So I went book shopping for some classics for my challenge......

I went to a Salvation Army outlet near my home today, on my way home from dropping my youngest son at school today.  It was bitterly cold, and his school bus was an hour late (according to the transportation schedule), which we checked after half an hour of waiting outside. So rather than wait in the cold for another half hour and get sick again, I took him in a taxi to school.  My excuse to get books treat was to stop into the Salvation Army outlet on the way home, and scope out their book section, which sometimes has interesting books.  I never know what I will find there.  I went in saying, "Ok, I need Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson so I can read his Mars trilogy for the Classics challenge.  Oh, and let's see what literary classics are in too."  This is what I came home with:                 

 The steal of the day, for me, the find that made me exclaim and get all excited?  The Dark Imaginings, A collection of Gothic Fantasy, edited by Robert Boyer and Kenneth Zahorski.

                                               
                                           

 I have never seen this book before, and I love, love, love the cover.  There are 17 illustrations inside by James Cagle.  Some of the stories are ones I've never seen before:
Cross Purposes - George MacDonald
Darkness Box - Ursula K LeGuin
The Unholy Grail - Fritz Leiber
The Troll - T.H. White
Lila the Werewolf - Peter Beagle
The Crowd - Ray Bradbury
The Brown Hand - Arthur Conan Doyle

There are 17 stories in total in this collection.  They are the same editors of The Fantastic Imagination (1977), and The Fantastic Imagination 2 (1978), exhibiting the best of fantasy writing for 100 years, both of which I own and have only partially read.  Hmm, maybe I should add these to the fantasy challenge portion......
                    

Actually, I exclaimed over all the books I found today. Madame Bovary!  The Day of the Triffids!  Jack Kerouac!  The Count of Monte Cristo!  The Giant Squid book, which I am going to read while I read Moby Dick!  We, the classic Soviet science fiction novel!   And the Colin Dexter book The Way Through the Woods which Margaret at BooksPlease just reviewed and I don't own among my Morse mysteries. And it was half-price day too, so I can still hunt for Green Mars and feel virtuous in this first week of January.

Now to update my challenge list page......

I love finding books second-hand, especially the hard-to-find and out of print books.  

The books I received for Christmas......

Here are the books I bought all autumn for my gift box to myself.  I had so much fun!  I would see a book, and instead of feeling guilty for buying myself a book in the midst of shopping for others, it became a present to myself.  In the end, the family 'gave' me the box, and it became my big present because I bought so many books!  They all shook their heads, not quite believing that this was all I really wanted.    It was most delightful to open the lid and see all the books waiting for me. My children for the first time selected gifts at their school fair for us, and next to their carefully chosen gifts, my books are my favourite gifts of this season.

The titles:
The Secrets of Pain - Phil Rickman
All Clear - Connie Willis
Winter of Secrets - Vicki Delany
Right-Hand Magic - Nancy A. Collins
The Curious Gardener - Anna Pavord
Graceling - Kristin Cashore
Ashes to Dust - Yrsa Sigurdardottir
 Real Cooking - Nigel Slater

Smokin' Seventeen - Janet Evanovich
The Shadow Woman - Ake Edwardson
Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop - Otto Penzler
Dark Matter - Michelle Paver
The Hanging Wood - Martin Edwards
Die With Me - Elena Forbes
The Magicians and Mrs. Quent - Galen Beckett
The Whale - Philip Hoare
******My son gave me three books for Christmas, and even asked me for a list. I was thrilled!  They are the ones lying in the front:
The Face of a Stranger - Anne Perry
The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction - Alan Jacobs
Ship of Magic - Robin Hobb

I am also the very lucky recipient of some book gift cards, to Amazon.ca and to our Chapters store here in Ottawa.  I haven't finished using them yet, so I will let you know what else I buy for Christmas in books! 

 Using surgery is a fine excuse, don't you think?
As I am facing my knee surgery (just a day operation, a scope to remove the piece of floating cartilage) on January 16,  I am facing a week at home, on crutches for the first two days.  I think that's a perfect reason to be buying books, don't you?  For my layover....plenty to read then!  With that in mind, I confess that I went second-hand book shopping today, after my pre-op visit to the hospital this morning. It was to the Book Market, a second hand bookstore which has several outlets in the Ottawa area.  My first job when I moved to Ottawa was at the main store in the downtown area, which sadly recently closed. However, close to the hospital I was at this morning, I saw there was one of the other outlets I had never been to before.  So what's a girl facing surgery going to do?  More book shopping!!  Here is what I found today:

The Museum of Horrors - edited by Dennis Etchison
Brimstone Kiss - Carole Nelson Douglas
A Sudden Fearful Death - Anne Perry
Borderline - Nevada Barr
Condition Purple - Peter Turnbull
The Wisdom of Father Brown - G. K. Chesterton
Playing with Bones - Kate Ellis
Evil Angels Among Them - Kate Charles
Graveminder - Melissa Marr
Thirty-Three Teeth - Colin Cotterill
Bryant and May on the Loose - Christopher Fowler
Ae Fond Kiss - The Love Letters of Robert Burns and Clarinda
Identity Theory - Peter Temple
Just After Sunset - Stephen King

I even got a discount  today, because I bought so many at once!  She said it was the season....

Advent Calendar of Books
By my count, that's 33 new books in my house this month!  Counting the ones my son bought me.  If I don't count them ( I didn't buy them!), then that's one book per day.....with one day off for Christmas. It's like having my own advent calendar of books!  Only I 'bought' one every day, instead of opening a calendar. I like it, what do you think?

second-hand bookshops warning signs:

Second-hand shops. We have at least 10 here in Ottawa. I can't go in them. I spend money. I come out with armloads of books. Husband looks at me and weeps. I plan for another bookshelf. Wonder if he will notice if I pop in for the book I almost bought and now know I don't have....

This was from a comment I wrote on another blogging site, and as I wrote it I realized why I don't know how many used bookstores we have here in Ottawa: I can't go in them. Used books? $1 each! I can always find one to take home!!! It's hard enough not buying when I go into new bookstores (hence, I sometimes stay away for weeks at a time, and we have at least 10 of those also in Ottawa), but used bookstores? No, I know as I enter the door, that I'm coming out with at least one book, if not many more. I know there's a name for this...nope, not bookaholic....nope, not bookaddiction....booklove! Yes, that's it. I'm in love with books! And second-hand bookshops are irresistable for me. I know London England by Charing Cross Road and its many wonderful bookstores! Both new and used. It's the same with any city/town/village I've ever been to. Where are the bookstores? It's the first thing I look for. For my 50th birthday (still a few years away, hurray!), I semi-jokingly said I wanted to celebrate by flying to London and spending the weekend shopping for books on Charing Cross Road. I can't think of anything else I'd rather do, except maybe take a trip up to Whitby (our favourite seaside town in England) for one day that same weekend and spend the day there . And they had a used bookshop or two there, too, if I recall correctly! A fabulous one in the old part of town.....

Does anyone else feel that tingle of excitement when they spot a window full of books?