The verdict is in. It’s true. I (might) have a problem. 

There was a fundraiser used books sale in town on March 31 and April 1. On March 31 my daughter and I, with several other book-lovin’ people, got there before the doors opened at 8:40 AM. It was a tight squeeze moving around in that hall, but oh boy! was it fun!  🙂

This is the load of books I came home with that day.

Next photos are the close-ups of them.

As shown in the above photo, I found a whole lot of Ken Follett books I didn’t have: The Man From St. Petersburg; A Dangerous Fortune; Jackdaws; Night Over Water; The Modigliani Scandal; Whiteout; Winter of the World; Hornet Flight; On Wings of Eagles; Eye of the Needle; Code to Zero. Now I want to find A Column of Fire to complete one of the series I have.

This assortment will be wonderful reading. I’m especially interested in Robin Hobb fantasy books right now. I read Assassin’s Apprentice, book 1 of her Farseer trilogy, & very much want to find preread copies of 2 & 3, Royal Assassin and Assassin’s Quest.

Shown in the above photo: Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold; Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot; The Boy Next Door by Meg Cabot; Vets Might Fly by James Herriot; If Only They Could Talk by James Herriot; Drop Shot by Harlan Coben; and volumes 1, 2, 3 – Dragon Keeper, Dragon Haven, City of Dragons – of the four books of The Rain Wilds Chronicles by Robin Hobb. Of course, I want to find a copy of volume 4, Blood of Dragons.

I was excited to find some Thornton W. Burgess books. When I was a child I had The Adventures of Paddy the Beaver and I don’t know how many times I read that book. I don’t know who my mum gave it to and I never had any others of the series. I’d love to have all of them.

Above: Lighthouse: a Story of Remembrance by Robert Munsch; The Tales of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo; Stellaluna by Jennell Cannon; The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein; and The Adventures of: Reddy Fox, Old Man Coyote, Paddy the Beaver, Old Mr. Toad, Johnny Chuck – all by Thornton W. Burgess.

As I said, my daughter and I went to the sale, so she loaded one bag for me and I loaded a second one. When I got home I discovered I’d somehow missed when paying for them that I had two copies of one title, so today I HAD to go back to exchange one for another book. Right? You understand. It only makes sense. It was no problem for the ladies in charge of the sale so I proceeded to try to find a replacement. Here is what I came home with – only one of which is in exchange:

I picked out a mix of genres again. My reading taste varies a lot, as you can see. There’s so much to learn about writing, and what better way than to read?

In above photo: Alexander, Who’s Not (Do you hear me? I mean it!) Going to Move – by Judith Viorst; Mirette on the High Wire by Emily Arnold McCully; Louis Braille: The Boy Who Invented Books for the Blind by Margaret Davidson; Going Solo by Roald Dhal; The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl; Danny, the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl; The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne; Heroes of the Holocaust by Allan Zullo & Mara Bovsun;  The Kite by W. O. Mitchell; Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston; Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert; ‘Tis: a memoir by Frank McCourt; The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd; Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss; Every Living Thing by James Herriot; The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks; Lost Soldiers by James Webb;  The Cat Who Came in From the Cold by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson; and 5 complete novels of murder and detection (in one volume) – Ten Little Indians; Peril at End House; The Murder at Hazelmoor; Easy to Kill; Evil Under the Sun – by Agatha Christie.

My grandson’s class at school is reading The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. I heard about the movie, that it’s sad, but if my young man can read the book I will, too.

I’m still borrowing books from the library although the Reading for Research  challenge officially ended March 31. I’m in the groove now, you know, so I’ll keep it going. After my book sale shopping I went to the library to pick up books on hold for me and added them to the ones I already have at home. I have some at Dad’s, too. Here is my borrowed pile at home:

I have so much reading to do!

When I finish a book I write a short review on Goodreads, so it’s keeping me pretty busy.

Friday evening my husband and I went to a performance by a Newfoundland musical and comedy team called Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellers. Very funny and talented. After the show we checked out their items for sale and lo! and behold! Guess what I came home with? 

These books were written by two members of the group. I’ll review them here at a later date.

I think that’s all I have to share with you for now. If you need me I’ll be the one reading, with Zamfir or some other equally lovely instrumental background music or nature sounds (birds, the ocean) playing … unless I’m in the mood for total silence. 🙂

Oh, and the problem I mentioned at the beginning? It’s twofold. (1) I seem to be running out of hiding places shelves for my books and (2) I don’t have enough reading time. You thought it was that I keep buying them, didn’t you? Nawww. That’s impossible. 🙂

I recently read a meme that goes: If loving books is a crime … I’m looking at life without parole.  I think it suits me. 🙂

When you read do you need it to be QUIET, or do you fall so completely into the story you hear nothing else anyway?

Love to you all. Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂