My Current To-Read Pile

And it just keeps growing. I'm also going to note which books I purchased in October - as the month is coming to an end - and where I purchased them, if I can remember!

Painted Shadow: the Life of Vivienne Eliot, First Wife of T.S. Eliot, and the Long-Suppressed Truth about her Influence on his Genius by Carole Seymour-Jones (purchased in October through Daedalus Books, hard cover)

In the Mountains of Heaven: Tales of Adventure on Six Continents by Mike Tidwell (purchased in October through Daedulus Books, hard cover)

Book Doctor by Esther Cohen (purchased in October through Daedulus Books, hard cover) - Actually, I'm 18 pages in to this book.

The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama by Thomas Laird (purchased in October at B&N, paperback)

Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Me by Pattie Boyd with Penny Junior (purchased in October at Coffee Buy the Book, hard cover)

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (purchased in October at Coffee Buy the Book, hard cover)

Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje (purchased in October at Coffee Buy the Book, hard cover)

Confessions of a Super Mom by Melanie Lynne Hauser (purchased in October at Coffee Buy the Book, paperback) - I'm a couple of chapters into this one.

Super Mom Saves the World by Melanie Lynne Hauser (purchased in October at Coffee Buy the Book, paperback)

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (purchased in October at Coffee Buy the Book, paperback)

The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett (purchased in October at Costco)

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (This has been in my to-read pile for quite awhile)

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

Beasts of No Nation - Uzodinma Iweala

The Nasty Bits - Anthony Bourdain

Misadventures in the Middle East: Travels as Tramp, Artist +Spy by Henry Hemming

Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from Around the World by Kathleen Ragan

Well, these are the ones in my bedroom anyway. :^)

If anyone thinks any of these sound interesting, let me know and I can post a bit more about them.

Jen's Book Meme Responses

Hi ladies,

I'm posting Jen's on the blog for her. Just to have it all in one place. :^)

Babs

****

Here are my answers:
1: Hardcover or paperback, and why?Paperback - unless I really like the author , have a collection of similar books in hardback or do not want to wait for the paperback

2: If I were to own a book shop, I would call it... Turn the Page

3: My favourite quote from a book (mention the title) This is horrible, but I cannot think of anything off the top of my head.....

4: The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with would be... Ayn Rand or Ferroll Sams

5:If I was going to a deserted island and could bring only one book, except for the SAS survival guide, it would be... Atlas Shrugged, Hands down!!!

6: I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that... would hold the book open on the elliptical machine without breakign the spine or damaging the pages

7: The smell of an old book reminds me of... reading on the screened in porch at my grandparents' house in Pennsylvania

8: If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title) it would be... Dagney Taggart from Atlas Shrugged (if you have not guessed, I am obsessed with this one)

9: The most overestimated book of all times is... The Confederacy of Dunces

10: I hate it when a book...wraps up too quickly (like A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe did!!!).

What fun!

Thanks for sharing, Mary! Here are my answers:

1: Hardcover or paperback, and why?

Paperback - unless I really like the author or can’t wait for the paperback

2: If I were to own a book shop, I would call it...

Babs’ Beautiful World of Books

3: My favourite quote from a book (mention the title)

One man scorned and covered with scars still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable stars; and the world was better for this.
-Don Quixote-

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail
-Ralph Waldo Emerson (But I’m guessing this quote is not from a book)

4: The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with would be...

Margaret Mitchell

5:If I was going to a deserted island and could bring only one book, except for the SAS survival guide, it would be...

ONE?!?! I might choose NOT to survive! ;^) Let’s see, I am going to say - Collected Essays: First (1841) and Second (1844) Series by Ralph Waldo Emerson

6: I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that...

Would help give me easy recall of the details of all of the books I have read

7: The smell of an old book reminds me of...

A cold winter’s day, curled up under a blanket in a comfortable chair, with a fire going, hot cocoa with mini marshmallows at just the right temperature, with a heavy snow falling outside the window.

8: If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title) it would be...

Scarlett O’Hara (as if it even needs to be said - Gone With the Wind)

9: The most overestimated book of all times is...

Of ALL time? I can’t say. Of MY time, off the top of my head - Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

10: I hate it when a book...

I love ends and I can’t follow the characters through the rest of their lives.

Book Meme

Hi ladies,
I saw this book meme and thought it might be fun for each of us to fill out (don't feel like you have to though).

1: Hardcover or paperback, and why?

I love hardcovers but I'm too cheap to buy them generally. . .


2: If I were to own a book shop, I would call it...

I like The Book Worm, or something similarly nerdy


3: My favourite quote from a book (mention the title)

I can't find it right now, but it was a quote from a Joyce Carol Oates short story that said something about a woman being able to take no more and grabbing her scissors. . .

4: The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with would be...

Flannery O'Connor


5:If I was going to a deserted island and could bring only one book, except for the SAS survival guide, it would be...

Norton Anthology, or possibly The Bible. . .


6: I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that...

Would turn pages and hold a book in the bathtub or the pool, preventing it from getting wet. I've been thinking about fixing something up with a splashproof cookbook holder.

7: The smell of an old book reminds me of...

Comfort.


8: If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title) it would be...

Junie B. Jones

9: The most overestimated book of all times is...

Anything by Anne Rice

10: I hate it when a book...

is made into a movie. They're always disappointing and I almost always want to see them anyway.

Doing my Part in October

And I spent less than $100 at Coffee Buy the Book today.

Three of these were book club selections (The Freedom Writers Diary by Erin Gruwell, The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant, and The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon). She has all the Edenwilde book club selections in except for The Good German, I think.

I bought Cormac McCarthy's The Road because when I looked at the Pulitzer Prize winners list from Babs, it was the only winner from the last ten or so years that I hadn't read. I really disliked his trilogy books, which is why I hadn't picked it up before.

On Jen's suggestion, I got a used paperback copy of Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth.

I used to love Anne Tyler's books when I was a teenager and in college but haven't read one in years, so I'm trying out Digging to America.

I also bought Stephen Colbert's I Am America and So Can You. Nuff said.

I heard an interview with Alice Sebold about her new book, The Almost Moon so I asked about it, and they are ordering it.

Now I wish it would rain for about a week so I could stay in with some tea and work my way through these. . .

my three book purchases

Hi ladies,
I am also a book buying addict, although Craig just asked me to stop for the next month.....guess I have been spending too much!!!!

Anyway, the last three books I bought were
Shattered Dreams by Irene Spencer (the memoir of the wife of a polygamist)
Dreaming Water by Gail Tsukiyama (I have loved the two books I have read of hers and decided I needed to read all of hers)
Playing for Pizza by John Grisham

I cannot remember everything I bought in September, but I did acquire these last month

Femme Fatale by Pat Shipman (a new look at Mata Hari's life)
eat pray love by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown (I am a closet (not so much anymore) Diana-phile)

The book I am most excited about getting next is The World Without an End by Ken Follett. I mentioned at the last book club how great his book The Pillars of the Earth (set in the 900s and following the building of a cathedral in england). this is the MUCH anticipated sequel to this book, set in the 1200's and tracking the descendants of the original book as they face the Black Death epidemic. Anyway, I have already asked Dana from Coffee Buy the Book to reserve me a copy and to bring it to Edenwilde's Shop Til You Drop night on Monday so I can take it home with me!!!!

Speaking of which, if you can, try to stop by the shopping night it is at the clubhouse starting at 7 pm and there are going to be 20 or so vendors. get a start on the holiday shopping!!!!

Jen

Three Books A Month Club

Through my friend's blog, Mother-in-Chief, I occasionally hop over to Bethany Hiitola's Mommy Writer Blog. I've been meaning to blog about a recent post of hers because I really like the suggestion (which she took from Melanie Lynne Hauser's Refridgerator Door blog) and want to encourage others to embrace it. Yes, it's the three books a month club. I regularly buy 10-15 books a month, through large chain bookstores, amazon.com, independent bookstores, online bookclubs and most recently Easton Press, so I figured I'm going to book heaven. ;^)
The rule of the three books a month club - no libraries, free book pick-ups, but real, live purchases from any of your neighboring stores. Well, I guess that rules out my amazon.com purchases, online book clubs, and Easton Press (even though I have agreed to shell out $39.95 plus s/h handling for the next, oh, 9 years or so to collect the 100 Greatest Books of All Time in hard cover, leather-bound, 22-karat gold encrusted glory; a rather hefty investment in the literary world, in my opinion). Can I include my neighborhood Barnes & Noble and Borders as well as Coffee Buy the Book? Point to ponder. :^)
Anyway, the main point of this post is to encourage you to get out and regularly buy books; the libraries are great and utterly, utterly necessary - but if people don't actually buy books and keep the publishers in business, what will be IN the libraries of the future?
I buy books because I am an addict, but I now also try to buy books more thoughtfully - thinking about friends I have who would like to be published, children I have whom I want to inherit a rich legacy of literature in the world. So, what do you think, can YOU buy three books a month?
Here is the list of SOME of the books I bought in September (so many of them, I can't even find them all right now!):

The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama
God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christpher Hitchens
Start Late, Finish Rich by David Bach
Oil on the Brain: Adventures from the Pump to the Pipeline by Lisa Margonelli
The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
Dreams from my Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama
The Woman at the Washington Zoo by Marjorie Williams
Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
New England White by Stephen L. Carter
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver

But this post made me think, and I have decided that in addition to the dozens of books I get through the aforementioned sources, I am going to make an effort, each month, to buy full-priced books from our wonderful independent bookstore in the heart of downtown historic Roswell. :^)

C'mon - post! What are the last three books you bought new at a bookstore?