With the purchase of my new condo, I’ve severely curtailed my book shopping habits. I’ve really gotten a lot better at not impulsively going into bookstore, shopping online, and accepting review copies. For example, in August I added 18 books to the archive; in September, I acquired only four (only two of which were bought). So far this month, I’ve only bought one and anticipate acquiring only one more: my October Persephone (the bought book was a VMC edition of Hester, by Margaret Oliphant)
Not buying books hasn’t stopped me from walking into bookstores to browse, however; this past week during my lunch break I went into Borders and wandered around for a half an hour, imagining the possibilities. I nearly came away with Dark Road to Darjeeling, by Deanna Raybourn; Dark Moon of Avalon, by Anna Ellliott; and a number of Nancy Mitford books that I’ve been dying to read. Amazing, the kind of willpower I had to turn all of that down! I’m still patting myself on the back. But I had major cravings today when I was on the Persephone website; this fall they're reprinting another one of Monica Dickens's novels, The Winds of Heaven, and two of Margaret Oliphant's short stories in one volume. Plus, they're coming out with a Persephone Diary that I was reading about on Dovegreyreader; they're featuring the end papers of all ninety books and the first line of each.
My reading this month has been a bit slow; Susan Howatch’s Penmarric, at over 700 pages, took up at least a week, and I’ve also read The Countess, by Rebecca Johns, The Abyss, by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles (another chunkster), Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell; and then I’m most of the war through Vile Bodies, by Evelyn Waugh, an immensely enjoyable novel that I’ve been dying to read for a while but was never quite in the right mood for. DJ Taylor’s book on the Bright Young People got me re-interested in Vile Bodies, and it’s quite over-the-top. Cranford also was a great book; as a reviewer on Librarything described it, the spinsters of Cranford are a lot like the Golden Girls! I think after Vile Bodies, my next read will be a Persephone—Making Conversation, perhaps? I’m really trying to ration the Persephones, since I’ve only got four left on my TBR shelves!
It’s been quite quiet around here; my parents have been away and I’ve been house sitting/dog-sitting. Today the dog, Teddy, and I went out for a long walk and then went to Braxton’s Animal Works, a pet store nearby. Teddy was in heaven! Now he’s passed out on my bed, lying next to me as I write this.
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Good luck.