Pretties!

I promise to look through posts for It's Monday later. I would much rather be doing that but I can't put off studying statistics and putting pen to paper any longer (sadly). For now though I thought I would quickly show off some new books I ordered from Waterstones. I really only went online to order John Connolly's The Unquiet. I have been waiting for bookshops to have this in but I can't be bothered waiting anymore. I want to get on with this series. However, it would be rude to order just one book so I ordered a couple of classics too.

I picked up Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy in the new penguin classic paperback. I get the impression that this is one of those books you either love or hate. A little like marmite. I hate marmite so I am hoping I will love this. I should probably have just got it out the library but with classics I feel I should get my own copy instead.

Lastly I picked up a Penguin Clothbound. I have been wanting to re-read Sense and Sensibility for a while now. I had planned to do it last year but didn't. So this is the year. I was determined if I was going to get my own copy of this book it had to be this edition. It's the magpie in me. I have read all of Jane Austen's books but I don't actually have my own copies (apart from P&P which you saw a few weeks ago) as I borrowed my mum's. I'm not sure she even has them any more. My mum is one of those people who passes on books as soon as she reads them. My dad is the same. My sister and I make up for it for the both of them.

February Overview/ Month Ahead (or where did that last month go)

What do you mean it's now March? Seriously, I know it's a short month but in my head I had weeks to go until it was over. I was determined to read more than January's poxy four books and I thought I had plenty of time. Alas, I was mistaken and I have another month of just four books. Okay, so one of those books was originally published as three or four seperate books but that still does not make me feel better.

Despite the poor showing it was still a good book month in that I loved them all. Here is what I read;

1. Spring Snow - Yukio Mishima
2. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
3. The Silver Linings Playbook - Matthew Quick
4. The Collected Stories - Lorrie Moore

All of them fabulous books and all of them ver different. Although Spring Snow was beautifully written the book that really stands out is The Collected Stories. I don't want to say too much as I haven't reviewed it yet but I bet this would persuade anyone to the short story. Fabulously written with an amazing collection of characters. The fact that each character seemed so different from the last is a tesament to Moore's talent.

I am not going to pick out a least favourite. Simply because I enjoyed them all.

As for the month ahead. I am in the middle of reading a Karen Rose book. It is taking me far longer than it normally would because I don't have the time and it's annoying me. I am fed up with the formula and I think this will be the last of her books for me.

Next I have a the latest Thursday Next book. I also have a sci fi book, an Anne Tyler and a whim buy on the cards. I am waiting still for a couple of books I have reserved at the library. There are umpteen copies of this book and although the queue is getting longer my place in it hasn't changed in a month. A little frustrating but it's the price you pay I guess.

Oh, and that image at the start of this post is of another whim purchase. I already have a copy of Pride and Prejudice but I couldn't walk out the shop without it. It's a pulp publication and there are several classics in the series which have been brought out with a pulp fiction style cover.

I hope everyone else has had a good month.

January Overview/ Month Ahead

Feels a bit cheeky to be doing an overview a third of the way into the new month. Going to do it anyway as you can see. I need to get back onto my blogging routine.

It's not the blogging I have had a problem with (although I do have a couple of books to review). It's the reading, or rather my less than inspirational book pile. There is nothing in it that is calling out to me and this was shown by the fact that I read only four books in January. One of those was a novella too. My pitiful four books from last month (of which I had the first two weeks off) were;

1. Full Dark, No Stars - Stephen King
2. The Hundred-Year-Old-Man Who Climbed Out A Window and Disappeared - Jonas Jonasson
3. The Mist - Stephen King
4. Be My Enemy - Christopher Brookmyre.

I also gave up on an 800 page tomb, The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber. After a promising start I quickly became bored and the thought of reading this book put me off reading at all. Eventually I was brave enough to call it quits and pick up something I actually wanted to read. Other than that I did actually enjoy the books I read and the Jonasson one is alread a firm favourite (as I mentioned in my review). It's also the only one that didn't come off my book pile.

As for the rest of this month I bought three books in the hopes of gaining an interest in reading again. One was a book I have been wanting to read for years, another was a whim and the last was a recommendation. I am starting with the recommendation which is the Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Hopefully it will get me excited about reading again.

I also wanted to start up my classic a month again and I did pick up Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima but I have only just finished it. So there goes my one a month. Although it was a good classic for the first of 2013. I've whittled down my reading pile again so hopefully I will get a few of those finished too. I am also hoping to spend a bit of time doing the blog rounds. As I haven't been reading as much I've felt too guilty going to see what others are reading. Looking forward to it now though. Lastly, my plan is to catch up on my goodreads challenge. Until today I was 4 books behind.

Hope everyone had a more inspirational January than I did.

July Book Purchases!

I seem to stick to buying four books a month. I think I can keep up with that and still get my tbr pile down. Here are this months book purchases.

11.22.63 - Stephen King
The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
Manhattan In Reverse - Peter F. Hamilton
A Walk In The Woods - Bill Bryson

The King book is one that I have heard a lot of good things about. It has to be better than Under the Dome. So I am very much looking forward to that. I saw a review of The Scarlet Letter on FBT's blog, Kill Me If I Stop (a great blog, especially if you like classics). It sounded right up my street so this is going to be my choice for next months classic challenge. The Hamilton book is again one I have been looking forward to. As for the Bryson, I have enjoyed his autobiography and thought it is about time I tried some of his travel. I am keeping it though for the travel category in the Mixing It Up challenge.

On a whim I also took a wee trip to the library and got out these books. I'll be reading them next.

Book Purchases

I am now only two reviews behind. Hopefully I will have those up over the weekend if not before. Meanwhile I was bad and bought some books. Two of them are for challenges mind you and I am halfway through one.

Flowers For Algernon - Daniel Keyes (half way through and it's for this months sci fi challenge)
Miss Peregrines Home For Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs (for next months mixing it up challenge)
The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch,
No One Left To Tell - Karen Rose

February Book Haul.

I told you it wasn't as large as last time. Plus only one of them was for purchased with a challenge in mind. So here is my haul;

Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway
Roots by Alex Haley
The Old Curiosity Ship by Charles Dickens
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

The Jules Verne book is the only one that was bought for a challenge. I'm looking forward to reading it as I loved Around the World In 80 Days. Plus this one might be my favourite vintage cover to date. I'm afraid you will have to wait until next month to see it though. The Harkaway was one I have known for months that I would buy it as soon as it was released. I don't think it will be lying on my shelf for too long. Roots I picked up because I know a lot of people are reading it for a read-along. Whilst I won't be joining in I have been enjoying the posts of those taking part enough for me to pick it up. The others were because I am still going through my classics phase and I can never resist those vintage cover.

Anyone else bought any good books recently?

January Book Haul

I decided that this year I was going to spend some of my Christmas money on books since I never get any for Christmas. I know, poor me. The truth is everyone is afraid to buy me books in case I have read them. I am sure most of you are the same. The good thing is that I get to pick out my own. Most of the books I bought were related to book challenges I had joined. I'm not going to bore you by listing which books belong to which challenge as I have mentioned them already in previous posts. Here is a list of what's in the photograph though.

Antony and Cleopatra - William Shakespeare
Macbeth - William Shakespeare
Much Ado About Nothing - William Shakespeare
Hamlet - William Shakespeare
Zoo City - Lauren Beukes
King Solomon's Mines - H. Rider Haggard
The White Road - John Connolly
Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell
Dracula - Bram Stoker

Shockingly there is only one book in that pile that doesn't belong to a challenge and that's John Connolly. This is the fourth book in his crime series. I probably could have read them all by now but I am trying to savour them.

The two very pretty books at the bottom are Penguin Clothbounds. The truth is I could have gotten away with not buying them. I have plenty of classics sitting there that I could have read in place of Gaskell. Plus I have an electronic version of Dracula (I was shocked to discover during the clear out I had that I didn't actually have a physical copy of one of my favourite books). I couldn't resist treating myself to two of these beautiful books. I also realised during my clear out that I didn't own any Austen's other than P&P. I forgot it was my mum's copies I had originally read. When I decide which Austen I am going to re-read I have no doubt it will be one of these editions.

October purchases

The books I have ordered have arrived and I am pretty excited about them. Most of them have been recommendations from people. I asked for some spooky reading ideas last week. Here is what I picked up;

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
The Fall of the House of Usher and other stories by Edgar Allan Poe.

The Poe was really a must have. Every Halloween for the last three or four years I have said I am going to read some Poe and haven't quite managed it. This time I have no excuse as I now have a very pretty copy of his collection of stories (love vintage classics). The same friend who has been nagging at me to read it also recommended The Haunting of Hill House. I have been told that it's very scary and as I scare easily I am expecting a few sleepless nights. The Ray Bradbury was recommended by the lovely Satia of Satia's Reviews. This is actually another book I have been meaning to read. I read a few Bradbury when I was into my sci fi and loved it. Lastly, I saw someone on the bloghop on Friday list Odd Thomas as a favourite spooky read (I'm sorry I can't remember who it was). I read Dean Koontz long after I discovered Stephen King. Not in King's league but I did enjoy them for a while. Then all the books started to run into each other in my head, the were all so similar, that I took a very long break. Actually this will be the first since then so I am actually looking forward to it.

The book at the bottom of the pile has been renamed 'my baby'. Yep, it's the first two books of Haruki Murakami's "IQ84". It's going to take a lot of will power not to drop everything and read that one. I will be good though and read my Halloween books first. I haven't even opened the cover yet in order to resist temptation.

Anyone have any exciting book purchases this month?