Books, books!

habeo just gave me an amazing Christmas present: a 10% discount card for Fully Booked! It's even better than actually giving me a book, because I get to pick out the book(s) myself, and going through a bookstore is an experience all its own. Especially now that I have money. Mmm, money. Mmmmmm, books!

Got lost in the bookstore and ended up going through the generic fiction area first, where one book caught my eye: The Food Taster by Peter Elbing. Was intrigued by the title, the setting, and the description of it as "a sparkling tale of love, intrigue, and dodgy food". Sounds like it could potentially be delicious.

I next went through the YA section, which tends to have cheaper but very fun books, then went down to the sci-fi/fantasy section.

From the YA, I picked out a couple of books by Diana Wynne Jones (Castle in the Air, House of Many Ways, The Merlin Conspiracy) and Gaiman's M is for Magic -- both of them are authors I've read before and trust. I also picked up Charles de Lint's The Dreaming Place, because it caught my eye. I feel like I should know this author; name is vaguely familiar, but I cannot place him!

Initially had a few more books lined up from this section, but decided to go back for them another time (and there will be another time), after I got to the counter and realized I may not have enough to pay.

One of those I left behind was the Bartimaeus trilogy, because I remembered someone telling me something about it, but I forgot if it was good or bad, so I decided to go home and do my research first. Septimus Flynt series caught my eye, but they didn't have the first book, and I wasn't sure if it was good. I also almost bought Coraline. What stopped me was that there was a much cheaper edition in YA, and another edition in the non-YA fantasy section, which cost almost twice as much. I wasn't sure which one I should get. I wanted to get the cheaper one, but was worried it might have been simplified for younger readers; didn't want to risk it.

Ohh, and we found a parents' guide to Harry Potter, which (from the admittedly brief scanthrough I gave it) was full of itself explaining how to take away moral lessons from the series. The very existence of the book makes me sad.

I could have stayed in the YA section longer, but there was still the sci-fi/fantasy section and it was almost time to go home, so we headed to the first floor. I knew a few more authors in this section than I had in YA.

Got the fourth Temeraire book, by Naomi Novik (though, leafing through it now, I don't really remember what is going on. I may need to reread the first three). Two books by Ellen Kushner -- Thomas the Rhymer, The Privilege of the Sword, because I vaguely recall one of my friends recommending her. A book, Snare by Katharine Kerr, because I keep seeing her name/Deverry, but I wanted to try her first (standalone novel) before committing to buy what seems to be her three or so series set in the same world. Dragon Fire by Charlie Ashton, which I know nothing about, but it caught my eye and it's an omnibus edition (three-in-one), so I figured I'd try it.

Three books by Elizabeth Bear! Recognized her name from a friend's recs, and from Shadow Unit (which I haven't read yet but seems cool): Hell and Earth and Blood and Iron, both novels of the Promethean Age, and Dust which I think is a standalone. Windhaven by George R. R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle (saw while trying to see if there was a new book in the ASoIaF series -- no there isn't, which I knew since I would have heard from my friends otherwise, but...). And finally Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber, which I got because the summary caught my eye (swashbuckling! Giant barbarian warrior and master thief! Most of the stories I've seen involving thieves have been good) and it had a blurb by Gaiman on it. Normally, I hate blurbs*, but this seemed to be an unusually sincere blurb from an author I respect.

* Tell me what the book is about, not who read it. How hard is that?

I'm wondering if I should have picked up some Tanya Huff. Her name sounds familiar, but I can't remember if I have ever read anything by her. Meant to get the Kushiel series, but I forgot which book (singular) I already have. May go back for it at some other time, but I had no money for another book. Literally had only forty pesos in my pocket after everything.

I bought 16 books in total, about 5.5k pesos. Bye money, mmmmmmm books!

You know, I just realized I was so busy in 2008, I did not finish a single book, at least not in dead-tree form, though I did manage to go through a few books on my computer That... is a very sad realization. This year I am definitely going to change that.

( My loot )

PS. I would kill for a public library in the Philippines with a decent selection of books. Or at least, severely MAIM.

A day's worth of Twitter ($3.00)

11:30:57	—	@habeo that makes a lot more sense :) Can't start changing things if you're perfectly happy with what you have.
11:58:11	—	@habeo very adult of you :)
20:55:32	—	@habeo great! I was nervous none of the songs would suit your tastes!

Total: 3 tweets

You can find me as afuna on Twitter.

A day's worth of Twitter (36)

( 36 babbly tweets for 2009-01-03 )