bibliosue's bibliotherapy

So I've been off of the radar for about a week but I'm back! (did you miss me?)

My day job has been driving me (more) crazy the last month or so and unfortunately it has meant that the last thing I want to do when I get home is sit in front of the computer.  And I've missed it, which is I think a good sign. 

Now that things at work have calmed down (a bit) and I've returned from an mood-lifting weekend in Toronto with my 2 year old nieces and 8 week old nephew I'm ready to get back in the saddle.  While in Toronto, I took some time out to visit The World's Biggest Bookstore and, well, damage was done.  This is the pile I came home with:

Canadian Pie by Will Ferguson
1000 Years of Annoying the French by Stephen Clarke
How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less by Sarah Glidden (graphic novel)
Winter:  Five Windows on the Season by Adam Gopnik
Madame Proust and the Kosher Kitchen by Kate Taylor
Why I Hate Canadians by Will Ferguson (full disclosure:  I am Canadian, eh?)
Concerto to the Memory of an Angel by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Ulysse from Bagdad by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Odette Toulemonde et autres histoires by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

Ok yes, I did load up on the Schmitt titles, but two of these are in French and given my improving though basic ability in the language will take me a while to read; Odette Toulemonde is the original French version of The Most Beautiful Book in the World which was one of my favorites of 2011 (reviewed here).  And only some of these were impulse purchases -- I did actually go into the store with a list of what I wanted to purchase, the others just "found" their way onto the stack.

I am about halfway through Madame Proust and am loving it -- if you are able to find it please do pick it up because I would love to discuss it with someone.  When I'm done I'll definitely be writing about it if you need an extra push to hunt it down (really, it is a tricky book to find).

More books!

    My name is Suzanne and I'm a bookaholic.

    So in the last two days 13 new books have come into my house.

    On Friday my shipment of books arrived from the Northshire Bookstore, site of the Books on the Nightstand Readers' Retreat last weekend:

 
  Three of these (The Blasphemer, The Kitchen House, and A Soldier of the Great War) were books recommended by other readers at the retreat.  The other two, Gertruda's Oath and The World is a Ball, were impulse purchases found while browsing that amazing bookstore (I know, how I limited myself to only two impulse purchases is beyond my comprehension too).

  Then yesterday I returned to the closing Borders store near my home.  I totally blame my husband for these purchases:

We were out running errands and were going into a store near the Borders, when my husband noticed the sign saying everything was now 80% off and would I like to have a look.  DUH.  So I ventured in and after I got over the shock of seeing the store so empty (it looks like this was the last weekend for them) I browsed through what was left and picked up these gems.  Total purchase:  $19.40  (the cover price of To The End of The Land alone was $26.95).

  I am now running out of shelf space and hope that someday soon my request for a reading sabbatical will be approved.....

Books on the Nightstand Readers' Retreat

  I just spent the greatest weekend in Manchester, VT at The Books on the Nightstand Readers' Retreat.  I don't quite know how to put my experience into words but I will do my best.
  After a Friday ice-breaking discussion and cocktail party, which gave everyone the opportunity to meet each other, Saturday was devoted to smaller group discussions with the authors who graciously attended the retreat.  I attended these discussions:

• With Matthew Dicks on the decisions he made on the road to becoming a writer and to get his work published
• With Susan Gregg Gilmore on the significance of place in fiction
• With Chris Bohjalian on general topics

  I also took part in a tour of the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, where several of the retreat events were held, and I was in awe.  It is an amazing place and I could easily spend hours and hours there. 

  Saturday evening was the Celebration of Authors, where each of the authors attending the event spoke for a few minutes.  This event was recorded and will likely be posted as this week's Books on the Nightstand podcast (available on their site or through iTunes) and I encourage you to check it out because it was extremely interesting.  Those participating were:

Jon Clinch (Finn and Kings of the Earth)

Elizabeth Stuckey-French (The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady)

Ellen Meeropol (House Arrest)

Matthew Dicks (Something Missing and Unexpectedly, Milo)

John Milliken Thompson (The Reservoir, coming in June)

Wendy Clinch (Double Black and Fade to White)

Chris Bohjalian (most recently Secrets of Eden)

Steve Himmer (The Bee-Loud Glade)

Susan Gregg Gilmore (Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen and The Improper Life of Bezelia Grove)

  I learned so much from all of the discussions and from all of the other attendees and my to-read list has expanded exponentially.  I also made many new friends - some of whom I already knew "virtually", and it was great to put faces to names.

  Oh yeah, and I purchased some books:

 (plus a few more that I had to have shipped home -- don't tell my husband!)



  The weekend was a tremendous success and it sounds like it will be repeated; if it is I cannot recommend it enough. 

I'm a Borders Scavenger

.... and I'm not entirely proud of it, but look at what I picked up at a nearby closing Borders location at 50% off (plus an additional 10% with my Borders Rewards card):

Fiction seems to be the only section with any significant inventory left, which is probably why it has been marked down further.  There were a number of titles with many copies that obviously couldn't sell even at half price (Lisa Rinna wrote a novel?), but there many gems that bibliophiles and moderate book snobs like me can appreciate (I was especially excited about the new Doctor Zhivago translation)

My name is Suzanne and I'm a bookaholic, but I just couldn't pass up on such a good deal.

The TBR Pile -- A Cautionary Tale

  One of the challenges I'm participating in this year is the TBR Pile Challenge, which aims to clean some of the oldest books off of my to-read shelves.  So today as I was getting ready to head out to my French class in Chicago, I picked up one of the books I've chosen for this challenge - The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant - to read on the train.  I started reading and was enjoying the story, but at page 22 - when a key character was about to be introduced - the page number then jumped to page 263!  The last 30 pages of the book are here (as well as at the end) but pages 23-54 are missing.   I found a store coupon inserted in the book with an expiry date of 2/13/2009 so I figure I purchased this book in January of that year; had I picked this book off of my shelf a little bit (ok, a lot) sooner I could have exchanged it at the store.

  As it is, I'll see if I can get a copy of the book at the library, but fellow book hoarders take note -- learn from my experience and at least page through the book once you've purchased it (or preferably before you do).

  (I won't even go into the trauma of being only 25 minutes into an hour and a half train journey without anything to read .....)

An observation

I sort of reorganized my bookshelves last night.  I thought it would be interesting to count how many books were on the to-read pile. 

201

(not including library books or the 15 or so books waiting on my nook)

I say this partly in jest, but would the publishers please pretty please not publish any interesting books until I can catch up on what I already have?  Thanks so much.