Powells Stash

I was originally going to write this as a slightly late IMM, but I didn't get a chance to get to it before my surgery on Tuesday {so far healing up fine, thanks!}.  And I figured I would write it later, but that didn't happen because I've been so out of it since my surgery that the only REALLY coherent times I have are when my painkiller starts to wear off.  Okay, enough of that rambling... on to the stash!

About half of these are {obviously} continuations for a series I've been meaning to finish {or in some cases even just start}.  Yes, there are two little American Girl Short Stories on the top of that pile.  I've been a huge fan of Kirsten since I was a kid {I even have the doll!}, and now that she's been discontinued, I want to try to get as many of her books as I can.  Plus, they were only $2/each.

Carrier of the Mark was kind of picked up on a whim.  I saw it there on the shelf, for only $6 and thought, I'm pretty sure I've read good reviews of this.  So I grabbed it.  Have you read it?  Did you like it?

Divergent was picked up for the obvious reason: these books have taken over the blogger world by force, so I really felt like I needed to pick this one up.

Forever by Judy Blume is honestly something I heard was good for parents to read before their children "come of age".  The hubs and I don't have any kids yet, but I thought it would be something good to pick up in anticipation for the day we might need this.

The Faerie Ring I've already read.  I loved it, and you can find my review here.  This was one I saw {again, used and a great deal + no tax!}, and I knew I needed it on my bookshelf.

I haven't read any of the Iron Fey series {I know, I know}, so those were on my list of must buy while at Powells... Oddly enough, they didn't have the Iron Queen, nor did any other bookstores around there.  Kind of weird.  Just a guess, but is that most people's favorite book in the series?

Thirst no. 4... I've read the first one, and I really enjoyed it.  The rest have been on my bookshelf, waiting to be read.  I picked this one up because it was only $5 and finished off the set for when I did decide to pick them up and do a read through.

The last 3 of the Vampire Academy series.  I've read the first three on my Sony Reader {yep, got that a few years back, and its now pretty much collecting dust.  But I can't get rid of it, because I have a TON of books on it}, and for some reason I just didn't finish the series.  Probably because I didn't ever purchase the others... so I thought this would be a great time to pick them up... and wouldn't you know that I found them all for super cheap, and they're hardcover copies {I have a thing for hardcovers}.

So, that's my stash.  Yeah, there were other books I wanted to get, but between needing the rest of my cash for food and a way home, this was it.  Oh, and I did pick up a couple new journals and a map of lighthouses down the BC/WA/OR coast {the hubs and I are lighthouse junkies}.

Library Lovin' {aka In My Mailbox}

This is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.  Its a great way to show what you won/bought/borrowed each week {or so}.  I might write one each week, but most likely every couple/few weeks as, while I love to read, I have many other things that take up my time and at the moment am not winning or being given any books for review {this is not my choice... I would love to make the excuse of "needing" to read a good book so I can review it!}.

I've loved my local library for decades, but I haven't really taken advantage of it in the past few years.  Its a shame, really.  The library was a little safe haven of sorts for me when I was younger, and as I got older and had jobs that paid me decently, the local Borders took its place.  Alas, Borders is gone, so its back to the library for me {yes, I know Barnes & Noble is out there as well as other lovely bookstore, but Borders was my favorite}.  I went to my local library today after going to Half Price Books yesterday, and I now have 6 books I need to read... well, 5 books and a graphic novel...

Borrowed:

Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen

Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel

The Faerie Ring by Kiki Hamilton

Bought:

Austenland by Shannon Hale

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Vampire Academy: The Graphic Novel by Richelle Mead (Author), Emma Vieceli (Illustrator), Leigh Dragoon (Adapter)

The nice thing about borrowing books from the library?  I have to spend more time reading that doing other frivolous things... I think I can do that ;-)

UPDATE:

I joined NetGalley this last week, and I actually won a copy of Tomorrow Land by Marni Mancusi!  So I'll be picking that up to read via the good ol' Kindle in the next few days...

October is...

Local Start to Read Month!  Okay, not really, but the weather gets so bad here in October that, if you're a reader, you will probably read the most books this month.  Just sayin'.  I really want to do a HUGE Amazon order, because I've been waiting for several books to come out to place one, and they all just did.  Now I just need to find the money to do so... In the meantime, here are some of the books that will be in that order:

Borders, gone for ever

But always in our hearts.  Or, in my case, downstairs in my new little library!  Yes, that's right - I have two of Borders' bookshelves secured downstairs in my house.  And almost full!  They look really wonderful, and now my books are out of boxes and no longer double stacked in my pretty bookshelf upstairs.

Glen getting everything ready to go up.

All up and secured!

The pups likes to think she helped, but she mostly just got in the way and looked cute.

All up with the shelves in place

Two of the shelves have the Sci Fi labels from Borders

Yes, another shelf has a label on it as well!

About 2/3 of the books that need to go into the shelves

Putting the books away {categorized and alphabetized}

Almost done!

And done!  There's still plenty of room for more, by the way...

Its nice to know I'll always have a bit of that bookstore in my home, plus it makes for a great place to store all my books {minus the ones in my dark bookshelf}.  All of the Borders stores anywhere near my house are officially closed as of yesterday {sad, because I thought one was open still... and went there today}.  Its a little bittersweet, seeing those shelves downstairs.

I {heart} bookstores

If you read my other blog, then this is going to sound very familiar to you.  Since two of my favorite bookstores closed down by my house {oh, Borders, I wish you wouldn't have had to file bankrupcy!}, I really haven't gone to a bookstore... in a long time.  I've been ordering books online from Amazon {they're usually almost half price on there}.

I've been wanting to just go to a bookstore to browse the shelves and smell the paper... so today my dear friend and I went to the local used bookstore and wandered around the tall, close shelves, surrounding ourselves with books of all kinds.  I love it.  They even have some ARCs there, but almost all of them are already released.  *Interesting fact: I randomly picked up Nightshade from them when I was getting rung up, only to find that it wasn't released for another month... and I still haven't read it!  I need to get on that.*

My finds today?

A nice hardcover copy... I'm a sucker for hardcovers.

My MIL loaned me her copy of the sequel to this book, and I've been putting off reading it because I wanted to read them in order {unlike what I did with Francine Rivers' Mark of the Lion trilogy... read the last one first, then the first and second.}.