When the going gets tough, what do you shop for? Do you shop for books? I do. I shop for books when I'm happy, and when I'm sad, when I'm bored, when I'm celebrating something. Basically any excuse I can find, I celebrate with books and chocolate.
Yesterday my sister called with the alarming news that she is laid up with thrombophlebitis in her leg, a serious case. She's been to emergency once, and is going back in on Monday to see if the blood clot has moved or gotten smaller. The danger is, of course, that part of the clot will break off and travel to her lungs and cause a pulmonary embolism. She's far away in New Brunswick so I can't just go on over to her house to help out and care for her family. I had a date with a friend so I continued on, and we were meeting in Chapters, Canada's version of Borders. This is what I bought while I wandered the shelves of fantasy, horror, mystery and science fiction, worrying over my sister and chatting to my friend, who has the only good news so far this year - she's getting married!
The Type 2 Diabetes book I bought a week ago Friday, when I went in for a blood glucose test and the nurse refused to give it to me because my sugar was too high. While I wait for confirmation that I am now diabetic, I ran out to the nearest bookstore (another Chapters location! ) that day, and bought that.
Did I say this month has been a challenge?
So while I wait for news that my sister's clot is dissolving (in the good way!), and wait for my final test result (another week to go), what I wondered as I stared at my pile of books last night and this morning, was if any of you, my Gentle Readers, also find yourselves celebrating - or coping - with life's many challenges and joys by heading to the bookstore? If so, what have you bought?
Much of the pile of books was bought with my birthday gifts, lovely book gift certificates to Chapters. I still have another wonderful gift certificate to Collected Works to use.
Now, I have some Bad Blogger points to hand out:
Not Flesh Nor Feathers by Cherie Priest: Chris
The New Space Opera ed by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan: Carl
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith: JS Peyton (Biblioaddict)
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao- Junot Diaz: ? (why does Kim L come to mind? or perhaps Eva? Please let me know, any of my readers, if you reviewed this sometime in the past 6 months. Someone did and loved it, and it went onto my book list)
Heart-Shaped Box - Joe Hill : ? (again, as above, someone reviewed this last summer for or around Carl's RIP3 challenge, I didn't take the name down, but put the book on my list. Let me know if it was you, please! )
The Blue Sword by Robin Mckinley - Becky? Nymeth? Kailana? Chris? Someone very recently named this one of their favourite fantasies.......
The rest of the books were ones I was looking for myself. Oh, I'm so happy! New books to read!
Swan Song - Robert McCammon - I read this 20 + years ago, and time for a reread!! It was very very good when I first read it, even better than The Stand, which I also love.
Blood on the Strand by Susanna Gregory - Thomas Chaloner #2 in the series. Medieval London mystery series.
Hard Row by Margaret Maron - a Deborah Knott mystery. I love her and her huge family of brothers (she's the youngest of 12 and the only girl), and her bootleg swill-keeping tobacco father.
Brother Grimm - Craig Russell - recommended by my friend I was in the store with. She reads mostly horror and true crime, so if she says it's good, it'll be scary. And it involves fairy tales, the Brothers Grimm.
Declare - Tim Powers - a departure of sorts for him, this one blends fantasy with true-life history, the Kim Philby spy affair. I can hardly wait to read this. I like spy fiction, and I really like Tim Powers.
Last Rituals - Yrsa Sigurdardottir - I regard this as the find of the night. I had seen her recently written up on the Guardian Book site as another Icelandic author, to go along with Arnuldur Indridason.
Wizards - ed Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois - on sale! In Hardcover! A real find, and one I'd been waiting to get for a while now. Hmm, a whole three weeks left in Carls' OUaT challenge, for short stories, which I have sadly not done any of yet.....
Chris also gets two points for the John Scalzi books I bought earlier this month. Based on his fabulous review of Old Man's War earlier this year, I have bought these two (word of mouth is that Zoe's Tale is even better, though whether I got this from Locus magazine or somewhere else, I sadly can't tell now. I really must start keeping a journal of where I find books online!!!).
I haven't been able to do nearly as much reading this month as I'd hoped. Gardening finally got done earlier this week, and I have been concentrating on my health and reassuring my family I was fine by spending time with them. I did manage to read two books in the past two weeks: Case Histories by Kate Atkinson, and The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss. I will be reviewing them in my round-up of the month tomorrow. Looking back, I think I'm happy I was able to read anything. A very challenging month indeed, with a tornado, a trip to Picton, a possible diabetes diagnosis (no chocolate!!!), and my sister. When the going gets tough, I turn to books! Even if I only read 4 books, I bought 21 books, plus two book gifts for other people.
Happy Sunday reading, my Gentle Readers.
