Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Readerly Rambles: 06/06/12

My blogcation lasted a bit longer than I intended.  The brief rundown:  I went out of town for a library training on Wednesday, returned on Thursday, stayed late at work on Friday, cleaned house on Saturday, grocery shopped and worked over 8 hours on Sunday, and then worked on Monday and Tuesday.  We have a new employee who started this week and she got my old office and I moved to a cubicle.  I had the biggest office, but I gladly gave it up.  The new employee, Amy, is an administrative assistant and she will be doing ALL THE BILLING, ACCOUNTS, AND ORDERING!  I hated the secretarial aspects of my job; now I can concentrate full-time on my library work and specifically interlibrary loan.  I'm stoked.

Despite the crazy busyness of the last week or so I have managed to have a delightfully bookish time.  In addition to finishing Hilary Mantel's Bring up the Bodies -- expect a review early next week -- I increased my book pile.  I went with three librarians (I'm a paraprofessional) to Chattanooga for a training.  The training started at 9am on Thursday and is about a 3 hour drive away so we went up the night before.  We had a chance hit up McKay Used Books, CDs, Movies, & More which came highly recommended by a fellow booknerd (thanks, Rachel)!  We spent roughly 2 hours in the shop -- until they closed -- and I didn't even make it to the second floor to look at music.  I shopped mostly with my booknerd friend Melissa and we continually had bookgasm after bookgasm.  She was thrilled to find a copy of The Wide, Wide World (a novel Jo March read in Little Women).  I was pretty thrilled with my finds; here are my spoils:

  •  A World of Love by Elizabeth Bowen
  • Dolly by Anita Brookner
  • The New House by Lettice Cooper (Virago!)
  • Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
  • The Queen of Subtleties by Susannah Dunn (I didn't realize this was large print, but it was only a $1)
  • Taking Chances by M.J. Farrell (Virago!)
  • An Elizabethan trilogy by Patricia Finney (Firedrake's Eye, Unicorn's Blood, and Gloriana's Torch)
  • The Virgin in the Garden by A.S. Byatt
  • The Ship of Widows by I. Grekova (Virago!)
  • The New York Stories of Henry James (NYRB!)
  • The Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison 
  • The Third Miss Symons by F.M. Mayor
  • The Bell by Iris Murdoch
  • A Message to the Planet by Iris Murdoch
  • A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym
  • Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
  • The Children of Henry the VIII by Alison Weir
I only spent $37!!!

19 books for less than $40.  It was pure heaven.

Over the weekend I realized that even my wee bedroom bookshelf was overwhelmed with books to read.  I selected seven books to concentrate on in June.  I've finished the Mantel novel and I'm still plugging through the Bowen stories.

Other books in the June TBR pile:

  • This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • The Soul of Kindness by Elizabeth Taylor
  • A World of Love by Elizabeth Bowen
  • My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier (a re-read)
  • The Music at Long Verney by Sylvia Townsend Warner
I'm pleased as punch with the bookish direction my summer is going.  I have a few vacation days in June and I planning on devoting a chunk of the time to reading.

I'm hopeful I'll make a dent in this book pile by next Wednesday!

4 comments:

Jenny V said...

YAY!!! I'm so glad you guys hired someone to fill Pat's long, long abandoned position. And congratulations on moving out of the billing world and firmly back into library duties.

Thomas Hogglestock said...

You found some really great books...Brookner, Pym, Murdoch. Quite the day. I only hope those pesky stickers come off easily.

Karen K. said...

Nice haul! And if you can't get the gummy stuff off the books, try a little rubbing alcohol on a q-tip. Works really well and won't damage the covers, I swear! I hate all that gummy stuff on the bookstore stickers.

And I loved The New House. I've moved a lot so this book really spoke to me. And I loved Barchester Towers, I'm hoping to read the 4th in the Barsetshire series during the Victorian Celebration.

Amanda Roper said...

All the stickers came off wonderfully. Hurrah for removable, book-friendly stickers!