to review everything I read. But! I want to.

I am also considering reviewing these but they didn’t leave much of an impression, so I might not:

Book Sale Haul (2)

Yup, I have the book buying sickness. I went to the Greenwich Library book sale this weekend. Greenwich, CT  is about 15 minutes away yet I managed to get lost, ha ha. But it was all worth it – I got 6 books for $5. It was $2 per hardcover, $1 for trade paperback, but 50 cents for “kids”, and apparently YA counts as kids. I wasn’t going to question it.

  1. The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen
  2. Crazy for You by Jennifer Crusie
  3. The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
  4. Eon by Alison Goodman
  5. Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta
  6. Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

Quite a few are discarded library books. I have saved them!

Book Sale Haul

I don’t usually do posts about books received in a week, but since I scored very nicely this weekend at a library book sale, I thought I’d show my spoils. Greenburgh Library hosted an annual book sale with paperbacks for 50 cents, trade paperbacks for $1, and hardcovers for $2.

Although I already read Song of Scarabaeus, I bought another copy. I felt like I needed to “save” it.. I held myself back from also saving a copy of Tithe by Holly Black and War for the Oaks by Emma Bull. Also bought: Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer, Rampant by Diana Peterfreund, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart, Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey (I may already own this book.. TBR is getting to that point), A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn, Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork, and Midwinter by Matthew Sturges. Total for this pile = $9, all bought on Saturday.


I may have gone to the White Plains Library on Sunday and checked out their book sale area and bought these three for a dollar. Warlord’s Daughter by Susan Grant is SFR. I will check it out. Kiss of Death and Fade Out by Rachel Caine are from the Morganville Vampire series that I need to catch up on. Usually quick reads, although I’m beginning to wonder when this series is ever (?) going to end.

Then I MAY have gone BACK to the Greenburgh library sale. And they had a buy 4 paperbacks, get 5th free deal on Sunday, so I just HAD to get 5.. for $2. And one TPB for $1. Mercy Blade by Faith Hunter (I’m wary because I got tired of her Rogue Mage series after book 2, but I hear her UF is very different and good), Irreversible by Liz Maverick (mostly because I just want to get to all the Shomi books one day, this is the sequel to Wired which I’ve already read), Crocodile on the Sandbank and The Curse of the Pharaohs, by Elizabeth Peters (recommended by the Book Smugglers. Wish the books indicated what the book order was), To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (recommended by calico_reaction), and A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb (recommended by everybody).

So in total, 17 books for $13. Not bad!

By the way, do people know about BookSaleFinder.com? It’s this website (US & Canada only I’m afraid) where you can look up whether there are any book sales in your area. I am signed up with their Sale Mail which emails me once a week about sales near my zip code. Usually I do not go, but it’s nice to know I could. You know.. in case the TBR mountain range needs more friends.

Clever advertising for a book sale in SC


I saw this image of steps made to look like books on tumblr today, and I was so taken by the idea that I had to use my google fu to find out more!

Turns out this is the work of the bounce agency, an advertising firm which was tasked to drum up interest in a charity book sale for the Greenville Literary Association. They wrapped things like the stairs above, as well as junction boxes, elevator doors and a fountain around Greenville, South Carolina with images of books to create awareness for both donating and buying books for the sale. Click here for more images and video (be sure to keep clicking the arrows to see all the pictures).

I particularly love the idea of covering post-it notes with book jackets:

Video spots:

Ohh, book loving nirvana!

(more cute videos at slc33′s channel on youtube)

A Kitten & Gone with the Wind

I’m in Arizona visiting the in-laws right now. I’m working on a review of Jane Bites Back and I’m reading The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker but in the meantime here is a post with a couple of pictures to look at.

This is their cat, Gilda, who is 8 months old (I think she’s around there) and loves string. She looks funny because she had ringworm and the shelter shaved her, and her fur hasn’t grown back to the right length. I’ve been trying to teach Gilda fetch, but I think I’m the one fetching more than Gilda. She’s a very sweet cat.

Also: I stole this image from my husband as it was better than the one I took. :P

To make this about books too, I also went to a friends of the library sale and bought a copy of S.L.Viehl’s Biorescue , and this copy of Gone with the Wind for my mom. Mom always tells the story of how she used to have this really nice copy of Gone with the Wind, one of her favorite books of all time, and someone borrowed it and never gave it back. I thought this copy was pretty, although probably not as fancy as the one my mom had, since that was leather and this is just very embossed and gilted. I’ve never read this book by the way.

ALA conference, FOL sale..

Do you know who I'm jealous of? Dance Chica of the Insomnomania blog – read this post (pay attention to the pictures). I want to go to the ALA conference and see the exhibits!!! AHHHHHHHH. She got to meet Judy Blume! Free stuff and ARCs! AHHHHH. Oh well, no way I could have gone this weekend because of Josh's biathalon. So remind me to go to Philly in 2008. January 11th-16th. SO JEALOUS.


I went to the Poughkeepsie FOL today and it was pretty good – actually had its own sci fi and fantasy section. I came back with Through a Brazen Mirror by Delia Sherman (which I've already read it turns out), Shadow Hunt by Anne Logston (I read the first book but not this one), and Blade dancer by Lynn Viehl (which I am most excited by). Aren't I good for holding myself back? Three books is good. I think so.


TBR @ 102

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book sales 2

I went to the huge booksale I posted about previously. Well I got lost on the way there (wrote down the directions to the library, not the sale and had to stop by a shop to ask someone where it was), but other than that it was a booknerd's dream. There weren't many sci-fi/fantasy books there though, I think either not many were donated or the sci-fi/fantasy nerds raped the place before I could. I ended up with several young adult titles (The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, the first two Georgia Nicolson books by Louise Rennison, a tiny book on sayings, a Tamora Pierce book that turned out to have several pages ripped out of the middle so I had to recycle that), that were jumbled with the fiction so I guess they were missed since they were in the wrong place.  My sister got a lot of heavy hardcover artbooks. We put them all into one of my big reuseable whole foods bags (yay, good birthday present) and only paid $3 for about 16 books.

The place really looked like the picture above except the books were much messier and there were a LOT of people scrambling around. Take the number you see up there and double it because all the tables had boxes of books stacked under them.  When we first entered the room all we heard was desperate shuffling noises. The room smelled like crazed desperation I tell you. It was awesome. There is another huge FOL booksale happening in the Poughkeepsie South Hills Mall starting June 22nd. I'm most likely going the Monday after it starts. Not sure what good stuff will be left by then, but we shall see.

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book sales

Ug. wtf is up with vox, it made my IE crash. Anyway.. I went to a yard sale run by the local Gilda's club and I was so good: 2 hours in which my sister tortured me by looking at e.v.e.r.y. single thing at the sale and I managed to resist and only buy one book – "The Book of Sandwiches" by Louise Steele (this link is to google book preview of the book) for $1. Its all about sandwiches and finger foods and has lovely pictures and recipes and makes me very hungry.

This made me think about looking up book sales @ booksalefinder.com which Jen (I think?) introduced to me many moons ago. If you are near Greenwich, CT, there is a book sale categorized as "EXCEPTIONAL" by booksalefinder. My IMs to Josh regarding this sale:

me: eeeee http://www.booksalefinder.com/NYU.html#X7945
pictures from last year: http://www.greenwichlibrary.org/images/Byram/ByramBookSaleGallery2/booksalegal2.htm
Josh: nice
go for it, it's close
me: no, i should resist
Josh: what makes you say that, the box of 100+ books in our bedroom?

I got that ebay win beside my bed and I'm resisting opening it before I bring my TBR down..


Other good websites for used books (which I troll when I want to find something out of print):

www.bookfinder.com (composite used book website search engine)

www.half.com

www.bookcloseouts.com (ok, not out of print usually. But I have found a couple of recently OOP there)

www.ebay.com (of course)

And not a used book place but I forgot to add a link to www.fantasticfiction.co.uk - good place to look up authors and what other books they have written, and it puts things in order of print and series, so the place I look up what book comes before what in really long series.

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