Beginnings

Welcome friends! I have started this entry in the global technosphere because I have been in love with books since the age of 2. Among the busy business of being a new teacher, this is my outlet for sharing thoughts on a love of reading a wide variety of books. My inspiration can be summed up with a yearbook quote from a teacher written when I was 8: "To the only girl at recess I see reading a book. Good for you!"
My blog title is quoted from a classmate who asked me this once. Believe it or not, I've also heard it as a teacher :D

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Major Book Shopping Haul!

Boy did I ever sleep in this morning!  And it's no wonder after a full day out.  The Book Depot was pretty awesome.  They only had 2 of my challenge books that I wanted to get but I was pleasantly, overwhelmingly surprised by the availability of so many books on my must-read list.  I ended up with an overstuffed box of....57!

Here are the photos I snapped of them all & their titles.  Sorry if the glare of the flash obscures some parts.



LEFT COLUMN:
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold- John le Carré
Moonlight Mile- Dennis Lehane
By Myself & Then Some- Lauren Bacall
The First Wives Club- Olivia Goldsmith
Infinite Jest- David Foster Wallace
Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography- Andrew Morton
A Lotus Grows in the Mud- Goldie Hawn
The Age of Innocence- Edith Wharton
Brideshead Revisited- Evelyn Waugh
Love and Other Impossible Pursuits- Ayelet Waldman
Living History- Hillary Rodham Clinton
U2 by U2- Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullens
Great Expectations- Charles Dickens
Reservation Road- John Burnham Schwartz
Wuthering Heights- Emily Bronte
Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself- Alan Alda
Patchwork Planet- Anne Tyler

RIGHT COLUMN:
Blessings- Anna Quindlen
All the King's Men- Robert Penn Warren
Middlemarch- George Eliot
The Evening Star- Larry McMurtry
The Poseidon Adventure- Paul Gallico
Frankenstein- Mary Shelley
American on Purpose- Craig Ferguson
The Birthing House- Christopher Ransom
Kate Remembered- A. Scott Berg
Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn- William J. Mann
Gulliver's Travels- Jonathan Swift
L.A. Confidential- James Ellroy
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood- Rebecca Wells
The Stone Diaries- Carol Shields

VERY BOTTOM:
The Bluest Eye- Toni Morrison




LEFT COLUMN (from left to right, top to bottom):
Angela's Ashes- Frank McCourt
The Awakening- Kate Chopin
My Antonia- Willa Cather
Vanity Fair- William Makepeace Thackeray
If I Only Knew Then- Charles Grodin
Profiles in Courage- John F. Kennedy

RIGHT COLUMN:
Film Flam- Larry McMurtry
Our Town- Thornton Wilder
Sense and Sensibility- Jane Austen
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland- Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking Glass- Lewis Carroll
The Scarlet Letter- Nathaniel Hawthorne
Far From the Madding Crowd- Thomas Hardy
Shameless Explotation in Pursuit of the Common Good- Paul Newman & A.E. Hotchner
Tess of the D'Urbervilles- Thomas Hardy
We Were the Mulvaneys- Joyce Carol Oates
Get Shorty- Elmore Leonard
Terms of Endearment- Larry McMurtry
The Picture of Dorian Gray- Oscar Wilde
Mutiny on the Bounty-
A Tale of Two Cities- Charles Dickens
Their Eyes Were Watching God- Zora Neale Hurston
Cry, the Beloved Country- Alan Paton
Native Son- Richard Wright
Hannibal- Thomas Harris


But, the adventure didn't end there!  I thought to myself that I should venture forth and get the challenge books I was seeking in the first place...and a couple of others the Book Depot didn't have ;)  So, I ended up getting 10 more books at Chapters:



Pet Sematary- Stephen King
Night Shift- Stephen King
Misery- Stephen King
The Cider House Rules- John Irving
On the Road- Jack Kerouac
Back When We Were Grownups- Anne Tyler
The Reader- Bernhard Schlink
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter- Carson McCullers
Night- Elie Wiesel
A Short History of Nearly Everything- Bill Bryson

So, the grand total from my book haul is 67 books.  I was lucky to squeeze some on my shelves and get all the others in one box for the closet.  Space is dwindling with every book buying trip...you know how it is :)  All in all, I'd say my TBR shelf is pretty full for now!

On a challenge-related note, I cannot seem to find Cujo by Stephen King for the Stephen King Challenge, so I'll be swapping in Pet Sematary instead.

Have you been on any book-buying sprees lately?

13 comments:

  1. Wooo! That's a whole lotta book buyin! I'm definitely jealous right now :o) That should keep you busy for a while!

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  2. Those are some excellent book choices. I've read quite of few of them. Only one on your list I didn't like.

    You can't find Cujo? Really? I'm suprised. I guess I just expect Stephen King books to be easily buyable.

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  3. WOW! You picked up quite the haul there :) The bargain paperbacks section on barnesandnoble.com is always my downfall!

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  4. Wow! Anytime you can leave a bookstore with 57 books, it's a great day! I'm quite jealous... Nice job!

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  5. I am so green with envy right now!!
    Some great titles you have there.. have fun!!

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  6. WOW, now that definately is a book buying spree.

    Enjoy

    carol

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  7. Oh, my gosh, I'm positively drooling! Did you win the lotteries?? That is some spending spree! xx

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  8. Ok so after seeing your great haul I had to look this place up and find out where it is. If it's the one I found, I'm so checking it out the next time I'm in the area!

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  9. Thanks for all your comments :)

    Loni~ It was a surprise to me, too. One store had a copy in stock & must have sold it within 24 hours of me getting there. Grr...

    Wendy~ LOL, I wish :D The store has great prices, and I had leftover birthday cash burning a hole in this book hound's pocket ;)

    Shan~ Hope you enjoy it!

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  10. Awesome collection.and thanks for providing such a lot information.
    BookWorld

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  11. WOW 67 books such a marvelous collection..Great job.
    BookShoppe

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  12. BLESSINGS held me from the beginning. Don't ask me where I THOUGHT the story would go, but I sobbed uncontrollably through the last 50 pages. Of fascination is the variety of opinions on whether or not this book is a worthwhile read. I think much depends upon your life experience. It touched me deeply.

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