Yesterday was National Buy a Book Day
Posted on: September 8, 2012
not only was yesterday National Buy a Book Day, but I also had it as a vacation day from work. Which meant hubby and I had plenty of time to make it to two bookstores and the library before realizing that maybe we had indeed picked up enough books to hold us for a little while. sleeping in + buying tons of books? Sounds like the perfect day to me!
here’s what we got:
Diviner, by Melanie Rawn – looks like an epic fantasy that doesn’t take place in fantasy-Europe. Sign me up!
Fool Moon, by Jim Butcher – hubby really liked the first book, and i’m interested in reading more in this famous serious too.
Embassytown, by China Mieville – one of my favorites is finally in paperback! I’d hoped Embassytown would take the Hugo for best novel, but alas it wasn’t to be.
After recovering from realizing how much money I’d dumped into manga over the last 10 years, i’m getting back into it. And a full color vol 1 of Akira, in the discount bin? Who in their right mind would offer this at 50% off?? I grabbed it before anyone else could. And how come no one told me CLAMP had a new series out?? I can’t get enough of their artwork and storytelling style, here’s hoping Gate 7 has that mystical, mythical flavor they do so well.
Another one of my favorites, Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss, finally available in paperback! at about 20 pounds, it’s only half the weight of the hardback. Heavy story, literally. Am tempted to do a reread, following Jo Walton’s posts on Tor about all the hints and possible spoilers.
and from the library, we have:
A Feast of Ice and Fire, from the folks who run Inn and the Crossroads (and Food through the Pages. We can not forget the brilliance that is the possibility of drinking Klava and a Ginger Scald!). Featuring beautiful pictures and recipes that look not-too-difficult, this looks like the perfect cookbook to mess with in these early days of autumn, when the whole family is craving roasted chicken and baked apples. Many of the recipes include a 17th century version, and a contemporary version, which is pretty cool.
Also got this monster at the library:
sorry about the crappy photo, The Weird just refused to sit still and focus. This is the ginormous, epic, nearly encyclopedic volume of strangeness edited by the Vandermeers. it’s fatter and heavier than the hardback of Wise Man’s Fear. I was a little afraid to open it, fearful of what I might let loose into the world.
it’s organized chronologically, so I think that’s how i’ll review it, taking a week or so to read 15 or 20 years worth of weird. And we’ll discover together how many times the library will let me renew it. I’m excited by all world fiction that’s in here, stuff from Japan, India, Mexico, all over the place.
Was a bad move though, reading the H.P. Lovecraft first. That shit is utterly fucking creepy and I can honestly I’m afraid to go to bed.
here’s a pic to give you an idea of how megahuge this monster is:
it’s the size of two mangas plus an epic fantasy! that’s phat!
not sure about you,but i’ll be curling up with a book for the rest of the weekend, and possibly most of next week as well!
Don’t forget, next week is Bookblogger Appreciation Week, so keep a look out for this image at your favorite blogs:
I’ll be participating in the Interview Swap on Tuesday, not sure how much time I’ll have for their other activities.
15 Responses to "Yesterday was National Buy a Book Day"
September 8, 2012 at 12:07 pm
Those are some great choices. I haven’t read Melanie Rawn in years (Dragon Prince series).
I bought several audiobooks yesterday….. and then found out it was National Buy a Book day! How in tune with the universe, or at least the national calendar, am I?
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September 8, 2012 at 10:25 pm
Hubby picked out the Melanie Rawn, and that dude on the cover? I think know him from Ren Fest. 😉 Apparently the one we bought is a prequel she wrote later to an existing series. . . so i sure hope it works okay if I read this as my first Rawn. what do you think?
being in tune with the calendar? bah! being in tune with the universe (which you are everytime you buy something book related!) is WAY better!
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September 8, 2012 at 11:19 pm
I can’t comment on the prequel. It’s been ~15 years since I read M. Rawn. Hmm… another author to add to the reread TBR.
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September 8, 2012 at 2:21 pm
Hey, Red, you’re supposed to tell us about things like this the day BEFORE so we can do something, not just wish we had. Sigh
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September 8, 2012 at 10:23 pm
I did tell ya about it, silly! earlier this week, sometime. I think I posted a bunch of pizza pictures too.
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4 | Jamie Gibbs (@mithrilwisdom)
September 9, 2012 at 3:34 am
Good haul! I got myself a copy of Spellwright by Blake Charlton. I’ve been after it for a few years, so it’s good to finally have it.
Definitely agreed. Jumping in at the deep end usually results in a would be author writing a tangled mess that doesn’t go anywhere. Like you said, honing your craft first is the best way to go.
Jamie @ Mithril Wisdom
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September 9, 2012 at 10:21 pm
been meaning to read Spellwright one of these days. I know exactly what you mean about being after copies of stuff. I think I got Embassytown out of the library at least twice before I bought it, same with plenty of other titles.
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September 9, 2012 at 5:15 am
Just reading Grave Peril by Jim Butcher – it’s the third one. I liked the first two but wouldn’t say I loved them. The third one seems to be the charm. It’s got a brilliant start and I’m totally won over now!
That cook book looks amazing.
A compendium of Strange and Dark Stories – apart from the fact that it’s going to be difficult to handle – looks very creepy. Me likey the look of that one. 😀
Lynn
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September 9, 2012 at 10:19 pm
the saving grace on that Weird compendium is that most of the entries are very short, like 5 pages. but. . . it’s like 1000 pages long! I heard on a podcast starring the Vandermeers that this started with a bunch of short stories they’d wanted to buy, but didn’t have any collections those stories would fit into (the stuff wasn’t exactly steampunk, wasn’t exactly pirate stuff, it was just plain weird!) and the project grew into this monster.
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September 9, 2012 at 10:24 am
I picked up A Wise Man’s Fear and it’s going to be have to be my evening reading book when I get to it. It doesn’t fit in my bag to carry it around and I already carry a big bag. 😦 And I still need to get Embassytown! Thanks for the reminder.
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September 9, 2012 at 10:16 pm
if it helps any, paperback Embassytown isn’t ridiculously fat. Should fit in your handbag. but WMF? fuggetaboudit.
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September 9, 2012 at 7:57 pm
I cataloged A Feast of Ice and Fire earlier this week and was like, “Who would read this?” Now I know! You’ll have to let me know how ridiculous it is. 🙂
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September 9, 2012 at 10:17 pm
it’s surprisingly cool. Beautiful food pr0n pictures, easy recipes, nice little descriptions, no big words. lots of the pastry/cookie and side dish recipes look very do-able. Tried the honeyed carrots (carrots flash boiled then roasted with honey, cumin and vinegar) with dinner the other night and they were excellent.
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the Little Red Reviewer 
September 8, 2012 at 8:38 am
I just read Fool Moon last month and it was good. I liked the first book, but this one was definitely a step up. It hits a point of intensity in the book and then never lets up. I kind of sneered at the idea of a werewolf story…until I read it. Butcher handled that very nicely and it didn’t feel overly cliched.
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September 8, 2012 at 10:17 am
everyone says the first book is the weakest in the series, so I do want to read Fool Moon, and soon. first books in series like this are all about character introduction, worldbuilding, etc, so it’s not till the next books that we get all the heavy stuff started. Werewolf stories can be done well, really, they can! See if you can find a copy of George R R Martin’s The Skin Trade, for a stunning werewolf story.
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