I lasted 18 days before I bought a book.....

I thought I could get through the month......but I couldn't, after all! Tonight I went to Collected Works, just to pop in and see if they had Susan Hill's first book in her mystery series. They didn't, but they had other ones, lots of other books! I had to put The Book Thief back, mostly because I am not quite in the mood for what reading the book will do to me - I know it will affect me like Diary of Anne Frank does. So it went back on the shelf, as did Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. I can get that next time. What I did buy was
-La Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky - my mother was raving about it after I gave it to her for Christmas, saying it was such a well-written book using grammar and words, writing that she hasn't seen for a long time, so she was slowing down her reading of it so she could enjoy it more;
- The Fair Folk ed by Marvin Kaye - an impulse buy! but I am into fairies and dragons right now, so might as well buy it while it's still in print (it was paperback anyway)
And then when I went up to the cash, I discovered I had two books on hold that I'd ordered before Christmas! somehow how my LSS forgot to pass on two messages left earlier this month:
-A Princess of Roumania by Paul Park - first in a trilogy - getting raves in the fantasy world, and it does look really good
-St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised By Wolves, by Karen Russell. How could I resist that title?? And it was on several Best Book of the Year lists, looks like magic realism, maybe.....interesting, anyway, a collection of short stories. See? I am trying something new, already!!
So, I happily bought some books! I am so delighted by them. All of them I will read this year, they look so good that I have to read them! and La Suite Francaise was already in one of my challenges.
H-m-m, do I admit that I ordered two more books, too? The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter, and Susan Hill's first mystery series book.
So, now that the kids are in bed, I can start reading.....it's Friday night, and except for grocery shopping, I don't have to go out tomorrow or for the rest of the weekend because our evening out at our friends' house down the street, watching a masterful dragon/lizard/giant snake-with-guns-and-missiles movie was put off while my friend recovers from bronchitis (our recent colds wouldn't help with this.....). So, I have lots of reading time ahead of me! And cold temperatures loom at the end of the week, which is when I hibernate because I hate being cold! so, The Remains of an Altar it is - and so far enjoying it very much, as usual. Ghostly things, evil people, faith and prayer, characters I would love to know - Merrily and her daughter Jane and new boyfriend Lol.....I'll review it when I'm done, it's book 7 in the series, and I have really enjoyed them all so far. A few have creeped me out too, which is the whole point of ghostly stories, but these are mysteries too, and very well done. Scary and mysterious, slightly haunting, you will have to try one, Gentle Reader!!
Happy Reading, and let me know when you broke down and bought your first book this year :-)