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We bookworms typically enjoy local book sales and good bargains. What titles have you picked up recently and how much money did you save? Few things better than a nice book haul where only a few dollars are spent!

I had an awesome book day, guys! I started today off with a trip to our Friends of the Library used book sale. It's a twice-a-year event and I try like heck to show up to browse the titles. I missed it in April so I had to go today. I'm so glad I did!

I walked away with 13 paperbacks (50 cents each) for me and fiance. I got him some sci-fi titles (Isaac Asimov, Dan Simmons, Arthur C. Clarke, Frank Herbert, etc.) and I got a few miscellaneous reads for myself (2 Joe Abercrombie novels, Still Alice by Lisa Genova, The Kite Runner, another copy of Game of Thrones, etc). If I could figure out how to post pictures in these threads, I would do so.

All of those books for $5.50! I would have paid much more because the money benefits our awesome Friends of the Library program! That was my morning...

...and then when I went to get the mail this afternoon I had 2 book mail packages waiting for me. One Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ giveaway (a chunkster of a history book about Ulysses S. Grant that I'm going to give to my step-uncle) and my October Book of the Month selection, The Mothers by Brit Bennett. All BOTM packages come with little goodies; each one comes with a different bookmark, an insert message from the judge who selected the book you chose, and a little surprise: this month it was a little box of AFTER BOOK MINTS! I think their marketing team is awesome. Sadly, this is my last BOTM for a while, as I've just finished up the 3-month FREE subscription awarded to me by the awesome people from the April Dewey's readathon!

Anyway, that's a quick round-up of my bookish day. These days are few and far between, but they're so lovely! It was a beautiful day made even more awesome by the bounty of books! LOL

Hope everyone is having a good weekend and everyone is safe from the bad weather in some parts of the country. Hope to hear about any new additions you've picked up recently as well!

Talk to you later!

Allison, your fiancé is a lucky man (you brought him Asimov, Clarke, and more sci-fi!).

Just started a giveaway book I won here:



I think it will turn out to be as awesome as the title. :)

Allison, Oh how I love book sales at a library. I wonder what it would be like to walk into them and say "I will take them all" and then bring them home (with the help of my minions of course), and put them on my library shelves. (But first I need the minions to build me a library room). Ahhh, dreams are so very nice! :-) We have our second library sale in November. I can't wait. I'll have to post what I got on here when it's done. And StarMan is right, fiance is lucky!!

StarMan wrote: "Allison, your fiancé is a lucky man (you brought him Asimov, Clarke, and more sci-fi!).

Just started a giveaway book I won here:

[bookcover:Robot Coconut Trees: Break Through Writer's Block, Unle..."

He's a lucky man because he has me! Ha! But yes, you're right. He's a sci-fi nut lol.

That book sounds interesting. I entered the giveaway as well!

Julie wrote: "Allison, Oh how I love book sales at a library. I wonder what it would be like to walk into them and say "I will take them all" and then bring them home (with the help of my minions of course), and..."

LOL I think that's a common bookaholic dream: walking into a bookstore--used or retail--and saying "I'll take them all!" Wouldn't that be nice, but those minions would have so much work to do!

Being able to do an "I'll take them all" shopping spree would be fantastic, but I'd settle for the minions. :)

I've gotten hopelessly sucked into the Kingkiller Chronicle, and having learned that there are a couple of short story spinoffs from it, to be found in two different story collections, I, of course, had to track them down. I popped into the book store around the corner from where I work, intending to buy at least one of them. Unfortunately, they didn't have either, but they ordered one of them for me. The other, I was forced to order directly from the publisher, who is sticking me with a signed copy. Oh, the horror. ;)

So my latest additions are Rogues and Unfettered, and I'm looking forward to both. :)

In the meantime, I can't seem to get into my Halloween reads at all. Doesn't fantasy count as Halloween-y? I think it should. :)

Just Elise wrote: "I've gotten hopelessly sucked into the Kingkiller Chronicle, ....
So my latest additions are Rogues and Unfettered, and I'm looking forward to both. :)."

Elise, you find some really interesting-looking fantasy books...

What's your favorite fantasy book (or series) of all time?

I just bought Thomas Hardy's "The Mayor of Casterbridge" for 1 EUR at the local Kringwinkel. Most of my purchases are classics from libraries or charity shops. I'm still waiting for our books to show up from the moving company, and had no books to read; otherwise, I think it would be better for me to refrain buying any more until I've read everything I own.

StarMan, I'm assuming you meant that in the plural, since it's impossible to pick just one favorite. :)

There are too many really good ones out there - from Middle Earth to Oz, from Wonderland to Narnia and everywhere in between. The Lord of the Rings, A Song of Ice and Fire, and well, The Kingkiller Chronicle are among my favorite series. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is an incredible standalone. But Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes) and Clive Barker (Imajica, The Great and Secret Show) are some of my favorites as well.

And that's not even looking at classic "horror" (which is also fantasy-ish). Attempting to sift through my favorites, narrowing things down, it occurs to me that much of Poe's work falls into this category. So if you count him, Poe wins. My favorite Poe, I think, is The Masque of the Red Death. :)

I know you lean more toward sci-fi than fantasy. What's some of your favorite sci-fi?

Elizabeth, Thomas Hardy is one author I keep meaning to try. Have you read any of his other work? The idea of not buying any more books until you've read the ones you own - I think that always sounds good in theory. But my internal argument against that always ends up winning: "but I don't have this book." ;)

Just Elise wrote: "StarMan, I'm assuming you meant that in the plural, since it's impossible to pick just one favorite. :)

There are too many really good ones out there - from Middle Earth to Oz, from Wonderland to ..."

What do you think of H.P. Lovecraft? I need to re-read some of his books.

Poe is pretty much unbeatable as a classic horror writer and poet. (He's a historical figure I'd definitely like to visit in my time machine). I also rank Mary W. Shelley highly, for jump-starting "modern" sci-fi/horror.

I'm glad you like Clive Barker; many folks find him too weird/dense (Imajica re-arranged a few of my brain cells, but I didn't mind).

I never got into fantasy as much as sci-fi, but am trying to read more of it these days. I did read some of the Narnia books, and miscellaneous Merlin/wizard stuff back in the day. And Piers Anthony, until I got all punned out. I've considered trying some Michael Moorcock fantasy books (have you read him?)

SCI-FI: I read all the books by Bradbury, Heinlein and Asimov years ago (some more than once). I think Asimov's robot books were my favorites. Some of Arthur C. Clarke's stuff is really good also, of course. Roger Zelazny was one of my favorites weird/sci-fi/fantasy authors.

I also like "adult" sci-fi by:

James Alan Gardner (Expendable series)
John Scalzi (Old Man's War)
Kay Kenyon (ex: The Seeds of Time)
Joe Haldeman (The Forever War, others)
C.J. Cherryh (The Collected Short Fiction of C.J. Cherryh & others)
David Weber (Honor Harrington series and others)
Anne McCaffrey (The Ship Who Sang series, others)
Jack Campbell ( Dauntless / Lost Fleet series)

and the "Year's Best SF" yearly anthologies are always good... but I'll pick up most any decent-looking book of SF shorts.

I'll read anything sci-fi that has a promising cover blurb, even if it's YA, or an author I am not very familiar with. I'm a sucker for plotlines with A.I., bots, mysterious aliens, generation starships, or humanity in peril.

I don't care much for romance as a sci-fi plot (or sub-plot), but S.L. Viehl's Stardoc series balanced it pretty well (enough aliens and violence and twists to keep me interested, anyways).

If you only pick ONE of the above sci-fi books to try, I suggest picking either Gardner's EXPENDABLE, Scalzi's OLD MAN'S WAR... or most any short-story collection by C.J. Cherryh.

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I love H.P. Lovecraft. :D His writing style is one-of-a-kind (I'll admit it gets to be a bit much when reading quite a few of his stories in a row, but I love it all the same). I think his ideas are brilliant. Some of my favorites:
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The Call of Cthulhu
Dagon ‎â¶ÄŽâ¶Ä�
The Shadow Over Innsmouth�
The Doom That Came to Sarnath�
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward�
The Dunwich Horror�
Herbert West: Reanimator�
�At the Mountains of Madness�
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If you like Lovecraft, another author worth checking out is M.R. James, if you haven't read him. I discovered him more recently, and he was a big influence on Lovecraft. If you read both, you can definitely see similarities, despite each having ‎a very solid, individual voice. Any random ghost story from James is the perfect ghost story, imo.

I agree, Poe is unbeatable. :)� I hope you'll let me tag along when you take your time machine to visit him. I'll bring Cthulhu cocktails. :)

I love Clive Barker's work�. I'm long overdue for some rereads. I think he's an incredible writer, and an amazing artist as well. I don't mind weird. I like weird. :)

I haven't read any of Michael Moorcock's work yet, but he's somewhere on my tbr. 

What an awesome list! Quite a few of the authors you've mentioned are on my tbr (some higher because I'm somewhat ashamed to have not read them yet). I'm tweaking my list accordingly. Thank you!� :D Old Man's War is one I've already had on my list for a while. I'm putting that at the top of my list. :)
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Just Elise wrote: "�
I love H.P. Lovecraft. :D His writing style is one-of-a-kind (I'll admit it gets to be a bit much when reading quite a few of his stories in a row, but I love it all the same). I think his ideas ..."

Thanks for the good Lovecraft selections. I'll check out M.R. James as well.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes to take walks on the dark side!

My last Salvation Army haul (mostly books for a younger reader friend, but I'll probably read some of 'em):

5 softcovers:

Gifts


Death in the Afternoon


The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die


Jenny Green's Killer Junior Year


Define "Normal"


and 1 hardcover:

Elsewhere



Total: $3.68 (our S.A. has great book prices)

I have run out of space to buy loads of cheap books, but I bought and after hearing Dan talk at a literary event yesterday. They were cheaper than they would have been if I'd gone into Waterstones and bought them, but not bargain basement cheap.

Below is a link to some good tips on organizing your GR bookshelves.

I especially like the one on creating an "exclusive" bookshelf for books you might want to look into later -- but you do NOT want them showing on your "To Read" list. It's a good way to pare down your "To Read" list to only the books you're sure you want to read.

StarMan wrote: "Below is a link to some good tips on organizing your GR bookshelves.

I especially like the one on creating an "exclusive" bookshelf for books you might want to look into later -- but you do NOT w..."

Thank you. That was so useful. I've now managed to remove the books I couldn't finish from my 'currently reading' shelf. There are still 30 books on it, though.