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Have I bought any new books recently?

As part of Book Blogger Appreciation Week we were encouraged to answer one or more questions from the list on the BBAW site.

I picked: What is the last book you bought?

It has been a while since I showed you the results of my book buying addiction, so I thought I’d show you the severity of my problem.

Here are the new books which have arrived in my house in the last few weeks. I have bought the majority of them from charity shops/car boot sales, but a few have arrived via a publisher or bookmooch. Equator was sent to me by one of my lovely blog readers – Thank you Raquel!

bookbuy

Almost all of these books have been bought because one of you lovely bloggers recommended it to me.

Do you recognise any of them?

Which ones should I ensure I read in the next month?

83 replies on “Have I bought any new books recently?”

I don’t know all of them, but immediately got excited over The Help and Pillars of the Earth. Both of those books are way way up at the top of my list. Just as an aside, I am always so intrigued with the difference in the book covers between the US and the UK.

Sandy, I love comparing US and UK covers too. It is strange that I almost always prefer the UK version, but I’m not sure if that is because it is the one I’m familiar with.

Violet, I don’t think you misunderstood the topic. You could answer as many or as few as you like. I’ll go and look at your answers later!

Charity shops and car boot sales – you certainly have some crazy people over there throwing out such good books for so cheap!

I too have The Help, Edgar Sawtelle and the Maisie Dobbs in my tbr piles.

I will be very interested in your thoughts on the Maggie Gee as I have heard good things about her – she seems to have a devoted following in some quarters.

Samantha, I know! I love the fact I am able to buy such good books so cheaply, but I do have to search through a lot of rubbish to find the gems!

Claire, Don’t worry – I will make sure I’ve read I Served the King of England before our book club meets!

Beth, I know admitting it is normally the first step to recovery. but I’m afraid I don’t think that is the case with book addiction!

The Help is one book that I have been mulling over. I recognise the book group choice as Claire has mentioned, Persepolis is on my hitlist. Perfume is one of my all time favourites!

Myself and The Converted One each have a copy of Equator on our TBRs (something I never thought I would see myself type). Brilliant collection!

Simon, The Help has had so many good reviews that I felt I had to read it. I’ll let you know if it is worth it.

I’m pleased to hear you have Equator. I hadn’t heard of it before, but it does look good.

Oh my — it looks just like Christmas and I am very jealous!

While I recognize many of the titles, the one book that I would highly recommend is The Help. It still rates as the top book I have read in 2009.

I am curious if the term “car boot” sale is the equivalent to our midwest term “garage sale”? If so, I am thrilled to add another British saying to my vocabulary (my favorites are “Give Way” and “Take Away”)

Molly, A car boot sale is a bit like a garage sale, but I think it is a very British thing. The idea is that everyone takes their unwanted things to a big field (normally on a Sunday morning) and then you sell everything out of the back of your car (or normally on tables you bring) I think your garage sales involve just a single household, whereas these have 100s of sellers. There are always bargains – I love them!

I usually don’t like long books either, and was dubious about Pillars, but once I got into it I couldn’t put it down and stayed up really late most nights finishing it. But definitely afterwards I needed to read short things, I felt like my attention span had dwindled considerably.

Yes…you have a problem…but all of us have the same problem and feed each other’s addictions. I think it is called enabling.

And I would vote for “Pillars of the Earth.” I didn’t want to read it but a friend bothered me and bothered me about it and when I gave in, I loved it.

The Help was excellent! I could easily recommend that as one of the first. And hey look, it is already at the top of the pile!

Do you notice a color trend in all those books?

WordLily, I’ve bought a few of the Maisie Dobbs books, but have only now found the first one. I look forward to finding out why people love them so much.

I would definitely recommend Persepolis – it is AMAZING (book is mcuh better than the movie) Also, you’ll be able to read it in an afternoon easily.

Pam, It is good to know that it is a quick read. I’m in the middle of a few really long books, so it might be nice to pick up a short one.

I strongly vote for Persepolis – disturbing but very wonderful. The film’s good as well. Although I am interested to see what you think of Geek Love…it was a bit too weird for me.

Jenny, I have been looking for Persepolis for a while. Graphic novels are quite hard to find, so my luck was in the day I found it!

Caroline, Murakami is weird and I love it, but I’m not sure whether I’ll like Geek Love. I look forward to finding out!

It looks like you have a LOT of good books in your pile, of which I’ve read two: Flowers for Algernon (in highschool, and I remember liking it a good deal), and Maisie Dobbs (which I will be curious to hear if you like, because it seems to be the kind of book you either like or really don’t!). I have Geek Love on my shelf, and really want to read Edgar Sawtelle at some point (though you know I am weird about books that feature dogs because they always make me cry). Also, I really want to read Murakami at some point, and I’ve heard The Help is wonderful.

Steph, I got Flowers for Algernon from bookmooch after reading so many good things about it on my science fiction challenge thread last week. I’m not sure I’ll like Maisie Dobbs, but want to find out!

The Circus in Winter was on my TBR pile when it was first published and I never got around to it. Sadly. That sometimes happens when ones eyes are bigger than the time at hand. Hope you post about it after you read it, that is if you have the round to it, that I didn’t have.

Teresa, Someone on Librarything told me it was brilliant, especially if you liked Water for Elephants (which I loved) I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere else though. Perhaps it is one of those undiscovered gems.

Flowers for Algernon is not bad though there is too little crime in it 😉

I wish I could tell you that I had been so good this week: winning three books in two days (a large plus). But I have also ´lost´ one in a giveaway, and for the last two books I ordered from the UK, I wrote a wrong address so I will have to pay for the postage again (a major minus).

What wonderful piles of books, Jackie! There are so many good ones, hmmmm…. Flowers for Algernon is amazing, Pillars of the Earth is very good long but so worth it.
I haven’t read Persepolis but I did see thwe movie which was great. I really want to read The Help, I’ve heard very good things about it.

Happy Reading!

Amy, It is no surprise that I failed in my book buying hold when discovering such great books. I love them!

I tried reading Perfume after I saw the movie but could just not get into it– I hope you enjoy it though!

I absolutely loved Flowers for Algernon– I COL’d… cried out loud? There were a ton of tears flowing for me. 🙂

She, Perhaps it is one of those books that you just can’t read after watching it. Hopeully I’ll enjoy it more than you did.

Thoughts of Joy, Your favourites? Excellent! I look forward to finding out if I enjoy them as much as you did.

Jo, I love Murakami – I’m going to read Norwegian Wood next. I’m pleased that you’ve discovered him!

Are you going to read Flowers for Algernon for the sci-fi challenge? I’m thinking to do so. Persepolis was probably my book of the year last year, so make sure to put it on top of your tbr pile 🙂

mee, Yes, I am going to read Flowers for Algernon for the sci-fi challenge. I’ll probably read it in November/December. Persepolis is sounding better all the time!

Hi Jackie! I came over from Sandy Nawrot’s in her latest post and I must say I enjoy your blog very much! I am keeping an eye for THE HELP but it’s still not available here where I’m living.

I’m excited to see your book pile and I’m feeling much better because I get boxes of books every week and thought I needed to go for therapy or something. Happy to know you! 🙂

Alice, Thank you the kind words. It is nice to know that you enjoy reading my blog.

Don’t worry there are lots of bookaholics in the blogging world – you are not alone!

Verity, I’m surprised that you don’t recognise any of them. Don’t worry I’ll make sure I let you know which ones are worth reading.

I have a lot of the same books in my stack but have yet to read them so I am unable to point you to the hot ones. I know that everyone has said good things about The Help.

Flowers for Algernon, as others have suggested, is a very interesting and quite emotional book. It’s also unusual in that the language becomes more simple or complex depending as the narrator’s level of intelligence changes. The one thing I didn’t like about it was that it was expanded from an award-winning short story and I felt it was pretty obvious that much of the novel version was padding.

The Help is tipped to be a big hit though it hasn’t been talked about much so far anywhere, from what I’ve seen. The kind of book that would have been on the Richard & Judy lists, I reckon, and would have benefitted from that exposure.

Is that Ivy Compton-Burnett I can see? I’ve always been put off reading her as she’s supposed to be quite difficult (because the books are entirely in dialogue and it’s not always easy to follow who’s who) so I’ll be interested to see your reaction to it.

John, The Help has been mentioned a lot in the blogging world. It just won best book of 2009 so far at book blogger appreciation week. I’m sure that word of mouth will help spread the word about how good it is. I look forward to reading it, but agree that it would be the perfect Richard and Judy choice.

Yes you can see an Ivy Compton Burnett trilogy. I am very intrigued by her writing style. I hope to read one of her books before the end of the year, so I look forward to letting you know my thoughts!

Flowers for Algernon sounds really good. So many people have recommended it to me. It sounds as though it is the sort of book that works on many levels.

You will look back fondly on he time you spend reading Pillars of the Earth. The Help is in my TBR pile. It’s comforting to know that there are other people like me, I walk through bookstores chanting “read what you have, read what you have.” I don’t advise that though because it’s never worked.

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