Not Trying to Be Good - Book Buying Sprees
I have, for awhile now, been inspired by Nick Hornby. In particular his columns from The Believer magazine. Of course I'm always a little miffed that they make him only write the positive and not really lay into a book. If you don't like a book I think you should be allowed to rail against it all you like. But what I do like is that at the beginning of his monthly column, he writes what books he bought versus what he was able to read. The theory, or at least my take on this experiment, is to get your buying habits in align with your reading habits. So that you aren't buying more than you need in a month and thus are saving money. I have been trying to align the two, buying and reading, but with being an admitted book addict, not wanting to seek help, and seeing as I troll a lot of used bookstores, where if you don't by it then it will be gone...it is hard. So I've decided at the begning of each month to itemize the best finds of the previous month. It will be bowdlerized, not to spare you from anything unseamly, but to make me look not as insane a book buyer....hey, Nick Hornby admits he does it to make himself look not as bad, so why can't I? And he is an extreme book addict! He actually believes the whole book buying process and the anticipation of reading your new purchase justifies buying it, even if in the end you never read it. (And I heard this direct from the Football Addicts mouth, as it were...was going to say horses, wouldn't work for him). So here I list, my best finds of October:
1) So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish by Douglas Adams - The only edition I didn't have with the weird floating orbs! Half Price Books, $2.
2) The Girl from Leam Lane, the Life of Catherine Cookson - Cool bio on the lady whose books have all been made into miniseries, making a star of Sean Bean and Robson Green. Frugal Muse find for $12.
3) The Daphne Du Maurier Companion - Virago Publishing, British Edition, that matches the rest of my Du Maurier set, found at Barnes & Noble of all places! $20 but worth it!
4) The Celestial Omnibus by E. M. Forster - GORGEOUS edition that I found at Half Price Books for $6, truly the most beautiful edition of any Forster book I yet have.
5) Never Slow Dance with a Zombie by E. Van Lowe - Perfect Halloweeny book found for $4 at Frugal Muse.
6) The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning - The tie-in edition for Fortunes of War starring Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh. I found Manning's second series, the Levenant series tie-in edition years ago in Canada, and have been hoping to find this for years. $2 at the Friends of the Memorial Library book sale.
7) Decca, the Letters of Jessica Mitford by Jessica Mitford - True find! It's hard to find anything by the Mitford sisters stateside, but this lovely 1st edition was at Half Price Books for only $11.
8) The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters - Found the out of print (in this edition) 3rd Amelia Peabody book with the cover that matches my current editions. $3 at Half Priced Books.
9) Gaudy Night by Dorthy L. Sayers - Lord Peter Wimsey Masterpiece Theatre tie-in edition from 1987! I collect all Masterpiece tie-in editions I can, and this was a real coup! $2 at the Friends of the Memorial Library book sale.
10) Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld - New book I've been dying to read, found for $8 used! Who sold this like a week after it came out? Wackos...
These are my best finds of the month, of course I also got the new Terry Pratchett, the new Charlaine Harris, and a few others here and there...but you'll never know what they are unless you keep reading my site to get the reviews!
What great buys - especially Leviathan.
Anonymous said... November 1, 2009 at 5:33 PM
I'm currently reading Leviathan too :)
But it's slow going b/c of work, bah! Stupid jobs getting in the way of reading...
Anonymous said... November 2, 2009 at 10:23 PM
Post a Comment