Library Loot (July 22)

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva at A Striped Armchair and Marg at The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post—feel free to steal the button—and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries! Want to share your loot? Marg has the Mr. Linky this week!

How crazy is it for me to take seven books out of the library when I’ve got hundreds of books at home that I haven’t yet read? It feels a bit crazy, but it’s cheaper than buying books, which I’ve been itching to do recently (call it book therapy). So these are the books I couldn’t resist taking home with me this week...

Two graphic novels: A Few Perfect Hours and Other Stories from Southeast Asia & Central Europe by Josh Neufeld and Pilules Bleues (translated as Blue Pills: A Positive Love Story) by Frederik Peeters.

Two books of personal essays: Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays by Zadie Smith and Seeking Rapture: Scenes from a Woman's Life by Kathryn Harrison.

Three books about polygamy (two memoirs and a novel): Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs by Elissa Wall with Lisa Pulitzer, Predators, Prey, and Other Kinfolk: Growing Up in Polygamy by Dorothy Allred Solomon and The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall.

It’s highly unlikely that I’ll read all these books before I have to return them to the library, but such is life!

Do you take books out of the library despite teetering TBR piles? (Please tell me I’m not the only one!)

Library Loot (April 1) + a Reading Challenge

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva at A Striped Armchair and Marg at The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post—feel free to steal the button—and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries! Want to share your loot? Marg has the Mr. Linky this week!

I returned nine books to the library today and only took one out: Will Yoga & Meditation Really Change My Life?: Personal Stories from 25 of North America’s Leading Teachers edited by Stephen Cope. Finding this book has prompted me to finally blog about (and start) a personal reading challenge that’s been rattling around in my brain for quite some time.

My idea is to start from one book—I’ve chosen Devotion: A Memoir by Dani Shapiro, which I haven’t finished reading yet—and go from it to another author mentioned in the first book. In this case, Shapiro writes about coming across a book by Stephen Cope (Yoga and the Quest for the True Self, which she calls “a page-turner of yoga metaphysics”). I looked up Stephen Cope in my library catalogue and the only one of his books they have is the one I took out, Will Yoga & Meditation Really Change My Life? Since I’ve been taking a meditation class and I’m flirting with the idea of meditating every day (see item #36 in my 40/40 Challenge), this book sounds right up my alley. And the fact that it’s a collection of essays by 25 yoga and meditation practitioners means I’ll have lots of options for book #3!

Rules for the Reading Journey Stream of Suggestions Reading Challenge

1. The author of the next book must be mentioned in the previous book, either in the text itself or in the bibliography.
2. If I get stuck (no authors are mentioned or I can’t find their books easily or none of the ones mentioned is of any interest to me), I can go back one or two books and start again with a different author.
3. Priority should be given to books I already own or that are available through my library system. (The idea is not to encourage more book buying!)
4. My aim is to read at least 6 books between now and March 31, 2011.

Does anyone else want to try this with me? Let me know if you do!

Edited to add:
I’ve changed the name of this challenge and created a button and sign-up page, so please do join me if you’re interested!

Library Loot (March 18)

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva at A Striped Armchair and Marg at Reading Adventures that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post—feel free to steal the button—and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries! Want to share your loot? Eva has the Mr. Linky this week!

I had to go to the library this week to return books and pick up a couple I’d reserved, so here’s what I came home with:

I won a copy of The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams last year, but unfortunately never got the book, so when I saw it at the library I knew I had to read it finally!

I reserved Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean by Douglas Wolk as soon as I’d finished reading Nymeth’s review of it at things mean a lot (even though this book has got to have one of the most unattractive covers I’ve ever seen!).

Deadly Slipper: A Novel of Death in the Dorgogne by Michelle Wan sounded good (and I thought it would count towards the POC Reading Challenge, which I haven’t officially joined yet); unfortunately, it failed the 50-pages test (more on that in another post), so I’ve already abandoned it. (I love the cover though!)

I first heard of Girl in a Blue Dress: A Novel Inspired by the Life and Marriage of Charles Dickens by Gaynor Arnold when the Concordia University Alumni Book Club read it last year; unfortunately, I couldn’t get my hands on a copy in time to go to the book club meeting, but I still wanted to read it!

Library Loot (January 21)

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva at A Striped Armchair and Marg at Reading Adventures that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post—feel free to steal the button—and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries! Want to share your loot? Eva has the Mr. Linky this week!

I’ve somehow managed to go to the library three times in the last two weeks: twice to return my interlibrary loan books and then one more time because they called me the day after my second visit to say a book I’d requested had just come in. Of course I took out more books every time! Here then is my loot:

On my first trip, I grabbed Barefoot Gen: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima and Barefoot Gen: The Day After by Keiji Nakazawa. I feel slightly apprehensive about these two, since they may be really hard to read. Has anyone else read them?

On my second trip, I grabbed Zot!: The Complete Black and White Collection – 1987-1991 by Scott McCloud because my friend Michael had highly recommended it to me. What I’d forgotten is that this collection starts at issue 11; luckily Michael then lent me Zot!: Book 1, which contains issues 1-10. While looking for another McCloud book (which was supposedly in the library, although I didn’t find it this time around), I came across The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels by Danny Fingeroth and Graphic Novels: Everything You Need to Know by Paul Gravett. I’m hoping these two will both introduce me to new graphic novels and teach me a few things about how to get more out of reading them.

Finally, on my most recent trip to the library, I picked up The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment by A.J. Jacobs (which I’d requested based on Vanessa’s review) and found the McCloud book I’d been looking for: Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art.

Library Loot (January 7)

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva at A Striped Armchair and Marg at Reading Adventures that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post—feel free to steal the button—and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries! Want to share your loot? Eva has the Mr. Linky this week!

I’m super excited about my library loot this week because I got my very first two interlibrary loan books: Janes in Love by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg (the follow-up to The Plain Janes, which I’ve borrowed and read twice now) and Stitches: A Memoir by David Small. (It was Kathy’s review at Bermudaonion’s Weblog that convinced me I wanted to read this one.) My local library doesn’t have the greatest selection of English books (I’m in Quebec after all), so interlibrary loans open up a lot more options for me.

The weird part about the ILL process was that I requested the books online in mid-December and no one called to tell me they had arrived. When I checked my file online yesterday, I realized that one of the ILL books was due on January 12 (in less than a week!) and the other on January 17, so they must have arrived at my library. The folks at the library were initially not very helpful—their reaction was: “Did anyone call you? No? Then we probably don’t have your books.” Luckily, I had printed out the page from the site that indicated the due dates, which inspired one woman to finally go and check!

I also borrowed another YA book, Empress of the World by Sara Ryan, inspired by Bronwyn’s review at A Certain Bent Appeal. It turns out Ryan also writes comic books, which can be read at ComicSpace.

Mailbox Monday, Books Bought & Library Loot: The Catch-up Post (December 23)

I’m hopelessly behind on my blog posts, so I thought I’d do a catch-up post to let you know what books I’ve received in the mail recently, what books I’ve been given or bought, and what I’ve taken out of the library (or rather what my sister Brogan took out of the library for me).

In the last few weeks, I’ve received a couple of books in the mail: Friends Like These: My Worldwide Quest to Find My Best Childhood Friends, Knock on their Doors, and Ask Them to Come Out and Play by Danny Wallace and Role of a Lifetime: Reflections on Faith, Family and Significant Living by James Brown with Nathan Whitaker, two more BBAW scavenger hunt wins, courtesy of Hachette. (I can’t say the second book appeals to me, but I’ll probably give it a try anyway.)

I haven’t done very well at blogging about my get-togethers with Cindy, Donna (who missed the last one), Linda and Tina either lately. At the last one, Cindy passed on a few books to me: Tell Me Something True by Leila Cobo, Kiss My Tiara: How to Rule the World as a SmartMouth Goddess by Susan Jane Gilman (which I had no recollection of requesting, but when I checked on Cindy’s blog, sure enough I had!) and I Am Neurotic (And So Are You) by Lianna Kong. Thanks, Cindy!

I bought myself nine (!) more books recently, most of them secondhand (although I ordered a few too):

• Blood Lure by Nevada Barr
• What Should I Do with My Life: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question by Po Bronson
• The Sibyl in Her Grave by Sarah Caudwell

• Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir by Natalie Goldberg (I bought this one new as a present to myself)
• The Best American Poetry 2001 edited by Robert Hass
• A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Moorland, Indiana by Haven Kimmel (inspired by Jenners’ review at Find Your Next Book Here)

• Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro
• Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall B. Rosenberg
• The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith

The Mailbox Monday meme is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

The Books Bought meme is hosted by Cindy at Cindy’s Love of Books.
_______________________________________________

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva at A Striped Armchair and Marg at Reading Adventures that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post—feel free to steal the button—and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries! Want to share your loot? Eva has the Mr. Linky this week!

While I was in Nova Scotia, my sister requested a bunch of books for me, only three of which I actually read: The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg (a reread), The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick and The Arrival by Shaun Tan. One of these days I may even get around to reviewing some of these graphic novels I’ve been reading (and rereading) this year!

Library Loot (November 17)

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva at A Striped Armchair and Marg at Reading Adventures that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post—feel free to steal the button—and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries! Want to share your loot? Marg has the Mr. Linky this week!

Another week of graphic-novels-only loot, although I took out fewer books this time. (I still have a backlog of books I keep renewing—not because I haven’t read them yet, but rather because I haven’t reviewed them!) So here’s this past week’s loot:

First, the last two volumes of Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra et al.: Motherland (which I’ve read already but wanted to reread), and Whys and Wherefores.

Next, La fin du monde (literally, “the end of the world”) by Pierre Wazem and Tom Tirabosco, which is in French (and doesn’t appear to have been published in English). I heard about this book from Caustic Cover Critic. And last but not least the complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (also in French). I’ve already read the first half, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the story ends! Has anyone read any of Satrapi’s other books? I’m looking for further recommendations.