The Reading Room (20)

The Reading Room is a weekly update on books I'm reading and planning to read, posted on Tuesdays. It was inspired by the feature On Myshelf at the blog All By Myshelf.

The past week or two has been incredible for book buying. I've collected a massive pile and spent far more money than I intended to, and it's been completely marvelous. It started with the trip to Barnes & Noble I mentioned in a previous blog post, and as soon as I walked into the young adult section, I realized it has been way too long since I've visited a bookstore. There were so many new books, and of course I wanted to buy them all. Since I didn't have the funds for that, I settled on three. 

The first was The Complete Sherlock Holmes: Volume One, which I already mentioned and was kind of an obvious choice. The second book I saw was I Am The Messenger, by Markus Zusak, which I snatched up the moment I saw it. Oh my goodness. I was thrilled to find this book. Markus Zusak is the author of The Book Thief, which beat contenders like The Lord of the Rings and To Kill a Mockingbird to become my favorite book of all time. It was original, chilling, and beautifully written, and I would be crazy to say no to the opportunity to read more by its incredible author. I can't wait to start this book. 

It took me awhile to make my final choice; there was a lot of rereading the inside jacket covers of books, flipping through the first few pages, and debating plots and authors, but I finally decided on Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore. Graceling and Fire were both fantastic, and Bitterblue looks just as interesting. Plus, it's a beautiful book, which made me glad I bought the hardcover edition instead of the eBook. I'm sure no one else except Mo Folchart from Inkheart would be excited about this, but - the end pages are gorgeous.

My Wonderful Week of Book Buying didn't end there, however. Have you ever been in a college bookstore? They're glorious places to be. As I mentioned in my last Inspire post, I spent last week staying at a college campus attending a writing program. What I didn't mention was that I spent at least a third of my free time with a group of other students in the bookstore, discussing what we'd read and liked and trying to restrain myself from buying everything. 

I did manage to limit myself to two books. The first was The Complete Sherlock Holmes: Volume Two, completing my collection of Sherlock Holmes novels, short stories, parodies, and essays. I also own a play adaptation (not written by Arthur Conan Doyle) and am considering having a Sherlock Holmes Marathon in an attempt to watch all the movie and television versions of Holmes and Watson. Yes, I'm a little obsessed. 

The other book I picked up was Night and Day by Virginia Woolf. I haven't read any of her writing before, but I've been meaning to, and this book looked interesting. Hopefully she'll be another author to add to my list of favorites.

Off to start in on this pile of books,

~blackandwhitedreamer