Library haul *Or, the madness of wanting to read everything

I was busy in January, reading 10 books.  10!!!  I am so proud.  A lot of my tv viewing has gone down, and I've been enjoying reading more.  This is not say I'm not watching my favourites, I could never miss Fringe!    Mostly, I am enjoying reading,  and making time to read more  That is really what my resolution is about, making more time for books.  I know I can't read everything out there, though I really want to.
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries! 

It seems I am finding almost every book interesting and irresistible.  Actually, I think I always have, but between all the books I bought in January (that's the next planned post) and the 20 + books out from my library, I'm pretty well feeling like the next six months of reading is covered!. Ok, I can hear you all wondering, what books did I haul from the library?

Here is a photo of my Library loot:

The Library Loot (with Blogger responsible beside it)
The pile on the left:
-Spellbent - Lucy A Snyder
- Death at Wentwater Court - Carola Dunn (Cath at Read Warbler, her post here)
- Sweater Quest - Adrienne Martini (Terri Windling, post here,  Delia Sherman, post here)
- Life and Fate - Vassily Grossman
- Sepulchre - Kate Moss (because of Bride's review of The Winter Ghosts, over at Bride of the Book God), and this one features a tarot deck. 
- The Westminster Poisoner - Susanna Gregory
- Guardian of the Dead - Karen Healey (a blogger somewhere)....
- Well-Witched - Frances Hardinge (Locus magazine review)
- Visitation - Jenny Erpenbeck
- Juliet, Naked - *Nick Hornby*
- How To Make Friends with Demons - Graham Joyce (Locus magazine - see my sidebar)

The pile on the right:
- Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell - BBC production,  dvd. (score!!)
 - The Cold Light of Mourning - Elizabeth J. Duncan (Mystery Scene Magazine review)
 - The Laughing Policeman - Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo (Detectives Beyond Borders blog, post here)
- Dangerous Angels - Francesca Block (Chris at Stuff as Dreams Are Made Of, post here)
- Murder on the Rocks - Karen MacInerney (Mystery Scene Magazine review)
- Dead Witch Walking - Kim Harrison
- Silent in the Grave - Deanna Raybourne (Bride at Bride of the Book God, post here)
- Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading - Maureen Corrigan (Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings, post here)
- The Burning Land - Bernard Cornwell (Mariel at Where Troubles Melt Like Lemon Drops, post here - it led me to all her reviews of The Arthurian Cycle by Cornwell)
- The Limits of Enchantment - Graham Joyce
- A Chance Meeting - Rachel Cohen (Nymeth at Things Means Alot, post here; it's actually Litlove's comment to Nymeth that caught my eye, but the entire post made me add 4 books to my reading list!)
 - The Outlander - Gil Adamson

I forgot to put in the picture the library book I'm currently reading:
- Valley of the Lost - Vicki Delany (Kathleen at Boarding in My Forties recommended this author to me, how I missed a new Canadian mystery series I have no idea, but I am very much enjoying her.  Lesa at Lesa's Book Critiques has reviews of all the books in the series, beginning here.)

I can hear you all laughing.  I know I won't read all of these, though I'm going to try!  It's so much fun to click that button online and request a book from our library.  If only we could click a button and order more time just for reading, too!!

I'd say there are a lot of very bad Bloggers out there too, though really I thank you from the bottom of my heart for pointing me towards some excellent books to read.

Happy reading, happy library loot!

library! and the end finally of the bus strike

It has been well over a year since I last went to the library. Some bloggers had been posting after Christmas about the books they picked up, and it reminded me - I have a great resource for books! I had fallen out of use with it over the past two years.

Then, we had the bus strike. There I sat, compiling lists from bloggers of books I really want to read, and I couldn't get to the library.

Breakthrough!!! The bus strike is over!!! Now, we are not actually jumping for joy yet, because a) the buses don't actually start until this Saturday, and b) there will be a great delay in getting so many on the road because the mechanics were part of the strike, that they are recommending people still try to find alternate ways of getting around. Which means, we get one bus line back, but not our rush hour bus. The good news is, I can get to the library again!

So today, on my second to last drive home from work, we stopped at the library so I could renew my card (it had sadly lapsed. What kind of bookworm am I, that my library card hasn't been used in over a year?). and then, because we were there, and I'm planning on going with the kids on Saturday as part of our 'thank heaven the buses are back!' trip out of the house, I looked for books for myself, a 1/2 hour of just randomly wandering the shelves. I had a tiny list with me, and happily found one book on it:


bad Blogger #1: SHARED Eva and Nymeth
Nymeth: review here for
Castle Waiting, by Linda Medley. Nymeth's review and
Eva: review here made this book go right onto my to read list. Lo and behold, what do I find at my library today but a hard cover copy with the whole edition! Their reviews were so good that I might, just might, have to start with this one. Fairy tales and illustrations - my very first graphic novel.



bad blogger # 2: Geraniumcat
Geranium Cat's review here
The Autumn Castle - Kim Wilkins
As you can see by my comment to Geranium Cat, I did go get this book after all! It looks very good too...



bad blogger # 3 BookZombie
BookZombie's review here - her review is for Tales From the Crypts, which I was looking for. I didn't see it, but I did see: Swamp Thing! So, I remember reading some of this when I was younger...it's not quite the same horror as Tales From the Crypts, my all-time favourite comic book as a child, but it will do until I can get me some Tales. Thanks, BookZombie, because your review made me realize the Tales are still around!

I also picked up:

Ten Little Indians by Sherman Alexie, an author I have been wanting to try for a very long time. This is a collection of short stories.

Faerie Tales, ed Martin Greenberg

Just because I saw the cover, and it was irresistible, and I can't resist short stories about faeries and humans.

Nature of Balance - Tim Lebbon

This was in our new release books, but I guess it was newly bought by our library, since it turns out to be published in 2001. Who could resist the first line: 'The dead girl holds her mother's hand.' It looks quite good, and so another just because book.

One of the best things about having my library card up to date is that I can start reserving books again! that was the real reason I went in today. So some bloggers will be getting points in the coming months. For now, a special greeting to Chris, who ever since he reviewed Cherie Priest,
here, I have been longing to read her books. Chris, if I can get all three of her books, you get three points! I also have to say that Chris is very persuasive, as ever since he reviewed John Scalzi's Old Man's War here, I have been seeing and I almost bought, but I am trying to restrain my book buying until we get our new shelves in and I have space again. So this is another for the library.

So, our bus nightmare is over, and we are so anxious to have life resume in our city.I will have precious reading time again, although I will miss getting home early and being able to read before picking the kids up from daycare.

I have some books to put down for the library challenge, finally! And, as I searched the blogs for the bloggers who had made the original recommendations for books, I saw 4 more titles to request at the library! No, indeed, in my world, you can never have too many books to read.....just more time, please, to read them all!