Between books I purchased for myself, and gift certificates I received as birthday presents which allowed me to buy more books, my To Be Read shelf just increased exponentially.
In no particular order:
And finally, because a girl can’t live on books alone:
Posted in List, TBR, What I'm reading
A couple of nights ago I had dinner with a good friend who was driving through town on her way home from a conference. We spent awhile talking about a weekend trip we want to take this fall to the Epcot Food & Wine festival. Somehow, and I’m still not sure how, I mentioned this place I’ve been obsessed with ever since This Fish blogged about her travels in Europe. The Cinque Terre in Italy is one of the most beautiful areas I’ve ever seen. The pictures taken above Vernazza are stunning, in fact pictures taken anywhere in the area are stunning. Anyway, I showed her a couple of these pictures on my iPhone at dinner and she was captivated as well. We’re now determined to plan a girls trip to Italy (you know …. sometime in the next 3-4 years when we can afford it?!? :)) We’re already making plans to get Italian audio cd’s (or in my case audible.com files) to start learning the language and I spent some time on Amazon looking at travel books.
(by the way – if I had a boy to take with me, I would be going here …… sigh)
Here’s where my love of technology enters to fulfill my love of planning. It occurred to me yesterday morning that my friend who manages a local bookstore is also on Twitter. So I sent him a direct message asking what they have in stock for Italy travel books. Within like two minutes, he responded listing out the books. The one I wanted was there (yay), so I jumped in the car and drove down there on my lunch break (about 5 minutes after he sent the message). Walked in to the store, he laughed, and showed me where the books were. Now, I could have just picked up the phone and called, but it’s such a pain looking up a phone number in the phone book or online, then waiting while they go and look through their stock, then they get back on the phone and say – yes we have X Y Z books. Instead, I shot off a quick tweet, continued working, got a response, and decided what to do for lunch. (It didn’t hurt that the Grain Train down the street from the store was featuring Morel Pasta for lunch either!)
So – the good news – I got a great travel book for Italy! The other good news – but kind of unexpected – I picked up three other books from his recommendations (we have similar taste in books – except for the whole romance book thing :)), and 4 more books that he’s letting me borrow from his MASSIVE to be read shelves …. more like wall …. the man has an entire WALL of to be read books!
Here’s to Italy!
And more books on my to-be-read shelf!
Posted in TBR
This process has shamed me somewhat. I can’t believe I have this many books that I haven’t read – yet continue to spend money on new books. This isn’t even a total list – I have more bookshelves downstairs that I haven’t looked at yet. The one saving grace is that I only bought maybe half the books on the list – the rest are books borrowed from my parents. Which is I suppose even worse – I wonder if they want them back?
(k) = Kindle format
Romance:
Pride & Predjudice – Jane Austen
Maneater – Gigi Levangie Grazer
Lost in Austen – Create your Own Jane Austen Adventure – Emma Campbell Webster
Henry & June – Anais Nin
Katherine – Anya Seton
Good In Bed – Jennifer Weiner
The Tenth Circle – Jodi Picoult
The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen – Syrie James
Northern Lights – Nora Roberts
Angels Fall – Nora Roberts
The Hollow – Nora Roberts (k)
Everything’s Coming Up Rosie – Kasey Michaels
Sweet Success – Susan Mallery
Rescue Me – Gigi Levangie Grazer
Paranormal/Urban Fantasy:
Greywalker – Kat Richardson
Kiss of Crimson – Lara Adrian
Kiss of Midnight – Lara Adrian (k)
Mistral’s Kiss – Laurel K Hamilton
Night Life – Caitlin Kittredge (k)
Cast in Secret – Michelle Sagara (k)
Witchling – Yasmine Galenorn (k)
The Touch of Twilight – Vicki Pettersson (k)
Dance with the Devil – Sherrilyn Kenyon (k)
Night Pleasures – Sherrilyn Kenyon (k)
The Watcher – Jeanne C Stein (k)
Seize the Night – Sherrilyn Kenyon (k)
Micah – Laurell K Hamilton (k)
A Kiss of Shadows – Laurell K Hamilton (k)
My Immortal – Erin McCarthy (k)
Claimed by Shadow – Karen Chance
Bad Blood – L.A. Banks
Science Fiction/Fantasy:
Brilliance of the Moon – Lian Hearn
Starman – Sara Douglass
Son of Avonar – Carol Berg
The Magician’s Guild – Trudi Canavan
Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman
Sparrow – Mary Doria Russell
The Outstretched Shadow – Mercedes Lackey & James Mallory
Lost Truth – Dawn Cook
Daughter of the Forest – Juliet Marillier (k)
The Way of Shadows – Brent Weeks (k)
Gabriel’s Ghosts – Linnea Sinclair (k)
Soul – Tobsha Learner (k)
The Gunslinger – Stephen King (k)
The Queen’s Bastard – C.E. Murphy (k)
Tempting Danger – Eileen Weeks
Young Adult:
Inkheart – Cornelia Funke
The Looking Glass Wars – Frank Beddor
Seeing Redd – Frank Beddor
A Great & Terrible Beauty – Libba Bray
Rebel Angels – Libba Bray
The Warrior Heir – Cinda Williams Chima
Peter and the Starcatchers – Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson
Princess Academy – Shannon Hale
Song of the Sparrow – Lisa Ann Sandell
Adventure:
The Last American Man – Elizabeth Gilbert
Into The Wild – Jon Krakauer
Adrift – Steven Callahan
Everest to Arabia – Jamie Clarke
Above the Clouds – Anatoli Boukreev
Forever on the Mountain – James Tabor
Fiction:
Prep – Curtis Sittenfeld
Man & Boy – Tony Parsons
Suite Francais – Irene Nemirovsky
Life of Pi – Yann Martel
Big Stone Gap – Adriana Trigiani
Gone – Lisa Gardner
Whispers – Lisa Jackson
Hot Blooded – Lisa Jackson
The Last Kingdom – Bernard Cornwell
Stone Cold – David Baldacci
Protect & Defend – Vince Flynn
Blind Side – Catherine Coulter
Death Match – Lincoln Child
Exit Strategy – Kelley Armstrong
Mystery:
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency – Alexander McCall Smith
The DaVinci Code – Dan Brown
Angels & Demons – Dan Brown
Deception Point – Dan Brown
NonFiction:
Under the Banner of Heaven – Jon Krakauer
Smashed – Koren Zailckas
Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt
Born Standing Up – Steve Martin
Self Help/Business:
Your Best Year Yet – Jinny S Ditzler
When I Say No, I Feel Guilty – Manuel J. Smith
The Starbucks Experience – Joseph Michelli
The Highly Sensitive Child – Elaine N Aron
Do It Tomorrow – Mark Forster
*ETA about 15 other books I found*
These books are culled from my Kindle (not samples, but full books I haven’t read yet) and recent reviews from other blogs that have made me desperate to read them. It does not include any of the stacks of books I’ve had in my TBR pile for the last year or more – those I will be sorting through this weekend. (I should add though that some of them aren’t available in Kindle format, so I will have to go to the bookstore to get them)
In no particular order:
Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception – By Maggie Stiefvater
The Blade Itself – By Joe Abercrombie
Wicked Game – By Jeri Smith-Ready
Blood Angel – By Justine Musk
Clockwork Heart – By Dru Pagliassotti
Lord of the Fading Lands – By C. L. Wilson
Magic Bites – By Ilona Andrews
Kushiel’s Dart – By Jacqueline Carey
The Becoming – By Jeanne Stein
Ender in Exile – By Orson Scott Card
The Way of Shadows – By Brent Weeks
Daughter of the Forest – By Juliet Marillier
Night Life – By Caitlin Kittredge
Witchling – By Yasmine Galenorn
Gabriel’s Ghosts – By Linnea Sinclair
The Watcher – By Jeanne C Stein
Drowning in Books 