Ahem.......

It seems that someone diverted me away from my plan to not buy any more books this month. I was sitting at home minding my business when all of a sudden my phone rang. Two friends informed me that they were heading over to Barnes and Noble and that I should meet them. I suddenly found myself in my car with my hand moving the gear into drive and my foot pressing down on the gas pedal...my mind guiding me on that oh so familiar drive to the bookstore. I awakened in that familiar place filled with books. My eyes fell upon John Connolly's Book of Lost Things with a 50% off tag on it and at the same time it remembered that my member card would give me an additional 10% off. John Connolly's Book of Lost things hovered into my arms. I was not surprised to then find myself at the Sci-fi/fantasy section. Hmm, what would I find there but Wizards, a new collection that I have been looking forward to which collects never before published tales by authors of the likes of Neil Gaiman, Orson Scott Card, Garth Nix, Peter Beagle, Gene Wolfe, etc, etc, etc. Into my arms it goes. As I hover towards the elevator I spot Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi on sale for $5.98 and remember that I have to read that for the Newberry Challenge. Yep, in the arms. As I scan the psychology section upstairs I come across a book that seems to call to me that is entitled Adult Children of Alcoholics. Simple enough title. I scan through the book and find myself in it's pages. This may be important. I buy it. It will help me, it will help my clients. That's enough, I decide. The cashier steals my American Express, I lose money but gain books...everyone wins in the end!

Here's some more bookporn for Quixotic:Speaking of Quixotic, she seems to be the "it girl" of blog land lately. I've noticed two mentions of her on the Friends of English Magic website in the past couple of weeks (the same FoEM that Neil Gaiman often mentions in his blog) and Carl's latest post has quite a few Quix wannabe's (me included) in the comments section. We all love her poppet paired with book photos!

In fact, part of the reason that I changed the header of my blog was because I wanted to copy off of Quix :p Quix and Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings both recently changed their headers and I love them both. So I decided to change mine as well. Mine is taken from one of my favorite Dave McKean pieces. The full version is shown below and is actually the wallpaper on my laptop.

A Post About Books (What's New?)

I can happily say that I was greeted this morning by an email from Colleen Gleason saying that I've won an autographed copy of her book, The Rest Falls Away. I've heard so many wonderful things about this book and I can't wait to read it. It's about vampires, it's gotta rock! She's giving away a copy on her blog every day until April 15th. Go comment! The next book in the series entitled Rises the Night comes out in June.

This once upon a time challenge is going to get expensive for me. I keep finding more books that I want to read from everyone's lists.

I've heard of Jasper Fforde for awhile now. The first time I heard of him was when I was flying to Albuquerque in October. My friend next to me was reading The Big Over Easy, A Nursery Crime. It is of course a detective novel about Humpty Dumpty from what I gather. I seem to remember a Sesame Street skit similar to this as a child. I asked her what it was about, and it just sounded wonderfully creative and hilarious. So it is now on my list. The big favorite for the challenge seems to be The Eyre Affair. That one is now added to the wish list as well.

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny sounds wonderful as well. It is "a science fantasy in which the intricate, colorful mechanisms of Hindu religion, capricious gods, and repeated reincarnations are wittily underpinned by technology." Sounds a little familiar and sounds like my kind of book! This one was written in the 60's. Can't wait to get to it.

Tolkien has a new book coming out! How exactly does that one work? From what I understand, his son compiled this book from his father's manuscripts. It is a fantasy named The Children of Hurin and will be released on April 17th! How exciting!

Other books that don't necessarily come from the challenge that I want to check out are:
Joe Hill's Heart Shaped Box
Markus Zusack's The Book Thief
China Mieville's Un Lun Dun
Martin Millar's The Good Fairies of New York with an intro from Neil Gaiman
Charles Vess' The Book of Ballads
Steven Millhauser's Enchanted Night (Millhauser wrote the short story that The Illusionist was based on).
Avram Davidson's Adventures in Unhistory

And those are just a few of the hundreds I want. Of course I'll never run out of stuff to read...that's a good thing.

Barnes and Noble has made Susanna Clarke's masterpiece Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell a bargain book. For those who haven't read it, pick it up! It's an amazing book. The hardcover is $6.98 and the Trade Paperback is $5.98. An amazing deal!