Last weekend was a busy bookish weekend in terms of 'new' or new to me anyway, books. I had my usual library visit to pick up holds before they expired, and a quick visit to the used bookstore netted a few books, too.
Library books pose a problem with my desire to keep my reading pile relatively small. Since I am not the fastest of readers in any case I am finding that even having fewer books to reach for than normal I find I don't seem to finish books any faster than if I have loads of them on the go. So what do you do about the 'problem' of library books that need to be given attention soon with those looming due dates?
I bet you also play the library game? Check which books have lines of other readers waiting, how long the lines are or if you can renew them . . . Then choose accordingly. If it is something you really do want to read, dare you keep it longer and just suffer the fine later? So the two books here that I can only have for a few weeks are Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson and The Masterpiece by Fiona Davis. I dipped into the Youngson and indeed it has a very charming appeal to it, and it is short which means I might easily squeeze it in over the course of a few days read. But to be honest, despite all the rave reviews, I think this just is not the moment for me to read it. So, it will go back (and the line is short so the wait perhaps won't be too awful) and I will get back in line. Fiona Davis it is, and I plan on starting it tonight.
Both So Much Life Left Over by Louis de Bernieres and The Verdun Affair by Nick Dybek are books I can renew, so I get a bit of breathing room with them. And both are high interest to me. I might even break down and buy the de Bernieres novel as I have really loved some of his previous books.
As for books I found at the used bookstore it is a bit of a mishmash. I heard an interview with Lee Child which caught my attention so much that I decided I needed to finally formally make Jack Reacher's acquaintance. He is a most interesting character and I must say I am pretty riveted by this introduction. I can see why he is so popular. I lucked out and found the first Reacher novel in a nice inexpensive paperback, The Killing Floor. My other finds:
So Many Steps to Death AKA Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie -- "When a number of leading scientists disappear without a trace, concern grows within the international intelligence community. And the one woman who appears to hold the key to the mystery is dying from injuries sustained in a plane crash. Meanwhile, in a Casablanca hotel room, Hilary Craven prepares to take her own life. But her suicide attempt is about to be interrupted by a man who will offer her an altogether more thrilling way to die. . . ."
The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope -- "Newly orphaned Peggy Grahame is caught off-guard when she first arrives at her family’s ancestral estate. Her eccentric uncle Enos drives away her only new acquaintance, Pat, a handsome British scholar, then leaves Peggy to fend for herself. But she is not alone. The house is full of mysteries—and ghosts. Soon Peggy becomes involved with the spirits of her own Colonial ancestors and witnesses the unfolding of a centuries-old romance against a backdrop of spies and intrigue and of battles plotted and foiled. History has never been so exciting—especially because the ghosts are leading Peggy to a romance of her own!"
London Irish by Zane Radcliffe -- "A deliciously dark comic thriller with a heart -- the debut of a promising new Irish writer."
The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen by Jacques Pepin -- "In this captivating memoir, the man whom Julia Child has called 'the best chef in America' tells the story of his rise from a frightened apprentice in an exacting Old World kitchen to an Emmy Award–winning superstar who taught millions of Americans how to cook and shaped the nation’s tastes in the bargain.
Not too shabby at all when I first had no intention of stopping by the bookstore and then thought I might pop in to see if they had a paperback copy of the Lee Child thriller. It's a rare day, however, when I don't find a little pile of books at my favorite used bookstore!