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!