Sunday, May 18, 2008

a week's worth of acquisitions

The preceding week has brought many new books into my life. Thanks mostly to my wonderful husband spoiling me rotten for Mother's Day.


This is the pile I got to unwrap:
*The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
*Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Weiss
*Invisible Prey by John Sandford
*The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang
*Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
*Winterwood by Patrick McCabe
*Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
*The Film Club by David Gilmour


This is the pile I bought with my gift cards (one from Mother's Day and one from Annie for Teacher Appreciation Day):
*A Death in Belmont by Sebastian Junger
*Looking for Alaska by John Green
*Origin by Diana Abu-Jaber
*Monkey Girl by Edward Hume
*Island of Lost Girls by Jennifer McMahon


This is the pile I ordered from B&N on-line bargain section (also using gift card):
*The Fifth Vial by Michael Palmer
*San Francisco is Burning: The Untold Story of the 1906 Earthquake and Fires by Dennis Smith
*All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
*Suicide's Girlfriend by Elizabeth Evans
*The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls


Bought this one Friday night at Borders. How nice of Becky to host the It's the End of the World... Challenge and give me the excuse to get it. :)


And finally, this arrived in the mail yesterday. I won it from one of J. Kaye's generous book raffles. Thanks, again J. Kaye!

The horribly sad thing about this excessive accumulation of books is how few I actually finished reading this week. That would be one measly book...and it was a library book to boot. I guess the good news, at least looking at it from the standpoint of "where the hell are we going to put yet more books?!!", is that this is likely to be the last huge haul before Christmas. Well, for me anyway...both Father's Day and Rich's birthday will be coming this summer. I am in the process of gathering up some books for a give-away, too. Hopefully, I'll be organized to do that in the next week or two.

I've also decided that I'm going to start taking names! I'm going to start keep track of who among you are responsible for the dent in my bank account. I'm calling it the Blame Game, and I'm going to keep tallies listed over in the sidebar. I think I'll keep it running for a year (say until the end of April '09). At that time, the one of you that has caused me to purchase the most books (actually I'm going to count putting holds on them from the library as well) will win a prize (probably an Amazon gift certificate, but I haven't yet decided for sure). Obviously not every book I get will earn someone a point, as many books I get are pure impulse buys. And many I pick up after reading several reviews, and I can't really just point to one as the deciding factor.

Anyway, here's a list of who earned points this first week:

1 point for Becky (Such a Pretty Girl)

1 point for Stephanie (Speak) (Though I've read lots of reviews lately for this book, something about Stephanie's review compelled me to finally add this one to the list.)

1 point for Carl (The Film Club)

1 point for Dewey (Looking for Alaska)

1 point for Erin (The Glass Castle)

19 comments:

Joy said...

WOW!!! You've got some great titles there. Gift cards are the best! :)

Eva said...

Looks like you had a bunch of fun. And yay for a husband who spoils you!! That point system is too funny for words. :)

Ana S. said...

The Blame Game! And you'll reward the culprit? lol :P

yay for new books! I need to get my hands on The Road and Looking for Alaska too. They're on my mental list of books to read during my trip (yes, I already have a mental list for that...how sad am I? :P)

Debi said...

Eva,
You'll be getting at least one point next week...I bought We Have Always Lived in the Castle today! You might get two if News of a Kidnapping gets here from paperback swap. I suspect you're going to one of those in the running for the prize!

Debi said...

Nymeth,
I know, that does seem a bit counter-productive rewarding the person who "makes" me spend the most money, doesn't it?

gail@more than a song said...

Books, books and more books! You racked up.
We just watched a movie recently that was from a Cormac McCarthy book, can't remember for sure but think it was No Country for old Men...didn't realize it was based on a book but the movie was way too intense for me. It took me several hours to unwind afterwards, it was hard to watch. I'm just so much more of a light and fluffy girl!

Dawn said...

That is some stack of books you have there! It would take me years to read all of those. :) I hope you enjoy each and every one of them!

take care,
Dawn

Bookfool said...

Wow, you've really been piling up loads, lately. Good ones, too. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is excellent. I've read two other titles by her, since Speak, and I thought they were both great. But, I won't tell you what they are, for fear of getting blame points. Kidding. You're so funny. I love your Blame Game idea!

I might have to give in and just buy a copy of The Road, myself. Last time I looked, I was about #200 in line at Paperback Swap. Goodness.

Becky said...

You got some great books there!!! I'm curious to see what you think of some of them. Speak. Looking for Alaska. Such A Pretty Girl. The Road. All of them have staying power, I think.

I love the idea of the blame game. :)

kreed said...

More books - hooray! You can't ever have too many. I actually walked through the book section of Target the other day and left without a single one. I saw about a million I wanted but couldn't let myself buy any as I just checked out NINE books from the library!

I can't wait until you read the Glass Castle - I really enjoyed it and wished I had someone to discuss it with when I read it. That is the bummer of not having many readers around me in person...noone to discuss the good reads with!

Carl V. Anderson said...

Ha! I love the Blame Game. That is hilarious. Great pile of books you got from your loving family. Congrats.

chrisa511 said...

Haha! The Blame Game literally resulted in a big loud laugh over here. That's just hilarious. My family probably thinks I'm crazy laughing at nothing now...

Is the David Gilmour book written by THE David Gilmour of Pink Floyd fame?? If so, I'll have to check that out.

What a great haul! Hope you enjoy Speak! It's an incredible book and the only one I've read on your list believe it or not! Though I've been wanting Looking for Alaska and The Road for quite some time now!

DesLily said...

wow, I think this post deserves an award for the largest book porn! hehehe..

The truth is: one can never have too many books!!

Debi said...

Chris,
No, different guy. This is that guy who let his son drop out of high school as long as he watched three movies a week with him. I'm really looking forward to reading the book.

Stephanie said...

That's a great bunch of books you've got there!!

I have the Road on my list for Becky's Challenge as well. Damn that Becky for MAKING me join another challenge!!

I LOVE your point system! How funny!! I'm going to do my best to score lots of them!! Besides, I'm all for passing the blame to someone else!! I'm in denial, can't you tell??

Kim L said...

Wow. You're going to have a ton of book recommendations by then. And I agree with ya on the too much time buying books means not enough time to read them. How does that happen? Geez.

Melody said...

Wow!!! Look at these books!!! I'm so proud of you, Debi. LOL.

I can't wait to read your review on Sharp Objects though! ;)

Tasha said...

Some of these I've read, and many I've heard about but have not gotten around to, so I look forward to reading your reviews. I enjoyed The Glass Castle. I don't read many memoirs, but I thought Jeannette Walls' voice was engaging.

Dewey said...

Ha ha, if we cost you money, you'll spend money on us! I think from now on, all my posts will start out, "I think Debi will LOVE this one because..." Heh heh.

You have several favorites of mine there in your enticing photos and lists. I can't wait to hear what you think of them.