Today's Mail

A Separate Country by Robert Hicks.

Just arrived in the mail today. I'll have to hold off until the group gets started. Sounds like quite a good story.

Hidden in Plain View

This idea was taken from Tutu's Two Cents, a book blog that I follow regularly. It's an interesting idea just in its pure randomness of results.

The idea is to pick a book at random from you bookshelves and "bring it into the light of day". I followed tutu's lead and used Random.org on my LibraryThing collection of books in my library.

This week's book is : Bound to Happen by Alison Kent

A long time ago I receive a TON of romance novels, I'd guess well over 100). I tried reading a few back then and just did not enjoy the genre much so they got packed up and forgotten until my recent move. I have every book I own out on the shelves now that I have the room, including the many, many romance novels (mostly Harlequins if that matters). I decided to give them another go and found that I liked a few of them. They will never be my favorite genre, but they are great for a lazy Saturday afternoon or evening when I know I want to read a happy ending. I have not made it to this one yet, but one of my reading goals is to try and read at least two a month. I've broken it up by type (this would be a "Blaze") and haven't gotten to these yet. I'll be sure to post a review once I get a chance to.

Oh, and aren't you proud of me? I finally figured out how to post an image. It was amazingly simply. All I had to do was open my eyes and look for the button!

Monday's Mailbox

There are several book bloggers that track what books they buy or receive in the mail. While mine may not be as interesting (still haven't figured all the coding used on the site), it would be a nice way for me to track when things came in and who sent them.

Lucky in Love by Carolyn Brown (won from Drey's Library - thank you)
Perfect Timing by Jill Mansell (won from A Bookworm's World - thank you)

From the store (I went a little nuts this week)
Luxe by Anna Godbersen
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
The Rapture by Liz Jensen
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin
The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K Le Guin
The Farthest Shore by Ursula K Le Guin

Now after this week I have had to make a vow to myself to try and make sure that at least every other book (or at least series) I buy is from my TBR list, which has been growing at quite an astronomical rate. I spend too much time perusing when I'm at the book store.

Does anyone know a place where I can get a nice cheap bookcase or six?

Library Books

The question came up in discussion between my boyfriend and I regarding my lack of library book reading. His very relevant questions was "Why don't you just read library books so we don't have so many books laying around." My answer baffled him. "I can't stand the smell."

There is something about a library book that tickles my nose and I can never read one for more than a few minutes without having to put it down. Then I think my hands smell like it so I must proceed to the sink and scrub thoroughly for until I can't smell it anymore. I have similar problems with used books for class. I've gotten several strange stares from fellow students when I go through the used book stack smelling each copy before I select mine.

I have often wondered if others have the same dislike. I've heard them complain that some smell like smoke or animals, which can be an understandable dislike for people with allergies especially. But I think so many just smell dirty from being handled so many times. I wish I didn't have this opinion at times, because buying every book you ever want to read gets quite expensive.

Well, the book unpacking is nearly complete. I just have to round up the oddballs that got put into boxes they didn't belong in. I'm to about 440ish and counting. I never imagined I had that many and the number will be growing with my birthday coming up in about a month, too.