Sunday Salon: New year, new books
Every year when my family asks what I want for Christmas and my birthday (they’re pretty close together) I give them a wishlist that is 90% books and every time I have to reassure them that yes, books really really are what I want. You’d think they’d learn. Thankfully, they know me well enough to buy me said books, in addition to a few useful things.
Even though I already own 120 or so unread books and a couple of thousand read books that I have kept because I want to re-read them some day, it makes me super happy to see this stack of new books.
If you can’t quite read those spines, the books are:
Cairo: My City, Our Revolution by Ahdaf Soueif
The Wine of Solitude by Irène Némirovsky
The Birds and other stories by Daphne du Maurier
The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler
The Most Remarkable Woman in England by John Carter Wood
No Surrender by Constance Maud (that’s the pretty Persephone edition)
Burmese Days by George Orwell
The Dark Side of Love by Rafik Schami
And despite already having all of those lovely new books, I tripped and bought a book yesterday – the first trade paperback volume of Sandman by Neil Gaiman (and if I like it there’s 11 further volumes to buy!) – while Tim was picking up his latest comics and earlier this week I ordered a book from Abe Books to complete my collection of the Claudine series by Colette. Can I help wanting to give a loving home to all the books?
Oh, and I also received a belated Christmas card via the Book Bloggers Holiday Card Exchange. This one is from Vasilly and came in a very pretty shiny envelope and contains a great quote about reading.
Yay, I love Christmas and birthdays! Just eleven and a half months to go to the next time. Did you get any great books lately?
What a fun collection! I read & enjoyed a different Schami and have been wanting to read The Dark Side of Love. Have you read any of Emma Larkin’s nonfiction? I definitely recommend picking up Finding George Orwell in Burma after you read Burmese Days!
Eva I actually asked for Burmese Days with the specific intention of reading Emma Larkin’s book about Orwell in Burma afterward. Quite possibly on your recommendation!
this is so funny – so many of us seem to confess to buying yet more books when we have already more than we can read in a year..
I haven’t read any of these books, but they do look tempting! Enjoy!
Thanks for visiting my blog.
Nice new pile to read! The card looks lovely.
I only got one book this year, which is rather unusual. My boyfriend thinks I already have too many books on my TBR pile (he doesn’t understand that there’s no such thing as too many!) so refuses to buy me them, even though I ask every year, my sister’s and parents often buy me books however
Congratulations on training the wishlist users so well, that looks like a lovely set of new additions. 🙂
So lovely!. I do the same every year, and funny enough your post has almost the same name of my upcoming one! The card looks beautiful, is the first time I’ve heard of such event! Have a nice week and a wonderful new year!
Karen I’m not quite that bad. My TBR is pretty constant, I just keep saying I’m going to shrink it!
Laurel-Rain Snow I will enjoy, I hope!
Judith Is it wrong that I want to read these books more than any of the older ones?
Lucybird Heh! My boyfriend claims to be annoyed by all the space taken up by my books but I’m sure he doesn’t really mean it. Probably.
Alex It’s taken a few years, but they have learned.
CaroG Thank you! I hope you have a great new year too.
Very wrong, Kate! 😉